http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/index.php?app=blog Community Blog List Syndication Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:23:59 +0000 birtexfeedback@birt-exchange.com (BIRT Exchange Forum) IP.Blog 60
One of these questions asked about doing a "running sum" function in a crosstab across the column dimensions. This is not a standard function within BIRT, so the computations had to be done manually. The solution was to delete the measure elements from within the crosstab and add text elements in their place that used persistent global variables named after the row dimension to keep a running total. The devShare solution for this can be found here.

Another question was about only displaying a portion of a string in a data field when you don't know the length of the part you want to split off, but you know the character that separates the sections you want. The solution to this was to use the indexOf() and lastIndexOf() functions to find the two '-' characters and grab everything that was in between with the substring() function.

The last question I'll cover from the forums last week is one that was asked about using a parameter to dynamically limit a dataSet. This question is asked by many new users as they make their first parameterized report. There are at least a couple different ways to do this. You can use the dataSet parameter (?) in the query and link it to a report parameter or you can just use a report parameter and add the "where" clause to your query in script. Both of these solutions are shown in an example that is attached in the thread. If you're not using a query dataSet, you'd just use a dataSet filter that filters the dataSet based on the report parameter.

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.]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:18:00 +0000
One of these questions asked about doing a "running sum" function in a crosstab across the column dimensions. This is not a standard function within BIRT, so the computations had to be done manually. The solution was to delete the measure elements from within the crosstab and add text elements in their place that used persistent global variables named after the row dimension to keep a running total. The devShare solution for this can be found here.

Another question was about only displaying a portion of a string in a data field when you don't know the length of the part you want to split off, but you know the character that separates the sections you want. The solution to this was to use the indexOf() and lastIndexOf() functions to find the two '-' characters and grab everything that was in between with the substring() function.

The last question I'll cover from the forums last week is one that was asked about using a parameter to dynamically limit a dataSet. This question is asked by many new users as they make their first parameterized report. There are at least a couple different ways to do this. You can use the dataSet parameter (?) in the query and link it to a report parameter or you can just use a report parameter and add the "where" clause to your query in script. Both of these solutions are shown in an example that is attached in the thread. If you're not using a query dataSet, you'd just use a dataSet filter that filters the dataSet based on the report parameter.

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.]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:18:00 +0000
This enables you to analyze the same BIRT report without modifying the design. For example, consider a simple customer listing table that shows customer information such as "Name", "Address", "Industry", "Country", "City", "Revenue" etc. Creating a dynamic filter on “Country” field will prompt you to enter the “Country” value along with the condition that you would like to associate with the values you choose. Change the condition to "Not in" to see data where countries are not UK or Sweden. See Video

The condition clause can be applied to data sets or report items e.g. tables, charts. The BIRT engine automatically updates the query for performance by pushing the conditions down to the database. Actuate BIRT Designer allows you to even see query execution profile for each report item that uses dynamic filter.

To create a dynamic parameters as a filter to a report item or the dataset, select the control and go to the filter tab:

You can also create a generic dynamic filter parameters in the data explorer view and apply them to report items:

Discover this new feature in the latest release of BIRT in Actuate 11, you can download an evaluation copy of BIRT designer professional from here.

Ashwini Verma]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:29:00 +0000
This past week, a question was asked about making the start day of week be Monday in a chart. One solution that works is to create your own instance of the day of week in a computed column. Another solution was also posted that works if you have a SQL database. This solution can be seen in the thread at the link above.

Another question is one that gets asked quite often. It's about using multi-select parameters in your dataSet query. The reason that you can't tie a multi-select parameter directly in with a dataSet parameter is because the multi-select parameter returns an array and not a comma separated string. You have to handle this by splitting the array into a comma separated string and adding the condition to your where clause in your query in script. Several examples of ways to do this can be found in the devShare.

