Community BIRT Community BIRT Syndication Wed, 08 May 2013 02:40:49 +0000 birtexfeedback@birt-exchange.com (BIRT Exchange Forum) IP.Blog 60 Announcing April 2013 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

April 2013 Leaderboard Scores

mblock.............67
Hans_vd............56
bricombs...........51
wwilliams..........39
Jenkinsj5..........37
Yaytay.............29
Clement Wong.......25
ahsiang............21
Shasha.............21
Megha Nidhi Dahal..20
rmurphy............17
RSiegler...........16

Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We even give a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls (but make sure you're logged in so it will be assigned to you).

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000 Mannheim BIRT User Group Meeting on May 16 Posted Image

If you'll be in the central Germany area on the evening of May 16, don't miss the BIRT User Group Mannheim meeting at 6:00pm. BIRT User Groups are excellent opportunities to improve your BIRT skills, learn new things and network with other BIRT users in your area. New, intermediate and expert BIRT users and developers are all welcome.

Agenda:
  • 6-7pm: High performance BIRT reports. This presentation describes some common pitfalls on your way to creating high performance reports. It covers ineffective interactions with the report engine API and points out some bad decisions that can lead to poor report design.
  • 7-8pm: Networking. Get to know other BIRT enthusiasts. Discuss features of the latest BIRT release and talk about topics and presentations for the next meeting.

The meeting is totally free of charge. Snacks and drinks will be provided -- as well as a DZone BIRT cheat-sheet handout and some nice doorprizes!

You can get additional information and register for this meeting by clicking here.

If you don't live close to any of the existing BIRT User Groups and would be interested in seeing one formed in you area, please contact me.]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:58:00 +0000 Get Your Plug In 2 BIRT Submissions In Soon Plug In 2 BIRT contest. There are less than two weeks left before the deadline -- but that's plenty of time to get your code built and submitted.

You say you've never built a plug-in before?
No problem, they are easier to build than you might think! The contest web site has lots of tutorials and examples to help you get started. Plus you'll find a wealth of ideas and suggestions there for plug-ins that many BIRT users have asked for.

Take a look and give it a shot for a chance to win an iPad (we're giving 3 away). We'd love to see what you can come up with.]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:15:00 +0000 Advocacy at Developer Relations Conference 2013 Posted Image

Last month I had the honor along with Nobby Akiha (our Marketing SVP at Actuate) of doing a presentation on Developer Advocacy at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference (DRC). Advocacy is a growing marketing trend that organizes and provides incentives to people who talk positively about a company and its technologies, products or services. In particular, advocates are a company's greatest fans.

My talk centered on the group of select BIRT developers we're identifying at Actuate and our objectives to give them credit when they talk about BIRT and provide them with interesting and effective ways of doing so. We're using a cool gamified infrastructure hosted by Influitive to provide the recruitment, recognition and organization of these developers. Advocates are given opt-in challenges that are simple or complex tasks to promote BIRT within their social and/or professional spheres of influence. Plus I try to make it fun and rewarding! Completed challenges give a weighted number of "points" for the advocate based on the level of effort required, badges are awarded for special achievements, and people are placed on a Leaderboard for some fun competition.

Some of the challenges I've designed ask advocates to comment on blogs or articles, start on-line conversations about data reporting and visualization, answer questions about BIRT, provide us with feedback on training materials and even just fill out their BIRT Exchange profiles so others get to know them better. In thanks for their advocacy we will reward them in ways meaningful to them like increasing their professional or personal on-line capital or giving them access to events or other areas of interest.

Posted Image

In fact, the good people at Influitive were kind enough to build a custom site for the DRC that I used to create gamified challenges for the attendees so they could experience what an advocacy program was like for themselves. The challenges ranged from simple tweeting during the conference to joining the DRC LinkedIn group, liking Evans Data on Facebook, taking quizzes, reading and commenting on blogs and providing feedback about the conference.

