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<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.3//EN" "./dtd/document-v13.dtd">
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<document >
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<header >
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<title > Apache POI - Case Studies</title>
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<authors >
<person id= "AO" name= "Andrew C. Oliver" email= "acoliver@apache.org" />
<person id= "CR" name= "Cameron Riley" email= "crileyNO@SPAMekmail.com" />
</authors>
</header>
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<body >
<section >
<title > Introduction</title>
<p >
A number of people are using POI for a variety of purposes. As with
any new API or technology, the first question people generally ask
is not "how can I" but rather "Who else is doing what I'm about to
do?" This is understandable with the abysmal success rate in the
software business. These case statements are meant to help create
confidence and understanding.
</p>
</section>
<section >
<title > Submitting a Case Study</title>
<p >
We are actively seeking case studies for this page (after all it
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just started). Andrew C. Oliver (acoliver at apache dot org) has
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agreed to have a few T-Shirts printed with the POI logo (once its
chosen) for the first
few best submissions. To submit a case study, either
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<link href= "getinvolved/index.html" >
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submit a patch for this page</link> or email it to the
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<link href= "mailinglists.html" > mailing list
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</link> (with [PATCH] prefixed subject, please).
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</p>
</section>
<section >
<title > Case Studies</title>
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<section > <title > QuestionPro</title>
<p >
<link href= "http://www.questionpro.com" > QuestionPro</link> is an online service allowing businesses and individuals to create, deploy and do in-depth analysis of Online Surveys. The technology is build on open-source frameworks like Struts, Velocity, POI, Lucene ... the List goes on. The application deployment is on a Linux Application Cluster farm with a Mysql database.
</p>
<p >
There are quite a few competitors delivering similar solutions using Microsoft Technologies like asp and .net. One of the distinct advantages our competitors had over us was the ability to generate Excel Spreadsheets, Access Databases (MDB) etc. on the fly using the Component Object Model (COM) - since their servers were running IIS and they had access to the COM registry and such.
</p>
<p >
QuestionPro's initial solution was to generate CSV files. This was easy however it was a cumbersome process for our clients to download the CSV files and then import them into Excel. Moreover, formatting information could not be preserved or captured using the CSV format. This is where POI came to our rescue. With a POI based solution, we could generate a full report with multiple sheets and all the analytical reports. To keep the solution scalable, we had a dedicated cluster for generating out the reports.
</p>
<p >
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The Apache-POI project has helped QuestionPro compete with the other players in the marketplace with proprietary technology. It leveled the playing field with respect to reporting and data analysis solutions. It helped in opening doors into closed solutions like Microsoft's CDF. Today about 100 excel reports are generated daily, each with about 10-30 sheets in them.
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</p>
<p >
Vivek Bhaskaran
</p>
<p >
<link href= "http://www.questionpro.com" > QuestionPro, Inc</link>
</p>
<p >
POI In Action - <link href= "http://www.questionpro.com/marketing/SurveyReport-289.xls" > http://www.questionpro.com/marketing/SurveyReport-289.xls</link>
</p>
</section>
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<section > <title > Sunshine Systems</title>
<p >
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<link href= "http://www.sunshinesys.com/" > Sunshine Systems</link> deveveloped a
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POI based reporting solution for a price optimization software package which
is used by major retail chains.
</p>
<p > The solution allowed the retailer's merchandise planners and managers to request a
markdown decision support reports and price change reports using a standard browser
The users could specify report type, report options, as well as company,
division,
and department filter criteria. Report generation took place in the
multi-threaded
application server and was capable of supporting many simultaneous report requests.
</p>
<p > The reporting application collected business information from the price
optimization
application's Oracle database. The data was aggregated and summarized
based upon the
specific report type and filter criteria requested by the user. The
final report was
rendered as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using the POI HSSF API and
was stored on
the report database server for that specific user as a BLOB. Reports
could be
seamlessly and easily viewed using the same browser.
