Evaluate and learn Pentaho Business Analytics

The User Console is a web-based design environment where you can analyze data, create interactive reports, dashboard reports, and build integrated dashboards to share business intelligence solutions with others in your organization and on the internet. In addition to its design features, the User Console offers a wide variety of system administration features for configuring the Pentaho Server, maintaining Pentaho licenses, setting up security, managing report scheduling, and tailoring system performance to meet your requirements.

If you have installed the trial download on your laptop or desktop machine, you are ready to get started exploring. If you have the software installed on a server, and want to use your machine to point to it, see Develop your BA environment for details.

Table 1. Explore and Learn Pentaho Reporting Capabilities

Lesson	Do This	Notes
Tour the User Console	Quick tour of the Pentaho User Console (PUC)	Understand the features of the User Console View the sample reports on the Samples tab of the Getting Started section
Create Your First Reports and Dashboards	Learn about Analyzer, Interactive Reports, and Dashboards	Created and saved an Interactive Report Created and saved an Analysis Report Created and saved a custom Dashboard
Schedule Your Report	Learn about scheduling reports	Scheduled a report to run and email automatically. Received your report through email after the schedule runs.

If you have already worked with the Steel Wheels sample data, and want to learn how to create your own data sources and data models with Pentaho, use the Data Source Wizard. The Data Source Wizard helps you define a data source that contains the data you want to use and guides you through the creation of your evaluation data model for use in creating reports.

After you define a data source, you can make it available to other evaluators so they can create reports and analysis by simply picking the data source from the data source list. Any number of reports can be created using a single data source.

Table 2. Explore and Learn Data Sources Basics

Lesson	Do This	Notes
Create Your First Data Source	Create a Data Source Tour the Data Source Wizard	Understand how the Pentaho Server and Data Source Wizard work together to create usable data sources and data models. Explore the Data Source Wizard interface. Learn the basics of creating a data source using the Data Source Wizard.
Choose Data Source Types	Choose a data source type	Learn about the different data source types supported by the Data Source Wizard. We recommend using a CSV data source for evaluation.
Create Your First CSV Data Source	Create a CSV data source	Import a CSV data file using the Data Source Wizard. Create the CSV data source. We recommend creating a report using this new CSV data source, then refining the data model with the . Data Source Model Editor as needed
Refine Your Data Source Model	Edit multidimensional data source models	(Optional) Edit your evaluation data source model using the Data Source Model Editor.
Inline Model Editing	Read Working with Analyzer measures	Learn how to edit your data models while working in Analyzer.
Learn about Streamlined Data Refinery	Learn how to work with Work with the Streamlined Data Refinery	Learn how Streamlined Data Refinery works.

Pentaho Report Designer is a report creation tool that you can use by itself, or as part of the Pentaho Suite. It allows professionals to create print-quality reports based on data from virtually any type of data source.

These resources will help you get familiar with the Report Designer interface, and guide you through the creation and publishing of a print-quality report.

Table 3. Explore and Learn about Report Designer

Lesson	Do This	Notes
Explore the Report Designer Interface	Explore Report Designer	Tour the Report Designer interface before you begin building reports.
Report Designer Workflow Overview	Learn about Report Designer workflow	Look over the work flow concepts for Report Designer.
Create Your First Report	Create your first print-quality report	Create a report. Add a chart and parameters to your report. View and then publish your report.
Refine the Look of Your Report	Design print-quality reports	Explore more advanced features of Report Designer, beginning with report elements.
Add a PDI Data Source	Add a PDI data source	Add a PDI data source and use it to create a report in Report Designer.

• The Pentaho Analyzer, Interactive Reports, and Dashboard Designer plugins provide in-depth details about creating eye-catching business intelligence deliverables for your user community.
• The Products section of our documentation contains a large number of topics on working with the Pentaho Suite. Here you can learn about defining data models, fine-tuning your reports, how to create print-quality reports, or work with big data.
• If you are a system administrator, check out the Pentaho configuration and Pentaho administration sections. Both have details on configuring and administering your Pentaho Server using the User Console, as well as a section on the variety of things you can do to maintain your server manually.

• Contact Pentaho to learn more about how Business Analytics can be tailored to meet your business needs.
• Learn how to Develop your BA environment.