
Show HN: Egeria, a collaborative multidimensional web-based spreadsheet - egeria_planning
http://egeria.rocks/
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fiatjaf
I don't understand it. When you said "multidimensional" I thought of it as a
database that could be displayed as different spreadsheets from different
viewpoints, but in the examples I cannot see the multidimensionality, nor
where is the data coming from on each calculation, I don't see formulas
anywhere also; and I can edit the values manually.

I am probably missing something.

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steventhedev
Multidimensional in this case refers to OLAP cubes. In other words, it's a
relational database with a star schema.

The formulas in this case are built in the "metadata editor". The expectation
is that a data scientist would build the tables, and then pass it off as an
analysis tool to the MBA types. It can be really unintuitive if you've never
seen these types of dashboards before.

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egeria_planning
Multidimensional means every cell of a worksheet is associated with multiple
dimensions like year, month, company, currency and so on. This implementation
is not really a ROLAP. Instead of a relational database I use a document
database for storing metadata. You can access formulas via context menu on
cells (grey cells have formulas on them, white are input). The whole thing has
become a bit complex. Some information is in the docs.

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chm

        You can also use Egeria as a free and easy-to-use
        alternative to expansive commercial budgeting and
        planning software.
    

I assume you meant "expensive", but in this case "expansive" works fine if you
consider that a disadvantage and your product is more focused.

Check it out :)

EDIT: I see there are a handful of typos and incorrect/unclear wording. I'm
writing you an email with the corrections I would make.

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egeria_planning
Thanks. Just fixed it. :)

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ocdtrekkie
When I launch the demo, it asks for a login and password. Obviously, I don't
have a login and password for this site.

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wingerlang
Same here, but considering we (I, at least) found the "launch demo" via a
dedicated demo-page it was quite obvious to me that there would be passwords
on that page, and there were.

I did get turned off from it though, so I guess the UI comment stands.

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ocdtrekkie
I didn't read. It's fair to blame me for that, but a lot of potential
customers or users won't read. If I had a specific suggestion, I'd say to move
the Launch Demo button to right above the Login info subheading. So it's hard
to click it without noticing the login section.

~~~
wingerlang
I didn't read at first either, and I was burned just like you. So I totally
agree with the suggestion, in case my reply indicated something else.

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fiatjaf
"There are several similar solutions offered by very large companies."

What? Where? How similar? (I'm not critizing the copy, I'm just asking for
more explanation, since I don't know anything about very large companies).

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cgio
Oracle (Hyperion stack), IBM (Cognos TM1 and maybe Controller), SAP (BPC),
Infor (PM) are the big ones. Also, SQL Server Analytic Services is in a
similar space but mostly from a BI, read-only perspective. Smaller include
Jedox Palo (GPL but with a weird openness history) and many other vendors
(e.g. Anaplan etc.)

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egeria_planning
Thanks for a complete list. I was not sure I could legally use the names on my
website.

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cgio
No worries. I played around a little, given that I have done implementations
with all the systems I mentioned above, and it looks interesting at first
sight. I would have to look into it in more detail. By the way, I tried to
create a new spreadsheet and it creates it (test) but when I try to view it,
it gives me an error. It looks pretty easy for someone who knows what they are
looking for, but others would be confused.

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egeria_planning
Thanks for testing. There are some misleading error messages. I will look into
it. The problem was you did not "apply metadata" (from the tools menu) after
creating a spreadsheet. If you have any ideas I would really like to simplify
the UI. A spreadsheet gets much more complex with multidimensional data model.
My idea was that people who are familiar with tools like TM1 or BPC would use
the system to create planning solutions for their small and mid-size clients.

~~~
cgio
Just one piece of advise. Do not sacrifice usability for elegance. I can see
you consistently apply a model that builds on metadata abstractions.
Nevertheless, it is not conceptual consistency but expectations that should
drive interactions. A difficult balance, given that consistency also improves
accuracy of expectations but if you take big vendors, that consistency
approach was taken to the limits by BPC. This is why everything feels like 10
extra steps. When someone creates artefacts they should be immediately
available. The only thing that should necessitate a metadata application from
a user perspective should be metadata (as in dimensions changes, not even
member additions) and logic changes (if you need to optimise your calculations
graph.) The rest should be transparent and separated at least visually from
metadata. You can keep security in metadata, but calculation is a separate
concept and you will most probably have to separate it when, as per your
roadmap, you look into workflows. Do not get confused by the consistency. Look
at the concepts from a user perspective and hide elegance in implementation if
you can. I hope this helps. I will send you an email and we can discuss in
more detail.

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fiatjaf
This may be something the world is needing for a long time.

Who made it? Why?

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egeria_planning
Thanks. This is my "side project".

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mrmondo
Is it open source and can it be self hosted?

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pandatigox
Says here: [http://egeria.rocks/downloads](http://egeria.rocks/downloads)

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mrmondo
Ah, I see so no, it's not open source -
[http://egeria.rocks/LICENSE.TXT](http://egeria.rocks/LICENSE.TXT)