</p>
<p > The retailers liked the solution because they had instantaneous access
to critical
business data through an extremely easy to use browser interface. They
did not need
to train the broader user community on all the complexities of the optimization
application. Furthermore, the reports were generated in an Excel spreadsheet
format,
which everyone was familiar with and which also allowed further data
analysis using
standard Excel features.
</p>
<p > Rob Stevenson (rstevenson at sunshinesys dot com)
</p>
</section>
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<section >
<title > Bank of Lithuania</title>
<p >
The
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<link href= "http://www.lbank.lt/" > Bank of Lithuania</link>
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reports financial statistical data to Excel format using the
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<link href= "http://poi.apache.org/" > Apache POI</link>
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project's
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<link href= "hssf/" >
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HSSF</link> API. The system is based on Oracle JServer and
utilizes a Java stored procedure that outputs to XLS format
using the HSSF API. - Arian Lashkov (alaskov at lbank.lt)
</p>
</section>
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<!-- <section> -->
<!-- <title>Bit Tracker by Tracker Inc., and ThinkVirtual</title> -->
<!-- <p> -->
<!-- Bit Tracker (http://www.bittracker.com/) is the world's first and only web - based drill bit tracking system to manage your company's critical bit information and use that data to its full potential. It manages all bit related data, including their usage, locations, how they were used, and results such as rate of penetration and dull grade after use. This data needs to be available in Excel format for backwards compatibility and other uses in the industry. After using CSV and HTML formats, we needed something better for creating the spreadsheets and POI is the answer. It works great and was easy to implement. Kudos to the POI team. -->
<!-- </p> -->
<!-- <p> -->
<!-- Travis Reeder (travis at thinkvirtual dot com) -->
<!-- </p> -->
<!-- </section> -->
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<section >
<title > Edwards And Kelcey Technology</title>
<p >
Edwards and Kelcey Technology (http://www.ekcorp.com/) developed a
Facility
Managament and Maintenance System for the Telecommunications industry
based
on Turbine and Velocity. Originally the invoicing was done with a simple
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CSV
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sheet which was then marked up by accounts and customized for each client.
As growth has been consistent with the application, the requirement for
invoices that need not be touched by hand increased. POI provided the
solution to this issue, integrating easily and transparently into the
system. POI HSSF was used to create the invoices directly from the server
in
Excel 97 format and now services over 150 unique invoices per month.
</p>
<p >
Cameron Riley (crileyNO@ SPAMekmail.com)
</p>
</section>
<section >
<title > ClickFind</title>
<p >
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<link href= "http://www.clickfind.com/" > ClickFind Inc.</link> used the POI
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projects HSSF API to provide their medical
research clients with an Excel export from their electronic data
collection web service Data Collector 3.0. The POI team's assistance
allowed ClickFind to give their clients a data format that requires less
technical expertise than the XML format used by the Data Collector
application. This was important to ClickFind as many of their current
and potential clients are already using Excel in their day-to-day
operations and in established procedures for handling their generated
clinical data. - Jared Walker (jared.walker at clickfind.com)
</p>
</section>
<section >
<title > IKAN Software NV</title>
<p > In addition to Change Management and Database Modelling, IKAN Software NV
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(http://www.ikan.be/) develops and supports its own ETL
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(Extract/Transform/Load) tools.</p>
<p > IKAN's latest product is this domain is called ETL4ALL
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(http://www.ikan.be/etl4all/). ETL4ALL is an open source tool
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allowing data transfer from and to virtually any data source. Users can
combine and examine data stored in relational databases, XML databases, PDF
files, EDI, CSV files, etc.
</p>
<p > It is obvious that Microsoft Excel files are also supported.
POI has been used to successfully implement this support in ETL4ALL.</p>
</section>
</section>
</body>
<footer >
<legal >
Copyright (c) @year@ The Apache Software Foundation All rights reserved.
$Revision$ $Date$
</legal>
</footer>
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