Birt The Eclipse Reporting Framework
Birt The Eclipse Reporting Framework
Birt The Eclipse Reporting Framework
Krishna Venkatraman
Product Management, Actuate Corporation
© 2006 Actuate Corporation ; made available under the EPL v1.0 | Feb 17, 2006
Agenda
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
BIRT Overview & Architecture
© 2006 Actuate Corporation ; made available under the EPL v1.0 | Feb 17, 2006
Report Development Strategy
Telecom S
ng
i c e tatement O
ki
In vo nline and
ac
er Printed
r d rts
udget Repo
Tr
c t O L ist B i l l e s ia l B
u i o n it y c ti v Fin a n c
Product
d sact Util
ct
P ro je
t Tran el O b si
s
fe
c o u n y e Le v
c c c y
De
A n erv i l
Bank r eq u
e
r om S na
s F ti on f n t A
ag e Shipping ia Manag e m e
Out Manifest Dev ets Under ffi
c
Sales R
r k S a le s C A s s a
wo Tr
Net om m
L i s t te
issi o sk
n Re de r Ta Si
port kO r b
eporting
e
s
i l y Wor W
Da
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Example: Financial Web Site
Site Navigation
Print Report
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Reporting in BIRT
Typical Characteristics:
• Operational reports • Simple ad hoc exploration of data • Complex “Slice and Dice” of data
• Developer creates reports • Business user creates reports • Business user creates reports
• Very easy end user access • Fairly easy to use • More complex to use
• Highly formatted • Typically limited formatting • Minimal formatting
• Multiple output formats • Interactive • Very interactive
• No end user training needed • Minimal training • Requires training
• Data access can be complex • Semantic layer hides complexity • Semantic layer/data cubes
BIRT Initial
Focus
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
BIRT Users & Benefits
Minimizes Eclipse developer Focused on $, developer productivity
training End user satisfaction
Increase dev. productivity
Lower costs Managers
End
Users
Designs reports using Java Report Uses report facilities provided
Eclipse-based designer by Java developer
Embed pre-designed reports Dev Dev Uses RCP based report
in application designer
Creates report libraries & Saves calories vs. JSP/Java Creates & uses report libraries
templates Minutes vs. days for HTML, & templates
vs. weeks for PDF
Minutes to modify as user
requirements change
Iterative development gets
the right reports quicker
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
High Level BIRT Architecture
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
BIRT Features
© 2006 Actuate Corporation ; made available under the EPL v1.0 | Feb 17, 2006
Report Designer Features
Fully integrated with Eclipse Palette of report components – Text &
WYSIWYG Editor HTML, data, images, tables, grids, lists,
Integrated Chart Wizard labels
Styles Sorting, grouping, filtering, conditional
Wizards for guided highlighting, mapping
development Scripting in JavaScript
Report outline Hyperlinking
Preview within report designer Data sources: POJO’s, JDBC, CSV
for iterative development
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Report Designer Features – New in BIRT 2.0
Report Component Libraries Direct XML source editor for report design
Report Templates Multi-pass processing (top N/bottom N)
Import CSS, themes Data Sources: XML
Handle CLOB & BLOB Call stored procedures
Scripting in Java Runtime data source binding - switching
Cascading & dynamic report from dev to test to production
parameters
Bookmarks
Table of Contents
Report paging
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Report Engine Features
Interactive Viewer
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Chart Features
Out-of-the-box integration with BIRT report designer
Extensive types of charts: Bar, line, area, pie, scatter, stock, meters,
including 3D
Output formats supported: Java: SWING, SWT; Images: PNG GIF, GIF,
JPG, BMP; Vector Graphics: SVG
Formatting options for chart elements such as axes, series, and legends
Scripting control using Java or JavaScript allows customization of chart
output
Java library to allow Java developers to embed charting functionality into
their applications
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
BIRT Integration & Customization
© 2006 Actuate Corporation ; made available under the EPL v1.0 | Feb 17, 2006
API Overview
Chart UI Chart
API Engine
Report
API Doc
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Extension Point Overview
Extensibility is a key principle for the BIRT project
Data source extensibility
Application specific design-time query builders
Custom design-time & run-time data access
Custom business logic extensibility
Incorporate complex business logic scripting
Access existing and new Java code
Visualization extensibility
Build new visual data presentation ‘widgets’
Extend charting with new chart types; new output formats
Rendering reports for output
Target report output for specific devices & formats
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Deployment Options
Paginated HTML, PDF, TOC, Bookmarks, CSV
RptDesign
XML RptDocument
Design File Report
Document
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
A Real World Example – Ivis Technologies
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
A Real World Example – Ivis Technologies
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
Ways to Get Engaged in BIRT
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0
The BIRT Community
Project Committers
Actuate (http://www.actuate.com)
Innovent Solutions (http://www.innoventsolutions.com)
IBM (http://www.ibm.com)
BIRT: The Eclipse Reporting Framework | © 2006 Actuate Corporation; made available under the EPL v1.0