A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0321580303 ISBN-13: 9780321580306     The second of a two-book series about business intelligence and reporting technology, Integrating and Extending BIRT introduces programmers to BIRT architecture and the reporting framework. Built on the Eclipse platform, this exciting technology makes it possible for programmers to build and deploy customized reports using scripting and BIRT APIs. In addition, programmers can extend the BIRT framework by building new plug-ins using the Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment. This book describes the key components of BIRT architecture, applications, and engines, including installing, deploying, and troubleshooting the Reporting and Charting engines in an Enterprise Java application-server environment.For developers who wish to incorporate custom business logic in their reports or access data from Java objects, the book describes BIRT's extensive scripting capabilities in JavaScript and Java. For developers who want to extend the BIRT framework, the book describes the key extension points to use in creating customized report items, rendering extensions for generating output other than HTML or PDF, and Open Data Access (ODA) drivers for new data sources. The book provides extensive examples of how to build plug-ins to extend the features of the BIRT framework. 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 in applications Working with the BIRT extension framework

Table of Contents:
Foreword xviiPreface xixAcknowledgments xxviiPart I Installing and Deploying BIRT 1Chapter 1 Prerequisites for BIRT 3Requirements for the BIRT report designers 3 About installing required software 5 BIRT RCP Report Designer software requirements 5 BIRT Report Designer Full Eclipse Install software requirements 5 BIRT Report Designer software requirements 6 Prerequisites for other BIRT packages 7 BIRT Chart Engine software requirements 7 BIRT Demo Database software requirements 8 BIRT Report Engine software requirements 9 BIRT Samples software requirements 9 BIRT Test Suite software requirements 9 About types of BIRT builds 10 Chapter 2 Installing a BIRT Report Designer 13Installing BIRT Report Designer 14 Downloading and installing BIRT Report Designer 14 Installing the auxiliary file for BIRT Report Designer 14 Testing the BIRT Report Designer installation 15 Installing BIRT Report Designer Full Eclipse Install 15 Downloading and installing BIRT Report Designer Full Eclipse Install 15 Installing the auxiliary file for BIRT Report Designer 16 Installing BIRT RCP Report Designer 16 Downloading and installing BIRT RCP Report Designer 17 Installing the auxiliary file for BIRT Report Designer 17 Testing the BIRT RCP Report Designer installation 18 Troubleshooting installation problems 18 Avoiding cache conflicts after you install a BIRT report designer 18 Specifying which Java Virtual Machine to use when you start a BIRT report designer 19 Installing a language pack 19 Chapter 3 Installing Other BIRT Packages 23Installing BIRT Chart Engine 23 Installing BIRT Chart Engine from the Eclipse BIRT web site 24 Avoiding cache conflicts after installing 24 Installing BIRT Demo Database 25 Installing BIRT Demo Database from the Eclipse BIRT web site 25 Testing the BIRT Demo Database installation 25 Installing BIRT Report Engine 26 Installing BIRT Report Engine from the Eclipse BIRT web site 27 Testing the BIRT Report Engine installation 27 Installing BIRT Samples 28 Installing BIRT Test Suite 29 Chapter 4 Updating a BIRT Installation 31Using the Eclipse Update Manager to update BIRT Report Designer installation 31 Updating BIRT RCP Report Designer installation 32 Chapter 5 Deploying a BIRT Report to an Application Server 33About application servers 33 About deploying to Tomcat 33 About deploying to other application servers 34 Placing the BIRT report viewer on an application server 34 Installing the BIRT report viewer files 34 Installing the auxiliary file 35 Installing your JDBC drivers 35 Testing the BIRT report viewer installation 35 Using a different context root for the BIRT report viewer 36 Placing the viewer in a different location 36 Mapping the folders that the BIRT report viewer uses 36 Verifying that Apache Tomcat is running BIRT report viewer 39 Placing fonts on the application server 40 Viewing a report using a browser 40 Understanding the run and frameset servlets 41 Using the URL parameters for the run and frameset servlets 41 About the report item elements 67 About the report items 67 Understanding the report item element properties 67 About the data elements 68 Part II Understanding the BIRT Framework 45Chapter 6 Understanding the BIRT Architecture 47Understanding the BIRT integration 47 About the BIRT applications 51 About BIRT Report Designer and BIRT RCP Report Designer 51 About the BIRT report viewer 51 About the BIRT engines 52 About the report design engine 52 About the report engine 52 About the generation engine 52 About the presentation engine 52 About the chart engine 53 About the data engine 53 About the types of BIRT report items 53 About standard report items 54 About custom report items 54 About chart report items 54 About the ROM 54 About the types of BIRT files 54 About report design files 55 About report document files 55 About report library files 55 About report template files 55 About custom Java applications 56 About custom report designers 56 About custom Java report generators 56 About extensions to BIRT 57 Chapter 7 Understanding the Report Object Model 59About the ROM specification 59 ROM properties 60 ROM slots 61 ROM methods 61 ROM styles 62 