Michael's BIRT Blog

Plug In 2 BIRT Contest - Spring 2013 Ends Soon

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:33:00 +0000

There are only a few days left to get your entry in for the Plug In 2 BIRT Contest - Spring 2013. Be sure to get your entry in by 11:59pm PST on April 30th. If you're still looking to get started, take a look at the contest page. There are some ideas and tutorials there that should help get you started.

Any eligible entry is in the running to win an iPad^®. We'll be giving three away, so there are multiple chances to win! Good luck! We look forward to seeing your entry!

Creating Derived Cube Measures and More with BIRT and ActuateOne

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:46:00 +0000

The usability of a product is a very important factor in the productivity of its users. With enhanced usability features such as derived cube measures, filters that don't impact totals, an enhanced expression builder, and more, Actuate 11 SP4 is doing its part to keep productivity high. In this post, I'm going to shed some light on these features and demonstrate their value.

Gone are the days when BIRT Data Analyzer users and BIRT report authors are forced to define derived measures on their own. In Actuate 11 SP4, the data cube author can define the needed derived measures based on other measures from the cube, allowing the cube consumer to use them as if they are normal, non-derived measures. They won't be able to notice a difference.

On top of that, the new derived measures don't increase the size or generation time of the cube. Unlike a normal cube measure, derived measures are only computed when they are used, allowing you to save some processing time, when a measure is not used. The learning curve on this is very small, as well. The only difference between creating a standard cube measure and a derived cube measure is that the "Is Derived Measure" checkbox must be checked, as seen in the image below.

Have you ever filtered a table or crosstab, but then wanted to do a calculation based on the entire result set? For example, say you had a table with sales by country, but wanted to only show the top 10, so you put a filter on the table. Now, you want to figure out the percent of total sales for each of these countries. In past versions, with the filter, you could no longer do a calculation like this, over the entire, original result set. Well, now you can.

In 11 SP4, BIRT Designer Pro table and crosstab filter dialogs now allow for totals to not be recalculated to exclude the filtered values. In BIRT Data Analyzer, the filter dialogs also have the option to control whether the totals should be recalculated or not, when a crosstab is filtered.

Another enhancement made is to the expression builder for creating new computed columns in both the Interactive Viewer and BIRT Data Analyzer. The provided functions are now categorized into different groups, like Math, Financial, Text, etc. Additional functions have also been added to both products. Some of the new functions included are:

%OF - calculates the percentage for the selected column value in the scope of the selected base group. For the selected column value, the base group can be other column values, Aggregations like Group Total, Grand Total etc.
%OF DIFFERENCE - calculates the percentage of the difference between values in two numbers
RUNNINGSUM - Calculates the running total for the selected Column at the specified base group level
RANK - Calculates the rank for the Column value at the specified level and in specified direction

Creating filters in BIRT Studio also gets easier. The BIRT Studio Table Builder Wizard adds functionality to help users the option to easily define complex, composite filters. Related to this is a performance enhancement for BIRT Studio. Filters defined in the Table Builder Wizard are pushed to the underlying database, in all possible cases, allowing for data to be more efficiently filtered at the source.

With Actuate 11 SP4, BIRT Designer Pro also adds the capability to define which table groups start expanded or collapsed, depending on the granularity needed by creating a Named Expression called “__ac_group_collapse_level” on the containing table. The value is a comma separated list of the groups that are to start collapsed. 1 is starting value for the most outer group. The expand/collapse operations are also more efficient than ever, as they are handled completely on the client side, now, with no calls to the server.

Last, but not least, report authors using BDPro can now use aggregation fields in a table's sort key expression.

Thanks for reading. Next time, I'll talk about the feature upgrades for data connectivity and the iHub. In the meantime, download a free trial version of Actuate BIRT iServer and BIRT Designer Pro, to check it out for yourself.

