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Integrating and Extending BIRT, 2nd Edition

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Integrating and Extending BIRT, 2nd Edition

By Jason Weathersby, Tom Bondur, Iana Chatalbasheva, Don French
Published Jul 18, 2008 by Addison-Wesley Professional.

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Description

Copyright 2009
Edition: 2nd

Book
ISBN-10: 0-321-58030-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-58030-6

The world-wide developer community has downloaded over three million copies of BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) from the Eclipse web site. Built on the open-source Eclipse platform, BIRT is a powerful reporting system that provides an end-to-end solution, from creating and deploying reports to integrating report capabilities in enterprise applications.

The second of a two-book series on business intelligence and reporting technology, Integrating and Extending BIRT, Second Edition introduces programmers to BIRT architecture and the reporting framework. BIRT technology makes it possible for a programmer to build a customized report using scripting and BIRT APIs. A programmer can also extend the BIRT framework by creating a new plug-in using the Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment. This book provides extensive examples on how to build plug-ins to extend the features of the BIRT framework. The source code for these examples is available for download.

The topics discussed include

Installing and deploying BIRT
Deploying a BIRT report to an application server
Understanding BIRT architecture
Scripting in a BIRT report design
Integrating BIRT functionality into applications
Working with the BIRT extension framework

This second edition, revised and expanded, adds the following new content

Updated architectural diagrams
Expanded scripting examples
Tag library descriptions
In-depth description of BIRT Web Viewer
Configuring BIRT to use a JNDI connection
XML report rendering plug-in example
Fragment plug-in localization example
Open Data Access (ODA) plug-in example implementing the new Data Tools Platform (DTP) design and run-time wizards

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Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Understanding the Report Object Model

Foreword               xix
Preface                   xxi
Acknowledgments               xxix

Part I: Installing and Deploying BIRT               1
Chapter 1: Prerequisites for BIRT                    3
Downloading Eclipse BIRT components             3
BIRT Report Designer software requirements            5
About types of BIRT builds              7

Chapter 2: Installing a BIRT Report Designer                9
Installing BIRT Report Designer Full Eclipse Install             9
Installing BIRT RCP Report Designer                  10
Troubleshooting installation problems                   11
Installing a language pack                 13
Updating a BIRT Report Designer installation              14
Updating BIRT RCP Report Designer installation                15

Chapter 3: Installing Other BIRT Packages                     17
Installing Chart Engine                      17
Installing BIRT Data Tools Platform Integration            19
Installing BIRT Demo Database                  19
Installing Report Engine                  21
Installing BIRT Samples                  23
Installing BIRT Source Code                23

Chapter 4: Deploying a BIRT Report to an Application Server           27
About application servers               27
Placing the BIRT report viewer on an application server               28
Placing fonts on the application server                     33
Viewing a report using a browser                    33
Using connection pooling on Tomcat                    34

Chapter 5: Using Eclipse BIRT Web Viewer                     39
Understanding Eclipse BIRT Web Viewer                        39
Understanding Web Viewer architecture                            44
Using the Web Viewer Deployment wizard                    61

Part II: Understanding the BIRT Framework                   81
Chapter 6: Understanding the BIRT Architecture           83
Understanding the BIRT integration                     83
About the BIRT applications                     87
About the BIRT engines and services                88
About the types of BIRT report items               90
About the Report Object Model (ROM)                  91
About the types of BIRT files                   91
About custom Java applications                93
About extensions to BIRT                       93

Chapter 7: Understanding the Report Object Model            95
About the ROM specification              95
About the ROM schema                       98
About the rom.def file                           98
About the primary ROM elements         101
About the report item elements               102
About the data elements                  103

Part III: Scripting in a Report Design                        105
Chapter 8: Using Scripting in a Report Design               107
Overview of BIRT scripting                        107
Events overview                   108
Event order sequence              115

Chapter 9: Using JavaScript to Write an Event Handler                        127
Using BIRT Report Designer to enter a JavaScript event handler                 127
Using the reportContext object                130
Using the this object                   135
Using the row object                   138
Getting column information                139
Getting and altering the query string                     140
Changing the connection properties of a data source                  140
Getting a parameter value                       141
Determining method execution sequence                    142
Tutorial 1: Writing an event handler in JavaScript                      144
JavaScript event handler examples                    149
Calling Java from JavaScript                        151
Calling the method of a class that resides in a plug-in               153

Chapter 10: Using Java to Write an Event Handler                              155
Writing a Java event handler class                    155
Writing a Java event handler                     161
Understanding the BIRT interfaces                      166
Java event handler example                    173
Debugging a Java event handler                  180

Chapter 11: Working with Chart Event Handlers                          183
Chart events overview                183
Understanding when chart events trigger                   185
Writing a Java chart event handler                   204
Writing a JavaScript chart event handler                   208
Using the simplified charting API                         211

Chapter 12: Accessing Data Programmatically                    217
Using a Scripted Data Source                     217
Tutorial 2: Creating and scripting a scripted data source                    219
Creating a web services data source using a custom connection class                   228

Part IV: Integrating BIRT Functionality into Applications                233
Chapter 13: Understanding the BIRT APIs                     235
Package hierarchy diagrams                    236
About the BIRT Report Engine API                      237
About the Design Engine API                244
About the BIRT Chart Engine API                         .257

Chapter 14: Programming using the BIRT Reporting APIs               275
Building a reporting application                   276
Generating reports from an application                   279
Programming with a report design                    302

Chapter 15: Programming using the BIRT Charting API                    321
About the chart engine contents                   321
About the environment for charting application                322
Using the charting API to modify an existing chart            324
Using the charting APIs to create a new chart                330
Using a chart item in a report design                   336
Using the BIRT charting API in a Java Swing application                 345
Understanding the chart programming examples                      351

Part V: Working with the Extension Framework                    359
Chapter 16: Building the BIRT Project                      361
About building the BIRT project                       361
Installing a working version of BIRT                 362
Configuring the Eclipse workspace to compile BIRT                  362
Downloading and extracting the correct version of the BIRT source code             364
Importing, building, and testing the BIRT project                   364
Building new JAR files to display BIRT output                  367

Chapter 17: Extending BIRT                      369
Overview of the extension framework                      369
Understanding the structure of a BIRT plug-in                       370
Working with the Eclipse PDE                         377
Creating the structure of a plug-in extension                     381
Creating the plug-in extension content                      385
Building a plug-in extension                       390
Deploying the extension plug-in                      393
Downloading the code for the extension examples                     398

Chapter 18: Developing a Report Item Extension                       399
Understanding a report item extension                      399
Developing the sample report item extension                   401
Understanding the rotated label report item extension                     418
Deploying and testing the rotated label report item plug-in                  428

Chapter 19: Developing a Report Rendering Extension               433
Understanding a report rendering extension                433
Developing a CSV report rendering extension                   434
Developing an XML report rendering extension                    462

Chapter 20: Developing an ODA Extension                 477
Understanding an ODA extension                     478
Developing the CSV ODA driver extensions                   479
Implementing the CSV ODA driver plug-in                      481
Understanding the sample CSV ODA driver extension                    491
Developing the CSV ODA UI extension                         500
Understanding the sample CSV ODA UI extension                     509
Testing the CSV ODA UI plug-in                    519
Developing a Hibernate ODA extension                      524

Chapter 21: Developing a Fragment                         571
Understanding a fragment                571
Developing the sample fragment                572
Creating a fragment project                573
Understanding the sample fragment                  576
Building, deploying, and testing a fragment                577

Glossary                                 583

Index                                       645

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