Do you support on-prem?
Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
21–30 of 46 posts
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#22Will this handle (repeatable) “record” (struct/array) data types natively? /disclaimer: work in google cloud
Yes it should, there is special "unnest" parameter for fields in BlockML reference - https://mprove.io/docs/blockml/fields/dimension
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#23Do you support on-prem?
Source code is open. Anyone can deploy Mprove to his server and use it for free.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#24this is super cool and i would pay for this. Bigquery is a cheap alternative to a lot of the mobile analytics tools. Quick point however - why do you need a new database ? You can use a table inside bigquery itself. It seriously reduces the dependencies required.
Mprove creates permanent derived tables in BigQuery if the user wants it.
But you can't use BigQuery for OLTP.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#25@akalitenya are you even in the clear with this? Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. But more importantly, the challenge for any such tool is to go beyond use by 2-3 people. At 2-3 people anything will work. Where BI tools (open source and close source) struggle is scale: having all the right features for, essentially, a group of users who actually don't know how to work with data (did I just say that alo…
Why discourage an alternative? We've already seen there is demand for libre analytics tools as an alternative to google analytics. I'd use this product in the lower range as well <100 person company. I say go for it, looker is doing fine they won't care or be phased by this at all.
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Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#26@akalitenya are you even in the clear with this? Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. But more importantly, the challenge for any such tool is to go beyond use by 2-3 people. At 2-3 people anything will work. Where BI tools (open source and close source) struggle is scale: having all the right features for, essentially, a group of users who actually don't know how to work with data (did I just say that alo…
> Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. I met the online Looker demo a few years ago when I was looking for a business intelligence tool for another project. Looker has a closed source code, so I did not see what algorithm is used to build queries. I kept those LookML features that I understood and liked. However, in some places LookML is confusing (for example - references and aliases). I made them differe…
I used Looker for years and have always wanted a product priced less for the enterprise and more for developers. I even prototyped a similar tool myself.
Congratulations on the launch. I will be using mprove and will give you feedback along the way.
EDIT: I would love to get in touch with you and learn more about what your plans are. Possibly collaborate if you'd be open to that. I'm dpaola2@gmail.com -- I couldn't find your contact info anywhere!
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#27@akalitenya are you even in the clear with this? Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. But more importantly, the challenge for any such tool is to go beyond use by 2-3 people. At 2-3 people anything will work. Where BI tools (open source and close source) struggle is scale: having all the right features for, essentially, a group of users who actually don't know how to work with data (did I just say that alo…
> Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. I met the online Looker demo a few years ago when I was looking for a business intelligence tool for another project. Looker has a closed source code, so I did not see what algorithm is used to build queries. I kept those LookML features that I understood and liked. However, in some places LookML is confusing (for example - references and aliases). I made them differe…
> Very few BI products have actually surpassed 100 users at target installations. And beyond 1,000 is a real challenge that only few, and even then with a lot of assistance, can support: Tableau, Looker, Microstrategy, maybe Birst, maybe Domo.
At one point Looker was essentially a web application with a query service that could be scaled by adding more servers behind a load balancer. Each end user is essentially working in a shared nothing environment and the query engine is driven by metadata stored in a git repository. Looker itself did not manage cache or analytical processes. All of the real effort to scale was in the database backend.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#28Will this handle (repeatable) “record” (struct/array) data types natively? /disclaimer: work in google cloud
Yes it should, there is special "unnest" parameter for fields in BlockML reference - https://mprove.io/docs/blockml/fields/dimension
wow, impressive! how about symmetric aggregates (e.g. being able to do correct summation/aggregation on numeric values despite a one_to_many join)?
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. I met the online Looker demo a few years ago when I was looking for a business intelligence tool for another project. Looker has a closed source code, so I did not see what algorithm is used to build queries. I kept those LookML features that I understood and liked. However, in some places LookML is confusing (for example - references and aliases). I made them differe…
> Very few BI products have actually surpassed 100 users at target installations. And beyond 1,000 is a real challenge that only few, and even then with a lot of assistance, can support: Tableau, Looker, Microstrategy, maybe Birst, maybe Domo. At one point Looker was essentially a web application with a query service that could be scaled by adding more servers behind a load balancer. Each end user is essentially work…
"scale" meant adoption, not performance. Scaling performance can generally be solved with hardware. Adoption, not so much.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source Business Intelligence for BigQuery – Looker Alternative
#30@akalitenya are you even in the clear with this? Some of the Old LookML syntax is an exact copy. But more importantly, the challenge for any such tool is to go beyond use by 2-3 people. At 2-3 people anything will work. Where BI tools (open source and close source) struggle is scale: having all the right features for, essentially, a group of users who actually don't know how to work with data (did I just say that alo…
I don't think ripping off LookML is a bad thing; on the contrary, it's probably an awesome thing for Looker to be in the position of shaping how companies model their data and the relationships thereof. At the very least, it means Looker can turn around and say "hey, if you're outgrowing this smaller tool that uses LookML, why not switch to a platform that can meet your scale (like, say, us)?". The more smaller-scale "competitors" aping LookML, the more teams outgrowing those platforms and looking for larger-scale platforms where they can `git pull $old-platform`, `git push $new-platform`, copy over some data sources / credentials, and call it a day. If $new-platform=Looker, then congrats, Looker now has a decently-sized customer.
In other words: Looker ought to embrace the idea of LookML being the data modelling language. Encourage other implementations of it. Treat them as customer sources instead of customer sinks. That's how they can take over the world :)