1、The Eclipse BIRT Project - An Open Source Reporting Alternative,Paul Clenahan BIRT Project Management Committee (PMC) VP of Product Management, Actuate,What Is Eclipse?,Eclipse is an open source community focused on developing a universal platform of frameworks and exemplary tools that make it easy
2、and cost-effective to build and deploy software in todays connected and unconnected world.Eclipse is a consortium of 13 Strategic Members, 64 Add-in Providers and 14 Associate Members (Publishers, Research Institutes, Standards Org., etc.).,Momentum Around the Eclipse IDE,39 million+ download reques
3、t since the project initiated.“Within the tools market, the options have narrowed to two front-line players: MS Visual Studio family, and the Eclipse based technologies” SD Times, August 1, 2004,OptimalJ,Rational Rapid Developer,Other,Rational XDE,Sun ONE Studio,Together Soft,WebLogic Workshop,Oracl
4、e JDeveloper,IntelliJ IDEA,JBuilder Free / Basic,VisualStudio.Net,NetBeans,JBuilder Enterprise,WebSphere AD,Emacs/VI/Text pad,Eclipse,0%,10%,20%,30%,40%,50%,60%,Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools,Actuate joins Eclipse as Strategic Developer and proposes BIRT Initiative is part of the Eclipse
5、Open Source community Focused on embedded reporting needs for J2EE Addresses a key J2EE application development pain-point,BIRT Top-Level Project Scope,In Reality, this is a Continuum:,Operational Reporting,Ad hoc Query & Reporting,Analytics/OLAP/Data Mining,Typical Characteristics:,Operational repo
6、rts Developer creates reports Very easy end user access Highly formatted Multiple output formats No end user training needed Data access can be complex,Simple ad hoc exploration of data Business user creates reports Fairly easy to use Typically limited formatting Interactive Minimal training Semanti
7、c layer hides complexity,Complex “Slice and Dice” of data Business user creates reports More complex to use Minimal formatting Very interactive Requires training Semantic layer/data cubes,BIRT Initial Focus,Example: Financial Web Site,What are the Project Components?,Initially focused on embedded re
8、porting for Java developers Proposal has 4 initial projects,Data,Report Engine,Generation Services,Presentation Services,Eclipse Report Designer,Report Design Engine,Web Based Report Designer,Custom Report Designer,XML Report Design,Report Document,HTML PDF Print XML ,Data Transform. Services,Charti
9、ng Services,Custom Services,1,2,3,4,Extensible Tools and Frameworks,Extensibility is a key principle for the BIRT project Enables unpredicted usage scenarios Data source extensibility Application specific design-time query builders Custom design and run-time data access Data manipulation extensibili
10、ty Incorporate complex business logic scripting Access existing and new Java code Visualization extensibility Build new visual data presentation widgets Extend charting with new chart types; new output formats Rendering reports for output Target report output for specific devices,BIRT Initial Target
11、 Users,Java developer Designs reports using Eclipse-based designer Embed pre-designed reports in application Provide “guided” report design capabilities in application Highly parameterized reports Customized, rich parameterization user interface Application specific report creation user interface Bu
12、siness User Uses report facilities provided by developer,Code Contributions and Collaboration,Ground-up initiative targeting Java developer needs Actuate R&D project in this area since Q1, 2004 Actuate has donated all work from this project Project aims to leverage other open source Example: Mozilla
13、 Rhino (JavaScript engine) Active collaboration with other Eclipse projects,Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools Timeline,BIRT Project Proposal posted on August 24, 2004 BIRT Project accepted on September 30, 2004,BIRT Release 1.0 Components,Report Designer plug-in for Eclipse framework Graphical
14、 WYSIWYG report layout design tool SQL Query editor General support for common reports Ability to run and preview reports Output from tool is XML report design Java Report Engine for deployment Java class libraries for generating reports from design Designed to be embedded into Java applications Rep
15、ort output is HTML, PDF Business Chart component Java class libraries for generating SWT, Swing and PNG charts Designed to be embedded into Java applications and reports,BIRT Advantages for the MySQL Community,To Java Developers Open Source reporting alternative for MySQL Fully integrated into the E
16、clipse environment Saves calories vs. JSP/Java for reports from MySQL Minutes vs. days for HTML, vs. weeks for PDF Minutes to modify as user requirements change To Application End-Users Nice looking reports from MySQL databases Content as HTML and PDF To Application Owners Minimizes Eclipse develope
17、r training Iterative development gets the right reports quicker,Using BIRT with MySQL,BIRT 1.0 includes support for JDBC and can easily access MySQL Download and install Eclipse components and BIRT Instructions at: http:/www.eclipse.org/birt Download and unzip MySQL Connector/J 3.1 JDBC driver Locat
18、ed at: http:/ Configure BIRT to use the MySQL Connector/J 3.1 driver,How To: 1. Create eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc_0.0.1drivers Place the MySQL JDBC JAR file in this directoryFor runtime, repeat same steps for:eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.viewer_0.0.1birt-viewerWEB-I
19、NFpluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc,Configuring BIRT to Access MySQL,Easy configuration where BIRT automatically registers the JDBC driver JDBC JAR files must be copied to specific locations BIRT will include a user interface to do this configuration step,This How To applies to BIRT 1.0M3
20、 builds and later. For BIRT 1.0M2 see appendix.,How To: Edit eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc_0.0.1plugin.xml. Insert bold:For runtime, repeat same edit for plugin.xml in:eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.viewer_0.0.1birt-viewerWEB-INFpluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jd
21、bc,Configuring BIRT to Access MySQL: UI Hints,Customize the BIRT user interface to make MySQL even easier to access! Make it easy for a wider audience to write reports on your MySQL database You could even include hints for your specific MySQL database configuration,This How To applies to BIRT 1.0M3
22、 builds and later. For BIRT 1.0M2 see appendix.,BIRT in Action!,Ways to Get Engaged in BIRT,As a user of BIRT technology Testing BIRT and providing feedback in the process of using it As an active member of the BIRT community Developing tutorials, examples, etc. Active in the BIRT newsgroup As a dev
23、eloper of extensions Extending BIRT through the standard extension points Data sources; new charts; new output formats; Could be for the open source community, could be for internal use As a developer in existing BIRT code Need to get engaged through the Eclipse development model Proposing/leading a
24、 new project under the BIRT umbrella,The BIRT Community,Project Committers Actuate (http:/) Innovent Solutions (http:/)BIRT pages on Eclipse web site are up and running http:/www.eclipse.org/birt Download BIRT and walk through a tutorialProvide feedback and comments via newsgroup news:/news.eclipse.
25、org/eclipse.birtParticipate through the Eclipse development process See http:/www.eclipse.org ProjectsContact Project Management Committee (PMC)Paul Clenahan pclenahan at (650) 837 2220,Appendix: Configuring BIRT builds earlier than 4/7/2005 to access MySQL,How To: Edit eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.bi
26、rt.report.data.oda.jdbc_0.0.1odaconfig.xml. Insert bold:Copy the MySQL JDBC JAR into the same folder as odaconfig.xml Repeat steps 1 and 2 for folder:eclipsepluginsorg.eclipse.birt.report.viewer_0.0.1birt-viewerWEB-INFpluginsdriversjdbc,Configuring BIRT to Access MySQL: 1.0M2,Applies to BIRT 1.0M2 build and earlier,mysql-connector-java-3.1.7-bin.jar ,This How To applies to BIRT 1.0M2 and earlier.,