One last question I'll highlight for the week is a question about the most efficient place for a filter. The answer to which is to place the filter as early as you can. The earlier you place the filter in the process, the less data is processed in your report. So, if you don't need the data in your dataSet, go ahead and place the filter there.

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.]]> Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:02:00 +0000
This past week, a question was asked about making the start day of week be Monday in a chart. One solution that works is to create your own instance of the day of week in a computed column. Another solution was also posted that works if you have a SQL database. This solution can be seen in the thread at the link above.

Another question is one that gets asked quite often. It's about using multi-select parameters in your dataSet query. The reason that you can't tie a multi-select parameter directly in with a dataSet parameter is because the multi-select parameter returns an array and not a comma separated string. You have to handle this by splitting the array into a comma separated string and adding the condition to your where clause in your query in script. Several examples of ways to do this can be found in the devShare.

One last question I'll highlight for the week is a question about the most efficient place for a filter. The answer to which is to place the filter as early as you can. The earlier you place the filter in the process, the less data is processed in your report. So, if you don't need the data in your dataSet, go ahead and place the filter there.

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.]]> Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:02:00 +0000 See Video
With flexible export options to Embed fonts, Substitute fonts and Chart DPI settings you can optimize PDF output as per your needs.

Vector graphics option enables your to generate high fidelity images when an SVG image is present in the BIRT design or if you choose to generate a chart in SVG format. Overall these settings can influence fonts used in the output, PDF file size and printout quality. See Video
The new emitter can even display native flash content in PDF. All the functionality and interactivity is preserved in the PDF output providing a complete web experience for flash objects in the PDF output. See Video

Download and try the above features for yourself in the new Actuate BIRT Designer Professional (version 11).

Ashwini Verma]]> Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:23:00 +0000 René Mertins for his contribution to BIRT Exchange titled: Birt Report Thumbnails.

René tells us, "This article is the result of research for a customer project, in which I am the leading software architect. The project goal is to provide a customer extranet for a medical analytics company where we will show a lot of Birt-Reports. One of the requirements was to show realtime thumbnails of all reports on an overview page. Depending on this requirement I developed this solution."

René is the Head of Software Development at DE PAOLI Ltd in Hamburg Germany, specializing in webtechnologies and Java especially JEE and Eclipse Ecosystem. Depending on various customer needs, DE PAOLI has used BIRT for several years -- starting with a billing printing process for their in-house ERP System. Currently DE PAOLI is using BIRT for two projects. One is already in production where BIRT shows user statistics about application and resource usage. The second is the one for which René wrote this article and invented his solution.

René chose the BIRT Books 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 August 31st. 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 Open Marketplace. Your code-based DevShare submission could also be a great candidate for the Marketplace.

The monthly DevShare contest rules and list of previous winners can be found here.]]> Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:15:00 +0000
If you're a BIRT user or developer and happen to be in or around the New York City area on September 7th then please accept our invitation to party with Actuate CEO Pete Cittadini and the people behind BIRT on BIRT Exchange.

All our BIRT friends who attend that evening can expect plenty of food and drink plus some fun giveaways and chances at prizes (including an Apple iPad). We'll even throw in a technical talk or two for those interested in learning more about BIRT.

Date: September 7
Time: 5:30pm
Place: Heartland Brewery, Times Square, NYC

See the NYC BIRT Celebration page to let us know that you'll be there and find out more details as they become available.

