Preface

BIRT is an open source business intelligence and reporting tool, built on top of the Eclipse Framework. BIRT is used by developers for building reports that can best represent data and tell a story of that data that is easy to follow. In addition, BIRT can be integrated into a product, to allow that product to provide reporting capabilities. This book will walk the user through the basics of building reports with BIRT and introduce them to the various sections of the BIRT environment.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started, is an introduction to BIRT. It gives the reader an idea of the BIRT features, community landscape, and the various websites out there that are dedicated to BIRT.

Chapter 2, Installing BIRT, guides the user through the various ways of installing BIRT.

Chapter 3, The BIRT Environment and First Report, introduces the BIRT workspace environment by walking the reader through a simple report example.

Chapter 4, Visual Report Items, presents us with various visual report items that are available for use in a report design.

Chapter 5, Working with Data, discusses how to retrieve data from databases, flat text files, web services, and other data sources.

Chapter 6, Report Parameters, explains how to get input from the report user, along with how to apply these report parameters in filtering data.

Chapter 7, Report Projects and Libraries, looks at reusing report sections and sharing resources through libraries and report projects.

Chapter 8, Charts, Hyperlinks, and Drilldowns, shows how to build summary data using charts and linking sections of charts to reports. In addition, hyperlinking used in online reports to link and show detailed data in other reports is discussed here.

Chapter 9, Scripting and Event Handling, discusses report generation through event handling, as well as how to manipulate and format data using simple JavaScript expressions. Some advanced scripting examples are provided based on common requests.

Chapter 10, Deployment, looks at how does a developer can get reports out into the world for consumption.

Note

We also have the following two chapters that are available for free download on Packt site:

• The chapter Styles, Themes, and Templates, demonstrates the various ways a report developer can format their report using basic formatting, styles and stylesheets, and themes, along with how to reuse report designs through templates. The chapter is available at http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/1667-styles-themes-and-templates.pdf.

• The chapter Practical Example: Building Reports for Bugzilla, takes everything covered so far and puts it all together by looking at a project with reporting requirements, and builds a report environment from the ground up. The chapter is available at http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/1667-practical-example-building-reports-for-bugzilla.pdf.

What you need for this book

Any of the following BIRT versions will work for this book:

• BIRT 2.2.x

• BIRT 2.3.x

• BIRT 2.5.x

• BIRT 2.6

In addition, all the code examples can be downloaded from Packt site.

Who this book is for

If you are a Java developer and want to create rich reports using BIRT, then this book is for you. You will need a basic understanding of SQL to follow along.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "Create a new report project called BIRT Book Chapter 5 examples."

A block of code will be set as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Employees xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Employee>
<firstName>John</firstName>
<lastName>Ward</lastName>
<jobTitle>Developer</jobTitle>

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "Under the Data Explorer pane, right- click on Data Sources and select New Data Source".

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Note

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply drop an email to <[e-mail]>, and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

If there is a book that you need and would like to see us publish, please send us a note in the SUGGEST A TITLE form on www.packtpub.com or email <[e-mail]>.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Note

Downloading the example code for this book

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.PacktPub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.PacktPub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our contents, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in text or code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration, and help us to improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the let us know link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata added to any list of existing errata. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at <[e-mail]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at <[e-mail]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.