Chapter 7. Report Projects and Libraries

Up until now, all the reports we have built have been very simple reports. However, we have seen that each of these reports use very similar components between them such as the data sources to the Classic Cars database and the datasets that pull employee information. These are common elements between the reports we have built. In most project-based development environments, there is a way to share common elements between components, and BIRT is no exception to this.

Also, in the previous chapters we worked with a single project. This chapter will help us create a more structured reporting project and work with libraries to share the common report elements between reports. In most report development shops that I have come across, this is a great way to structure report development and can save developers lots of time, especially when more complex report components get developed. By grouping reports in projects and reusing elements in libraries, common...