| Feature |
Pentaho |
Windward Reports |
| Software Type |
Open source software can be supported and developed by your own in house software team |
Licensed software is developed and supported by Windward |
| Welcome Page |
Opening Report Designer brings you to a Welcome page |
Being integrated with MS Word and Excel, there is no welcome or getting started page. There is, however, a 'Start Here' dialog box |
| Pre-Made Templates |
Report Design Wizard allows users to select a template report |
AutoTag provides no template reports, however, they do have samples |
| Connecting to Datasources |
Report Design Wizard also assists users in connecting to data, but requires users to use their complicated Query Designer Wizard to generate a query for the data source |
Connecting to data sources is easier and more straight-forward using AutoTag |
| Design Environment |
Design Tab is poor environment for creating reports |
Excellent development environments are MS Word and Excel |
| Data Iteration |
Data placed in Item Band will be automatically iterated and placed in your report |
AutoTag requires use of forEach and end tags for data iteration |
| Variables Integration |
Variables are difficult to work with in Design Tab as there is no established environment to work with text - all data variables are treated as objects |
Very easy to work with data as it fits in seamlessly in Word and Excel |
| Data Placement |
With data variables treated as objects, these objects can be placed anywhere in your report but fail to fit in-line with text or inside tables |
Data is treated as text objects and easily fits in-line with text or into tables |
| Variables |
Variables must be added one at a time into your report |
Multiple variables and even entire tables can be added to your report with a simple drag-and-drop |
| Arithmetic Operators |
Arithmetic operators can be added to reports and streamlined with the data being used |
Arithmetic operators of Word and Excel can be inherently used |
| Formatting and Editing |
Properties Window in Design Tab gives you unique control of the formatting and editing of variables but fails to make these options intuitive and user-friendly |
Familiar formatting and editing tools of Word and Excel are used for data variables and are very easy to work with |
| Data Viewers |
Structure Window shows the hierarchy of your report including your data source and makes it easy to drag-and-drop variables into the Design Tab |
Structure Window is similar to AutoTag's Data Bin in dragging-and-dropping variables, but the Data Bin fails to show how the data is layed out in your report |
| Previewing Reports |
Preview Tab allows you to view what your current report will look like and generates multiple file formats |
AutoTag Run Report feature generates current report in multiple file formats |
| Running Reports |
Run Report generates reports in a format only Report Designer can open, although generated Previews can be saved in their given format |
Generates reports in multiple formats widely used throughout the business world |
| Known Issues |
Report Designer's Java engine is prone to lock up or crash. Possibly due to its open source nature |
AutoTag beta versions will throw errors before crashing Word and Excel |
| Report Publishing |
Report Designer allows users to publish to Pentaho's server and makes reports available anywhere |
AutoTag and Windward offer no report publishing |
| Dashboards |
Pentaho gives users access to streamline their data into dashboards |
No dashboard features |
