IcCube
icCube is a company founded in Switzerland that provides business intelligence software of the same name. The software can be fully embedded, can be hosted in a managed environment or installed locally, on premises.
 | |
| Developer(s) | icCube software Sarl |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 6.8.9
/ May 31, 2019 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform (JVM) |
| Type | Online analytical processing] |
| Website | www |
The BI tool allows end-users to create or edit dashboards themselves and is capable of processing data from multiple sources in real-time. The software distinguishes itself by making the dashboards, the dashboard builder, the schema/cube builder and the server monitoring application accessible from a browser only. No software has to be installed at the device of the end-user.
Next to the browser-based dashboard builder, data can be accessed by running queries directly on the OLAP cube using MDX, SQL or R.
History
icCube sells an online analytical processing (OLAP) server.
Starting in June 2010 with its first public community version (0.9.2). Since then, the company has released new versions multiple times per year.
| Date | Version | Event |
|---|---|---|
| June 2010 | 0.9.2 | The very first published version (preview) of the in-memory OLAP server; MDX/XMLA support are the primary objectives. |
| November 2010 | 1 | Building on the feedback of the community this is the first features complete (such as MDX and write back) version. A community (free) version. |
| June 2011 | 1.3 | Expanded MDX support and stronger cube modeling features; the first version of the visualization library (GVI). |
| October 2011 | 2 | First version advertised for business use (vs community). |
| April 2012 | 2.5 | First version featuring the Web Reporting server. |
| January 2013 | 3 | Better performance and more features. |
| June 2013 | 4 | A second generation calculation engine. |
| January 2015 | 4.8.2 | Improving the 4.x versions (server features and speed, Web Reporting). |
| May 2015 | 5.1 | Adding extract, transform, load features. |
| May 2016 | 5.2 | Improving the 5.x versions. |
| October 2016 | 6.0 | Brand new reporting and new server calculation engine. |
| July 2017 | 6.2 | Added Google Maps layers for GEO widgets, heat maps, etc |
| August 2017 | 6.5 | Added dashboard commenting module for collaboration |
| April 2018 | 6.6 | Improved ETL + Added dashboard discussions/comments can be filtered by current data filters. |
| March 2019 | 6.8.6 | New JSON Rest API + several improvements to both the server and the reporting. |
Architecture
icCube is implemented in Java and follows J2EE standards. For the latter, it embeds both an HTTP server (Jetty) and a servlet container to handle all the communication tasks.
Being an in-memory OLAP server, the icCube server does not need to source its data from a RDBMS; any data source that exposes its data in a tabular form can be used; several plugins exists for accessing files, HTTP stream, etc. Accessing datasource that expose JSON objects is also supported (e.g., MongoDB). icCube is then taking care of possibly complex relations (e.g., many-2-many) implied by the JSON structure.
Accessing icCube (cube modeling, server monitoring, MDX queries, Web reporting and dashboards) is performed through a unique Web interface and a JSON Rest API.
The icCube OLAP server does not use any caching or pre-aggregation mechanism.
Interfaces
icCube uses Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) as its query language and several extensions [1] to the original language : function declarations, vector (even at measures level), matrix, objects, Java and R interactions.[2] icCube patented an MDX debugger.[3] icCube supports a standard interface and a proprietary one. The XML for Analysis (XMLA protocol can connect to any XMLA compatible reporting tool.
icCube supports its own proprietary protocol called GVI. HTTP based, it can be extended. This protocol leverages the Google Visualization wire protocol.[4] Javascript is the primary implementation language and a Java mapping library is also available.
Since icCube 6.8.6, the icCube server supports a JSON Rest API for a programmatic access.
References
- "Chris Webb on icCube MDX Declared Functions".
- "icCube extends MDX with OO capabilities". Archived from the original on 2013-07-18. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
- "Debugging system for multidimensional database query expressions on a processing server".
- "Implementing the Chart Tools Datasource Protocol (V0.6)".