Drop Elements Depending on Output Format

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:34:00 +0000

Sometimes when designing a report, you want to only show certain elements in certain output formats. Not just hide them, but actually drop them, so the bound dataSet doesn't run or for saved processing time. Say you want to drop a certain element from your report when you run your report to the XLS output. To do this, you'd simply name your report element in the property editor, then put the following in your beforeFactory script:

if(reportContext.getOutputFormat() == "xls"){

	reportContext.getDesignHandle().findElement("elementName").drop();

}

This works as you would expect, for most outputs. However, when you try this for pdf, while it does drop the correct element when you run the report in pdf, it also drops the element when you run the report in the web viewer. This is because getOutputFormat returns pdf when you run your report with the web viewer.

Luckily, there is a way around this. You also have access to the HttpServletRequest, so if you use a script like the following, in your beforeFactory, the correct format will be returned.

if(reportContext.getHttpServletRequest().getAttribute("attributeBean").format == "pdf"){
	reportContext.getDesignHandle().findElement("elementName").drop();
}

With this method, we now see that the web viewer is actually HTML and the correct element is dropped from the report.

This solution will only work in open-source BIRT, as the HttpServletRequest is not available in the commercial version. The sample report used in this post can be downloaded here.

Solving a TOC Bookmark Issue by Using Multiple Fields in a Single Group Expression

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 05:51:00 +0000

Using multiple fields to create a single grouping has been a solution to several different questions I've seen over the years. So, after responding to another post, today, with the same, I decided to do a little write up on it.

The question that inspired the blog post was actually about an issue with the table of contents (TOC). In the designer, when you group your table, a TOC entry is automatically created, if you simply select a field from the drop down. When you run your report to the web viewer or to PDF, there will be a bookmark link in the TOC to allow you to jump right to your grouping. The image below shows the group editor TOC expression and the corresponding TOC entries in the PDF.

But what if you don't want a TOC entry for a group, like our question poster? A bug fix back in BIRT 2.2.0 created a solution for this issue. If you leave the TOC entry expression blank, the group won't appear in the TOC. In this example, we'll remove the TOC expression shown above and you'll see that the orders bookmark no longer appears in the PDF output.

That's great. So, problem solved, right? Hold on, just a minute. In the question asked, the poster wanted to hide the middle group, but show the grouping below that one. If we go back to our example and re-add the orders TOC expression and remove the expression for the customer group, instead, all of a sudden we have an issue. The TOC show's the grouping, but just doesn't have a value next to it. You can see what I'm talking about in the image below.

This probably isn't going to be acceptable for hiding the TOC entry. So, what do we do now. Well, one possible solution to get around this is to join the group you're wanting to hide, with the group below it. In our example, we'll delete the orders group and write a group expression that uses both fields in the customers group.

row["CUSTOMERNAME"] + "-" + row["ORDERNUMBER"];

Now, for the TOC expression, we can simply use the inner grouping field, since we're not wanting to see the customer group. You can see the values I entered in the image below.

After accepting the changes to the group, we only have a couple cosmetic issues to take care of to get the exact same report look as before. I added a second row for the group and moved the order info into it, like it was before. I also changed the styling of this row to match the way it was before.

Also, now that we don't have a separate group for the customername, it will repeat for each order. To fix this, we write a little script to only show the customer name when the value changes. Now, when we preview the report, we have what we were wanting.

Being able to write expressions for different things within BIRT allows you to work around many of the issues you encounter. There are many of them around that come in very handy when customizing your report designs.

Thanks for reading. The example used in this blog can be found in the devShare. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section, below.

Visualizing the Impact of Database Changes with BIRT and ActuateOne

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:50:00 +0000

As the business world changes with time, so does your data source's schema, i.e. changing table names, removing columns, changing data types, etc. In doing so, IT must spend lots of valuable resources updating applications that are impacted by these changes.

Click here to see the video in full resolution

To help soften the blow, Actuate 11SP4 introduces new Impact and Dependency Analysis capabilities. This allows the developer to identify what applications and content must be updated with the change to the database schema, giving a much clearer picture on the cost and resources needed to complete the update, before it even begins. Additionally, such analysis allows the development team to easily identify which BIRT designs depend upon certain libraries, Information Objects, or Data Object, to easily assess the impact of updating or removing these resources.

