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Re: AW: BI and reporting tools

We also Use Metabase for some of our projects, which works nicely.

We do a daily replication of the database, to not disturb operations, and provide end users with pre defined models for the Odoo database.


Op 16-04-2025 om 10:47 schreef David Brühlmeier:
In terms of architecture we have decided to use Metabase without an ETL layer. Metabase connects only to one database (because it's currently not possible to make joins in Metabase from different databases). This database is a dedicated Postgres instance, which uses FDW (Foreign Data Wrapper) to connect to the source databases, such as Odoo. This approach has the advantage of realtime reporting and also reducing complexity because we don't need an ETL process. In terms of performance, it's good enough so far. Should we run into issues, we might add a read-replica as a secondary database for our source applications.
--
Met vriendelijke groet - Kind Regards - Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Thomas Pot

Open2Bizz B.V. dé Odoo specialist

https://www.open2bizz.nl
https://care-software.com

Mauritslaan 56 | 6161 HW | Geleen (NL)

Maak meteen een afspraak voor een online demo van Odoo / Care-Software:
klik hier

LinkedIn Connectie maken
by Thomas Pot - 12:21 - 16 Apr 2025

Reference

  • BI and reporting tools

    Hi,

    I am researching different ways to do BI (business intelligence) and reporting with Odoo.

    I am wondering whether it's worth it to invest on an external BI tool connected to the Odoo database. 

    On the community version I have the impression that the standard BI tools (standard pivot and graphs reports in Odoo) are sometimes limited in terms of performance (it's slow for wide and long pivot tables), data visualization (standard charts are not very useful) and flexibility (hard to make computations).

    I know of the bi_view_editor and bi_sql_editor modules. Both are very useful and greatly extends the standard reports. But the limits listed above remains. But it seems it's hard to use it as is, in my case I always have to export manually the tables to build the table or chart I want with excel.

    I also know of the spreadsheet and dashboard modules, although I don't have a great experience with it. Maybe it provides the lacking flexibility mentioned above ?

    The last option is to connect a BI tool (Tableau, PowerBI, Apache superset, Metabase...) to the database. The main advantage is to connect it to other sources of data. But I am wondering if it's still worth it even connected only to the Odoo database.

    Do you use an external BI tools ? If yes, which one seems to work well with Odoo (and preferably open source) ?

    If no, how do you deal with BI and reporting for your clients ? Are you also confronted to performance issues, lack of flexibility and poor library of charts ?

    Thank you for your inputs !

    -- 
Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy
    by Victor - 10:32 - 16 Apr 2025

    7 replies 7 replies

    • Re: AW: BI and reporting tools
      Hi all,

      I have tested the metabase on my laptop. It does the job but in the context of an odoo database with a lot of tables and data,
      it seems it consumes a lot of memory (really really a lot).

      Probably there are in this video more innovative ways to build an BI tools. 

      Yes BI requires it to be managed with traceability. Changes should be reverted if necessary.

      Personally I have succinctly used odoo shiny spreadsheets with a lot of frustrations :-( . Is there somebody who seriously uses it ?

      I plan to invest in solutions from this video : https://evidence.dev markdown + sql sounds great.

      Marimo could also be a solution in future iterations.

      I'm interested in your feedback in this field. Thanks

      my 2 cts

      Regards

      David BEAL
      Consultant ERP Odoo


      Le jeu. 17 avr. 2025 à 16:12, Joel Patrick <notifications@odoo-community.org> a écrit :
      I am interested in using BI to help with decision-making on in-process inventory.  There are industrial processes where materials are kept in process for a period of time to all maturation (winemaking, food processing, crystal growing, and many other things.  Sometimes you can use a very deterministic recipe, but more often than not, you have a range of outcomes to plan for.  I would like to use the Odoo data record (registered in Mfg Orders) to build a body of knowledge linked to history by product and product family to help users manage rough cut planning and refine recipes.  Ultimately, I would like to use the past MO data for analysis and as a reference in real time.  This was a hot topic for leveraging SAP HANA, but I left the SAP ecosystem before I could see that in practice (to the extent that something happened with the idea.)

