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| <p class="head">BIRT FAQ</p> |
| <p class="subhead">Deploying BIRT</p> |
| |
| <h1>Application Server</h1> |
| |
| <h2>Q: How do I install the BIRT Report Engine in my app server?</h2> |
| <p> |
| The Eclipse (BIRT) Reporting Engine (ERE) is a series of Java class files that can be deployed in any |
| Java/J2EE environment – this could be within a server based application, or |
| a client-side application. The ERE is the runtime component of BIRT – when |
| you call it in the context of your application, you pass it a report design. |
| The ERE then will access the data source, retrieve the data, do the required |
| aggregations/sorting, etc., and then format the report for presentation as |
| HTML or PDF, for example. |
| <br><br> |
| The BIRT report viewer is included with the report designer and is used to preview |
| reports. It doubles as an example of how to integrate the Report Engine into a |
| J2EE application. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h2> |
| Q: |
| How do I install BIRT in Tomcat?</h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| See complete instructions on the <a href="../deploy">BIRT Integration</a> pages.</p> |
| |
| <h2> |
| Q: |
| How do I install BIRT in JBoss?</h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| Take the viewer deployment from the BIRT designer (as described on for |
| <a href="../deploy/viewer-deploy.html">Tomcat</a>), and copy it to your JBoss |
| deploy directory as viewer.war.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| However, BIRT uses an older version of the Rhino scripting engine, and this |
| causes a conflict with the version installed with JBoss. To work around this |
| temporarily, put BIRT's js.jar in JBoss's server/default/lib.</p> |
| |
| <h1>BIRT Viewer</h1> |
| |
| <h2>Q: Why does a red asterisk appear next to some of my parameters in the |
| Viewer's parameter UI?</h2> |
| |
| <p>The asterisk indicates that a parameter is required. A parameter |
| is required if:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>The parameter is a string, the default value is blank, and the |
| parameter does not allow blank values.</li> |
| <li>The parameter is other than a string, the default value is blank, |
| and the parameter does not allow null values.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Note that a blank value is considered to be a blank string ("") |
| for string values, but a (database null) value (unknown) for non-string types |
| such as numbers and dates.</p> |
| |
| <h1>Other Integrations</h1> |
| |
| <h2>Q: Can I use BIRT within a Rich Client Application (RCP)?</h2> |
| <p>Community member Stavros Kounis made an Eclipse plug-in that |
| starts BIRT's Viewer webapp using the Eclipse internal application server and |
| views reports inside RCP using an editor that contains a browser control. He |
| posted it on his blog at <a href="http://tools.osmosis.gr/blog"> |
| http://tools.osmosis.gr/blog</a>.</p> |
| |
| <!-- |
| <p class="q">How do I manage reports within my application? Storage? Security?</p> |
| <p></p> |
| --> |
| |
| <h2>Q: Can I store report designs in a location other than the file system?</h2> |
| <p> |
| Not at present, but we are looking into possible changes to support this. |
| Also, Eclipse itself may be looking into this. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h2>Q: Do BIRT reports need to be compiled before they are run?</h2> |
| <p> |
| No, there is no compile step. The BIRT Report Engine directly executes the report |
| design XML file. (This is one reason that BIRT uses interpreted JavaScript instead |
| of compiled Java as its scripting language.)</p> |
| |
| <h2>Q: Can BIRT reports be saved on disk?</h2> |
| <p> |
| Reports in release 1 are run on demand, then discarded. A BIRT report run |
| creates the report, converts it to HTML or PDF, then discards the report. A later |
| release will add the ability to save the <i>report document</i> on disk. |
| </p> |
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