The DRC itself was very rewarding and as usual I was very impressed by the speakers, insights and the wealth of information I received. I highly encourage anyone who is a developer relations professional to attend this unique annual event. Evans Data always provides the latest look into what developers like and dislike, what motivates them and the best ways to get their attention. Did you know hat 42% of the developers Evans surveyed are developing mobile apps (half of the developers moonlight). Another interesting tidbit is that most developers rely on vendors as the most credible sources for emerging technologies (i.e., not their peers) -- this is a big change in past years.

Take a look at the conference site for a list of the speakers and topics discussed. Also please feel free to post a comment if you want to find out more about what we're doing for BIRT advocacy at Actuate.]]> Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:27:00 +0000 BIRT Roadshows - Free Training in Q2
Posted Image

You are invited!
Actuate is hosting free one day strategy and training sessions in the following cities:

April 2013

Kansas City, MO . . . .Tuesday, 4/23
Denver, CO . . . . . Wednesday, 4/24
Seattle, WA . . . . . Thursday, 4/25

May 2013

New York, NY . . . . . Tuesday, 5/07
Detroit, MI . . . . .Wednesday, 5/08
Cincinnati, OH . . . .Thursday, 5/09
Las Vegas, NV . . . . .Tuesday, 5/21
Vancouver, BC . . . . Thursday, 5/23

June 2013

Rockville, MD . . . . .Tuesday, 6/04
Philadelphia, PA . . Wednesday, 6/05
Raleigh, NC . . . . . Thursday, 6/06



This introductory training series is designed for those unfamiliar or just getting started with BIRT. During the day you will hear about technical strategies and opportunities that will help you anticipate and address future business needs –plus– learn how to develop rich information applications for your users through hands-on training that covers Eclipse and Actuate BIRT features.

These Roadshows are great ways to learn more about BIRT whether you're an Eclipse open source developer or an Actuate customer. Lunch is provided as well as giveaways and door prizes so you can expect an informative day with a chance to meet other BIRT users in your area and have a little fun.

Don't miss this opportunity to take part in one of these exciting events.]]> Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:42:00 +0000 Announcing March 2013 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

March 2013 Leaderboard Scores

Hans_vd.......156
Yaytay.........84
bricombs.......69
Jenkinsj5......48
Tubal..........30
cbrell.........27
RSiegler.......21
Clement Wong...16
wwilliams......15
wirzbicki......13
jverly01.......12

Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We even give a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls (but make sure you're logged in so it will be assigned to you).

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:57:00 +0000 Plug In 2 BIRT Contest for Spring 2013 Posted Image
At EclipseCon Boston, Actuate announced the Plug In to BIRT Contest for Spring 2013 .

This new contest will award a new 4th generation iPad for each of the 3 best plug-in implementations (extensions to BIRT) submitted to BIRT Exchange between now and April 30, 2013.

Our Contest Details and Examples Wiki page has everything you need to get started -- tutorials, sample code, and lots of suggestions for new plug-ins we'd like to see.

But you've never created a BIRT plug-in before?
Not a problem. Plug-ins are usually straightforward to implement for most good developers -- in fact our previous winners were almost all first-time BIRT plug-in developers.

And if you're up for a challenge, BIRT developers are always looking for new Chart Types. We have several ideas listed or please come up with your own.

IMPORTANT
We are asking for source code in this contest to help in the judging. You can license the source however you wish as long as the judges are authorized to evaluate it.

So check out the Contest Details and Examples Wiki page and get started!]]> Sat, 30 Mar 2013 04:40:00 +0000 ActuateOne Users Wanted for Wisdom of Crowds Study
Posted Image

Do you use any of the products in ActuateOne® (Actuate’s BIRT-based suite of commercial products for development and deployment of custom business analytics applications)? If so, make your voice heard and join the independent 2013 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence study being run by Dresner Advisory Services, a well-respected market research firm.

From the study questionnaire:

"The objective of this study is to collect data on trends, vendors and products in the Business Intelligence marketplace. As a result we will be able to examine the realities, plans and perceptions surrounding this important market. We will also rank vendors and products - creating an important tool for those seeking to invest in Business Intelligence Solutions."

