Avido BI  Installation Guide  

Version 2017.10.1 

Document Information 

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​Notices 

Copyright 

Avido® is a brand name of the Glantus Group. Glantus is a registered trademark of Glantus Group Limited. 

Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The Glantus Group is the owner or licensee of all intellectual property rights in this document, which are protected by copyright laws around the world. All such rights are reserved. 

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Glantus on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. This document is for informational purposes only. The Glantus Group makes no representation, guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied, that the content of this document is accurate, complete or up to date. 

Disclaimer 

This guide is designed to help you to use the Avido applications effectively and efficiently. All data shown in graphical form are provided as examples and are for guidance only. Any data used in illustrations fictitious and bear no association to any company or organisation that may exist. 

Version History 

Customer Support 

For more information regarding our products, please contact us at http://glantus.com/ 

Document Overview 

Introduction 

This document is essentially a manual that outlines the steps required to complete the installation and initial configuration of the Avido BI software products.   

Within the Avido product suite, there are currently two software products.  These are: 

1. Admire, which is the Reader interface.  
   
2. Sketch, which is the Designer interface. 
   

The following sections describe the use of the products, and the main features included: 

1. Avido BI Admire 

Admire provides the ability for a user to consume and interact with information using dashboards, reports and visualisations that have been designed for this purpose. 

• Admire is secure and requires the user to authenticate to the system.  Authentication is based the user providing a valid set of credentials before access is granted to the system or any dashboards, reports and visualisations. 
  
• Access to Admire is controlled within the Sketch administration area. 
  
• Admire will only present the logged in user with dashboards, reports and visualisations that have been shared with that user. 
  
• Admire provides information in a read-only format that the user can interact with based on any existing filters or slicers.   
  
• Admire provides the ability to export the information included in the dashboards, reports and visualisations to a variety of formats.  These formats include .pdf and Microsoft Excel. 
  
• Admire is available as a desktop or web based application. 
  

2. Avido BI Sketch 

Sketch provides the ability for a user to design and share dashboards, reports and visualisations that have been designed for this purpose. 

• Sketch users can create dashboards, reports and visualisations. 
  
• Sketch users can control which Admire users can access the dashboards, reports and visualisations that they design. 
  
• Sketch users can choose to connect to any data source that they have been granted access to (i.e. Database or Excel Workbook for example). 
  
• Access to the information that is included in dashboards, reports and visualisations that are created within Sketch is based on the credentials defined when the connection to the relevant data source.  (This is also applicable in the case of a dashboard, report or visualisation refresh operation.) 
  
• Sketch is available as a desktop or web based application. 
  

Installation 

Pre-Requisites 

Desktop Installation 

• Microsoft Windows (version 2000.x+) 
  
• Microsoft .Net (version 3.x+) 
  

Web Server Installation 

• Microsoft Windows (version 2000.x+) 
  
• Microsoft Internet Information Services (version 5.x+) 
  
• Microsoft .Net (version 3.x+) 
  

Web Client Installation 

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.x+) 
  
• Microsoft Edge (version 20.x+) 
  
• Google Chrome (version 32.x+) 
  

Database

• Microsoft  SQL Server (version  2008 + , Express (Free) Edition+ )
  

Pre-Requisites 

Database

There is a small meta data repository that requires an instance of Microsoft SQL Server to operate.  This data repository is installed as part of the Avido BI installation, however there is a requirement to have an instance of Microsoft SQL Server prior to installation.

Step 1: Check if a Microsoft SQL Server instance is available

1. Ask your IT administrator if the Microsoft SQL Server platform is installed within your network .
   

 Step 2: Install and a configure a Microsoft SQL Server instance 

1. Download the free version from the following link and follow the installation guide.
   

Check your Windows version first in settings:

When installing SQL Server 2014, make sure that you download both the Management Studio and the SQL Server files:

1. Install the  Express and Tools before the  Management  Studio . Double click on the downloaded file to  being the installation.
   
2. If you don’t have a SQL Server instance already installed that you want to upgrade, select “New SQL Server”:
   

You may be asked to restart your computer before installing SQL Server 2014.

1. Please install all features as below. Click Next.
   

1. Select “Default Instance ” . You can cha nge the Instance ID if you wish.
   

1. On the Server Configuration section, s et both  services to “Automatic” . Click next.
   

1. Select “Windows Authentication Mode” . Click Next, this should begin the installation.
   

1. Check if SQL S erver Management Studio was installed successfully.
   

Note: If you are using Windows 7, you might need to install SQL Management Studio separately. 

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio and connect with default . The SQL Server Management Studio and SQL Server Instance have now been installed successfully.
   

Database Installation 

Metadata Database

Step 1: Download the Avido Database 

Copy the two Avido backup zip file (below) to the computer that is running the SQL Server instance. 

1. Unzip the contents of the zip file directly to the backup folder. Please copy the file to the below location (Note this may vary depending on the SQL Server Instance name). 
   

1. This will unzip a . bak file that will be used later, take note of the name of the file.
   

 Step 2: Restore the Database

1. Open the version of SQL Server Management Studio that is available to you (Express or other).
   
2. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine and then expand that instance. 
   
3. Right-click Databases a nd select  Restore Database .
   

1. On the  General page, use the  Source section to specify the source and location of the backup sets to restore. Select the Device options.
   
2. Click the browse (...) button to open the Select backup devices dialog box.
   
3. Click  Add and locate the . bak file that was unzipped in the previous step.
   
4. In the Destination section, the Database box is automatically populated with the name of the database to be restored ( Avido ) .
   