The Database Search also allows BIRT developers to easily identify files that use and are dependent on the selected database component. With a couple clicks of the mouse, a BIRT developer can access a diagram, showing the dependency tree, for the project. The diagram also highlights the dependency path from the selected BIRT item, to all other items that would be affected by a change to this element.

The dependency Impact Analysis view can also be invoked by clicking on any file in the Outline view of the BIRT designer, such as a BIRT design, a Data Object, an Information Object, BIRT Library, etc. This gives the developer another way to access the dependency analysis information for a given file, before making any changes.

Another new feature, in Actuate 11SP4, is the ability to create and preview Information Objects within BIRT Designer Pro, rather than having to deploy them to a BIRT iServer as part of the authoring process. BIRT developers will still have the familiar experience they're used to, when creating the Information Object, they just no longer have to specify an iServer, though, Information Objects published to an iServer will still be available when creating designs, just like in the past. Also, to make things easier on the developer, report designs and Information Objects no longer have to be created in separate projects, allowing the BIRT developer to create Information Objects and the designs that consume them, at the same time, as part of the same project.

Publishing to your BIRT iServer, in Actuate 11SP4, has also been made easier, providing a single BIRT Designer Pro dialog for publishing your designs and resources. The dialog allows BIRT developers to choose the files they'd like to publish and also choose whether or not they should overwrite the previous version, if it exists, already, on the server. Publishing to the iServer isn't the only thing that's gotten simpler. BIRT Designer Pro also provides a new download dialog to download published or user created content, for re-use or enhancement.

Next time, I'll show how Actuate 11SP4 enhances the usability of the BIRT product line. In the meantime, download a free trial version of Actuate BIRT iServer and BIRT Designer Pro, to check it out for yourself.

Actuate's 11SP4 Release Provides Many Powerful New Capabilities, Including HTML5 Charts and more!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:15:00 +0000

Actuate 11SP4 builds on the already powerful ActuateOne™ platform, by bringing many, new capabilities, to the table, like developer productivity, visualization and interactivity, end user usability, and more. These capabilities include:

HTML5 charts to enable consistent user experience and enhanced interactivity across conventional and mobile platforms
New data source types, such as, Hadoop and Salesforce.com
Impact and dependency analysis to ease develpment and management of applications
Simplified publishing to the BIRT iServer
Performance Optimization in BIRT Studio and Information Objects
Relative time period support, enabling more powerful and dynamic comparisons across time
and more...

One of the more major enhancements, of the bunch, is that all commonly used BIRT chart types now support HTML5 output format, along with the existing formats, SVG, JPG, PNG, and BMP. Catching your user's attention will be easier than ever with the out-of-the-box animation effects and new levels of interactivity. Custom animation effects and interactivity can also be defined, through scripting, making being forced to rely on pre-determined visualizations, a thing of the past.

Click here to see the video in full resolution

Adding an HTML5 chart to your report is easy. Simply drag a chart from the palette, into your report layout, as you've always done. Only, choose HTML5 from the dropdown, instead of one of the other supported formats. Upgrading charts to HTML5, from one of the existing formats can be done by changing this same setting.

Making this change exposes the HTML5 chart specific properties, allowing you to preview the chart animation effects in the preview window of the chart builder. A script tab is now present in the chart builder, where custom animations, for HTML5 charts, are scripted. This script tab is also available with the other formats, for convenience of seeing everything in one place. Starting in 11SP4, theme functionality is available for all chart-specific formatting properties, like legend formatting, chart title formatting, etc. These themes can be used across all charts to give a common look/feel to your BIRT visualizations. The themes can also be exported to a library for reusability.

Click here to see the video in full resolution

Next time, I'll detail how developer productivity will get a boost with Actuate 11SP4. In the meantime, download a free trial version of Actuate BIRT iServer and BIRT Designer Pro, to check it out for yourself.