We want this effort to be a success and you can help by spending 15 minutes to fill out the questionnaire. Please don't forget to choose Actuate as your primary vendor (only one vendor can be selected).

TAKE A LOOK AND COMPLETE THE QUESTIONNAIRE

We appreciate your time and interest. Qualified users who complete the study will receive a complimentary copy of the results for their personal use.]]> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:24:00 +0000 Announcing February 2013 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

February 2013 Leaderboard Scores

cbrell.........107
Hans_vd.........86
Jenkinsj5.......46
Clement Wong....45
jakoby84........35
bricombs........33
sachindhus......21
mblock..........18
RSiegler........16
Yaytay..........13

Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We even give a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls (but make sure you're logged in so it will be assigned to you).

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:08:00 +0000 CLS West: Ideation, Advocacy and Google+ CLS West) in San Jose a couple weeks ago which is an annual unconference for community leaders. As usual it was a very stimulating event where lots of cutting edge ideas and tools were discussed. About 100 people from mostly the SF Bay Area showed up. They represented wide community concerns from developer programs, education, support groups, women's shelters and non-profits to name a few. Three topics I found really exciting:

Ideation
Ideation is a process of generating ideas that's been around for a while. What was new (for me at least) was learning how companies are using portals to solicit new ideas from their customers and get votes on the best ones. I've seen this before, but didn't realize that making use of third party sites to implement it is rather easy and not too expensive. I went to a session given by Linda Sharp of Religence who said this has been very effective for some companies. She warned that weeding out great ideas from the most popular ones, however, can be challenging because popularity is not always indicative of real innovation.

UserVoice, is an example of one of these portals. It costs $70 a month and seems very straightforward to set up. CLS West used this service before the conference to get feedback from the registrants to solicit and gauge the popularity of various topic ideas. Here are the services that were mentioned.
  • Spigit is a good tool to collect ideas and votes
  • UserVoice provides ideation using help desk/support forums
  • ConfirmIt does ideation by gathering customer feedback and insights

Community Advocacy
I ran a session on Community Advocacy (i.e., finding ways for people who love your product/service to talk about it in the places they hang out and in ways that are really effective) and had a good meeting, although it didn't get a big turnout. I talked to lots of people at the conference about advocacy and there seemed to be a lot of interest, but no one I spoke to seemed to be doing it in a controlled manner. Gamified portals like Influitive seem very promising and I'm looking into that quite seriously for BIRT. Still, this kind of advocacy hasn't really caught on yet. I expect it to be big someday, really big.

Using Google+
I haven't used Google+ much but was pleased to learn there are lots of capabilities with Google+ that are free and useful for managing communities. Events and hangouts can be set up quickly and made public (on-air) or kept private. Photos and video recordings are simple to capture and save for posterity. Comments and discussions can also be easily added to any topics. I think this might be a great way to set up virtual user groups meetings or live discussions with our community. It works with mobile too.

Summary
Overall CLS West was an well-spent day to be sure. I'd recommend it or its sister meeting at OSCON to anyone who deals with a community. Oh... and if you've used any of these tools or concepts I mentioned, please comment below and let us all know what's worked and what hasn't.]]> Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:34:00 +0000 Announcing January 2013 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

January 2013 Leaderboard Scores

Clement Wong..118
cbrell........102
Hans_vd........85
Jenkinsj5......81
Yaytay.........56
rmurphy........46
bgbaird........37
dmelcher.......28
mblock.........21
pasc...........18
linucksrox.....17
wwilliams......15

Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We even give a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls (but make sure you're logged in so it will be assigned to you).

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:08:00 +0000 BUG Down Under - New BIRT User Group BIRT User Group Down Under meeting at 5:30pm. BIRT User Groups are excellent opportunities to improve your BIRT skills, learn new things and network with other BIRT users in your area. New, intermediate and expert BIRT users and developers are all welcome.

You can get additional information and register (free) for this meeting by clicking here.

