RadarCube Direct: OLAP library for ASP.NET

Full description

RadarCube OLAP Library is a set of ASP.NET controls for creating valid dynamic OLAP reports. As a data source it uses any table/view/stored procedure of a relational database. All required calculations are made "on the fly", without using any OLAP server. The library is written entirely in C# 2.0, and can be used in Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and also in their free Express editions.

 

RadarCube ASP.NET Direct allows you to:

• Create dynamic OLAP-reports even on the shared servers of Internet Service Providers, without using OLAP-servers.
• Build your OLAP-solutions without having to install any ActiveX components, using only web-browsers like IE 5.5+, Firefox 1.1+, Opera 9.0+.
• Use any database, and even file as a data source. Data can be read from several database tables.
• Use all the advantages of ASP.NET 2.0 in the OLAP Grid including AJAX, Web Parts, etc.
• Build and use hierarchical dimensions of any complexity and of different types in OLAP-reports.
• Use either standard aggregation functions like Sum, Count, Distinct Count, Min, Max, Biased or Unbiased Variance, Median or make up custom aggregation functions.
• Use all standard cube operations like drilling down, rotation, filtering, grouping and sorting.
• Use strings and dates as measures.
• Save current Cellset at any moment and restore it back later on either in the same connection session or in any other.
• Create additional calculated measures or calculated dimension members on the server side.
• Export any Cellset to any of the following formats BMP, CSV, GIF, HTML, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, TXT, XLS, XML.
• Create multi-language sites using the localization power of OLAP Grid.

 

With RadarCube OLAP Grid you can:

• Make fixed headers for rows/columns of the Grid.
• Page mode data representation of the hierarchies along row or column axis.
• Get the full control over any Grid cell content and its web style, including creation of custom popup menus.
• ... and far more.

RadarCube Direct: OLAP library for ASP.NET

Brief description

Do you want an ASP.NET control for OLAP-Analysis? Do you want a powerful OLAP library without having to install any software or any ActiveX components on the client side? Do you want to supply your clients or customers with a perfect, flawless thin OLAP client?

If you have a relatively small database and don't want to set up the dedicated OLAP server... If you want to connect directly to your database... If you want your thin client to be scalable enough... If you want your customers to use such OLAP functionality as Pivoting, Sorting, Grouping, Filtering, and time series analysis... And if you want all these functions to be tunable...

If you want to have multilevel dimensions in your cube... If you want the OLAP Grid for ASP.NET to display the hierarchical dependencies in the parent-child dimensions... If want your clients to be able to use OLAP with Windows, Linux, or MAC OS... And, at last, if you don't want to pay royalty for your every single client...

Then you're looking for a perfect OLAP decision. And now it's not a dream any longer. You may consider all this to have been done. We did it. And we're happy to present you the new and long-expected product "RadarCube ASP.NET Direct", which makes the dreams come true.

Try online Demo Application to get a clue about RadarCube ASP.NET.
 

Key features:

• 100% managed code, entirely written in C# 2.0.
• Medium trust compliance. It can be used on most shared Windows hosting environments.
• Support of IE 5.5 or above, Firefox 1.1 or above, Opera 9.0 or above.
• Support of the client-side operating systems: Windows (all versions), Linux, Mac OS.
• No OLAP-server required. Any multidimensional cube can be created "on the fly", using the minimum web-server memory.
• One or several tables/views /stored procedures described in a DataSet object can be used as a data source. The "by row" reading mode of database tables is available through the IDataReader interface. Both "Star" and "Snowflake" DWH schemas are supported.
• A set of standard aggregation functions like Sum, Count, Distinct Count, Min, Max, Biased or Unbiased Variance, Median and so on. Custom aggregation functions can also be used instead of or along with the standard set.
• Numbers, strings or dates can be used as measure values.
• Three types of hierarchies:
  • Parent-child hierarchies (both balanced and unbalanced);
  • Multilevel hierarchies (both regular and ragged);
  • Mixed from all previous types.
• Building calculated measures, dimensions, hierarchies and hierarchy levels from the fact table rows as well as from the rows of any related dimension table.
• Creation of additional calculated measures using the values of other cube cells.
• Calculated members of hierarchies.
• Hierarchy attributes which store additional information about hierarchy members.
• Auto conversion of the DateTime fields into multilevel hierarchies. Custom conversion algorithms can be used.