Getting a Marker in the Middle of a Gantt Chart Bar, Multi-Level HTML List Numbering, and more...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 03:11:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 9/24/12

The first post, for this week, is about placing a marker in the middle of a gantt series bar. The poster wanted to be able to have a marker in the middle of a gantt chart bar, that was not at the beginning or the end. A gantt chart only has the option to have a marker at the beginning or end of a series. An example is provided that shows how two series can be used to make it appear as if there is a marker in the middle of the bar.

The next post, for this week, is about getting multi-level numbering in html lists. The poster wanted to be able to take an HTML list like:

and make it look like:

    1. Cats
    2. Dogs
        2.1 Birds
        2.2 Rats
            2.2.1 Birds
            2.2.2 Rats
            2.2.3 Rats
            2.3.4 Rats
    3. Rabbits
    4. Ants
        4.1 Lions
        4.2 Rats
        4.3 Rats
        4.4 Rats
    5. Ducks

The needed CSS styles to make this happen were failing to upload into the design. The solution that was found to work was to take the css styles:

ul.numericbullets { counter-reset:section; list-style-type:none; } 
ul.numericbullets li { list-style-type:none; } 
ul.numericbullets li ul { counter-reset:subsection; } 
ul.numericbullets li ul li ul{ counter-reset:subsubsection; } 
ul.numericbullets li:before{ 
    counter-increment:section; 
    content:counter(section) ". ";
} 
ul.numericbullets li ul li:before { 
    counter-increment:subsection; 
    content:counter(section) "." counter(subsection) " "; 
} 
ul.numericbullets li ul li ul li:before { 
    counter-increment:subsubsection; 
    content:counter(section) "." counter(subsection) "." counter(subsubsection) " "; 
}

and place them in style.css in webcontet -> birt -> styles. This style sheet is used in run and frameset. It won't work with preview, so don't be worried if you don't see this in any output that uses the preview option.

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

If you have a suggestion or solution for any of these, please post in the thread!

Thanks for reading this weeks blog! Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Switch to a Default Table if no Values Returned in Query, Parameterize the From Portion of an SQL Query, and more...

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:45:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 9/17/12

The first post, for this week, is about showing a default result set if the main one is empty. The poster wanted to be able to show a default table if the parameter entered by the user returned no results. An example is posted in the thread that shows how to set the visibility of the two tables based on a variable that is set in the onFetch of the parameterized dataSet.

The next post, for this week, is about how to parameterize the from portion of an SQL query. The poster wanted to be able to use a parameter value to choose which table to use in the from portion of an SQL query. The solution provided was to use the report parameter in the beforeOpen of the dataSet, like:

this.queryText = "select * from " + params["myparameter"];

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

Adding Text to an Image, Using Table Data for a Crosstab's Data, and more...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:42:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 9/10/12

The first post, for this week, is about adding text to an image. The poster wanted to be able to add text to an image, within BIRT. One option could be to use the image as a background image on a grid or text element. The poster wasn't able to use this method, because background images don't export to Excel. Another solution that adds the text to the image, in script, using the image data, is attached in the forum thread.

The next post, for this week, is about using a table's output as input to a crosstab. The poster wanted to be able to feed the final results of their table to a crosstab. An example is posted in the thread that shows how to grab the table data and use it in a scripted dataSet that is used to build the cube.

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

Only Highlight Bars of a Certain Series in a Chart, Reordering a Table's Columns, and more...

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 01:16:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 9/3/12

The first post, for this week, is about highlighting bars in a single series of a chart, only. The poster was using script in the beforeDrawDataPoint to color their data point. The problem is that they were highlighting all series, not just the one they wanted. The solution to this is to check the series with dph.getSeriesDisplayValue() before setting the color.

The next post, for this week, is about reordering columns in a table. The poster has a table already in their design, but they'd like to reorder the columns based on a condition. An example is provided in the forum thread with beforeFactory code that switches the order of columns in a table based on a parameter.

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

Highlighting a Parameter Value within a Text, Creating an Airplane Seating Chart, and more...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:45:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 8/27/12

The first post, for this week, is about . The poster wanted to be able to highlight the parameter value within a text in their report. An example is provided in the thread with shows one way to achieve this using script.