About the ROM schema 62 About the rom.def file 63 About the primary ROM elements 66 About the report item elements 67 About the report items 67 Understanding the report item element properties 67 About the data elements 68 Part III Scripting in a Report Design 71Chapter 8 Using Scripting in a Report Design 73Overview of BIRT scripting 73 Choosing between Java and JavaScript 73 Using both Java and JavaScript to write event handlers 74 Understanding the event handler execution sequence 74 About event firing sequence dependency 74 About the pageBreak event 75 Analysis of the execution sequence phases 75 About a report item event handler 81 About data source and data set event handlers 82 ODA data source events 82 Scripted data source events 82 ODA data set events 82 Scripted data set events 82 About ReportDesign event handlers 82 Writing event handlers for charts 83 Chart events 83 Chart script context 85 Chart instance object 86 Writing a Java chart event handler 87 Writing a JavaScript chart event handler 87 Getting a dynamic image from a Microsoft Access database 89 Chapter 9 Using JavaScript to Write an Event Handler 91Using BIRT Report Designer to enter a JavaScript event handler 91 Creating and using a global variable 92 Understanding execution phases and processes 93 Using the reportContext object 94 Passing a variable between processes 95 Getting information from an HTTP request object 95 Using the this object 95 Using the this object's methods 95 Using the this object to set the property of a report item 96 Using the row object 99 Getting column information 99 Getting and altering the query string 100 Getting a parameter value 101 Changing the connection properties of a data source 101 Determining method execution sequence 102 Providing the ReportDesign.initialize code 102 Providing the code for the methods you want to track 103 Providing the ReportDesign.afterFactory code 103 Tutorial 1: Writing an event handler in JavaScript 104 Task 1: Open the report design 104 Task 2: Create and initialize a counter in the Table.onCreate( ) method 104 Task 3: Conditionally increment the counter in the Row.onCreate( ) method 106 Task 4: Display the result, using the ReportDesign.afterFactory( ) method 107 Calling Java from JavaScript 108 Understanding the Packages object 108 Understanding the importPackage method 109 Using a Java class 109 Placing your Java classes where BIRT can find them 110 Issues with using Java in JavaScript code 110 Chapter 10 Using Java to Write an Event Handler 111Writing a Java event handler class 111 Locating the JAR files that an event handler requires 112 Extending an adapter class 112 Making the Java class visible to BIRT 116 Associating the Java event handler class with a report element 116 BIRT Java interface and class naming conventions 117 Writing a Java event handler 118 Using event handler adapter classes 118 Using event handler interfaces 118 About the Java event handlers for report items 119 Using Java event handlers for the DataSource element 120 Using Java event handlers for the DataSet element 120 Using Java event handlers for the ScriptedDataSource element 121 Using Java event handlers for the ScriptedDataSet element 122 Using Java event handlers for the ReportDesign 122 Understanding the BIRT interfaces 123 About the element design interfaces 124 About the element instance interfaces 125 Using the IReportContext interface 126 Using the IColumnMetaData interface 128 Using the IDataSetInstance interface 128 Using the IDataSetRow interface 129 Using the IRowData interface 129 Chapter 11 Using a Scripted Data Source 131Creating a scripted data source and scripted data set 131 Tutorial 2: Creating and scripting a scripted data source 133 Task 1: Create a new report 133 Task 2: Create a scripted data source 133 Task 3: Create a scripted data set 134 Task 4: Supply code for the open() and close( ) methods of the data source 135 Task 5: Supply code for the open() method of the data set 135 Task 6: Define output columns 135 Task 7: Place the columns on the report layout 137 Task 8: Supply code for the data set fetch() method 138 Using a Java object to access a data source 139 Performing initialization in the data set open( ) method 139 Getting a new row of data in the data set fetch( ) method 140 Cleaning up in the data set close( ) method 140 Deciding where to locate your Java class 140 Deploying your Java class 141 Using input and output parameters with a scripted data set 141 Part IV Integrating BIRT Functionality into Applications 143Chapter 12 Understanding the BIRT APIs 145Package hierarchy diagrams 146 About the BIRT Report Engine API 147 Creating the BIRT Report Engine 148 Using the BIRT Report Engine API 148 Report engine class hierarchy 151 Report engine interface hierarchy 152 About the design engine API 153 Using the BIRT design engine API 154 Design engine class hierarchy 157 About the BIRT Chart Engine API 163 Using the BIRT Chart Engine API 164 Chart engine class hierarchy 164 Chapter 13 Programming with the BIRT Reporting APIs 181Building a reporting application 182 About the environment for a reporting application 183 Modifying a report design with the API 185 Generating reports from an application 185 Setting up the report engine 186 Opening a source for report generation 190 Accessing a report parameter programmatically 192 Preparing to generate the report 199 Generating the formatted output programmatically 203 Accessing the formatted report 203 About programming with a report design 204 About BIRT model API capabilities 205 Opening a report design programmatically for editing 206 Accessing a data source and data set