| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> |
| <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="project-plan-render.xsl"?> |
| <!--<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.xsl"?>--> |
| <p:plan plan-format="1.0" xmlns:p="http://www.eclipse.org/project/plan" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT)"> |
| <p:release projectid="birt" version="4.2"/> |
| <p:introduction><html:div><html:p>This document lays out the feature and API set for the next major feature release of the Eclipse BIRT project after 3.7, designated release 4.2 and code-named Juno. |
| This release is occurring simultaneously with the 3.8 release. The 4.2 release release contains significant new feature work, |
| while the 3.8 release focuses on stability and bug fixes.</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p>Plans do not materialize out of nowhere, nor are they entirely static. To ensure the planning process is transparent and open to the entire |
| Eclipse community, plans are posted in an embryonic form and then revised from time to time throughout the release cycle.</html:p> |
| <html:p>The first part of the plan deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, target operating environments, and |
| release-to-release compatibility. These are all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to change.</html:p> |
| <html:p>The remainder of the plan consists of plan items for the projects under the Eclipse BIRT project. Each plan item covers a feature or API that |
| is to be added, or some aspect that is to be improved. Each plan item has its own entry in the Eclipse bugzilla database, with a title and a concise |
| summary(usually a single paragraph) that explains the work item at a suitably high enough level so that everyone can readily understand what the work item |
| is without having to understand the nitty-gritty detail.</html:p><html:p>Please send comments about this draft plan to the <html:a href="mailto:birt-dev@eclipse.org">BIRT Developer</html:a> mailing list.</html:p></html:div></p:introduction> |
| <p:release_deliverables> |
| <html:p>This release of BIRT will focus on providing the same downloads as BIRT 3.7.</html:p> |
| </p:release_deliverables> |
| <p:release_milestones> |
| <p:preamble> |
| <html:div><html:p>The BIRT 4.2 Release will follow the Juno simultaneous release milestone schedule. |
| </html:p> |
| <html:p>For information about new features assigned to each milestone please refer to the <html:a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs">bugzilla |
| database</html:a>. The bugzilla database will be updated on an ongoing basis as the plan progresses.</html:p> |
| </html:div> |
| </p:preamble> |
| <p:milestone date="8/16/2011" milestone="M1"><html:div> |
| 4.2 M1</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="9/27/2011" milestone="M2"><html:div> |
| 4.2 M2</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="11/08/2011" milestone="M3"><html:div>4.2 M3</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="12/13/2011" milestone="M4"><html:div>4.2 M4</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="01/31/2012" milestone="M5"><html:div>4.2 M5</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="03/20/2012" milestone="M6"><html:div>4.2 M6</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="05/08/2012" milestone="M7"><html:div>4.2 M7</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="05/22/2012" milestone="RC1"><html:div>4.2 RC1</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="05/29/2012" milestone="RC2"><html:div>4.2 RC2</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="06/05/2012" milestone="RC3"><html:div>4.2 RC3</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="06/12/2012" milestone="RC4"><html:div>4.2 RC4</html:div></p:milestone> |
| <p:milestone date="06/27/2012" milestone="GA"><html:div>Juno GA</html:div></p:milestone> |
| |
| </p:release_milestones> |
| |
| <p:target_environments> |
| <html:p>In order to remain current, each release of an Eclipse project targets reasonably current versions of underlying operating environments and |
| other Eclipse projects on which it depends.</html:p> |
| <html:p>Most of Eclipse, and all of BIRT, is "pure" Java code and has no direct dependence on the underlying operating system. For BIRT, the chief |
| dependence is on the Eclipse Platform, Graphical Editor Framework (GEF), Modeling Framework (EMF), and on the Java 2 Platform that runs it. </html:p> |
| <html:p>The Eclipse BIRT 4.2 release depends on the following compatibility stacks:</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>BIRT 4.2 Reference Stack for Java SE 7</html:b></html:p> |
| <html:ul> |
| <html:li>Java SE 7</html:li> |
| <html:li>Eclipse Platform Runtime Binary 3.7, 3.8, 4.2</html:li> |
| <html:li>Graphical Editor Framework (GEF) Runtime 3.7</html:li> |
| <html:li>Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) 2.7</html:li> |
| <html:li>Data Tools Platform Project (DTP) 1.10 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Web Tools Project (WTP) 3.3</html:li> |
| </html:ul> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>BIRT 4.2 Reference Stack for Java SE 6</html:b> </html:p> |
| |
| <html:ul> |
| <html:li>Java SE 6 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Eclipse Platform Runtime Binary 3.7, 3.8, 4.2 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Graphical Editor Framework (GEF) Runtime 3.7 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) 2.7 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Data Tools Platform Project (DTP) 1.10 </html:li> |
