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Elixir Repertoire Plugin for NetBeans Version 7.3.0 |
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Thank you for choosing our software. The Repertoire Plugin Edition is free (as in free beer) for you as a developer, to create, test and deploy within your own machine.
This free edition comes with the Repertoire Server that is restricted to:
- Local client connection only
- 1 rendering engine only
- User cap of 1 only
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To unlock these restrictions for
production use, please contact us at sales@elixirtech.com.
For technical enquiries, please contact us at support@elixirtech.com.
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Product Overview |
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The NetBeans Plugin provides a set of features for NetBeans users to incorporate Business Intelligence (BI) features such as Dashboard, Report, Data ETL and Scheduling within their applications.
With REST API its underlying native interface, any application built in web enabled technologies such as Java, Ruby, AJAX, etc, can readily access the BI features through lightweight web services using a simple set of GET, POST, PUT, DELETE over HTTP or HTTPS.
There is also a Java API for client connection to the Repertoire Server and another for embedding the Repertoire Runtime. The Repertoire Server, Runtime, and Remote are additional components available for licensing separately for production use. |
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Elixir Repertoire Plugin for NetBeans Screenshots (Click to enlarge)
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System Requirements |
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Since you are a NetBeans user, your environment should already
have the latest JDK installed to run your NetBeans environment. Please note that our software requires at least a Java SE version 5.0 Runtime Environment (JRE) or later.
NetBeans Version
This Plugin has been tested with NetBeans
6.0 and 6.1 pre-releases. While it
works fine 6.0, 6.1 is introducing a modified Rhino package, which
unfortunately conflicts with Elixir’s use of the standard Rhino package,
including a security module that has been left out. As such, to get the Plugin to work in 6.1, the
only workaround at this point is to “patch” the Java VM to load the required
Rhino package by the Plugin before NetBeans loads its own. This may have unpredictable effect when you
use some modules of NetBeans.
To do the patch, simply copy the
js.jar from Elixir’s /lib folder into the /ext folder of the JDK/JRE used by
NetBeans.
Other
supporting software you might need depending on your usage requirements are:
- Database Drivers: Depending on where your data will be retrieved from, you will need the corresponding JDBC or ODBC drivers, which should be provided by the respective vendors. Please make sure you use the latest version - usually not the one in the original CDs, and check that it is designed for the JVM you have installed.
- Client Browser: Elixir Repertoire HTML
output is standard compliant and hence any browser such as MS IE 5.5,
Netscape 6 or Firefox 1 can be used to view them. However, for
dashboards where transparency is used extensively, or where there is
large dataset to be cached at the browser, you should go with the latest
browser like Firefox 2 and MS IE 7.
- Various Output "Viewers": Elixir Repertoire
Professional allows configuration of viewers for the various output
types, whereas the Server relegates to the MIME type setting on the browser.
Specifically, Elixir's PDF output conforms to PDF Reference, Third
Edition, version 1.4, which is readable by Acrobat 5.0 and later
versions.
Hardware Requirements
Elixir software is able to run on a usual entry level
system available in the market. As long as your NetBeans setup is able
to operate smoothly, Elixir software itself only requires an incremental
amount of RAM.The primary demand for hardware resources comes from the
volume of data retrieval (requiring more RAM), the complexity of rendering
logic (speed of processor will benefit), and concurrency of rendering
(multiple processors or cores will help).
You should reserve a total of 80MB disk space for the following:
- 60 MB for the Repertoire Server and Repertoire Plugin, documentations and samples.
- 20 MB reserved space for other 3rd party add-on software like database drivers.
Note: Since system
requirements are ultimately subject to data volume, template complexity, and
usage volume to meet the desired response time, it is important to do a
proper system sizing for optimal performance. You may request for
system sizing assistance by contacting our technical team at support@elixirtech.com
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Installation |
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The installation comes in a zipped
package containing both the Repertoire Server for NetBeans and the Plugin
for Repertoire Remote Designer. You
can unzip this package to any desired folder.
Running Repertoire Remote Designer Within
NetBeans
- Go
to the bin directory inside the Repertoire Server, and run the startServer.bat
file. This will start the Repertoire Server listening on the default
port 8080. You can edit the ERS2.xml in the config directory to change
the defaults, if necessary.
- Launch
the NetBeans IDE program 6.0 or later and install the required plugins
in order to run the Remote Designer within it.
Steps to install the plugins:
(a)
Choose Plugins from the Tools menu, Plugin
dialog would be displayed.
(b)
Select the Downloaded tab, click on the
Add Plugins... button and locate the 2 nbm files. Click on the Install button
to install the plugins.
(c)
To verify the plugins are installed
successfully, go to the Installed tab and look for Elixir Repertoire NetBeans
Plugin.