The next post, for this week, is about creating a graphical representation of airplane seating. The poster wanted to be able to show a graphical representation of an airplane's seating chart, showing which seats are occupied/reserved. An example showing a way in which this can be done can be found in the thread.

Here are a few more :

Here is an unanswered post, from last week:

Query Problem with Temporary Tables and Variables

Change Bar Color at Threshold, Creating a Chart in Script, and more...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:45:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 8/20/12

The first post, for this week, is about coloring a bar based on a threshold value. The poster wanted to be able to color the portion of the bar that passed a threshold value. Say, there was a chart threshold of 50 and there were three bars valued at 75, 55, and 45. The first two bars would be one color up to 50, then another color above. The last bar would be entirely the first color. What is done in this case is to use two series. One that goes all the way up to the threshold, if the value is that high, and the other to continue above the threshold if needed. This allows for two colors at the threshold line. An example report can be found in the forum thread.

The next post, for this week, is about creating a chart in script. The poster wanted to know if it was possible to create a chart, on the fly, in script. An example can be found in the forum that shows how to create a chart, in script, using an existing dataSet.

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

Flowing Multi-Line Report Content Across Multiple Page Columns, Formatting a Value in an HTML Text Box, and more...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:53:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 8/13/12

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. The forums continue to pick the pace back up and are pretty busy, now. Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The first topic, for this week, is about flowing report content across multiple page columns. The issue in this post is that there is not a standard newspaper layout, in BIRT, yet. The normal solution for this is to use a grid, duplicate tables, and filters to make the appearance of wrapping columns. The issue the poster was having with this was that they had multi-line rows that caused issues with ordering. The solution provided was to break the original dataSet's long rows into single line rows, allowing the normal solution to work. An example is posted in the thread showing this. Another example showing this with grouping, is also attached in the thread.

The last in detail topic, from last week, is about formatting currency values in an HTML text box. The poster was displaying a value using the tag, in an HTML text box, so they could include it in a string, but they wanted it to come as a currency value, with symbol and decimal. The solution is that you can set a format property on the value-of tag, telling it how you want the value formatted, like: row._outer["yourColumn"]

Here are a few more :

Here are a few unanswered posts, from last week:

Showing Percentages in a Pie Chart, Limiting an Embedded Element with an Outer Element Value, and more...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:02:00 +0000

Last Week in the Forums - 8/6/12

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. Forum traffic continues to fluctuate during the summer, which is expected, but they're still fairly busy each week. Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

I've decided to change the format, slightly. I'll continue to focus on a couple posts, in more detail, as I've always done. Instead of covering an unanswered post, in detail, I'll just list several unanswered posts, from the previous week, in hopes that a few answers will come out of the extra publicity, for them. I'll also list some other questions that have been answered, so this post can be a better summary of the forums, in each week. This hope is that this will aid community members in finding past posts that answer their questions. Feel free to let me know if you like or hate the changes. :)

The first topic I'll discuss, from last week, is about showing a percentage in a pie chart. The issue was that the dataSet consisted of a jobID and a status column. The status column was either "Complete" or blank. The solution given was to create a computed column to give the blank rows a value of "Not Complete", then, to use the computed column for the category and the count of jobs for the slice value. To get the percent, the series label needed to be changed from Value Data to Percentile Value Data. This can be done in the chart wizard. An example is posted in the thread.

The last detailed description post, for this week, is about limiting embedded tables with an outer table value. The issue is, when you embed a table, how can you limit the embedded table with a value from the outer table. There are a couple possibilities, here. One, if you're using SQL, is to use a dataSet parameter in your inner query, and use the dataSet parameter binding option, which can be found on the binding tab of the inner table, to pass row._outer["myoutertablevalue"] directly to the inner query. Another available way, if you're not using SQL, is to use this value in a filter on the inner table, to limit the data. An example of the data set parameter binding way can be found in the thread.

Here are a few more:

And a few unanswered ones:

If you have a suggestion or solution for any of these, please post in the thread!