| <html:li>Web Tools Project (WTP) 3.3</html:li> |
| </html:ul> |
| |
| |
| <html:p>The Eclipse Platform and BIRT run in a variety of operating environments. Testing is focused on a handful of popular combinations |
| of operating system and Java 2 Platform; these are our reference platforms. Eclipse BIRT undoubtedly runs fine in many |
| operating environments beyond the reference platforms we test. However, since we do not systematically test them we cannot vouch for them. Problems encountered |
| when running Eclipse BIRT on non-reference platforms that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with |
| running Eclipse BIRT on a reference platform.</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p>For BIRT 4.2, the project team plans to tests and validate the following reference platforms:</html:p> |
| <html:table style="width: 825px; height: 188px;" border="1"> |
| <html:tbody> |
| <html:tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> |
| <html:th colspan="4"> |
| <html:div align="center"> <html:b><html:font size="+1">Eclipse BIRT Report Framework 4.2 and Eclipse BIRT RCP Report Designer 4.2 Reference Platforms</html:font></html:b></html:div> |
| </html:th> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205"><html:b>Operating system</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="76"><html:b>Processor architecture</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="59"><html:b>Window system</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="453"><html:b>Java SE</html:b></html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205">Microsoft Windows 7, 7 SP1</html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">Win32</html:td> |
| <html:td>Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205">Microsoft Windows XP</html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">Win32</html:td> |
| <html:td>Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205"> |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0, 6.1<html:br /> |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 5.0 </html:td> |
| |
| |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">GTK</html:td> |
| <html:td width="453">Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| </html:tbody> |
| </html:table> |
| |
| <html:br /> |
| <html:table border="1"> |
| <html:tbody> |
| <html:tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> |
| <html:th colspan="4"> |
| <html:div align="center"> <html:b><html:font size="+1">Eclipse BIRT Runtime 4.2 and Eclipse BIRT Charts 4.2 Reference Platforms</html:font></html:b></html:div> |
| </html:th> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205"><html:b>Operating system</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="76"><html:b>Processor architecture</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="59"><html:b>Window system</html:b></html:td> |
| <html:td width="453"><html:b>Java SE</html:b></html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205">Microsoft Windows 7</html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">Win32*</html:td> |
| <html:td width="453">Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205">Microsoft Windows XP</html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">Win32*</html:td> |
| <html:td width="453">Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205"> |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0<html:br /> |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 5.0 <html:br /> Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 5.0 </html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">GTK*</html:td> |
| <html:td width="453">Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="205">SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9</html:td> |
| <html:td width="76">Intel x86</html:td> |
| <html:td width="59">YaST*</html:td> |
| <html:td width="453">Oracle Java SE 6, 7</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| </html:tbody> |
| </html:table> |
| <html:div>*Window system only required when displaying charts within SWT or SWING windows.</html:div><html:br /> |
| <html:br /> |
| <html:table border="1"> |
| <html:tbody> |
| <html:tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> |
| <html:th colspan="1"> |
| <html:div align="center"> <html:b><html:font size="+1">BIRT Application Server Reference Platform</html:font></html:b></html:div> |
| </html:th> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">Apache Tomcat 5.5.x, 6.0.16, 7.0.20</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">JBoss AS 5.0, 7.0.1 </html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">Oracle Weblogic Application Server 9.2, 10.3</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">IBM Websphere Application Server 6.1, 7.0, 8.0</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| </html:tbody> |
| </html:table> |
| |
| <html:br /> |
| |
| <html:table border="1"> |
| <html:tbody> |
| <html:tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> |
| <html:th colspan="1"> |
| <html:div align="center"> <html:b><html:font size="+1">BIRT JDBC Reference Platforms</html:font></html:b></html:div> |
