PacktLib: Practical Data Analysis and Reporting with BIRT

Practical Data Analysis and Reporting with BIRT

About the Author

About the Reviewer

Introduction to Business Intelligence

The Current State of the BI Market

The Need for Open-Source Reporting

The Origins of BIRT

Features of BIRT

Eclipse Framework

BIRT Distributions

Conventions Used in This Book

Installing BIRT

Where Do I Get BIRT?

Installing BIRT from the All-in-One Installation

Installing BIRT All-In-One under Linux

Installing iText for PDF Support

Installation of BIRT through the Eclipse Plug-in Update Program

The BIRT Environment and Your First Report

A Basic Scenario

The BIRT Perspective

The BIRT Workbench

Setting up a Simple Project

Creating a Simple Report

Visual Report Components

Using Text and Dynamic Text

Working with Data

BIRT Data Capabilities

Understanding the Data Components of BIRT

The Data Source

Table of Contents

Report Parameters

Why Parameterize Reports?

Data Set Parameters and Report Parameters

Getting Input from the User

Dynamic Report Parameters and Filters

Cascading Parameters

Parameter Grouping and Reports with Multiple Parameters

Report Projects and Libraries

Report Projects

Creating New Report Projects

Importing and Exporting Report Projects

Other Project Options

Styles, Themes, and Templates

Creating Themes

Using External CSS Style Sheets

Charts, Hyperlinks, and Drill-Downs

Scripting and Event Handling

Types of Scripting

Scripted Data Source

Using Java Objects as Event Handlers

Command-Line Tools

Report Engine API

Outputting to Different Formats

Practical Example— Building Reports for Bugzilla

The Environment

Create the Libraries

First Report—Bug Detail Report

Developer Issues Reports