      I like the idea of putting the datasets in Postgres since most of my implementations are quite small-scale, and I am thinking it would be easier to reuse a focused decision-support dataset via an Odoo custom model.

      Any thoughts?





      On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 5:38 AM Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org> wrote:

      Thank you for your replies, I will have a look at Metabase.

      Thank you also for the tips about foreign data wrapper and Metabase models. Real time reporting is indeed an important feature.

      Have a nice day,

      Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy
      On 16/04/25 10:47, David Brühlmeier wrote:
      Hi Victor,

      We are using Metabase (self-hosted) and are very happy with it so far. The main advantage IMHO is the possibility to connect data from Odoo with data from other data sources. The main disadvantage is the potential complexity of the Odoo data model. To address this, we are providing Models in Metabase for all the main business objects or our end users.

      In terms of architecture we have decided to use Metabase without an ETL layer. Metabase connects only to one database (because it's currently not possible to make joins in Metabase from different databases). This database is a dedicated Postgres instance, which uses FDW (Foreign Data Wrapper) to connect to the source databases, such as Odoo. This approach has the advantage of realtime reporting and also reducing complexity because we don't need an ETL process. In terms of performance, it's good enough so far. Should we run into issues, we might add a read-replica as a secondary database for our source applications.

      Hope this helps!
      Dave



      Von: Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org>
      Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2025 10:32
      An: Contributors <contributors@odoo-community.org>
      Betreff: BI and reporting tools
       

      Hi,

      I am researching different ways to do BI (business intelligence) and reporting with Odoo.

      I am wondering whether it's worth it to invest on an external BI tool connected to the Odoo database. 

      On the community version I have the impression that the standard BI tools (standard pivot and graphs reports in Odoo) are sometimes limited in terms of performance (it's slow for wide and long pivot tables), data visualization (standard charts are not very useful) and flexibility (hard to make computations).

      I know of the bi_view_editor and bi_sql_editor modules. Both are very useful and greatly extends the standard reports. But the limits listed above remains. But it seems it's hard to use it as is, in my case I always have to export manually the tables to build the table or chart I want with excel.

      I also know of the spreadsheet and dashboard modules, although I don't have a great experience with it. Maybe it provides the lacking flexibility mentioned above ?

      The last option is to connect a BI tool (Tableau, PowerBI, Apache superset, Metabase...) to the database. The main advantage is to connect it to other sources of data. But I am wondering if it's still worth it even connected only to the Odoo database.

      Do you use an external BI tools ? If yes, which one seems to work well with Odoo (and preferably open source) ?

      If no, how do you deal with BI and reporting for your clients ? Are you also confronted to performance issues, lack of flexibility and poor library of charts ?

      Thank you for your inputs !

      -- 
Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      by David BEAL - 01:20 - 28 Apr 2025
    • Re: AW: BI and reporting tools
      I am interested in using BI to help with decision-making on in-process inventory.  There are industrial processes where materials are kept in process for a period of time to all maturation (winemaking, food processing, crystal growing, and many other things.  Sometimes you can use a very deterministic recipe, but more often than not, you have a range of outcomes to plan for.  I would like to use the Odoo data record (registered in Mfg Orders) to build a body of knowledge linked to history by product and product family to help users manage rough cut planning and refine recipes.  Ultimately, I would like to use the past MO data for analysis and as a reference in real time.  This was a hot topic for leveraging SAP HANA, but I left the SAP ecosystem before I could see that in practice (to the extent that something happened with the idea.)

      I like the idea of putting the datasets in Postgres since most of my implementations are quite small-scale, and I am thinking it would be easier to reuse a focused decision-support dataset via an Odoo custom model.

      Any thoughts?





      On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 5:38 AM Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org> wrote:

      Thank you for your replies, I will have a look at Metabase.

      Thank you also for the tips about foreign data wrapper and Metabase models. Real time reporting is indeed an important feature.