| </html:th> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">MySQL Connector/J 3.x JDBC driver</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">Derby V10.5.1.1 JDBC driver</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| <html:tr> |
| <html:td width="405">Actuate DataDirect JDBC drivers</html:td> |
| </html:tr> |
| |
| </html:tbody> |
| </html:table> |
| |
| |
| <html:br /> |
| <html:span style="font-weight: bold;"><html:a name="CommunityOperatingEnvironments" id="CommunityOperatingEnvironments">Community |
| Tested Operating Environments</html:a></html:span> |
| <html:p>Due to the finite resources available to the BIRT project, we would like to encourage the BIRT community to contribute to testing BIRT in |
| operating environments other than those listed as target operating environments for the 4.2 release of BIRT and to share this |
| information with the rest of the community. If you have been able to test BIRT in a non-targeted operating environment please take a few |
| minutes to update this <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/BIRT_Community_Tested_Operating_Environments_for_4.2">wiki |
| page</html:a> and report this information there. If you have encountered bugs during your testing, please report these in |
| bugzilla.</html:p> |
| <p:internationalization> |
| <html:div> |
| <html:p>Eclipse is designed as the basis for internationalized products. The user interface elements provided by the various Eclipse projects, including |
| dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings for BIRT are provided as the default resource bundles. Translations are provided |
| with this release for French (fr_FR), German (de_DE), Spanish (es_ES), Japanese (ja_JP), Simplified Chinese (zh_CN), and Korean (ko_KR).</html:p> |
| </html:div> |
| </p:internationalization> |
| </p:target_environments> |
| <p:compatibility_with_previous_releases> |
| <html:div> |
| <html:p>BIRT 4.2 will be compatible with earlier versions of BIRT to the greatest extent possible. The nature and scope of some of the key plan items for |
| BIRT 4.2 are such that the only feasible solutions might break compatibility. In other regards, BIRT 4.2 will be compatible with 3.x, 2.x and 1.x. We also |
| aim to minimize the effort required to port an existing plug-in to the 4.2 APIs.</html:p> |
| <html:b>Compatibility of Release 4.2 with Prior Releases</html:b> |
| |
| <html:p>BIRT 4.2 will be compatible with prior releases of BIRT unless noted otherwise. The detailed compatibility statement is listed below. |
| In this statement, "BIRT" refers to all BIRT components: BIRT Report Framework, BIRT Runtime, and BIRT Chart SDK.</html:p> |
| <html:p><html:b>API Contract Compatibility:</html:b> BIRT 4.2 will be upwards contract-compatible with BIRT prior releases except in those areas noted in the |
| <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/BIRT_Migration_Guide">Eclipse BIRT Migration Guide</html:a>. Downward contract compatibility is not supported. In other words there is no guarantee that |
| compliance with BIRT 4.2 APIs will ensure compliance with prior BIRT release APIs. |
| Refer to general Eclipse document on <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Evolving_Java-based_APIs">Evolving |
| APIs</html:a> for a discussion on the kinds of API changes that maintain contract compatibility.</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>Binary (plug-in) Compatibility:</html:b> The BIRT 4.2 plug-in framework will be upwards binary-compatible with prior BIRT release plug-ins except in those |
| areas noted in the <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/BIRT_Migration_Guide">Eclipse BIRT Migration Guide</html:a>. This means that plug-ins (including extension plug-ins) for prior |
| BIRT releases will be upwards binary-compatible with BIRT 4.2 unless noted otherwise. Downward plug-in compatibility is not supported. In other words plug-ins for BIRT 4.2 will not be usable |
| in prior BIRT releases. </html:p> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>Source Compatibility:</html:b> BIRT 4.2 will be upwards source-compatible with prior BIRT releases except in those areas noted in the <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/BIRT_Migration_Guide">Eclipse BIRT Migration Guide</html:a>. This means that source files written to use prior BIRT release APIs will successfully compile and run against BIRT 4.2 APIs. Downward |
| source compatibility is not supported. If source files use new BIRT APIs, they will not be usable with an earlier version of BIRT.</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>Report Design Compatibility:</html:b> BIRT 4.2 will be upwards report design compatible with prior BIRT releases except in those areas noted in the |
| <html:a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/BIRT_Migration_Guide">Eclipse BIRT Migration Guide</html:a>. This means that reports created with prior BIRT releases can be successfully opened by BIRT 4.2 |
| and upgraded to a 4.2 format.</html:p> |
| |
| <html:p><html:b>Non-compliant usage of API's: </html:b> All non-API methods and classes, and certainly everything in a package with "internal" in its name, are |
| considered implementation details which may vary between operating environment and are subject to change without notice. Client plug-ins that directly depend |
| on anything other than what is specified in the BIRT API are inherently unsupportable and receive no guarantees about compatibility within a |
