News

Jaspersoft Group Releases JavaScript Framework

• By John K. Waters
• June 10, 2014

TIBCO software today announced the release a new JavaScript framework for embedding visualizations and reports in applications.

Developed by the company's new Jaspersoft Group, Visualize.js is designed to combine the capabilities of the Jaspersoft analytic server with "the simplicity and control" of JavaScript. The new framework is included in the Jaspersoft 5.6 platform (latest release), and allows for the "visualized blending" of relational and Big Data sources (MongoDB, Hadoop, Cassandra, for example).

Business intelligence (BI) software maker TIBCO acquired Jaspersoft in April of this year. Jaspersoft is probably best known for its JasperReports Server, a Java-based Web application that provides such advanced report server capabilities as report scheduling, permissions, ad hoc reporting, dashboards, and multi-tenancy. The new Visualize.js framework also utilizes the REST APIs of the JasperReports Server to provide built-in services -- things like data connectivity, repository access, in-memory analytics, and visualization design. There's also an on-premises cloud deployment option.

The new Visualize.js framework was designed for developers, says Mike Boyarski, TIBCO's director of marketing, so that they can more easily include analytics as an "integrated experience."  

"It gives them our full platform," he told ADTmag, "which is a powerful analytics server -- through the control and simplicity of JavaScript."

"We estimate that there are about 175,000 applications in production today that embed Jaspersoft," said Karl Van den Bergh, TIBCO's SVP of Products. "But it's a really small percentage of the total of all applications being built today. And up until now, we've been using two techniques that allow customers to embed: REST-based Web services, which provided a lot of granular control, but also required a lot of coding. And iFrames, which are simple, but offer very little control. The new framework combines the best of both. You can control REST with the simplicity of iFrames. You can take any part of our server and embed it in your application with a few lines of JavaScript code."

"Because of the cost and complexity, most developers today typically turn to charting libraries," Van den Bergh added. "We think Visualize.js is going to change that."

TIBCO is also introducing the updated Jaspersoft 5.6 BI platform with this announcement. The update is designed to make developers more "capably analytic," Boyarski said, with a number of new features and upgrades, including: federated query connectors to virtually blend relational data with data from companies such as MongoDB, Hadoop or Cassandra; improved native connectors for direct access to MongoDB, Hadoop, Cassandra, and others for real-time reporting; new analytic calculations and functions that allow users to build their own algorithms for more advanced analysis of data; new chart types, including spider, bubble, and dual-level pie charts; and enhanced interactive reporting functionality, including improved zoom and search capabilities.

"More than ever, analytics is now a thing that you do and not a place that you go," said Brian Gentile, senior vice president and general manger of the Jaspersoft group, in a statement. "The Jaspersoft 5.6 platform advancements, when combined with the new Visualize.js framework, enable any Web application to seamlessly embed and control advanced analytic functionality. This enables just the right amount of data -- no more and no less -- to be presented directly in an application, making everyone more capably analytic."