Huw said, “My DevShare entry is a tutorial and report design for a browser based database viewer, designed to provide an easy and intuitive method for non-database administrators to view entire database tables as well as to find specific information without requiring extensive SQL knowledge. I was given the task of simplifying the existing system for finding and diagnosing errors in the Websphere MQ based system at my workplace. In a typical day there will be 10 to 15 thousand entries added into our databases, with perhaps 1500 exception entries and no easy method of finding these errors.

“While existing database log browsers exist, research showed that none of them were ideal. They either gave too many privileges to the end-user (write access), were too complicated, did not have the correct functionality or were too costly to implement. We chose to use a Business Intelligence suite instead of writing a custom web-app so we could leverage the other capabilities such as standardised reports and charting.”

Huw is a Middleware developer specialising the Websphere MQ and Message Broker software line, although he recently transitioned to a web-development role. Huw has only been using Business Intelligence Tools for 5 months and BIRT for 4. Beyond writing and extending the log browser he has written a number of other standard reports to display performance and error summary information. Huw is currently waiting for Integration and UAT testing to complete before he transitions back to BIRT development and future work will probably involve integrating BIRT and the log-browser into a custom web-based administrator tool for message broker.

For his award, Huw will receive a gift certificate to Amazon.com worth $250.

Congratulations Huw!

The press release describes the details and prizes of the contest. Some helpful resource pages are provided with integration points between the two technologies.

I think the combination of these two powerful RIA technologies will result in something spectacular. How could it not? Integrating the best of Flex into BIRT, or the best of BIRT into Flex is going to make something zing. The creativity of developers today is off the charts, as well as their skills. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Come showcase your talent, get tons of free marketing opportunities for your creation, and win some money.
Fame, free distribution, and fortune. I think you can handle that…

John said, “The article is written as first in a series of article discussing how to work with BIRTs extension points. I am trying to get the word out that BIRT is capable of doing so much more than what it does out of the box, and one of the keys to BIRTs flexibility are these extension points. I figured the best starting place would be with either the Aggregations or the User Script Libraries. As I hadn’t worked with the new extension model in BIRT 2.3+, I decided to start there.”

John is a BIRT consultant at Innovent Solutions, and the author of Practical Data Analysis and Reporting with BIRT. He has been working with BIRT since the beta phase in 2004/2005. He currently focuses on helping clients integrate BIRT into their applications and optimize report designs.

John chose a black iPod Shuffle for his award.

It looks like there will be four BIRT sessions at this year’s EclipseCon developer conference. The conference will run from March 22nd to March 25th in Santa Clara, California and there is still plenty of time to sign up.

• Jason Weathersby will teach us about the BIRT project, framework, and APIs with his session called BIRT to the Bare Metal: Framework and API
• John Ward will host a two-hour tutorial called Getting Started With BIRT
• Abhisek Sinha will show us how BIRT is used with data-driven applications in his session called Jumpstart: Making Your App Shine with Rich Reports and Visualizations Using BIRT
• … and I will show you how to customize your BIRT reports in my session called Flexible, Powerful Reports Using BIRT Scripting

The full list of all the reporting talks can be found at http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/sessions/?tags=Reporting.

Topics covered include:

• BIRT Overview and Architecture - what is BIRT, high-level BIRT architecture
• BIRT Integration - using the design engine API, using the report engine API
• BIRT Deployment - deploying the AJAX-based BIRT viewer, using the APIs within a servlet, RCP engine integration

Get more information and sign up to see the webcast at http://live.eclipse.org/node/856

1. Working with Extension Points: Aggregations - Designing BIRT Reports, by johnw
2. How to use Maven with Birt - Deploying BIRT Reports, by mxc
3. Wicket and Birt Integration - Deploying BIRT Reports, by mxc

The contest voting is open to the entire BIRT Exchange community. Please take a look at these submissions and vote here. Note that you must be logged in to vote. The poll closes at noon Pacific time on January 14, 2010.

Notice: We decided to delay announcing the Best DevShare Contribution of the Year Award until after the voting for this December contest is over. At that time we will announce the 2009 nominees and open up community voting for the winner [Edit: My error, the winner will be selected by determining the most popular submission — not by a poll.]. So stay tuned…

I’m looking forward to 2010. You can expect some exciting things to happen in and around BIRT Exchange.

