1. Metabase Sql Server
2. Metabase Excel Export
3. Matebase

1. Excel Online to Metabase. Precog for Excel Online connects directly to your Excel Online data via the API and lets you build the exact tables you need for BI or ML applications in minutes. Excel Services to Metabase.
2. The Pulses feature in Metabase gives you the ability to automatically send regular updates to your teammates to help everyone keep track of changes to the metrics that matter to you most. You can deliver a pulse via email or Slack, on the schedule of your choice.

Overview of Metabase

Excel Projects for $8 - $15. Building out metabase dashboards and creating custom spreadsheets.

Summary

Metabase is a laboratory data management software system designed specifically to meet the needs of laboratories conducting radiolabeled ADME metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicokinetics studies. Starting with the generation of a sample list for an entire study, Metabase serves as the basic tool to acquire, organize, manage, calculate, store, and report study results. Key features of the program are its clear organization (which follow standard laboratory workflow procedures), its flexible and powerful data handling, its management of radioanalytical data,its ease of use, and its integration with other productivity software. The flow sheet on the right illustrates the overall process of using Metabase as your primary data handling and management system.

Metabase is a practical, low cost, user-friendly, laboratory-oriented tool. The program is based on Microsoft Excel® and can be easily custom tailored to fit each client's work place or modified to meet changing needs and requirements. And to make sure that it does the job the right way, it was designed and operated in radio-analytical metabolism research laboratories.

Metabase comes as a turn-key system for radio-analytical sample processing and liquid scintillation counting data, but it can be custom modified for other analytical methods. Metabase is designed to meet GLP guidelines and comply with FDA, EPA, EEC software development and validation requirements. The system is provided with complete system life-cycle documentation. Test files are supplied for use in validation. Metabase is a cost-effective solution for comprehensive management of metabolism information in a well organized, flexible, and user-oriented manner.

Features

Reviews

Metabase was reviewed in the LIMS Vendor Survey appearing in Scientific Computing and Automation, November 1997, page L34.

Demo Program

A free demo file, illustrating the layout and functions of Metabase, is available. The demo is a 94KB zip file which decompresses to an Excel workbook. The demo can be downloaded from this web site or obtained as an email attachment or by mail.

Obtain a copy of the Metabase Demo from the download page now.

Additional Metabase Documentation

The following additional information about Metabase can be obtained from the Download Page:

• Take a Virtual Tour of Metabase by by following the procedures and screen shots contained in the official Metabase Test Procedures Manual.

• Download a copy of the Metabase Flow Diagram that illustrates the functions and procedures incorporated in the system.

• Download a copy of the white paper describing Metabase Security, QA, GLP, and GALP Features.

Or, contact David Farrier by email or use the Contact Us page to request any of the above items.

Metabase Order Information

Included Software and Documentation

• Metabase System Software. Metabase is supplied as a completely operational Excel-based LIMS system based on an actual laboratory setup. The turnkey system assumes data files configured for collecting weight data using a LimsLink software interface to an auto-balance and LSC data output files obtained from a Wallac Liquid Scintillation Counter. Both the balance and LSC interface components can be modified by straightforward custom VBA programming to match the specific instrumentation and requirements of your laboratory.

• Program Code. Metabase runs using Visual Basic for Applications programming contained within it's Excel template file. A license for non-resalable modification and use of the program code for your own custom installation and requirements. The code is thoroughly documented and constructed in a modular fashion that allows for easy custom modification

• System Documentation Portfolio. This includes the following System Life Cycle Documentation:

  • Requirements Analysis. A complete listing of what the system is intended to do.
  • Design Specifications. A thorough manual describing in detail all the features, functions, operation, and calculations used by Metabase.
  • Test Procedures. A step-by-step illustrated manual that uses pre-built data files to both illustrate and verify the complete operation of Metabase. Useful for training, validation, and verification.

• Metabase Security, Quality Assurance, GLP, and GALP Features. A white paper describing Metabase security and regulatory guideline compliance.

• Simulated Test Data Files. Simulated balance and LSC data files for use with the test procedures.

• Packard Oxidizer Efficiency Calculator. An accessory Excel template that calculates oxidizer efficiencies and correct LSC results accordingly.

Costs

Metabase Software Package — Single Site License ...... $2,495.00
Metabase Software Package — 45 Day Evaluation CD ....... $199.00*

* Will be refunded if you purchase Metabase.

Metabase Order Form:Download the order form as an Adobe Acrobat pdf file.

Metabase Sql Server

Metabase Excel Export

For the last 4 years, we have been using Metabase to create reports and dashboards for all our customers using Avni. Metabase is a really nice tool. It’s feature-rich with an easy user, query, reports, and dashboard management. It has a user-friendly interface. A person with a little excel experience can use Metabase and start analyzing data if the underlying schema is simple. Avni, being a generic product, the schema is a bit complex and not conducive to out of the box analysis using Metabase. For most cases, we have been writing reports using custom SQL reports option of Metabase.

