The BIRT Report

Welcome to the second issue of The BIRT Report. This newsletter is designed to help you keep up to date by rolling the best of BIRT info into one handy doc, delivered to your inbox once a month.

This is your newsletter! We welcome any suggestions you may have for future content, guest columnists, or anything else. You can send those suggestions to me, Virgil, at vdodson@birt-exchange.com.

We put this list of items together for those of you just getting started with BIRT. There are lots of resources available to assist new BIRT users and we’ve added links to some of items we thought would be most helpful below.

• Using the Designer - This video walks through the complete creation of a BIRT report including creating a BIRT report project, connecting to data, adding a chart, formatting the report and adding drill-to-details capability.
• BIRT 2.2 new features demo - This is a screen capture recording showing some of the BIRT 2.2 new features. These include the new web services ODA, the crosstab control, the report and chart examples view, improvements in the viewer, and several new output types.
• Download BIRT Designer - When you're ready to try it yourself download the designer.
• Online BIRT docs - Easy access to the documentation. You should probably bookmark this page
• BIRT Forums – When you get stuck and have a question.
• BIRT FAQ – When you know your question has likely been asked before.
• BIRT Books (more info and links on the right)
• BIRT Training Classes (more info and links below on the right)

BIRT Exchange has been around for less than 4 months, and there have already been over 20000 items accessed from that site. Below are some of the hottest items in terms of views or number of downloads.

Hottest Tips and Tricks

• Web 2.0 and BIRT – Tips for building web 2.0 style functionality into your BIRT report
• Solving BIRT "OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space" Errors - Suggestion for changing the MaxPermSize setting to avoid OutOfMemoryError problems
• Convert String Date to Date Object in BIRT - Tips for creating computed columns for converting Strings to Dates in a BIRT report
• Creating and using JS functions - Tips for calling Javascript functions within a BIRT report
• Paging & Report Engine API Usage - Tips for paging in BIRT & using the report engine API

Hottest DevShare Downloads

• Google Maps Mashup with BIRT Reports - Integrates Google Maps within a BIRT Report v2.2
• Dynamic Content Creation in BIRT - Showing the ability to dynamically create report content using the DEAPI.
• Pareto Chart in BIRT - Two different Pareto chart examples in a BIRT report design
• BIRT Cross tab Example - Demonstrates how to create a cross tab report in BIRT
• BIRT Web Services Example - Example showing BIRT getting data from Amazon Web Services

e.Spreadsheet Resources

While much of BIRT Exchange talks about the BIRT product family, there is another product family represented on the site related to using spreadsheets in Java. There is a direct link to the “Spreadsheets in Java” solution area which has helpful resources for developers who are creating spreadsheets from or integrating spreadsheet logic into their Java applications. These are specifically for developers using the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Engine or Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer products. Below are a few direct links to several spreadsheet resources.

Demos

• e.Spreadsheet Designer video
• e.Spreadsheet Engine live demos

Tutorials

• e.Spreadsheet tutorial (basic)
• e.Spreadsheet tutorial (advanced)

Tips and Tricks

• e.Spreadsheet, Excel & the 64,000 Row (and 256 Column) Question – Tips for getting around the 64,000 row limitation.
• Extending e.Spreadsheet with the Callback Class -Overview of the Callback class and tips on how to get started using it to extend your spreadsheet designs programmatically.
• Alternating Row Colors in e.Spreadsheet – tips on using Excel formulas and conditional formatting to alternate row color.

DevShare Downloads

• e.Spreadsheet Engine Hello World Example – Simple java class example using the e.Spreadsheet Engine APIs to build a spreadsheet.
• Page Bursting in e.Spreadsheet – Example spreadsheet design that creates a new worksheet for every 100 rows.

Other e.Spreadsheet Resources

• Download e.Spreadsheet Designer and Engine
• Online e.Spreadsheet docs
• e.Spreadsheet forums
• e.Spreadsheet FAQ

If you are using BIRT 2.2.1 (or considering it), then this set of tutorials will help you get up to speed quickly. Each of these tutorials includes a screen capture video showing the new feature plus you can download the related example report design.

• Report Parameters – Demonstrates the enhancements made to report parameters in BIRT and includes using parameters in the Expression Builder, multiple value parameters, default values, and the “Is Required” property.
• Style Enhancements – Demonstrates the enhancements made around BIRT styles including using external CSS files, highlight rules that use styles, and using styles with the Table Of Contents.
• Charting - Demonstrates the improvements made in the area of charting including several new chart types; a bubble chart, a difference chart, and a Gantt chart. It also shows how to supply different aggregations for each series and shows how to take advantage of the new chart and report examples views in Eclipse.
• Data Sources and Data Sets - Demonstrates the improvements made to the Flat File Data Source and the Joint Data Set.
• New BIRT Emitters - Demonstrates the new emitters available with BIRT 2.2.1 including the PPT, XLS, and DOC formats. It also shows the Postscript emitter and some new options for the PDF output.
• Web Services - Demonstrates the process of utilizing a simple weather web service to build a data source and dataset. It also shows how to pass user supplied parameters to the web service.
• Dynamic Crosstabs - Demonstrates the process of building a dynamic crosstab using the Classic Models sample database. Two datasets are combined in a crosstab cube to present annual sales figures grouped by quarters and product lines.

Actuate has sponsored a survey to understand how developers are using BIRT. This is your chance to say what you like and don’t like about using BIRT in an anonymous survey. The survey should take around 10 minutes and is available through SurveyMonkey.com at the link below. The results will go directly to the BIRT team to help define the usability features of BIRT in future versions.

The more BIRT users who complete the survey, the better and more accurate the results will be… so after you finish the survey, forward the link to someone else you know who is using BIRT.

Start the Survey...

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