AnOverviewofEclipse'sBIRT

byKostaStojanovski Dec.20,13JavaZone

Discoverhowpowerfulstaticcodeanalysisandergonomicdesignmakedevelopmentnot
onlyproductivebutalsoanenjoyableexperience,broughttoyouinpartnershipwith
JetBrains.
BIRTstandsforBusinessInteligenceandReportingToolsandisafreeopensourceproductofthe
ActuateCorporation.ItisintegratedintheEclipseIDEoritcanbedownloadedasitsownproduct.
YoucanalsodownloadtheAPIandthesourcesaswell.Alternativefreereporting[ref]products
includeJasperReportsorPentahoCommunityEdition.
YoucangetmoreinformationaboutBIRTfromthewikipage[ref],orthewebprojectpage[ref].There
isalsoarefcardaboutBIRThereonDZoneaswell,whichyoucandownloadforfreeaftersuccsessfull
registration[ref].
TheworkwithBIRTcanbeseparatedintwosections:
CreatingReports
IntegratingandExtendingBIRT

CreatingReports
WithcreatingreportsitismeanttocreatethetemplatingofthereportasXMLfilebetterknownas
rptdesign,rptlibraryorrpttemplatewhererptstandsforreport.InthisXMLfileisadescriptionofthe
sourceswhicharepassedtothereport,yourrulesforthelayoutandthedescriptionofthelayoutitself
informofHTML.Asincomingdatasourcesyoucanusedatabases,XMLfiles,WebServices,Java
ObjectsorevenyourownODA(OpenDataAccess)implementation.TheoutputcanbePDF,the
MicrosoftOfficedocumentformats(rtf,doc,docx,excel),representationinthewebasHTML,orthe
openformatslikeodt,etc.orevenyouownimplementedemmiter(outputmodule).
Thereportscanbecreatedintwowaysbyusing:
Thereportdesigner
TheBIRTAPI

TheReportDesigner
TheReportDesignercomeswithintheEclipseIDEorcanbeinstalledfromtheEclipseinstallmenu
[ref].ThereisalsoextraRCP(Eclipselike)productcustomizedforthereportdesigner.Thefirststeps
ofusingtheBIRTreportdesignercanbelearnedbywatchingthevideotutorials[ref].Afterthatyou
willbefamiliarwiththemainfunctionsandreportitemsofthereportdesignerandyoucanstart

willbefamiliarwiththemainfunctionsandreportitemsofthereportdesignerandyoucanstart
creatingyourfirstreports.Ifyouneedtoimplementsomelogicinthereportsthemselvesyoucando
thatbyusingRhino[ref],aJavaScriptimplementationforJavafromMozillaCoorporation.Inall
tutorialsfromActuate,theRihnoscriptingispropagatedasJavaScript.

BIRTAPI
IfyouwanttousetheAPIofthereportingtoolthanyoucanseeoneexampleaboutusingthatinyour
javaapplicationfromthiswikipage[ref][ref].Thereyoucanseethehowthereportarecreatedusing
simpleJavaexample.ItisthemainsourceinformationabouttheapproachhowtheBIRTAPIcanbe
usedforcreatingreports,whichIhavealsofollowed.
RecommendedBooks
Birt:AFieldGuide(Eclipse)DianaPeh,NolaHagueundJaneTatchell(4.Februar2011)
ISBN10:0321733584ISBN13:9780321733580
Birt2.6DataAnalysisandReportingJohnWard(15.Juli2010)ISBN10:1849511667
ISBN13:9781849511667

IntegratingandExtendingBIRT
YoucanextendBIRTaswell,creatingnew:
ODA[ref][ref]sourcesinput
Emmiters[ref]output
ChartsnewchartsusingthechartAPI
ReportItemviathereportAPI
Inthepasttherewerecontestaboutthisthema.NewODAsourceswereimplemented,includingsome
whichwerebasedonthesocialnetworkAPI'slikeFacebookorLinkedin.Alsocontestsaboutreport
itemswereorganized.Thebarcodereportitemwonthecontestlasttime.
Ifyouwanttocreateowncustomreportingitemsthenyourfirstarticlesshouldbethese[ref][ref].I
hadtheopportunytocreatenewreportitemsandthetutorialsgavemethefirstinformationaboutit.
RecommendedBooks
IntegratingandExtendingBIRTJasonWeathersby,TomBondur,IanaChatalbasheva(10.
August2011)ISBN10:0321772822ISBN13:9780321772824

Rsum
ThisarticlewasanoverviewofBIRTwithlinkstoseveraltutorialpages.Moreinformationabout
BIRTyoucangetfromthecommunitywhichcanbefoundintheEclipseforum[ref].Anotheruseful
sourceofinformationaboutthisreportingtoolistheActuatedeveloperforum(formerBIRT
exchange)whereyoucanmetmanyexpertswhoarefrendlyandreadytohelpyouwithanyproblem
aboutBIRT[ref].

LearnmoreaboutKotlin,anewprogramminglanguagedesignedtosolveproblemsthat

LearnmoreaboutKotlin,anewprogramminglanguagedesignedtosolveproblemsthat
softwaredevelopersfaceeverydaybroughttoyouinpartnershipwithJetBrains.
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