with the API 214 Saving a report design programmatically 217 Creating a report design programmatically 217 Chapter 14 Programming with the BIRT Charting APIs 219About the environment for building a charting application 220 Verifying the development environment for charting applications 221 Using the charting API to modify an existing chart 222 Getting a Chart object from the report design 222 Adding a series to a chart 224 Adding a chart event handler to a charting application 224 Using the charting APIs to create a new chart 225 Creating the chart instance object 226 Setting the properties of the chart instance object 227 Creating sample data 231 Getting an element factory object 231 Getting an extended item handle object 231 Setting the chart.instance property on the report item 231 Getting a data set from the report design 232 Binding the chart to the data set 232 Adding the new chart to the report design 232 Saving the report design after adding the chart 232 Putting it all together 233 Using the BIRT charting API in a Java Swing application 239 Understanding the chart programming examples 246 Part V Working with the Extension Framework 251Chapter 15 Building the BIRT Project 253About building the BIRT project 253 Assuring that you have the correct software on your system 254 Configuring the Eclipse workspace to compile BIRT 254 Creating Eclipse projects 256 Specifying the repository locations 257 Checking out the BIRT source 259 Adding the extra JAR file 261 Building the web viewer 262 Chapter 16 Extending BIRT 267Overview of the extension framework 267 Understanding the structure of a BIRT plug-in 268 Understanding an extension point schema definition file 268 Understanding a plug-in manifest file 271 Understanding a plug-in run-time class 272 Working with the Eclipse PDE 275 Understanding plug-in project properties 277 Understanding the Eclipse PDE Workbench 277 Creating the structure of a plug-in extension 279 Creating the plug-in extension content 283 Building a plug-in extension 287 Generating an Ant build script 290 Testing a plug-in extension 291 Deploying the extension plug-in 291 Installing feature updates and managing the Eclipse configuration 293 Creating an update site project 294 Downloading the code for the extension examples 297 Chapter 17 Developing a Report Item Extension 299Understanding a report item extension 299 Developing the sample report item extension 301 Downloading BIRT source code from the CVS repository 302 Creating a rotated label report item plug-in project 302 Defining the dependencies for the rotated label report item extension 305 Specifying the run-time package for the rotated label report item extension 307 Declaring the report item extension points 307 Creating the plug-in extension content 312 Understanding the rotated label report item extension 316 Understanding RotatedLabelItemFactoryImpl 318 Understanding RotatedLabelUI 319 Understanding RotatedLabelPresentationImpl 319 Understanding RotatedLabelReportItemImpl 320 Understanding RotatedLabelPropertyEditUIImpl 320 Understanding GraphicsUtil 321 Deploying and testing the rotated label report item plug-in 324 Deploying a report item extension 324 Launching the rotated label report item plug-in 324 Chapter 18 Developing a Report Rendering Extension 329Understanding a report rendering extension 329 Developing the CSV report rendering extension 330 Downloading BIRT source code from the CVS repository 330 Creating a CSV report rendering plug-in project 331 Defining the dependencies for the CSV report rendering extension 334 Declaring the emitters extension point 335 Understanding the sample CSV report rendering extension 337 Implementing the emitter interfaces 337 Implementing the content interfaces 339 Understanding the CSV report rendering extension package 341 Understanding CSVReportEmitter 341 Understanding CSVTags 348 Understanding CSVWriter 348 Understanding the BIRT report engine API package 348 Understanding RenderOptionBase 349 Understanding CSVRenderOption 349 Understanding EngineConstants 349 Testing the CSV report rendering plug-in 350 Launching the CSV report rendering plug-in 353 About ExecuteReport class 357 About the report design XML code 359 Chapter 19 Developing an ODA Extension 365Understanding an ODA extension 366 Developing the CSV ODA driver extensions 366 About the CSV ODA plug-ins 367 Downloading BIRT source code from the CVS repository 367 Implementing the CSV ODA driver plug-in 368 Defining the dependencies for the CSV ODA driver extension 370 Specifying the run-time settings for the CSV ODA driver extension 370 Declaring the ODA data source extension point 371 Understanding the sample CSV ODA driver extension 379 Implementing the DTP ODA interfaces 379 Developing the CSV ODA UI extension 390 Creating the CSV ODA UI plug-in project 390 Defining the dependencies for the CSV ODA UI extension 392 Specifying the run-time settings for the CSV ODA UI extension 393 Declaring the ODA data source UI extension point 393 Understanding the sample CSV ODA UI extension 403 Implementing the ODA data source and data set wizards 404 Understanding the org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.csv.ui.wizards package 405 Testing the CSV ODA UI plug-in 414 Developing a Hibernate ODA extension 419 Creating the Hibernate ODA driver plug-in project 420 Understanding the sample Hibernate ODA driver extension 426 Building the Hibernate ODA driver plug-in 439 Developing the Hibernate ODA UI extension 441 Understanding the sample Hibernate ODA UI extension 448 Building the Hibernate ODA UI plug-in 458 Testing the Hibernate ODA UI plug-in 460 Glossary 465Index 525