If you don't live close to any of the existing BIRT User Groups and would be interested in seeing one formed in you area, please contact me.]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:05:00 +0000 BIRT Roadshows - Free Training in Q1
Posted Image

You are invited!
Actuate is hosting free one day strategy and training sessions in the following cities:

February 2013

Tampa, FL. . . . . . Wednesday, 2/06
Oakland, CA. . . . . .Thursday, 2/07
Indianapolis, IN . . . Tuesday, 2/12
Dallas, TX . . . . . Wednesday, 2/13
Toronto, ON. . . . . . Tuesday, 2/26
Princeton, NJ. . . . Wednesday, 2/27
Minneapolis, MN. . . .Thursday, 2/28

March 2013

Arlington, VA. . . . . Tuesday, 3/12
Chicago, IL. . . . . Wednesday, 3/13
Carlsbad, CA . . . . .Thursday, 3/14



This introductory training series is designed for those unfamiliar or just getting started with BIRT. During the day you will hear about technical strategies and opportunities that will help you anticipate and address future business needs –plus– learn how to develop rich information applications for your users through hands-on training that covers Eclipse and Actuate BIRT features.

These Roadshows are great ways to learn more about BIRT whether you're an Eclipse open source developer or an Actuate customer. Lunch is provided as well as giveaways and door prizes so you can expect an informative day with a chance to meet other BIRT users in your area and have a little fun.

Don't miss this opportunity to take part in one of these exciting events.]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:58:00 +0000 Announcing December 2012 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

December 2012 Leaderboard Scores

Hans_vd........104
Clement Wong....56
mblock..........43
Tubal...........27
johnw...........25
rawesso.........25
Lesbea..........23
Mad1s0n.........23
Jenkinsj5.......19
RSiegler........15
Yaytay..........15
starspn.........13

Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we will evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We also added a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls.

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:56:00 +0000 BIRT Exchange Contributor Contest Winner for November 2012 Selected Tapash Kumar Sahu) for his contribution to BIRT Exchange titled: Twitter JSON Search ODA.

Tapash said, "The idea behind implementing Twitter Search plugin (using JSON) was to create a plugin for BIRT to follow any tweet posted by anyone without requiring authentication in twitter. It serves the purpose of following someone and finding a tweet and series of events or tweets. It is user centric and follows the twitter paradigm, by literally following someone on twitter. The user doesn’t require a twitter account to use this plugin. Since this is a Search API, there are lots of ways to enhance it using authentication which are some enhancements I intend to bring in."

Tapash works at Subex Limited as a System Analyst on a framework team. He has worked on integrating BIRT with their Web based products and started looking at BIRT as a BI Tool for an upcoming product when he encountered the Plug In 2 BIRT contest. Tapash said, "I don't have much competency in usage of BIRT as I mostly worked on Integration of BIRT with our products. So working on this plugin enhanced my knowledge of BIRT in usage point of view. Now I am pretty much comfortable using BIRT. I'm really thankful to the BIRT Community and the DevShare contributors as I was able to get lots of help and information from your website."

Tapash chose a $200 Amazon Gift Card for his award.

If you"ve cooked up something that you can share with the BIRT Exchange community, please post it soon! You can create a tutorial, 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 Marketplace. A code-based DevShare submission could also be a great candidate for the Marketplace.

Notice: We have discontinued the monthly contest for now and will likely bring it back in the future in some other form.

See the Contributor of the Month Contest Rules and the list of previous winners for more information about the contest.]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:11:00 +0000 Happy Holidays from BIRT Exchange
2013 is promising to be a good year for BIRT and BIRT Exchange as we explore new ways to visualize big data, develop more awesome plug-ins to BIRT and make some long overdue improvements to the site. Let us know what you'd like to see so we can ensure BIRT Exchange more fully meets the needs of the BIRT community.

All our best to you this holiday season!


