The Data Source

As mentioned in the preceding section, the Data Source is a conduit to our data. Data Sources are the developer's way to specify where data is located, how to get access to that data, and provide a mechanism to retrieve that data from a data location. Out of the box, BIRT provides six different Data Source types:

• The Classic Cars sample database

• DTP XML Data Source

• Flat File Data Source

• Scripted Data Source

• JDBC driver

• Web Services Data Source

We have already seen the Classic Cars Sample database with the Employee Example in Chapter 3. This Data Source is not meant to be a production Data Source, and a report environment would not use in a real world development shop. It is provided as an example Data Source, used as a teaching aid and to demonstrate how an ODA Data Source would function in BIRT. It is also a common Data Source that all BIRT users have access to, so it is useful as a common talking point while explaining features of BIRT and while discussing issues...