Jaspersoft Bolsters BI Integration

Jaspersoft today rolled out the latest version of its open source business intelligence software, which is designed to make it easier to embed Jaspersoft software inside other applications.

Jaspersoft 4 features a revamped user interface, a new Web-based backend architecture based on open standards and the ability to integrate Jaspersoft 4 into other applications using cascading style sheets and markup changes.

According to Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile, business intelligence functionality needs to be made available both as a stand-alone application and as a feature within other applications. To facilitate the integration of Jaspersoft software with other applications, the company redesigned its software from the ground up, says Gentile.

That redesign, adds Gentile, will not only facilitate application integration in the cloud and on-premise, it will make it easier for Jaspersoft to layer in new functionality, such as HTML5 support, as the year progresses.

As Jaspersoft grows up as an open source project, the release of Jaspersoft 4 represents the coming of age of the open source application in the sense that it is now based on a more structured architecture. That architecture will not only make it easier for developers to contribute to Jaspersoft development, it also makes it simpler for developers to add a BI module to their applications without having to write it themselves or license commercial software.

Gentile says that in 2011 he expects to see ubiquitous adoption of BI functionality in any number of applications as part of broader trend to provide users with analytics within the context of any given application versus requiring them to launch a separate application.