Update 8/24: Given the proximity to religious and Labor Day holidays in September, Actuate has decided to postpone our BIRT Community Celebration party on September 7th and reschedule it to later this calendar year. For those who have already registered for the party, we sincerely apologize for our change of plans and hope you will be able to attend the party when we determine a new date.]]> Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:39:00 +0000
Live Excel Formulas – BIRT exports calculated fields and aggregations as Excel formula and functions that enables users to perform “what-if” analysis within spreadsheet. Watch video
Editable Charts – BIRT charts are now converted to live Excel charts with an associated data sheet containing the underlying data that could be edited to see how data changes reflects back in the chart. Watch video 
Pivot Tables – BIRT crosstabs are exported as pivot tables containing the underlying data for further analysis. These pivot tables can be used to analyze the data based on different dimensions or to perform what-if analysis by altering the underlying data sheet. Watch Video 
Images – The enhanced Excel emitter also adds support for images in the Excel output. Watch Video 
Export Objects – Export the entire BIRT output to Excel or choose a specific table, chart or crosstab to export. Watch Video
Multiple Worksheets - A simple check box control enables creation of multiple worksheets. Watch Video
To download the Actuate 11 milestone builds visit http://www.birt-exchange.org/wiki/Actuate_11/]]> Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:08:00 +0000
1. Birt Report Thumbnails, by kajero (Deploying BIRT Reports)

2. BIRT Reporting For Rational Tooling Wiki, by StevenHovater (Using BIRT with Rational)

Contest voting is open to the entire BIRT Exchange community. If you haven't done so already, please take a look at these submissions and vote here. Your vote is important and helps show community support for our valued DevShare contributors. Note that you must be logged in to vote. The poll closes on Monday, August 16, 2010. Contest rules and prize information can be found on the DevShare Contributor of the Month Wiki page.]]> Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:40:00 +0000 weekly progress diary. And don't forget to check out the BIRT Exchange Marketplace for BIRT-related applications, libraries, templates and other materials.

Justin Fong
My ten weeks here at Actuate have been rewarding. I've found it a fast paced and exciting work environment with many bumps and curves in the road, but at the end of it all I can say we made a difference. A large project we have been working on has been the Facebook Events Powered by BIRT. What we wanted to do with this Facebook application was to gather information from events and develop rich reporting tools that allowed users to quickly see gender, age, relationship status, etc. on a graph. This would allow users to have a second dimension to their decision making process.

My field specialty is marketing, and seeing this application makes a lot of sense. With social media specialty under my belt, and also as a recent college grad from SFSU, I am able to see this application develop into something big. With social being the norm now, BIRT has added to this user experience. The implementation has been relatively easy. While I was not programming the application, watching the progress of Sashtinathan and Mohit was remarkable. They were able to use the basic knowledge and quickly implement BIRT. My ten weeks here at Actuate are coming to a close, but I hope to see this application up and fully running so I can use it in the future.

Mohit Sehgal
I am currently a junior at San Jose State University. Before my internship with Actuate I spent time working at the Stanford Geology Department digitalizing topographical maps for the Stanford database in order to provide more useful data for scientific analysis. With computer science being my major, programming has been a passion of mine and working at Actuate and with the BIRT technologies, I have seemed to find my niche in the Business Intelligence field.

My internship at Actuate has been a great learning experience; the knowledge gained from the hands-on work of creating applications has opened me up to different aspects of programming. A project which I worked on was the BIRT Open Source Module for Drupal 6, which allows developers the ability to display BIRT Reports onto their Drupal site. Also, I am working on report skins for people who want to add themes and styles to their BIRT reports. This application will contain CSS files along with libraries which you can import into your BIRT reports to add more flavor for displaying data. I can see many applications being built using the flexibility of BIRT. There are so many ways to integrate it with many other platforms, which is why I plan on creating BIRT applications even after my internship is over.

Sashtinathan Sambandam
I'm a gradate student from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. To me, BIRT is cool software where one can visualize data in minutes. I learned BIRT as a part of my time at Actuate. I also created several reports as a part of my internship. If you are a Java developer, then BIRT is like a free beer for you. It is integrated with Eclipse, so no reading how-to's or big manuals. Just install the required plug-in, configure the data source, data set and build your rich data application. Or if you want to tweak the application to meet your customized needs, it is open source and you get all the code for free.

Apart from these major features, BIRT has several other capabilities which will make your life easier and gives a rich user experience. You can do scripting either using Javascript or Java. In any web application, you could embed all the code required for the user interaction into the report and have your application compact and user friendly. Even at a later point of time, if you need to add more user interaction, you just write event handlers for the new user events in the report and not re-write the entire application.