As we started having long-running projects, the data size started to increase, and there were complex reports requirements on bigger projects. We started facing roadblocks with the current feature set of Metabase. Wherever possible we started using some workarounds. It was time to start looking for another open-source reporting solution that would solve our below problems especially for biggers projects:

1. Big queries involving unions bringing down database availability.
2. Long-running reports which used to timeout on the users.
3. Bad interface for linking reports for drill down use-cases.
4. Not able to have the Reports in multiple languages.
5. Cascading filters

Out of all the open-source reporting / BI products available, Jasper Reports seemed like a good fit. So we gave it a spin. We’ve done some initial spikes, found it to solve our problems just enough, and have decided to go ahead with it on a couple of projects. We have created a few reports using Jasper. So far so good.

Let’s delve deeper into the problems and how we are able to overcome them

Big queries involving unions bringing down database availability

There are many reports where clients want to see trends for different indicators together. In Metabase, there is no way to have separate queries whose output can be shown together in one report. So we have to combine queries for each indicator using SQL unions and form one single big query. A sample report looks like the image below.

Running these kinds of big queries started causing a spike on memory and CPU, at times making the database unavailable. Throwing more resources wouldn’t be a scalable approach because as and when data volume increases this problem will keep arising.

Jasper has a concept of sub dataset or sub reports, which means now each of the unions will be an individual query. You can also configure these sub-datasets to use the same DB connection as the main report so that each of these individual queries doesn’t run together in parallel and doesn’t make the database unavailable. This means that we can control the database load by controlling the number of connections in the DB connection pool settings. Although now reports might become slow because each query runs one after the other but we fixed this using report scheduling and report snapshots which is discussed next.

Long-running reports which used to timeout on the users

Another thing that we wanted was to schedule these slow running reports and save the result into the reporting server so that the user doesn’t have to wait long for the result. Metabase provides caching of the long-running reports. However, we found this caching solution is quite simplistic. For the reports having filters caching does not work if you change the filter value. And most of our reports have filters. Also when caching expires the first user opening the report still faces the problem.

On the other hand, using Jasper reports one can enable data snapshots feature and reports can be scheduled for the different filter values. A new snapshot is created for each filter value, these snapshots can be refreshed periodically using report scheduling. Now every day a new report snapshot is created which the user can view instantly and doesn’t have to wait. Users can schedule reports themselves as well. This not only creates significant improvements in user experience but also prevents load on the database during the active hours.

Linking reports for drill down or navigating to other application

Matebase

Providing hyperlinks in reports is a great way to enhance user experience. For instance, aggregate type reports can be linked to the line list report, so when a user clicks on any number they get to see all the information for that indicator. We also use hyperlinks on the line list reports where users can click on any name and they are redirected to the actual record on the Avni web app. In Metabase to achieve this, we have to add a new column and pass all the filter values as URL params to the next report. This approach is not very neat and there is a lot of possibility of mistake. The report looks something like below

Jasper, on the other hand, supports hyperlinks natively and it’s pretty easy to use and configure.

We can make any column clickable by adding hyperlink type to that column and the filters can be passed as hyperlink parameters to the line list report. The below picture shows the same report with the hyperlink configured to the “Number of Individual” column.

Not able to have Reports in multiple languages

Metabase right now does not support creating reports in different languages. Avni is a multilingual platform and we wanted a way to reuse the same translations for our reports as well. To make the data and insights decentralised, it is important for it to be available in local language. In Jasper, we can create a resource bundle with all the keys and it’s translated values. This bundle then can be linked to a report and translated values can be accessed using a particular key. A sample report in Hindi looks like the image below.

Cascading Filters

There are situations where you need one filter to be populated based on another filter. E.g. State, District, Block, user hierarchy. Metabase does not provide a way to setup something like this as of now. So we have to populate each filter with all the values. If user chooses values in the filters such that the combination does not exist, you get empty results. This is not very user friendly. Jasper provides a way to set this up.

Apart from these listed features, there are a whole lot of other features like user designed layouts, the ability to put static text, user parameters, and more which makes Jasper a much better candidate for writing and designing complex and efficient reports without affecting the user experience. Although you get a lot in Jasper there are some downsides when you shift from Metabase and start using Jasper, especially if you are using community edition.

• The powerful but out-dated user interface of Jasper.
• We get styling out of the box in Metabase and it’s good. With Jasper, we have to work on styling ourselves and create report templates that can then be reused for similar kinds of reports.
• Custom reports feature of Metabase where users can create a report from the UI without writing any query.
• In Metabase, users can change the visualization or hide/show certain columns or perform conditional formatting which is not possible in Jasper.
• An easy way to create a dashboard (Dashboards are not available in community edition)

To put everything together we can say that Metabase is limiting for developers but powerful for advanced end-users, and Jasper, on the other hand, is powerful for developers but limiting for advanced end-users.

As I said earlier no product can satisfy all the use cases and it depends on the use case which product to use. Right now we are using these two reporting tools in Avni and we decide based on the requirements on the project.

We are still exploring GIS reports, and much more. Well, let’s keep that for our next blog post.