      Have a nice day,

      Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy
      On 16/04/25 10:47, David Brühlmeier wrote:
      Hi Victor,

      We are using Metabase (self-hosted) and are very happy with it so far. The main advantage IMHO is the possibility to connect data from Odoo with data from other data sources. The main disadvantage is the potential complexity of the Odoo data model. To address this, we are providing Models in Metabase for all the main business objects or our end users.

      In terms of architecture we have decided to use Metabase without an ETL layer. Metabase connects only to one database (because it's currently not possible to make joins in Metabase from different databases). This database is a dedicated Postgres instance, which uses FDW (Foreign Data Wrapper) to connect to the source databases, such as Odoo. This approach has the advantage of realtime reporting and also reducing complexity because we don't need an ETL process. In terms of performance, it's good enough so far. Should we run into issues, we might add a read-replica as a secondary database for our source applications.

      Hope this helps!
      Dave



      Von: Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org>
      Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2025 10:32
      An: Contributors <contributors@odoo-community.org>
      Betreff: BI and reporting tools
       

      Hi,

      I am researching different ways to do BI (business intelligence) and reporting with Odoo.

      I am wondering whether it's worth it to invest on an external BI tool connected to the Odoo database. 

      On the community version I have the impression that the standard BI tools (standard pivot and graphs reports in Odoo) are sometimes limited in terms of performance (it's slow for wide and long pivot tables), data visualization (standard charts are not very useful) and flexibility (hard to make computations).

      I know of the bi_view_editor and bi_sql_editor modules. Both are very useful and greatly extends the standard reports. But the limits listed above remains. But it seems it's hard to use it as is, in my case I always have to export manually the tables to build the table or chart I want with excel.

      I also know of the spreadsheet and dashboard modules, although I don't have a great experience with it. Maybe it provides the lacking flexibility mentioned above ?

      The last option is to connect a BI tool (Tableau, PowerBI, Apache superset, Metabase...) to the database. The main advantage is to connect it to other sources of data. But I am wondering if it's still worth it even connected only to the Odoo database.

      Do you use an external BI tools ? If yes, which one seems to work well with Odoo (and preferably open source) ?

      If no, how do you deal with BI and reporting for your clients ? Are you also confronted to performance issues, lack of flexibility and poor library of charts ?

      Thank you for your inputs !

      -- 
Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      by joel.patrick - 04:10 - 17 Apr 2025
    • Re: AW: BI and reporting tools

      Thank you for your replies, I will have a look at Metabase.

      Thank you also for the tips about foreign data wrapper and Metabase models. Real time reporting is indeed an important feature.

      Have a nice day,

      Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy
      On 16/04/25 10:47, David Brühlmeier wrote:
      Hi Victor,

      We are using Metabase (self-hosted) and are very happy with it so far. The main advantage IMHO is the possibility to connect data from Odoo with data from other data sources. The main disadvantage is the potential complexity of the Odoo data model. To address this, we are providing Models in Metabase for all the main business objects or our end users.

      In terms of architecture we have decided to use Metabase without an ETL layer. Metabase connects only to one database (because it's currently not possible to make joins in Metabase from different databases). This database is a dedicated Postgres instance, which uses FDW (Foreign Data Wrapper) to connect to the source databases, such as Odoo. This approach has the advantage of realtime reporting and also reducing complexity because we don't need an ETL process. In terms of performance, it's good enough so far. Should we run into issues, we might add a read-replica as a secondary database for our source applications.

      Hope this helps!
      Dave



      Von: Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org>
      Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2025 10:32
      An: Contributors <contributors@odoo-community.org>
      Betreff: BI and reporting tools
       

      Hi,

      I am researching different ways to do BI (business intelligence) and reporting with Odoo.

      I am wondering whether it's worth it to invest on an external BI tool connected to the Odoo database. 

      On the community version I have the impression that the standard BI tools (standard pivot and graphs reports in Odoo) are sometimes limited in terms of performance (it's slow for wide and long pivot tables), data visualization (standard charts are not very useful) and flexibility (hard to make computations).

