[stewn]

We've built a few reports with BIRT and are very impressed. We hope to integrated them into our web app for clients to analysis their data. Currently we have them running via the Birt viewer on our server using Tomcat and our database. We've run into a problem with how the Birt viewer uses memory in Tomcat. We've submitted a thread about this to the birt-exchange with no response, so now we're looking for alternate approaches to generating our reports.

I have two questions at this point:

- any plans to allow Birt on-demand users to access their own database running on their own server, other than Amazon web services.

- as a Birt on-demand user am I able to request a report as can be done via the Birt Viewer using a url call which contains parameters, etc. I would like to integrate the Birt report into our web app.

Regards
Stewart

[Pangolin]

The answer to your first question about accessing data on your own database from the cloud, is a bit more complex. To accomplish something like this you would need to open up direct access to your database on the inside of your network all the way out to the allowing external connections from the internet. This is something that is possible, but it would be up to you to configure it. If you would like to move forward with an idea like that we could provide you the DNS name of the machine that would be creating the connections.

Bear in mind though, that you would be responsible for maintaining security because you would be creating an opening from the internet all the way into your data center.

Regarding requesting reports via URL, making any kind of a request for a report in the OnDemand system requires authentication, however we do not allow any kind of externalizing of that authentication. Each user must pass through the login page on birt-exchange.com before accessing OnDemand.

If you are wanting to integrate BIRT reporting into your own web app, you might be better suited to get connected with a Sales rep to discuss options, such as AJC, BIRT Deployment Kit, or iServer, which could be deployed inside your firewall and be very tightly integrated with your existing applications. And you would also not need to expose your datacenter to direct connections sourced at the internet.

[thomasbr]

I'm testing Birt OnDemand, and I also wanted to integrate this solution in my existing webapp. If I could do that, it would multiply by 1000 the usages I can do with your offer.
Thanks!

[bhanley]

Hi Thomas,

Can you go into any details about your application architecture? We do have some means by which we can make content available for application integration, but they need some context for me to begin discussing them with you.

[thomasbr]

bhanley, on 15 December 2010 - 01:37 PM, said:

Hi Thomas,

Can you go into any details about your application architecture? We do have some means by which we can make content available for application integration, but they need some context for me to begin discussing them with you.

I think I have the same need as Stewn.
I wish to be able to have access to a report by a specific url that passes parameters to birt. The best would be to have access directly to a pdf created by birth. By this mean we'll be able to make pdf downloadable by the mean of a simple url that could be generated automatically by my application.

I think it could be great if we can use something like openid or similar to authentificate with Birt OnDemand.

Am I clear enough? I'm sorry english is not my native language...
Thanks

[bhanley]

Your use case is really clear, you have no trouble with English as far as I can tell!

The case you outline where you allow content from BIRT onDemand to be consumed in a stand-alone context (in this case PDF) would violate the terms of use for the service. All content is to be consumed by licensed users of the service. Making PDFs available for download would extend the content availability beyond the bounds and control of the service.

When and if we expand the licensing model to include this type of functionality I will be sure to post an update to the forum and the BIRT onDemand Blog.

Thanks!