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| <p class="head">BIRT Overview</p> |
| |
| <p class="subhead">Developing with BIRT</p> |
| |
| <h1>Data Customization</h1> |
| <p> |
| As mentioned above, reports often require additional business logic to prepare |
| data for presentation. BIRT provides a number of tools to help: |
| |
| <dl class="arrow-list"> |
| <dt>Computed Columns |
| <dd>Databases organize data for storage, but often data must be combined to prepare |
| it for presentation. Computed columns let you define additional data set columns |
| based on business logic. The logic can be a simple expression, a script, or a |
| call to existing Java logic. |
| |
| <dt>Input and Output Parameters |
| <dd>Many data sources support parameters: the ability to pass data into or |
| out of a query. For example, SQL Select statements can include input parameters. |
| Stored procedures can have |
| both input and output parameters. |
| |
| <dt>Column Meta-data |
| <dd>You can provide column aliases when the names provided by the data source are |
| unintuitive. |
| |
| <dt>Filtering |
| <dd>Some data sources, especially SQL, provide excellent built-in filtering |
| features. However, some data sources (flat files, application objects) may not |
| provide filtering. In other cases, the filter conditions are defined in scripts |
| or Java code. You can define such filters as part of the report, and the BIRT |
| engine will apply them automatically. |
| |
| <dt>Scripted Data Sets |
| <dd>Some reports require access to specialized or unusual data. You can create |
| such access in Java or scripts and use the scripted data set to integrate that |
| logic into your report. |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h1>Conditional Formatting</h1> |
| <p> |
| While some reports have a fixed format, others require conditional formatting. |
| For example, a report that lists transactions may want to present a sale differently |
| than a return. Or, a customer service report may want to show colors that indicate |
| which metrics are above, at or below plan. BIRT provides several conditional |
| formatting features: |
| |
| <dl class="arrow-list"> |
| <dt>Conditional Visibility |
| <dd>You can hide report elements based on data. In the transaction report above, you |
| can create sections for both sales and return transactions, then hide the one that |
| is not required for a given record. |
| |
| <dt>Value Mapping |
| <dd>Database data often uses code values: M/F for male or female, 1/2 for sales and |
| returns, etc. Value mapping lets you define a mapping from database value to |
| display value. For example, we can map the value "1" to "Sale" and the value |
| "2" to "Return." |
| |
| <dt>Highlighting |
| <dd>Simple expressions let you select the style to apply to a given report item. |
| For example, in the customer service report, we can use green to show metrics |
| above plan, and red to show those below plan. |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h1>Scripting</h1> |
| <p> |
| BIRT provides scripting based on JavaScript (formally known as ECMAScript). |
| JavaScript is often thought of as a client-side scripting language, but it works |
| just as well on a server for expressing report logic. In particular, JavaScript |
| provides excellent integration with your existing Java logic, making it very |
| simple to call your logic from BIRT reports. |
| <p> |
| BIRT provides a complete set of JavaScript objects to access the Report Object |
| Model: a representation of both the design and runtime aspects of your report, |
| allowing complete control of the report to handle even the most complex report |
| formatting tasks. |
| |
| <h1>Java Event Coding</h1> |
| <p> |
| In addition to JavaScript, events can be coded in Java. BIRT supplies a |
| set of interfaces for report item creation and data collection. |
| Once the event is written in Java and associated with a report element, the report |
| can be debugged through the Eclipse Java Development Tools. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| <h1>Project Management</h1> |
| <p> |
| BIRT integrates with the Eclipse project management features to organize related |
| reports. BIRT also works with Eclipse CVS support for source management. BIRT's |
| XML report design format makes it easy to compare two reports, or two versions of |
| the same report, to track changes. |
| |
| <h1>Styles</h1> |
| <p> |
| Anyone who has designed a web page knows that the same visual styles get used |
| over and over. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allow web designers to extract style |
| information from content, and to reuse style over and over. |
| <p> |
| BIRT provides a similar style feature. Indeed, BIRT styles are based on CSS |
| styles, making BIRT's visual properies familiar to web application developers. |
| BIRT styles cascade, allowing you to set a style in one place and have it affect |
| the entire report, a section of the report, or a single report item. In addition BIRT |
| allows importing of Cascading Style Sheets. |
| |
| <h1>Libraries</h1> |
| <p> |
| Typical applications include many related reports. A simple customer application |
| may include an alphabetical customer listing, customers sorted by geography, |
| customers assigned to specific sales reps, customers filtered by status and more. |
| In general, users frequently want another variation to solve specific business |
| needs. |
| <p> |
| The result is that reporting applications consist of suites of closely related |
| reports. The same data sources, styles, business logic, report items and more |
| are used across many reports. |
| <p> |
| BIRT supports libraries that organize these |
| shared resources. Libraries can contain any report element including styles, |
| data sources, report items, scripts and so on. |
| |
| <h1>Internationalization</h1> |
| <p> |
| The web allows worldwide access to your application. BIRT provides excellent |
| support for internationalization and localization. |
| |
| <dl class="arrow-list"> |
| <dt>Text Localization |
| <dd>You can create a single report that automatically displays strings in the |
| user's language. All labels and report text can be externalized and translated using the |
| standard Java localization rules. At runtime, BIRT uses resource keys to locate |
| the correct translations of your text. |
| |
| <dt>Localization |
| <dd>BIRT provides locale-aware data formatting, meaning that a date can appear |
| in mm/dd/yy format for US users, and dd-mm-yy format for Europeans. |
| |
| <dt>Dynamic Formatting |
| <dd>Chinese text is very compact, German is often quite lengthy, |
| and English of medium size. |
| BIRT automatically adjusts the size of report items to fit their |
| content to avoid the need to test the report with every possible translation. BIRT |
| works like HTML in this regard: the size of content expands as needed to hold its |
| data. |
| </dl> |
| |
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