First of all, we have plans in place for improvements to the BIRT Community site that should be rolled out during the next few months:

• improved home page featuring a better layout with links to additional content
• more BIRT-related blogs and bloggers
• enhancements to search to help locate interesting things more easily
• member recognition capabilities to show off those who are top contributors and leaders in the BIRT Exchange community
• social networking feeds
• . . . and lots more!

I’m planning to host periodic live chats with developers, BIRT evangelists and community folks by using a free on-line service to exchange ideas, ask questions and meet some of the folks who are active on BIRT Exchange (I’m currently evaluating TalkShoe). I have no dates set yet, but the first one will probably occur sometime during the first quarter of 2010.

Other things you may find of interest:

Paul Bappoo and Ben Best have plans underway to start the first BIRT User Group (BUG) in London, England. The date is set for January 28th and the location and time will be determined soon. If you’re interested in participating, please register at the birt-reporting.com site.

Jason Weathersby has a webinar titled Integrating BIRT within your Applications coming up on January 26th at 9am Pacific time.

Courtney Claussen at Sybase has posted an overview of BIRT that they’ve just included as part of their IQ product suite. Check it out.

Actuate is sponsoring Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and pages. Friend/fan/follow them (and search #birt on Twitter) to keep up with the latest news about BIRT and BIRT Exchange.

Keep your eyes on the App Showcase on the BIRT Exchange Open Marketplace. More apps are added every week and it’s a great place to find cool things developers have done with BIRT for sale or free download. Add one yourself to show your own BIRT prowess and/or make some money.

Oh… and don’t forget December’s DevShare Contributor of the Month Contest. There is still time to submit your entry to win an iPod, BIRT books or a cool sound activated “BIRT Rocks!” light-up T-shirt! There are not many entries this month (note that Actuate employees are ineligible), so your chances of winning are pretty good.

I wish you all the best for this holiday season!

-Ray

Paul said, “I wrote this brief introduction to BIRT from a new user’s perspective because I had been invited to the IBM Maximo UK and Ireland user group meeting and in return for the invitation I promised to “give something back” to the group, rather than simply turn up and use it as an opportunity to sell my Maximo financial systems integration services to the group members. When I saw the BIRT demonstration I was very impressed and having spoken to some of the group members, I realised that BIRT was new to them and that a review would be useful to the group. So often busy people have little time to invest in learning a new technology or product so I hoped to solve this problem by creating a simple, quick to read overview. It would seem, from the feedback I have received that I was successful in this endeavor.”

Paul has been a software consultant for over 20 years and has always been interested in computers, technology and business. He has been using BIRT for the last couple months from the perspective of writing about it. He has not yet had the chance to use BIRT for any serious business applications, but expects that to change in the near future as more opportunities open up.

Since creating his first BIRT report, Paul has written a number of guides, reviews and tutorials on BIRT and set up BirtReporting.com as a vehicle to bring this material to a wider audience. Paul says, “I have been astounded by the positive reaction to this site and by the help and support being offered by Actuate. This has been great fun for me so far so winning this competition is icing on the cake!”

Paul chose an iPod for his award.

It’s not too late… to get your own DevShare article posted in time for the next month’s contest which closes on November 30th. If you’ve cooked up something that you can share with the BIRT Exchange community, please post it soon! You can create a tutorial like Paul, build a BIRT application, template or component, or write up some of the tips and solutions to problems you’ve run into during the past – anything that’s helped you use BIRT more effectively will probably be useful to others too.  And don’t forget the BIRT Exchange Open Marketplace. A code-based DevShare submission could be a good candidate for the Marketplace as well.

The monthly DevShare contest rules and list of previous winners can be found here.

1. BIRT - A Newbies Perspective - Articles - BIRT Exchange by bappoo
2. Ad-Hoc Database Browser Report - Tutorials - BIRT Exchange by Happy
3. Actuate BIRT review - Articles - BIRT Exchange by bappoo
4. Reports with printable table of contents - Designs & Code - BIRT Exchange by jfire_birt
5. Eclipse Plugin - Maximo Report Generator for BIRT Reports - Designs & Code - BIRT Exchange by voller

We have opened the contest voting to the entire BIRT Exchange community. Please take a look at the submissions and add your vote here.

If you are using JBoss and are interested in how BIRT might integrate, then attend this webinar where we will show several options.

More information can be found at http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/info/birt-jboss/?tracklink