- IBM Alphablox

IBM Alphablox

IBM Alphablox has a robust architecture specifically designed for rapid development, deployment, and use of analytic applications. Key features provided by the architecture include:

Data Adapters

IBM Alphablox includes a Data Manager specifically designed for connectivity to a variety of databases. The Data Manager is responsible for accessing, browsing, querying, and retrieving data from both relational and multidimensional databases (including IBM Alphablox cubes). Connection to each database is implemented through plug-in adapters. For relational databases, the plug-in adapters are typically JDBC drivers. Each adapter encapsulates database-specific connection information and processing, greatly reducing the effort required to connect to additional databases.

The Data Manager and associated data adapters provide support for the following:

Browsing a collection of preconfigured, named database connections (called data sources).
Providing access to the available databases within each data source to IBM Alphablox applications.
Publishing the compatible query types for a specific data source.
Allowing the traversal of a database's metadata.
Managing database connections for user sessions.
Translating query objects into the underlying native query language.
Executing queries against a database.
Interrogating a result set's data and schema.
Processing a result set by displaying, pivoting, expanding, sorting, and drilling.
Creating applications that take user input and write the data back to the underlying database (often used in "what if" scenarios for budget applications).

Blox Components

IBM Alphablox applications use building blocks, called Blox components, to access and present real-time enterprise data through a standard web browser. Blox components are reusable software components that are combined, or assembled, on a standard JSP page, and result in interactive applications accessed through web browsers, either within a corporate intranet or over the Internet.

These tested software components provide applications with the following areas of functionality:

access to data
interactive analysis of the data
flexible presentation of the data
access to administrative details (for example, users, groups, application names)

For example, a DataBlox component can populate an HTML list with product categories from an underlying database. In turn, the selection the user makes from that list can drive a query to the underlying database, so a user sees a different set of data when she chooses the category Compact Cars than when she chooses SUVs.

Blox components have extensive application programmer interface (API) calls that can be accessed using JSP files. The various API calls allow for a large amount of customization to the data being accessed, control over the degree of interactivity to which the user is exposed, and the ability to customize the data presentation to the user.

By assembling Blox components into web-based applications, developers can quickly provide users with immediate access to business information. Using the same Blox components for a spectrum of analysis applications not only reduces application creation, delivery, and maintenance efforts, but also reduces a user's learning curve. Regardless of the data being presented, Blox behavior is consistent across applications and platforms.

Furthermore, the skills required to assemble IBM Alphablox applications are significantly lower than those required for traditional application development. Rather than first having to master the intricacies of a programming language, the application developer can quickly begin using HTML, JavaScript^(TM), multimedia objects, and Blox components. With these elements, application developers can create appropriate and visually compelling user interfaces for delivering powerful functionality to the user community.

IBM Alphablox provides the following Blox components from which to assemble applications:

Blox Component	Use
DataBlox	Provides access to supported multidimensional databases and develops a client representation of a data set. Provides access to supported relational databases Accepts and executes query requests Provides query result sets to Blox components responsible for data presentation
ChartBlox	Presents a graphical view of multidimensional data Permits users to manipulate the data in a wide variety of chart formats (including pie, bar, and line) Enables users to drill down in sequence through the hierarchical data, or pivot the data view
DataLayoutBlox	Presents grouped lists of available data dimensions and the axes on which they currently reside Enables users to move dimensions between the page, row, column, and "other" (unused) axes
GridBlox	Presents multidimensional or relational data in an advanced grid format Enables users to analyze and manipulate multidimensional data Enables users to drill down in sequence through the hierarchical data, or pivot the data view
PageBlox	Presents drop-lists of the dimensions residing on the page axis (thus filtering the data that appears in ChartBlox and GridBlox) Enables users to change the dimensions and/or members on which to filter data
ToolbarBlox	Presents buttons for user access to Blox functionality, such as: toggling between chart and grid presentations selecting chart types saving and retrieving application views moving the toolbar for easier access opening a Blox in a separate window pivoting rows and columns Permits the assembler to select which buttons appear on the toolbar, thus tailoring user access to Blox functionality.
PresentBlox	Combines the functionality of the preceding six Blox components (DataBlox, DataLayoutBlox, ChartBlox, GridBlox, PageBlox, and ToolbarBlox) into a single Blox component, simplifying application assembly and conserving web page real estate
RepositoryBlox	Provides application assemblers with access to stored objects, including saved application views; and server, application, group, and user properties

See the Reference for detailed descriptions of the Blox API available within IBM Alphablox. See the Developing with analytics APIs for guidance on using Blox components to create applications.

DHTML Client

With IBM Alphablox, application developers can create applications that users can access with a web browser, without additional plug-ins, because it uses standard DHTML technologies. IBM Alphablox renders the application in the mode in which it is requested, requiring no additional coding by the application developer.

The DHTML client is based on the Dynamic HTML technology, utilizing JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to support the full range of data analysis functionality with a highly usable and customizable graphical user interface. It does not require any plug-ins or download of Java^(TM) class files. The DHTML client requires the use of supported versions of the Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft^(R) Internet Explorer.

Remote Administrative Capabilities

IBM Alphablox provides comprehensive system administration capabilities through web-based administration pages, a console command window, or a telnet window. Through these administrative interfaces, administrators can perform the following kinds of tasks:

Create IBM Alphablox console logs and specify the levels of events and messages to record.
Monitor IBM Alphablox and application activity.
Create IBM Alphablox objects such as data sources, users, groups, and applications.
Monitor the use of IBM Alphablox objects.
Start and stop IBM Alphablox services, sessions, and applications.

For more information, see Basic administration tasks and Configuring IBM Alphablox Properties.

Centralized Application Management

IBM Alphablox provides an Application Manager responsible for centralized application management. The Application Manager maintains and tracks the following:

A list of available applications.
A list of active applications.
Activity within an application.
Users logged in to applications.
Blox components used by applications.
Data sources used by applications.
An application instance history.

N-Tier Architecture

IBM Alphablox draws fully on the latest Java technologies to implement a web-based, N-tier architecture. A typical application may use three tiers:

Data resides on and is retrieved from a database server (relational or multidimensional)
Application web pages reside in web applications on your application server and served through IBM Alphablox
Web page display and user interface presentation occur on a client machine through a web browser

On demand, Blox components passed from the web server to web browsers throughout intranets or over the Internet. This Java-based architecture can eliminate the need to install, configure, and maintain client-side application software.