- Choose
Repertoire Repository from the Windows menu and the Remote Repository
pane will appear on the left of the NetBeans tool.
- Click on the Connect icon at the top of the Remote Repository panel, enter
username: admin with the password: sa to login (these are the defaults). Upon successfully login, you
should be able to see the filesystems listed under the Remote
Repository panel.
Note: When opening a pml or rml or a ds
file of Composite type, if you encounter errors like “Can’t read data: Unknown
error…” or “Can’t read file XXX: Loader can not resolve Rhino classes.”, this
means you need to apply the Rhino patch described earlier, or else you have
to use NetBeans 6.0.
- You
can also use your browser to visit http://localhost:8080/login.html - from
the browser you can define users and filesystems and view logs, reports
and dashboards you have created using the Repertoire designer.
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Documentation |
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User manual are available either in the on-line help in the software, or in the
/docs folder.
Some references are on-line at http://www.elixirtech.com/ElixirRepertoire/resources.html.
These include the underlying object models
of our template formats for advanced level scripting and development use.
There is also a wiki knowledgebase at http://www.elixirtech.com/wiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome,
where one can search for FAQs and scripts and code sample.
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Deployment Options |
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As
the Plugin is aimed at development use, for deployment in production
environment, you have the following options:
a)
Connecting to Elixir Repertoire Server via REST API
b)
Connecting to Elixir Repertoire Server via Java API
c)
Embedding Elixir Repertoire Runtime for reporting only
While
this Plugin package comes with a locked down server, one only needs a separate
license to unlock for multiple user connections running rendering engines for
high volume usage, on per server processor basis.
For
embedding the reporting runtime only, there is a separate trimmed down
Repertoire Runtime jar for actual deployment. For development purposes, one can use the Repertoire.jar along with the
other files in the /lib folder.
There is also a separate Remote Designer which can be launched from the Server via Web Start, functionally equivalent to the Plugin version for remote template design by power users licensed on per named user basis. Similarly
there is a standalone Repertoire Designer that has an embedded runtime for
unlimited internal runtime distribution.
For
ISVs, we provide attractive OEM licensing scheme, including one-time fee for external
runtime distribution, and an add-on package for re-branding our Designer with
your own corporate identity.
In
any case, we would be glad to hear any feedback, suggestions, or
queries. Please send them to support@elixirtech.com
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Project Samples |
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Apart from many dashboard, report,
data source and schedule samples in repository:/ElixirSamples, 2 NetBeans
projects are included for reference here.
You can unzip and then add them to NetBeans
Projects view with “Open Project…”
RepertoireDemoServlet-7
The Repertoire Demo Servlet Application illustrates how Repertoire Server resources can be accessed via the Server REST API to render dashboards, reports and data sources, through Single-Sign On with ParamBasedRedirect.java. The full Java source code is provided in the package.
To run this sample in NetBeans with full installation, there may be potential port conflict with GlassFish as the Repertoire Server uses the same default port 8080. This sample has been set up such that GlassFish is running at port 80 instead. But if this is not the case, you can edit it in RepertoireDemoServlet-7/config/web.xml to point to the appropriate port, by editing:
<param-value>
http://localhost/RepertoireDemoServlet-7/ui/index.html
</param-value>
<param-value>
http://localhost:<yourxpreferred port>/RepertoireDemoServlet-7/ui/index.html
</param-value>
Alternatively, you can also change the Repertoire Server default port by editing /RepertoireNetBeans/config/ERS2.xml, and then you will have to edit the web.xml for both the GlassFish port as above as well as the Repertoire Server port to the new one.
After you unzip and open it as a project, you would notice that the library files need to change their mapping. Please replace the existing ones by adding all the jar files under /RepertoireNetBeans/clients/lib.
At this point, you should be able to Run the sample and see the Dashboard, Report, and Data ETL all through the Servlet sample application.
RepertoireRuntime
This is a
simple Java application that demonstrates the usage and basic features of
Elixir Repertoire runtime for embedding report generation into a Java
application. You will need to include
the jars in /lib and /lib/batik folder. For deployment, you will use a stripped down
RepertoireRuntme.jar available separately.
You can build and run these samples straightaway: AppletDemo.java, ReportViewerUI.java, and SwingReportViewerDemo.java. For HeadlessReportDemo.java, you will need to edit the absolute path of the report template you want to generate with. While all the rest uses Java API only, src/com/mycompany/GenerateReport.java uses REST API to put the output into the Repository. While one can embed the Repertoire Runtime in a Java EE application, it
is restricted to allow only a single-threaded operation. To unlock for
multi-threading, please approach our sales team to purchase the corresponding
key.
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