Dynamic Report Parameters and Filters

We have seen how we can work with database-driven data and report parameters to filter data using parameter binding between Report Parameters and Data Set Parameters. We may ask ourselves, why did we go through the first exercise when the second exercise was so much easier? This is because this concept of binding through expressions is used a lot in BIRT.

Report Parameters may require manual input from a user, but we can also have prepopulated drop-down boxes for Report Parameters that are created at design time or even populated from a database or other dataset. This is useful for cases where the input needs to be exact and it is assumed that the user does not know all of the possible values or exactly what information they are looking for.

While filtering of database data can be achieved through Data Set Parameters and the filtering done on the backend database, other types of datasets such as the XML, Flat File, and Scripted Data Sources do not have...