tutorial/basic/script08.html - gerrit/www.eclipse.org/birt - Git at Google

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 transitional//EN">
 <html>

 <head>
 <title>BIRT Tutorial</title>
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="../style/compose.css" type="text/css">
 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
 </head>

 <body>

 <p class="head">BIRT Tutorial</p>
 <p class="subhead">Testing a Report</p>

 <h1>Test your Report</h1>
 <p>
 We're now ready to test the report layout. We verified the
 data set earlier, so now we want to verify that the report is presenting the
 data as we expected.
 <p>
 We preview the report by clicking on the Preview tab within the report editor.
 If our report had parameters, the GUI would ask us for them. But, since this
 report does not have parameters, it simply runs.
 <p>
 The window that appears is a simple web browser, and displays the report in
 HTML. The report appears as a single page. This works best for  small
 amount data sets. Since the sample database has quite a bit of data data, we used
 a WHERE clause to limit the amount of data. We could also use
 a report parameter and a data set filter to limit the amount of data displayed
 at any one time.</p>
 <p class="caution"><span class="caution-head">Release 1.0.1 Note:</span>
 BIRT Release 1.0.1 displays the report as a single
 HTML page. Future releases will display the report as a series of pages.</p>
 <p>
 Seeing the report in the preview suggests a number of ways we can improve the
 report's appearance:

 <ul>
 <li>Add a title to the top of the report.
 <li>Add some color to enhance the column headings.
 <li>Shrink the size of the city and state columns.
 <li>Add some color to make the state and city group headers stand out.
 <li>Format the phone numbers.
 <li>Sort customers by name.</ul>

 Before we fix these issues, let's look at other ways to preview the report.

 <h1>Preview as HTML</h1>
 <p>
 The Preview tab is handy for a quick review of your report. BIRT runs the report each
 time you switch to Preview. However, you can have either the Layout or the
 Preview tab open, but not both.
 <p>
 Instead, we can preview the report in a separate window. Find the Preview button in
 the toolbar. Use the little arrow next to it to open the pull-down. You can then
 Preview as HTML in a separate window. This allows you to switch back and forth
 between your layout editor and your preview without rerunning the report.
 <h1>
 Preview as PDF</h1>
 <p>
 You can also choose Preview as PDF. This converts the layout to a multi-page
 PDF format.
 </p>
 <p class="caution"><span class="caution-head">Release 1.0.1 Note:</span>
 BIRT Release 1.0.1 uses the Apache XML-FO Processor
 (FOP) package. Limitations in the current version of FOP cause problems with
 the way the report appears in PDF. The BIRT team is aware of the problems and
 is working to address them in a later release.</p>

 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 transitional//EN">
	<html>

	<head>
	<title>BIRT Tutorial</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style/compose.css" type="text/css">
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
	</head>

	<body>

	<p class="head">BIRT Tutorial</p>
	<p class="subhead">Testing a Report</p>

	<h1>Test your Report</h1>
	<p>
	We're now ready to test the report layout. We verified the
	data set earlier, so now we want to verify that the report is presenting the
	data as we expected.
	<p>
	We preview the report by clicking on the Preview tab within the report editor.
	If our report had parameters, the GUI would ask us for them. But, since this
	report does not have parameters, it simply runs.
	<p>
	The window that appears is a simple web browser, and displays the report in
	HTML. The report appears as a single page. This works best for small
	amount data sets. Since the sample database has quite a bit of data data, we used
	a WHERE clause to limit the amount of data. We could also use
	a report parameter and a data set filter to limit the amount of data displayed
	at any one time.</p>
	<p class="caution"><span class="caution-head">Release 1.0.1 Note:</span>
	BIRT Release 1.0.1 displays the report as a single
	HTML page. Future releases will display the report as a series of pages.</p>
	<p>
	Seeing the report in the preview suggests a number of ways we can improve the
	report's appearance:

	<ul>
	<li>Add a title to the top of the report.
	<li>Add some color to enhance the column headings.
	<li>Shrink the size of the city and state columns.
	<li>Add some color to make the state and city group headers stand out.
	<li>Format the phone numbers.
	<li>Sort customers by name.</ul>

	Before we fix these issues, let's look at other ways to preview the report.

	<h1>Preview as HTML</h1>
	<p>
	The Preview tab is handy for a quick review of your report. BIRT runs the report each
	time you switch to Preview. However, you can have either the Layout or the
	Preview tab open, but not both.
	<p>
	Instead, we can preview the report in a separate window. Find the Preview button in
	the toolbar. Use the little arrow next to it to open the pull-down. You can then
	Preview as HTML in a separate window. This allows you to switch back and forth
	between your layout editor and your preview without rerunning the report.
	<h1>
	Preview as PDF</h1>
	<p>
	You can also choose Preview as PDF. This converts the layout to a multi-page
	PDF format.
	</p>
	<p class="caution"><span class="caution-head">Release 1.0.1 Note:</span>
	BIRT Release 1.0.1 uses the Apache XML-FO Processor
	(FOP) package. Limitations in the current version of FOP cause problems with
	the way the report appears in PDF. The BIRT team is aware of the problems and
	is working to address them in a later release.</p>

	</body>
	</html>