We also wrote an application which polls for a user's event data from Facebook and draws charts using BIRT. By installing this application on Facebook, you'll be able to see how BIRT charts are vivid and appealing.]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:00:00 +0000 Arpan) for his contribution to BIRT Exchange titled: Hiding specific columns in report based upon the input.

Megha is new to BIRT and has only been working with it for 3 months. He said at first he seemed to need clarifications in almost every aspect, ranging from setting the background image in reports to other more complex requirements. At one point, he needed to hide an entire column when there wasn't any data in it because otherwise a column heading would be displayed without any data below. Since the coding had already been done for the product and it had been deployed in a customer environment, he couldn't make any code modifications so he looked everywhere for a BIRT solution but couldn't find anything satisfactory. He posted his problem on the BIRT Exchange forums and got a good reply from mwilliams which helped him get started on a solution to his problem.

He said, "So, later I thought it would be good to post it in DevShare as there can be many others like me."

Megha works as a software developer at Subex Limited, a product oriented software company in Bangalore, India. He is responsible for development in JAVA and .NET. Currently, he's developing reports/bills (pdf, excel) generation components using BIRT.

Megha chose an iPod Shuffle 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 July 31st. 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 Open Marketplace. Your code-based DevShare submission could also be a great candidate for the Marketplace.

The monthly DevShare contest rules and list of previous winners can be found here.]]> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:49:00 +0000
1. Creating custom reports with BIRT and Rational Team Concert, by tmcmack (Designing BIRT Reports)

2. Hiding specific columns in report based upon the input, by Arpan (Designing BIRT Reports)

Contest voting is open to the entire BIRT Exchange community. If you haven't done so already, please take a look at these submissions and vote here. Your vote is important and helps show community support for our valued DevShare contributors. Note that you must be logged in to vote. The poll closes on Wednesday July 21, 2010. Contest rules and prize information can be found on the DevShare Contributor of the Month Wiki page.]]> Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:56:00 +0000
If you design applications using BIRT to support the US Federal government, then you should look into the latest competition being hosted by Actuate. We want to find out how you're working with BIRT and the creative ways it's being applied. Anyone using BIRT to develop tools and solutions for the government is eligible. If your entry is selected, you could win a 32 GB Apple iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G!

To enter, just complete a short 10 minute survey (click here for survey) and send us a screenshot of your application. The competition has already begun and ends on Friday, August 13, 2010 — so please enter soon.

For more information, review the Federal BIRT Competition 2010 Rules and Conditions.

If you have any questions, please e-mail federalgroup@actuate.com.

]]> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:42:00 +0000
View the recording at http://www.vosibilities.com/podcast/bpm-and-bi-mix-thoroughly-for-best-results/2010/06/25/]]> Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:07:00 +0000
Information Console is the end-user interface to iServer(Express). It offers a very simple yet rich web interface that meets majority of the end-user needs around calendar based scheduling, and also lets them pre-define any input parameters to the report if any along with the output location, format and notify and share with other users.


Management Console is another web interface that offers a more granular control over scheduling aspects (calendar and event based) in iServer (Express).


It allows for a more advanced calendar schedule and event settings.


If you create a job that uses an event based criteria and a calendar schedule, the job runs when both conditions occur. The systems accept three kinds of events:

• File Event - Use the file/folder presence as a condition for running a job.
  
• Job Event - Specify completion of a job as a criterion for running a scheduled job.
  
• Custom Event - With custom event you can specify a web service that iServer(Express) monitors and run the jobs when the web service returns a signal to the web service. The following wiki article discusses Custom Event web service in further detail:
  http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/wiki/index.php?title=Custom_Event_Web_Service_-_Report_Jobs

You can obtain information about scheduled jobs or completed jobs using Management Console.


iServer(Express) groups job processing into five phases:

• Scheduled
  
• Waiting for Event
  
• Pending
  
• Running
  
• Completed

Based on the privileges, individual users and administrators can manage jobs at each and every phase.
Download your own evaluation copy of iServer (Express) and try these features yourself:
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-deployment-options/actuate-birt-report-server-express/features/]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:51:00 +0000
We're in a good position now to roll out additional improvements over the next few weeks and months that will make BIRT Exchange an even better asset for the BIRT developer and user community.

