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BIRT in Actuate version 11 brings in a number of scripting improvements making the task of report development even easier and more effective. Here is a list of some of these improvement and a short description of each.
EasyScript scripting language - Actuate BIRT in version 11 introduces a new scripting language called EasyScript that does not require any knowledge of Javascript. EasyScript syntax is very similar to Excel functions and it comes with an expression builder interface that makes scripting easy. The expression builder provides in-context in-context prompts to enables you to quickly select the function or column that is needed. EasyScript expressions are converted to live formulas when the report is exported to the Excel format. See Video

Report Variables and Page Variables - You can define these new type of variables in the data explorer view.

The main difference between them is that Report Variables are evaluated once when the report is complete whereas page variables are evaluated at the time a page is written.

Either type can be placed on the master page by selecting the Palette View and dragging it from the Variables node. These variables can also be accessed though the report context which provides getter and setter methods:
reportContext.getPageVariable()
reportContext.setPageVariable()
Scripting support for Flash Charts and gadgets - Actuate 11 adds support for scripting in Flash charts and gadgets. You can now invoke Javascript code at various entry points to dynamically modify the data and the display of the Flash charts and gadgets in your BIRT reports.

Scripting for Default Parameter Values - In Actuate 11, you can use Javascript or EasyScript to specify the default values of parameters.

In addition to the default value expression shown above, two new events have been added to parameters that will allow you to set the default selection list and values for a parameter within the script editor.

Duration Script Functions -In Actuate 11, a new set of duration functions have been added to the set of out-of-the-box BIRT functions. The duration data type is a primitive data type for XML content and is used to represent data related to time intervals. These duration functions will enable you to retrieve duration data from XML content, perform aggregations on them and use them in BIRT reports.


You can download Actuate 11 BIRT products for evaluation from here.


Ashwini Verma