phoenix/deploy/usingPHP.php

<?php  					

Header("Location: /birt/documentation/integrating/using-php.php");																									require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/app.class.php");	require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/nav.class.php"); 	require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/menu.class.php"); 	$App 	= new App();	$Nav	= new Nav();	$Menu 	= new Menu();		include($App->getProjectCommon());    # All on the same line to unclutter the user's desktop'

	#
	# Begin: page-specific settings.  Change these.
	$pageTitle 		= "Integrating BIRT with PHP";
	$pageKeywords	= "";
	$pageAuthor		= "";

	# Add page-specific Nav bars here
	# Format is Link text, link URL (can be http://www.someothersite.com/), target (_self, _blank), level (1, 2 or 3)
	# $Nav->addNavSeparator("My Page Links", 	"downloads.php");
	# $Nav->addCustomNav("My Link", "mypage.php", "_self", 3);
	# $Nav->addCustomNav("Google", "http://www.google.com/", "_blank", 3);

	# End: page-specific settings
	#

	require "../birt.inc";
	require "deploy.inc";
	$currentPage			= "Using PHP";
	$linkToTop				= linkToTop();
	$deployLinksSideItem  	= getDeployLinksSideItem($currentPage);


	# Paste your HTML content between the EOHTML markers!
	$html = <<<EOHTML

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<div id="maincontent">
	<div id="midcolumn">

		<h1><a name="top"></a>$pageTitle</h1>

		<blockquote>
			<ul>
				<li><a href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li>
				<li><a href="#setup">Setup</a></li>
				<li><a href="#running">Running a Report</a></li>
				<li><a href="#passing_parameters">Passing Parameters</a></li>
				<li><a href="#parameter_form">Parameter Form</a></li>
				<li><a href="#dynamic">Generating Reports Dynamically</a></li>
			</ul>
		</blockquote>

		<h2><a name="motivation"></a>Motivation</h2>
		<p>
			BIRT is designed to be integrated into a Java EE web application. But, what if your
			chosen development environment is something else, such as PHP? Can you still use
			BIRT? Yes, you can.&nbsp; This page discusses how to use BIRT from PHP.
		</p>


		<h2><a name="setup"></a>Setup</h2>
		<p>
			PHP has the ability to call Java classes using a PHP/Java Bridge. So, one integration option is to have
			the PHP engine call the BIRT Engine directly. The scenario is discussed in an article <a href="http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=IntegratingBIRTwithPHP">here.</a>  The examples associated with the
			article are posted <a href=" http://www.birt-exchange.com/devshare/deploying-birt-reports/743-calling-birt-from-php/">here.</a> 
		</p><p>	
			Another option is to host BIRT on its own app server, such
			as Tomcat, and use the <a href="/birt/phoenix/deploy/viewerUsageMain.php">BIRT Viewer URLs</a> to work
			with BIRT.  The rest of this page discusses this option.
		</p>
		<p>
			The first step is to <a href="/birt/phoenix/deploy/viewerSetup.php">install Tomcat and the BIRT
			viewer</a>. Let's assume that you've set up Tomcat on the same machine as the
			web server running Apache, and that Tomcat listens on port 8080. Once the setup
			works, we're ready to focus on the PHP side.
		</p>


		<h2><a name="running">Running a Report</a></h2>
		<p>
			Next step is to run a report from within a PHP script. Let's assume we have a report named test.rptdesign stored in C:/temp. We use a browser redirect to run the report. The redirect appears in an HTML header. Headers must be written before adding any content to the page:
		</p>
		<blockquote>
			\$fname = "c:/temp/test.rptdesign";<br>
			// Redirect browser<br>
			\$dest = "http://localhost:8080/birt-viewer/run?__report=";<br>
			\$dest .= urlencode( realpath( \$fname ) );<br>
			header("Location: \$dest" );<br>
		</blockquote
		<p>
			The name of the report is given as an absolute path, but a relative path is also
			allowed once you set up the <code>BIRT_VIEWER_WORKING_FOLDER
</code>
			configuration variable in the BIRT viewer web app's <code>web.xml </code>file. Be sure to
			encode the file name for use in a URL.
		</p>


		<h2><a name="passing_parameters">Passing Parameters</a></h2>
		<p>
			Suppose your report takes parameters. The test report above has one parameter
			called <code>sample</code>. We simply  add them to the report URL in the form
			described in <a href="/birt/phoenix/deploy/viewerUsageMain.php">Using the Report Viewer</a>.
		</p>
		<blockquote>
			\$fname = "c:/temp/test.rptdesign";<br>
			\$paramValue = "Hi there!";<br>
			// Redirect browser<br>
			\$dest = "http://localhost:8080/birt-viewer/run?__report=";<br>
			\$dest .= urlencode( realpath( \$fname ) );<br>
			\$dest .= ";sample=" . urlencode( \$paramValue );<br>
			header("Location: \$dest" );<br>
		</blockquote
		<p>
			The parameter value must also be encoded when placed into the URL.
		</p>


		<h2><a name="parameter_form">Parameter Form</a></h2>
		<p>
			Ideally, we could use PHP to create a UI form that prompts for the report
			parameters. The BIRT viewer creates this form in Java using information in the
			report design. Unfortunately, at present, there is no way to retrieve the raw
			parameter descriptions from the BIRT viewer using a URL. Instead, there are two alternatives
			we can use.
		</p>
		<p>
			First, if we know the parameters ahead of time, we can design a custom form
			in PHP that prompts the user for them. This works if we have a small number of
			reports, or if we need to create a specialized parameter page for each report
			anyway.
		</p>
		<p>
			Second, we can let the BIRT viewer display the parameter page using the
			<code>frameset</code> URL.
		</p>


	</div>
	$deployLinksSideItem
</div>


EOHTML;


	# Generate the web page
	$App->generatePage($theme, $Menu, $Nav, $pageAuthor, $pageKeywords, $pageTitle, $html);
?>