Thanks for reading this week's blog! Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last Week in the Forums: Export Data Gives Wrong Column Name, Sorting a String Field in a Custom Order, and more...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:28:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. The forums continue to pick the pace back up and are pretty busy, now. Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered post, from last week, that I'll cover, is about outputting the display name in csv export. The issue in this post is that the csv export uses the original column name from the database, rather than the "display name", defined in the report. The output is fine when export report is used, but with export data, it is not. If anyone has a solution or suggestion for this, please post in the thread.

The next topic I'll cover, this week, is about sorting a string field in a custom order. The issue in this post is that the desired sort order for a "status" column should be user defined. The sort order should be able to be any order, not just ascending and descending alphabetically. An example solution is provided that takes the values from the field and puts them in an HTML form with input text boxes, so the user can specify the order. A link to the devshare article can be found in the thread or you can just click here, to go directly to it.

The last topic, for this week, is about hiding the date that always shows at the bottom of the report. I saw this question, last week, and it made me think. If you're new to BIRT, you may not know the whole master page vs design layout setup, so I could see how this could trick a new user. For those wanting to get rid of the date at the bottom of the page, simply go to the master page tab under the design window, and delete the date element from the footer. This is also where you would add any content that you'd like to appear on each page, like page numbers, etc.

Thanks for reading this weeks blog! Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last Week in the Forums: Issue Running Report from iServer, Adding a Second Column in the Grand Total Area of Crosstab, and more...

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:27:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. The forums picked back up after their one week lull. Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered post for this week is about an issue opening a report from iServer. Normally, when they click on a report from the iServer, the parameter window pops up, then the report opens in that window. However, sporadically, the report opens in a new window and a new parameter window pops up over it. If the window is closed, the report is there. If anyone has experienced this issue, before, and knows what is happening, please post in the thread!

The next post I'll discuss, this week, is about adding another column to the grand total area in a crosstab. The poster wanted to add a second column to the grand total column to show a percentage of the total. An example is posted in the thread that shows a way in which this can be achieved.

The last post we'll cover, this week, is about creating a TOC in your report. The poster wanted to have a TOC in their report. A devShare example is linked in the thread that shows how a page number TOC and a hyperlink to the internal bookmark, in the report.

Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last Week in the Forums: JAX-WS Data Source Issue, Issue with Scatter Plot and LOTS of Data, and more...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:43:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. There seemed to be a little bit of a lull in traffic this past week. That's probably a good thing, because I was out of town the last half of the week. I know if everyone else's weather is anything like the weather here, in Kansas, people are probably running off to vacation, in a cool place! :) Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered post, from last week, that I'll cover, is about using a JAX-WS (axis 2) data source, with BIRT. The poster is currently running into issues with getting the schema from the response, while using Geronimo. If anyone has set something like this up or has any web services wisdom to pass along, please post in the thread.

The next topic I'll discuss is about using lots of data in a scatter plot. The poster was having troubles plotting the data they had. Using a line chart, they ended up with weird straight lines running across the chart where they shouldn't be. With this happening, they turned to a scatter plot, but the smallest size of marker was too big to show the intricate details of the plot, as there was lots and lots of data and multiple series close together. A solution is provided that shows the output of using a 1 pixel image as the marker with the size set at 0. With this setting, the marker truly is a 1 pixel dot, which allows the plot to render clearly, even with lots of data. The poster ended up using a different route, that required more work, to get around the issue. Their solution is detailed step by step, in the thread.

The last topic, for this week, is about using row data to auto-fill values in a standard text. The poster had several rows of data and wanted to use the values from their dataSet rows to personalize a text. One solution to this is detailed in the thread. It is to use a text box in a table bound to the dataSet and use the tag inside the HTML text box to be able to call the current row's data to complete the text. Within the table, this will dynamically fill in the appropriate information into the text, for each row.

Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last week in the Forums: Fragmented WSDL Schema Issue, Modyfying a Grid's Contents Dynamically, and more...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:46:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. Lots of good questions were asked in this first week of the second half of the year. Doesn't look like we'll be slowing down much, at all, this year. Keep the good questions and answers coming. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered post, for this week, is about a problem with fragmented wsdl schemas, in BIRT. The poster is having an issue using a fragmented schema in their web service dataSet. They show their original wsdl and original schema in the thread, along with a changed schema that they found they could do to make it work, but they don't want to have to do. If anyone has run into an issue with this before or has an idea of something they could do to get around it without changing the schema, please post in the thread.