| single release much less with an earlier releases.</html:p> |
| </html:div> |
| </p:compatibility_with_previous_releases> |
| |
| <p:themes_and_priorities> |
| <p:preamble> |
| <html:div> |
| <html:p>Continuing on the themes for previous releases of BIRT, the BIRT project's overriding release 4.2 theme remains extending the Eclipse platform to |
| provide infrastructure and tools that allow application developers to design, deploy, generate and view reports within their applications. In this |
| context,the BIRT project also adopts and supports key themes within the overall Eclipse planning process.</html:p> |
| </html:div> |
| </p:preamble> |
| <p:theme name="Support Eclipse 4.2 as Primary Workbench"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>Starting with Juno all Eclipse projects are required to use Eclipse 4.2 as their primary workbench, but also maintain and support an Eclipse 3.8 based |
| deliverable. This theme calls for supporting Eclipse 4.2 as the primary workbench, which means that BIRT 4.2 needs to be built and tested using |
| Eclipse 4.2. The theme also calls for supporting Eclipse 3.8, ideally by ensuring compatibility or alternatively by providing separate BIRT binaries. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=366966%2C366966"></p:proposed> |
| |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| <p:theme name="Compare KPIs Across Relative Time Periods"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>Being able to monitor and compare KPIs across relative time periods, for example number of units produced in the last 45 days or sales YTD versus Previous YTD, are |
| common data visualization requirements. This theme aims to enhance BIRT with the ability to easily address such requirements. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=366907%2C366907"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| <p:theme name="Maven Integration"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>The feedback from the BIRT community indicates that there is solid demand to "mavenize" the BIRT project. This theme calls for providing support for the |
| Maven build infrastructure since its popularity is growing fast among Java application developers. |
| |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=258911%2C258911"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| <p:theme name="Calculated Measures Efficiency Enhancements"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>This theme aims to decrease the generation times for BIRT design containing crosstabs by providing a new, alternative approach to defining computed measures. |
| With this new approach, just the computed measures included in the crosstab will be calculated at generation time, as opposed to calculating all measures part of the underlying |
| BIRT cube powering the crosstab. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=366910%2C366910"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| <p:theme name="Option to Apply Filters After Computing the Totals"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>This theme aims to give BIRT authors the option to specify that the filters in a BIRT design should be applied after the aggregations are computed |
| as opposed to before - which is the default option. The new option will make it possible to create designs that display unfiltered totals along with filtered detailed data. |
| For example a report that is filtered to display just the data for two countries: USA and Canada, but the totals for all countries, thus allowing for percentage of total analysis. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=366911%2C366911"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| |
| <p:theme name="Donut Charts"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>A donut chart is functionally identical to a pie chart, but has a blank center. The current theme aims to extend the rich charting capabilities of BIRT with support for donut charts. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=178313%2C178313"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| |
| <p:theme name="Excel as Out-of-the-box Data Source"> |
| <p:description> |
| <html:div>Spreadsheets containing business critical data are a fact of life in virtually any organization. The current theme calls for adding Excel as an out-of-the-box data source for BIRT. |
| </html:div> |
| </p:description> |
| <p:proposed bugzilla="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=366908%2C366908"></p:proposed> |
| </p:theme> |
| |
| |
| |
| </p:themes_and_priorities> |
| <p:appendix name=": Help Wanted"> |
| <html:div>We welcome any contributions from the community towards the BIRT project. This help can be in the form of adding new functionality to BIRT, |
| submitting bug fixes/enhancements to the current BIRT code and testing BIRT on new platforms. |
| <html:br />Please refer to <html:a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?keywords=helpwanted;query_format=advanced;keywords_type=allwords;bug_status=NEW;classification=BIRT;product=BIRT">this bugzilla query</html:a> for |
| the list of enhancements that we need help on. |
| For more information on how you can contribute to the BIRT project, refer to <html:a href="http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/project/contribute.php">How to Contribute to the BIRT Project</html:a> |
| </html:div> |
| </p:appendix> |
| |
| </p:plan> |