1. Click OK to return to the General page.
   
2. Click Options in the Select a page pane.
   
3. Under the Restore options section, check Overwrite the existing database (WITH REPLACE).
   

1. Click OK.
   
2. The database should now restore, this may take a couple of minutes.
   

Avido User setup

Avido Reader user

There should be a default user created in the database for all connections to all databases relating to the Avido application. Creating a single user will allow requires less maintenance and set up of each user individually.

Step 1: Create User

1. Expand the Server name and navigate to the “Security” folder
   
2. Right-click the “Login” folder and select “New Login”. Complete the pop dialog box as below:
   
   Note: Uncheck the box “Enforce password policy”
3. Select the “User Mapping” section from the left panel.  Select the  Avido database and in the  bottom panel  check the option “ db_owner ”. 
   
4. Also, permission must be granted to the database that is going to store the information to be visualised/reported.  Select the database as above and check the “ db_datareader ”  option.  This allows users to only read data from the database and not alter any tables , data, procedures etc.
   

Desktop Installation 

Admire 

Install the .NET Framework before if you haven’t done it yet:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/4/A/14A6C422-0D3C-4811-A31F-5EF91A83C368/NDP46-KB3045560-Web.exe 

Step 1: Locate the Avido Installation Files

1. Find the file named “AvidoAdmireSetup.exe” , provided as part of the  Avido BI software .
   

Step 2: Run the Installer for Avido Admire 

1. Double-click the file to initiate installation.
   

Step 3: Select Additional Tasks

1. A dialog box will display regarding performing additional tasks
   a) Tick the box to create a desktop shortcut 
   b) Click ‘Next’ 

Step 4: Confirm Installation

1. When presented with the “Read to Install” dialog, click “Install”.
   

Step 5: Complete Installation

1. When presented with the “Completing Setup” dialog, tick the “Launch…” checkbox and click “Finish”.
   

Step 6: Launch Avido Admire

1. Make sure that you are running the program as an administrator :
   

1. Avido Admire will now launch automatically after clicking ‘finish’, displaying the BI  Avido graphic on screen
   

1. Configure the connection . Select the option “Use SQL Server Authentication”. 
   Username:  AvidoReader
   Password: (password you set in the previous section)

1. Click on “Advanced” and set to “True”:
   

If you have set it on “False”, you will see this pop-up: 

1. The  Avido Admire shortcut will also now display on your desktop 
   

Sketch Installation 

 Step 1: Locate the Installation Files

Step 2: Run the Installer for Avido Sketch Setup (AvidoSketchSetup.exe) 

Step 3: Select Additional Tasks

1. A dialog box will display regarding performing additional tasks
   a) Tick the box to create a desktop shortcut 
   b) Click ‘Next’

Step 4: Confirm Installation

1. Avido Admire is now ready to install. 
   

1. Click ‘install’ to continue.
   

1. A dialog box will display outlining file uploads
   

1. Installation has been successful
   a) Click ‘finish’ to finalize installation and run the program.

1.  Avido Sketch will now launch automatically after clicking ‘finish’, displaying the BI Avido graphic on screen
   

Step 4: Confirm Installation

1. Immediately after opening  Avido Sketch, a dialog box will display asking you to fill out connection properties .
   

Server name: (Name of server as displayed in SQL Server Management Studio)
Database name: Avido

Select the server name and Use SQL Server Authentication.
Username: AvidoReader
Password: (password set up in previous section)

Web Site Installation 

Installation 

Step 1: Install and configure (IIS) Internet Information Services

1. Link to guide
   

Step 2: Create the AvidoWeb Directory

1. Navigate to the  wwwroot directory and create a new directory called  AvidoWeb . This directory is usually located in C:\inetpub.
   

Step 3: Add the Website (within IIS)

1. Launch  IIS and expand the IIS Server from the Connection window on the left of the screen. Locate and right click  Sites . Then click  Add Website (as per below)
   

 Step 4: Configure the Website 

1. On the screen that appears:
   

1. Set the Site name to  AvidoWeb
   
2. Point the Physical path to the directory created in step 3 ( usually  C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AvidoWeb ).
   
3. Change the port number to 8080 (this is a default and can be changed if required) .
   

1. To access files from the  web you will need to change some Internet Services configuration settings.
   

1. Click "Start button"   in the search box, enter "Turn windows features on or off"
   
2. I n the features  panel , Click: "Internet Information Services"
   
3. Click: "World Wide Web Services"
   
4. Click: "Application Development Features"
   
5. Check (enable) the features. I checked all but CGI.
   

Step 5: Copy the web files into the Directory 

1. Copy and extract the  * folder below to your local machine. Once extract copy the contents of the folder to the website files into the directory created in step  2 (usually C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AvidoWeb).
   *you will need to contact Glantus Helpdesk for this file.

1. Note: If you are not an administrator on your local machine you will need to contact the  administrator to copy the files to this location.
   

Step 6: Update the web.config file 

1. Navigate to the "AvidoWeb" folder and open the "Web.config" file. We will use the “AvidoReader” to connect to the Avido database and the AvidoData database.
   

1. Update the Avido connection string to point to the "Avido" database. This database is used by the Avido application to store all user settings and dashboard configuration.
   
2. T he  AvidoData connection string is used for creating data sources when designing dashboards. This connection should connect to the database that stores all the data you wish to visualise on the dashboards. Only connection strings defined here can be used when creating dashboards. 
   

Step 7: Test the Website

1. Open a web browser on the machine that is hosting the web site and go to the following address: http://localhost:8080/AvidoWeb
   
2. If successful then test on a Client PC but remember to replace localhost with the name of the machine that hosts the website (or the IP address).