The next topic I'll cover is about modifying the contents of a grid dynamically. The poster wanted to be able to create an array from the rows in a dataSet and, then, step through their grid and change the values of the labels in each grid cell. The problem they were having was that they didn't have access to their data until the onCreate, but weren't able to step through their grid and modify the contents, at this point. They also didn't want to have to place script on each cell/label. A solution is provided that uses script in the before Factory to step through the grid and modify each label's onCreate script, so that the code only has to be done in one place. The example can be downloaded from the thread.

The last topic, for this week, is about adding grouping to a table dynamically and forcing a space between the groups. The poster wanted to be able to group their data and have a space between the groups, using the DEAPI, not the designer. Some beforeFactory code is shown in the thread that grabs the table, creates a grouping, adds it to the table, and adds group header and footer rows. The footer row's height is set to force a spacing between the groups. As described in the thread, the script to add the header row and group header data element is commented out, as the poster did not want this.

Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last week in the Forums: XML DataSource Connection, Dynamic Column Sorting, and more...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:55:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. We're halfway through the year, already. The forums are still steadily busy and I look for that to continue. It seems like yesterday we were kicking off the new year. We've had a good first half, let's make the second half just as good or even better. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered question from last week is about passing connection credentials through XML. The poster is using an XML dataSource. They want to know if there is a way to pass the database connection credentials through XML. If anyone has experience with this issue or suggestions, please post in the thread.

The next topic for this week is about dynamic column sorting. The poster wanted to know how they could sort their report by clicking on a hyperlink in the column header. An example is posted in the thread which shows how this can be done using parameters, hyperlinks, and some script. The Actuate Interactive Viewer would be a way to handle this for all reports without the need to code each report.

The last topic I'll discuss is the newspaper layout issue. The poster was wanting to know if and when the newspaper layout would be supported as a standard feature. The answer is that there is no specific version set, yet. A post to a devShare example showing a way to create a newspaper layout can be found in the thread. The following link is the bug report / enhancement request for the newspaper layout. If you're wanting this feature, please click on the following link and let them know by voting for it.

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=133218

Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.

Last week in the Forums: Scroll Bars on a Chart, Line Height Issue in PDF, and more...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:05:00 +0000

This blog series takes a look back at the past week in the forums, recalling how active they were and highlights some of the questions asked that seem to frequent the forums or other interesting topics. As expected, the forums are starting to slow a little, over the summer, at least for now. That being said, they're slowing down from a state of high traffic, so there are still many posts coming in, each week. As always, thanks to those users who help answer questions! It is a great help to the community!

The unanswered post, this week, is about scroll bars on a chart. The poster has a gantt chart that they want to have vertical scroll bars on. If anyone has done this or has ideas, please post your suggestions in the thread.

The next topic, for this week, is about line height in PDF. This question comes through the forums often enough. When you set the line height in BIRT to a larger value than the text, all outputs show a larger line height. However, when you try to have a smaller line height, the HTML outputs show this, but PDF does not. The reason that some people tried to reduce the line height was because PDF seemed to show extra spacing between lines. This should be solved in BIRT 3.7, as there is a new line height algorithm for 3.7+. So, if you're using an older version and having issues with line spacing, upgrading will be the easiest option. The next option is probably to edit the pdf emitter.

The last topic, for this week, is about passing multiple values to a report through a parameter. The poster had a HTML select form in their report in a HTML text box that they wanted the user to be able to select multiple values from and submit the form and recall the design passing the multiple selections through their parameter. A sample report is included in the thread that does just that. It passes the current values through the parameter and uses them in the query to limit the dataSet. It also sets them as the selected values in the drop down.

Again, this is just a small sample of what went through the forums this past week. For more questions and answers that have been posted, check out the forums. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask it, and if you see a question you know the answer to or have a similar experience to, feel free to post an answer or comment.