If you want to ...

Perform these steps ...

Start the Report Designer

To access the Report Designer, select:

Start All Programs Pentaho Enterprise Edition Design Tools Report Designer.

To create a new report, select File New

Define the Source of the Data

To select a Data Source, you need to right-click on the Data Sets.

In the Pentaho Report Designer can select from a range of Data Sources. For reports based on the Data Warehouse database, select:

• JDBC:
  if you intend to use SQL scripts to retrieve data from a database, or a view.

Use JDBC to retrieve Data

To retrieve data via a SQL script, you will need:

• a DB Connection: in here you define how you connect to the database which holds the data.
  
  
  
  If you intend to migrate a report between environments, it is essential that you access the Database via JNDI.
  
  This connection can be re-used for all reports which are based on the same database.
  
• the SQL Queries to determine
  - the fields needed for the report
  - any filter which may apply
  
  

Design the format and layout of a report.

Please refer to the information which is accessible from within the Pentaho Report Designer.

Publish Report so that it can be used in the Web Application

Once a report has been defined and is ready for use in the Web Application, it needs to be "published" to the BI Server. To do so:

• Open the report in the Report Designer
• Select File Publish
• The first time you do this in the Report Designer, you will need to enter the URL and BI Credentials. Make sure to tick "Remember These Settings":
  
  
  
• Enter the Publish Details for the report:
  - File Name/Title/Report Description: self explanatory
  - Location: select the folder into which the report shall be placed
  - Output Type: select the (default) format in which to render the report.
  - Lock: if you tick this box, the user will NOT be able to select alternative Output Type when the report is being run in the Web Application.