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| <p class="head">BIRT 1.0 Project Plan</p> |
| <p class="subhead">Last revised 16 February, 2005</p> |
| |
| <h1>Introduction</h1> |
| |
| <p>This document lays out the plans for the first feature release |
| of the Eclipse BIRT project. |
| |
| <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. |
| |
| <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. |
| |
| <p>Please send comments about this draft plan to the |
| <a href="mailto:birt-dev@eclipse.org">BIRT developer mailing list</a>.</p> |
| |
| <h1>Release Deliverables</h1> |
| |
| <p>The release deliverables are: |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Source code release for Eclipse BIRT, available as versions tagged |
| "R1" in the eclipse.org |
| <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/?cvsroot=BIRT_Project"> |
| CVS repository for BIRT </a>. </li> |
| <li>Eclipse BIRT Report Designer 1.0</li> |
| <li>Eclipse BIRT Report Engine 1.0</li> |
| <li>Eclipse BIRT Chart Component 1.0 </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h1>Release Milestones</h1> |
| |
| <p>The Eclipse BIRT 1.0 release is targeted for general availability on |
| May 15th, 2005. All release deliverables will be available for download |
| as soon as the release has been tested and validated in the target operating |
| configurations listed below.</p> |
| |
| <p>Release milestones:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Feb. 28, 2005: Preview of BIRT 1.0 Release - Preview of BIRT Report |
| Designer; BIRT Report Engine and BIRT Chart Component for community feedback.</li> |
| <li>Feb. 28 - May 15, 2005: Updated stable builds approximately every 2 |
| weeks to address identified defects and complete features planned for 1.0 release. </li> |
| <li>May 15, 2005: BIRT 1.0 Release - BIRT Report Designer; BIRT Report |
| Engine and BIRT Chart Component.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h1>Target Operating Environments</h1> |
| |
| <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.</p> |
| |
| <p>Most of Eclipse is "pure" Java<sup>TM</sup> code and has no direct |
| dependence on the underlying operating system. The chief dependence is on the |
| Eclipse Platform, and on the Java 2 Platform that runs it.</p> |
| |
| <p>The Eclipse BIRT 1.0 release depends on the following:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Java 2 Platform Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development |
| Kit (JDK) version 1.4.2</li> |
| <li>Eclipse Platform 3.0.1 </li> |
| <li>Graphical Editor Framework (GEF) 3.0.1 </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p> The 1.0 release of BIRT is designed to run on any configuration |
| supporting the above components.</p> |
| |
| <p>The Eclipse Platform runs 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 <em>reference platforms</em>. 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 on non-reference platform that cannot be recreated on any |
| reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with running |
| Eclipse on a reference platform.</p> |
| |
| <p>For BIRT 1.0, the project team plans to tests and validate the |
| following reference platforms:</p> |
| |
| <table border="1"> |
| <tr bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> |
| <th colspan="4"> |
| <div align="center"> |
| <b><font size="+1">BIRT Report Designer Reference Platforms</font></b> |
| </div> |
| </th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="205"><b>Operating system</b></td> |
| <td width="76"><b>Processor architecture</b></td> |
| <td width="59"><b>Window system</b></td> |
| <td width="453"><b>Java 2 Platform</b></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows XP </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>Win32</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft WIndows XP </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>Win32</td> |
| <td>IBM SDK 1.4.2 </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3.0 </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>GTK</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <br> |
| |
| <table border="1"> |
| <tr bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> |
| <th colspan="4"> <div align="center"> <b><font size="+1">BIRT Report Engine and Chart Component Reference Platforms</font></b> </div></th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="205"><b>Operating system</b></td> |
| <td width="76"><b>Processor architecture</b></td> |
| <td width="59"><b>Window system</b></td> |
| <td width="453"><b>Java 2 Platform</b></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows XP </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>Win32*</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft WIndows XP </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>Win32*</td> |