*      O       O       O       O  .|.  O       O       O       O       *
*                                 -*-                                  *
*   Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise!       '|`           _    Happy New Year!   *
*   Frohliche Weihnachten!        *:*          ("D     Chag Sameach!   *
*   Sarbatori Fericite!          * . *        ~(=r      Boas Festas!   *
*   Joyous Solstice!            **   **    .../__\       Gut Yontif!   *
*   Mele Kurisumasu!          *** o   ***     [MJ]       Iyi YIllar!   *
*   Mele Kalikimaka!           *\    O *             Wesolych Swiat!   *
*   Merry Christmas!          ** \\    **            Velelykh Svyat!   *
*   Happy Hanukkah!         ***    \\   ***        Stastny Novy Rok!   *
*   Pari Dzounount!          * o     \\  *        Kelemes Unnepeket!   *
*   Happy Holidays!         **    O    \\**      Season's Greetings!   *
*   Veseli Vanoce!        ***\\       o  \***     Gung Hay Fat Choy!   *
*   Feliz Navidad!         *   \\  o       *       Felican Jarfinon!   *
*   Joyeux Noel!          **  o  \\    O   **       Joy to the World   *
*   Bom Natal!         ****        \\     o ****      - And to All a   *
*   God Jul!             ** o     o  \\ o   **           Good Night!   *
*   Cheers!            ***     O       \\    ***                       *
*   *:D       o_     *****************************      e@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
*     _      <' )~      ___      #####  _v_            @@@"""""""""""""*
*    /<~    ["""] V  o [___] _@_ #####__|~|_ A        @" ___ ___________
*   %'=    @|HHH|[~] U |\ /|/^^^\##[{}{}{}{](") !    II__[w] | [i] [z] |
*  %' )   /%|HHH||$|/V\|XXX|~~~~~##[}{}{}{}](:)<*>  {======|_|~~~~~~~~~| 
* %(__6 |==D|HHH||$|\^/|/ \|=====##[{}{}{}{](:) V  /oO--000'"`-OO---OO-'
************************************************************************
]]> Fri, 21 Dec 2012 22:15:00 +0000 The Judges Need Your Help Plug In 2 BIRT Contest for Autumn 2012 is closed, but you can help the judges by voting on your favorite and commenting on the DevShare contest submissions to tell us (and the authors) what you like best or any areas for improvement you discover.

Plug-in extensions are one of the great strengths of BIRT and something we at Actuate really want to promote. Developers put a lot of effort into their creations and a great way to help them realize how much you appreciate their work is by providing feedback. Most developers are proud of what they do and are happy to make improvements -- but they have to know what is needed. I encourage you to comment on any DevShare article -- and be specific -- whether it helps you or if you think something could make it better.

As for creating your own plug-in extension, don't wait for a contest to get started; there are plenty of ideas, information and tutorials available -- enough to build something awesome and earn you respect and appreciation from BIRT users around the world!

Plug In 2 BIRT for Autumn 2012 Contest Entries

1. REST API ODA PLUGIN FOR BIRT– arjung
This is a generic plugin which can connect to many data sources including Yahoo, Google, social medias (facebook, twitter etc),sports,news and many more. This plugin uses REST API supporting JSON and it gives tabular data to user.

2. XMLA ODA for BIRT – Pulak Bose
The XMLA ODA plugin for BIRT is an Eclipse based plugin which enables you to connect to an XMLA provider like Pentaho Mondrian, EssBase, SAP BW and pull out data to display in your BIRT report.

3. BIRT Group Functions Plugin – Hans_vd
In order to be able to create aggregations within groups of data in a data set, I created three new aggregations: GROUPCOUNT, GROUPROWNUM and GROUPSUM. All three take a parameter “Aggregate on”, that can take a data set column as a value.

4. Multi Flat file ODA for BIRT– Megha Nidhi Dahal
ODA extension that enables use of any supported flatfile (csv, tsv, psv and ssv) into a single data set.

5. Heat Map chart plugin – Raghava
This plugin helps us to create heatmap chart to analyize performance of different companies, periodic table, employee attendance, stock market investments etc.

6. OctoBirt Driver v2 for GitHub Commits – wcheung
ODA driver to access commits in GitHub repositories - just specify GitHub info and a range, and get back commits in your report. Required for usage with the new GitHub REST API.