 

DHTML visualization

• 100% AJAX.
• Web parts support.
• Time intelligence support.
• Fixed columns/rows headers on scrolling the Grid.
• Simultanious display of a set of measures, each of which can be displayed in several different modes at the same time.
• Interactive drill-down support of all types of hierarchies separately for every hierarchy member.
• Saving and restoring the current OLAP slice.
• Member grouping on any hierarchy level without changing the hierarchy levels structure.
• Separate hierarchy or dimension sorting on any level. Possibility to override any sorting method.
• Ascending or descending sorting based on any column value in the OLAP Grid.
• Hierarchy page-viewing, which allows to cut down the network traffic significantly and makes the OLAP analysis easier and faster.
• Filtering of any number of hierarchy members with or without applying these filters to the OLAP calculations.
• Auto filtering of the hierarchy members depending on their values in the Grid. Major/minor members selection, either based on their rank or on the Pareto principle.
• Display in the Grid not only the values of measures, but a percent value in terms of totals, subtotals, or grand totals. A possibility to create your own context-sensitive rules on measure display (for example, a cumulative sum of measure values for time dimensions ONLY).
• The full control over any Grid cell content and its web style with the possibility to substitute the text in the cell by any fragment of HTML-code.
• Custom popup menus in the Grid.
• Handy integration with charting and other third-party components.
• The flexible export to the following formats: BMP, CSV, GIF, HTML, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, TXT, XLS, XML.
• Easy localization. It is possible to localize the evaluation version as well.

Developer requirements

• Visual Studio 2005, 2008, Visual Web Developer.

Server Requirements

• ASP.NET 2.0.

Client Requirements

• Browser: IE 5.5 or above, Firefox 1.1 or above, Opera 9.0 or above with JScript enabled.
• OS: Windows, Linux, Mac OS.

OLAP Grid advantages

RadarCube OLAP Grid is an ASP.NET control and contains a lot of methods and events that allow tuning its functionality and appearance. By setting the respective properties, you can tune a look and feel of any Grid cell. By using the appropriate events, you can substitute the rendered cell text with any fragment of an HTML-code, and thus, insert hyperlinks, pictures, graphics or any other ASP.NET controls. All that makes the Grid a unique tool and grants abilities which you can use in your own web-applications.

Despite the fact that RadarCube Grid uses HTML and JScript only, functionally it's highly competitive to its ActiveX analogues. All Grid operations (drilling, sorting, pivoting, filtering, grouping, and so on) are performed in AJAX-mode.

RadarCube and huge dimensions

RadarCube ASP.NET is specially designed to work with "long" dimensions and hierarchies. Thanks to the page mode data representation, RadarCube allows working with hierarchies containing thousands of members without any visible performance slowdown or redundant web-traffic.

RadarCube usability

In RadarCube, not only the Grid has flexible settings, but there also are different popup menus that give easy access to RadarCube numerous functions like filtering, grouping and sorting. Popup menus are truly context and have special options for each of the Grid cells, depending both on the cell type and properties of the Cellset they belong to. Moreover you can easily customize any popup menu by using an appropriate event.

Time intelligence

One of the most important features available in popup menu is Time Intelligence. If the current Cellset has one or several time dimensions, then additional option will be available in the popup menus of the data cells to allow you to compare measure values for different time periods or to display cumulative sum since the given date. Also you can define additional Time Intelligence types.

RadarCube API

The RadarCube core has a detailed and well documented API, which allows you to perform any OLAP-slice modifications from within your application, obtain information about any Cube or Grid cell. You can create your own aggregation functions; define your own rules for calculating dimension members, define your own sorting and context filtering. We can surely say the RadarCube is the constructor you can use to create OLAP-reports of any complication.