With this in mind, there are two things I'd like to talk to you about:

• The new BIRT Exchange Community Website
  
• Our first BIRT Exchange Community Chat on June 30, 2010

BIRT Exchange Community
We have replaced the core infrastructure of the Community site and moved to a new content management system and Invision Power Board (IBP). This new software gives us a more adaptable infrastructure that will work better with DevShare and other planned improvements to the community site. IPB provides us with some additional functionality that we'll be using for community purposes:

• Events Calendar
  
• Community Blogs
  
• Enhanced User Profile
  
• Recognition Capabilities
  
• Other improvements

As part of the upgrade, we made some changes to the Community home page:

• New to BIRT section for first time visitors
  
• BIRT Buzz section to keep up with what's happening with BIRT in social media and the world
  
• Connect section for developers and users:
  
  • Highlight community leaders and top contributors
    
  • Learn about and collaborate with each other on projects and other activities
    
  • Find out about programs, projects and activities hosted through BIRT Exchange
• Blog aggregator for the BIRT-ing Out Loud blog
  
• E-mail Groups (custom mailing lists)

I encourage everyone to poke around and explore the new site. If you find any problems or any rough edges needing some polish, please let us know on the feedback alias.

BIRT Exchange Community Chat
In an effort to get some feedback, I'd like to give the community a chance to talk about the new site and let us know what you like and what you don't. To do this, I'll be hosting an open audio conference using TalkShoe. All BIRT Exchange community members are invited!

Date: June 30, 2010 at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 3pm GMT, 5pm CEST

TalkShoe is a free audio and textual group conversation service. You can connect via your browser or register and use their free Mac or PC application. You can also dial into the conversation using your phone, Skype or a VoIP client.

Detailed instructions for connection to the call are available at: BIRT Exchange Community Chat.

• Listen and text only use your browser: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/84801
  
• Voice (landline, charges may apply): +1 (724) 444-7444 call ID: 84801
  
• Instructions for free TalkShoe application: BIRT Exchange Community Chat

I hope you can join us!]]> Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:42:00 +0000
Sign up here]]> Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:54:00 +0000
Agenda:

• Deploying open source BIRT in Java/JEE/PHP /.Net - Laurent Delvaux, Zenika
  
• Transcending the deployment of Actuate BIRT using iServer - Stefan Caracas, Actuate
  
• Open discussion of experiences and lessons learned

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.]]> Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:47:00 +0000
With over 1100 contributions, DevShare is the best place for you to find BIRT design tips and techniques, examples and sample code, tutorials, debugging tricks, and great ideas for sprucing up your BIRT designs and rich information applications.

Here are a few recent popular DevShare articles:

• BIRT Presentations and Examples from JAX 2010 by vdodson
  
• BIRT best practice by evgeny
  
• BIRT & Maximo by mwilliams
  
• Dynamic SQL Where Clause example (2.3.2) by SailRCG
  
• Designing a Master/Detail Report with BIRT by AndrewSYIQ

I also encourage you to consider "giving back" when you create or discover something for BIRT that others might find helpful. It usually doesn't take much effort to write an example or package up a sample design -- and it's very likely that the "slick idea" you came up with (even something relatively simple) will be very useful to some of the hundreds of thousands of developers and business professionals using BIRT. Who knows, you might even win a prize for your efforts as the DevShare Contributor of the Month!

So if you haven't taken a look at DevShare recently, please check it out, learn some new stuff, and add your own expertise to its pool of knowledge by contributing.]]> Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:50:00 +0000