7. Twitter JSON Search ODA - Plug In 2 BIRT – Tapash Kumar Sahu
This ODA searches all the recent tweets using Twitter JSON SearchvAPI based on the search query written in data set.]]> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:30:00 +0000 Announcing November 2012 BIRT Exchange Contributor Leaderboard BIRT Exchange Connect page. You can recognize past and current Leaderboard members by special badges on their forum and DevShare posts:

Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image

November 2012 Leaderboard Scores

Hans_vd......125
Tubal.........52
cwong.........37
johnw.........36
rmurphy.......35
arjung........17
HPP...........15
Raghava.......14
venkatmadh....14
Pulak Bose....11
wcheung.......11
.
Click for Past Leaderboards

To determine the leaders, each contribution made by a BIRT Exchange member is assigned a weighted point score that roughly corresponds to its effort/value. For example, starting a forum topic by asking a question will score you 1 point and answering someone's question scores 3 points. Members with the top summed scores each month are declared the leaders for that month and posted to the Leaderboard. Over time we will evolve the scoring system as needed for fairness and value to the community. We also added a point for voting on the BIRT Exchange Community home page polls.

So please contribute to BIRT Exchange. It's not difficult to get a decent score and we'd love to see you on the Leaderboard next month!

You can find details on the Community Leaderboard Wiki. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add them to this blog post (they're worth 2 points).]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:15:00 +0000 BIRT Exchange Contributor Contest Winner for October 2012 Selected smgomes) for his contribution to BIRT Exchange titled: PDF rendering different fonts.

Sérgio said, "My contribution is related to the problems of fonts in different operating systems. Even though they are installed on the system and the report is configured to be drawn with the right font (i.e., Verdana), in the visualization process it appears unconfigured and with the Times New Roman font."

Sérgio is 28, and lives in Portugal where he is currently working as a software developer at DeltaFIL, Informática e Sistemas Digitais where he develops management software called Projecto Colibri, using Java - Rich Client Platform. Sérgio has used BIRT since 2007 to integrate the reports in his application. He remarks, "I continue to use this great tool to provide more efficient and effective reports."

Sérgio chose a $200 Amazon Gift Card for his award.

It's not too late... to get your own DevShare article posted in time for next month's contest that 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, 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 Marketplace. A code-based DevShare submission could also be a great candidate for the Marketplace.

See the Contributor of the Month Contest Rules and the list of previous winners for more information about the contest.]]> Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:52:00 +0000 BIRT Exchange Contributor Contest Winner for September 2012 Selected johnw) for his contribution to BIRT Exchange titled: Tutorial: Writing BIRT Emitters: XML and JPEG Emitter.

John said, "This entry was written to help get more information out there on how to write BIRT extension points. With the increasing number of BIRT contests on the BIRT Exchange, a lot of developers don’t know how to begin writing plugins. This article was written to help plugin writers have a starting point with the emitter framework, so we can start seeing more exciting emitters for BIRT out in the wild. In particular, this addresses getting developers started with the Page framework for the emitter framework, an area that has little to no practical examples out there that show how to write more pixel precise outputs for BIRT."

Note: This is timely too since Actuate has announced the Plug In 2 BIRT Autumn 2012 Contest which will award a 32GB 4th generation iPad for each of the three best BIRT plug-in extensions submitted by November 30th. Check it out!

John has been using BIRT since its beginnings back in 2004. Back then he was looking for a free, open source reporting framework that worked similar to the commercial report designers out there. He says, "Back then I was looking for a report writer to address writing incident reports for a network security company. Little did I know where that would take me. These days I am helping people learn how to integrate BIRT into their products."

John chose a $200 Amazon Gift Card for his award.

It's not too late... to get your own DevShare article posted in time for next month's contest that 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, 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 Marketplace. A code-based DevShare submission could also be a great candidate for the Marketplace.

See the Contributor of the Month Contest Rules and the list of previous winners for more information about the contest.]]> Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:32:00 +0000