| <td>IBM SDK 1.4.2 </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows Server 2003 </td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>Win32*</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows Server 2003</td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>Win32*</td> |
| <td>IBM SDK 1.4.2 </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3.0 </td> |
| <td>Intel x86 </td> |
| <td>GTK*</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>IBM AIX 5L 5.2 </td> |
| <td>POWER</td> |
| <td>Motif*</td> |
| <td>IBM SDK 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Sun Solaris 9 </td> |
| <td>UltraSPARC</td> |
| <td>Motif*</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4.2</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <p>* Window system only required when displaying charts within SWT or |
| SWING windows. </p> |
| |
| <table border="1"> |
| <tr bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> |
| <th width="808"> <div align="center"> <b><font size="+1">BIRT JDBC Reference Platforms</font></b> </div></th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td> MySQL Connector/J 3.x JDBC driver</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td> Cloudscape ( Derby) V5.1 JDBC driver </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td> DataDirect Connect for JDBC 3.4</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| <br> |
| |
| <table border="1"> |
| <tr bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> |
| <th width="808"> <div align="center"> <b><font size="+1">BIRT Browsers and Viewers Reference Platforms </font></b></div></th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Mozilla Firefox 1.0 </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td> Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td><p>Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 </p></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h1>Internationalization</h1> |
| |
| <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 not provided with this |
| release. However, the plug-in fragment mechanism provides the means by which translations into any number of |
| other languages can be incorporated.</p> |
| |
| <h1>Compatibility with Previous Releases</h1> |
| |
| <p>This is the first release of the Eclipse BIRT project, so compatibility |
| with previous releases is not applicable. However, this section is retained |
| in order to provide general forward looking guidelines regarding compatibility |
| with future releases of BIRT.</p> |
| |
| <p>In general, the BIRT project aims to provide strong upward compatibility |
| with future BIRT releases. However, as a 1.0 release, community feedback may |
| dictate that some upward compatibility can not be supported in favor of advancing |
| the capabilities of BIRT to meet the needs of the community.</p> |
| |
| <h1>Themes</h1> |
| |
| <p>As a new project within the Eclipse Foundation, the BIRT project's |
| overriding release 1.0 theme is to extend 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:</p> |
| |
| <dl class="bold-list"> |
| <dt>Appealing to a Broader Community</dt> |
| <dd>BIRT will address a new problem space for Eclipse that broadens the appeal |
| of the Eclipse platform. By addressing this new market for Eclipse, BIRT aims |
| to bring a new class of developers - report developers - into the Eclipse |
| community.</dd> |
| |
| <dt>Simple to Use</dt> |
| <dd>From the outset, the BIRT project regards ease-of-use to be a key objective |
| for the project. Reporting technology is used by a broad range of users with a |
| wide variety of skill sets - therefore the tool needs to be approachable and |
| intuitive. The BIRT project team are focused on ensuring that users can quickly |
| become productive with the technology.</dd> |
| |
| <dt>Enterprise Ready</dt> |
| <dd>BIRT 1.0 will leverage the surrounding Eclipse infrastructure for Enterprise |
| activities such as source code management and deployment of BIRT reports in the |
| application. In addition, the initial release of BIRT will provide for support |
| for key enterprise data bases such as Oracle and DB2.</dd> |
| |
| <dt>Design for Extensibility: Be a Better Platform</dt> |
| <dd>Extensibility is a core principle behind the BIRT project. Extensibility will |
| be supported in a number of areas: data access (both design time and runtime); |
| report output formats; chart types; report components; and business logic.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p>In addition to these goals, the BIRT PMC want to ensure that the initial |
| release of BIRT provides usable value to Java application developers. Even at the |
| 1.0 release level, the BIRT PMC has targeted common report types and a very |
| approachable user interface design to ensure the release is immediately appealing |
| to the Java development community. For full details on the content of the release, |
| see the <A href="R1_Requirements.pdf">Release 1.0 BIRT |
| Requirements</A>.</p> |
| |
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