      I know of the bi_view_editor and bi_sql_editor modules. Both are very useful and greatly extends the standard reports. But the limits listed above remains. But it seems it's hard to use it as is, in my case I always have to export manually the tables to build the table or chart I want with excel.

      I also know of the spreadsheet and dashboard modules, although I don't have a great experience with it. Maybe it provides the lacking flexibility mentioned above ?

      The last option is to connect a BI tool (Tableau, PowerBI, Apache superset, Metabase...) to the database. The main advantage is to connect it to other sources of data. But I am wondering if it's still worth it even connected only to the Odoo database.

      Do you use an external BI tools ? If yes, which one seems to work well with Odoo (and preferably open source) ?

      If no, how do you deal with BI and reporting for your clients ? Are you also confronted to performance issues, lack of flexibility and poor library of charts ?

      Thank you for your inputs !

      -- 
Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      by Victor - 11:36 - 17 Apr 2025
    • Re: BI and reporting tools
      Hi Victor,

      On a related issue I wish WilldooIT had carried on developing the Odoo Pentaho module.

      Regards,
      Bill

      From: Victor Champonnois <notifications@odoo-community.org>
      Sent: 16 April 2025 10:32
      To: Contributors <contributors@odoo-community.org>
      Subject: BI and reporting tools
       

      Hi,

      I am researching different ways to do BI (business intelligence) and reporting with Odoo.

      I am wondering whether it's worth it to invest on an external BI tool connected to the Odoo database. 

      On the community version I have the impression that the standard BI tools (standard pivot and graphs reports in Odoo) are sometimes limited in terms of performance (it's slow for wide and long pivot tables), data visualization (standard charts are not very useful) and flexibility (hard to make computations).

      I know of the bi_view_editor and bi_sql_editor modules. Both are very useful and greatly extends the standard reports. But the limits listed above remains. But it seems it's hard to use it as is, in my case I always have to export manually the tables to build the table or chart I want with excel.

      I also know of the spreadsheet and dashboard modules, although I don't have a great experience with it. Maybe it provides the lacking flexibility mentioned above ?

      The last option is to connect a BI tool (Tableau, PowerBI, Apache superset, Metabase...) to the database. The main advantage is to connect it to other sources of data. But I am wondering if it's still worth it even connected only to the Odoo database.

      Do you use an external BI tools ? If yes, which one seems to work well with Odoo (and preferably open source) ?

      If no, how do you deal with BI and reporting for your clients ? Are you also confronted to performance issues, lack of flexibility and poor library of charts ?

      Thank you for your inputs !

      -- 
Victor Champonnois - Coop IT Easy

      _______________________________________________
      Mailing-List: https://odoo-community.org/groups/contributors-15
      Post to: mailto:contributors@odoo-community.org
      Unsubscribe: https://odoo-community.org/groups?unsubscribe

      by Bill Made - 10:45 - 17 Apr 2025
    • Re: AW: BI and reporting tools

      We also Use Metabase for some of our projects, which works nicely.

      We do a daily replication of the database, to not disturb operations, and provide end users with pre defined models for the Odoo database.


      Op 16-04-2025 om 10:47 schreef David Brühlmeier:
      In terms of architecture we have decided to use Metabase without an ETL layer. Metabase connects only to one database (because it's currently not possible to make joins in Metabase from different databases). This database is a dedicated Postgres instance, which uses FDW (Foreign Data Wrapper) to connect to the source databases, such as Odoo. This approach has the advantage of realtime reporting and also reducing complexity because we don't need an ETL process. In terms of performance, it's good enough so far. Should we run into issues, we might add a read-replica as a secondary database for our source applications.
      --
      Met vriendelijke groet - Kind Regards - Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

      Thomas Pot

      Open2Bizz B.V. dé Odoo specialist

      https://www.open2bizz.nl
      https://care-software.com

      Mauritslaan 56 | 6161 HW | Geleen (NL)

      Maak meteen een afspraak voor een online demo van Odoo / Care-Software:
      klik hier

      LinkedIn Connectie maken
      by Thomas Pot - 12:21 - 16 Apr 2025