1. Actuate BIRT Report Designer Professional
Kuali COEUS User Group
March 27, 2011
Austin, Texas
Phil Tull

2. Agenda How many of you have ever heard of BIRT BIRT History
IBM starts Eclipse Foundation to develop an Open Source IDE
In 2004, Actuate starts the BIRT Project (10M downloads as of September 2010)
Actuate develops commercial extensions to Open Source BIRT – Current release Actuate V11
iServer (scalable, secure, Enterprise-class Java Server)
Interactive Viewer (End user customizations to reports)
Additional Databases/Data Sources
Additional Objects (Flash Objects/Charts/Gadgets)
Page Level Security, Dashboards, In-memory Analytics
Product Overview and Demonstration

3. Why Customers Choose Actuate BIRT
BI & Information Applications that combine data in compelling and useful ways and encourage large numbers of users to change and share the resulting content to fit their evolving needs without overwhelming IT.
One easy to use development tool
Multi-source data handling
One fantastic user experience
One dependable, reliable, scalable server
BIRT Mobile
BIRT On demand
ONE BIRT Design
ONE iServer
ONE User Experience
Data Sources
Documents

4. Choose BIRT By Design BIRT Design DIY Actuate BIRT Designer
Eclipse Engine & Viewer
BIRT onDemand SaaS
Public Cloud Platform as a Service
Embedded in Java Apps
Components for OEM or iServer integrated within app/portal
On premises
Scalable, HA cluster, center of excellence or virtual private/hybrid cloud
Actuate Viewer
Flash & live Excel output
BIRT Mobile
BIRT 360 Dashboards
Interactive Viewer
BIRT Studio ad-hoc
Data Analyzer
BIRT Design
Eclipse BIRT Designer
Eclipse data connectors
Actuate BIRT Designer
Commercial data connectors
BIRT & e.Report docs, Xenos, SFDC, DataDirect
Information Objects
metadata
BIRT Data Objects
Intelligent in-memory caching

5. Eclipse BIRT & Actuate BIRT Designers
Commercial Data Management Upgrades
DataDirect JDBC & Oracle, DB2, SQL Server drivers
BIRT Data Objects (in-memory OLAP)
Information Object Designer perspective
BIRT, e.Report & Xenos document ODAs
Commercial Design Features
266 Flash Objects
Faster Actuate Viewer
Live Excel, Emitters
IV & Data Analyzer
Page Level Security
Actuate BIRT Commercial Upgrades
Deployment
iServer
Info Console
360 Dashboards
BIRT Studio
onDemand
BIRT Mobile
Easy to use
WYSIWYG Web design metaphor
Multi-source & multi-dataset joins
JDBC, POJO, Web Services data connectors
Basic formats—PDF, Word, PPT, Excel, XML, HTML
Powerful development tool
Design & component reuse
Programmability
Integration API’s, ODAs & Emitters
Embed BIRT Engine in java application
BIRT-Exchange Community
10M Downloads
Forums, training, how-to’s, etc.
Marketplace
Eclipse Open Source foundation

6. Install the Training CD
Page 3 in your Workbooks
Sign up for Birt On Demand account (Refer to Handout)

7. BIRT onDemand is a SaaS BI solution for Business Intelligence and Reporting in the Cloud
With BIRT onDemand, you can:
Eliminate server management costs and reduce IT involvement by providing an ideal hosted platform for all BIRT applications
Publish BIRT-based information applications securely to users outside the firewall
Enhance existing BIRT applications by adding instant interactivity and analysis capabilities
Present data visually with user configurable dashboards
Deliver BIRT content to iPhone®, iPad™ and Blackberry® devices with built-in mobile delivery features
Visit for more information.

8. It takes less than 2 minutes to create your own account
Sign Up Process
It takes less than 2 minutes to create your own account
Step 1: Go to
Step 2: Fill out the registration form
Step 3: Enter an account name,
username, password and
registration code: kualicoeus11
Click Submit
Done. You are ready to go!

9. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Introduction to BIRT

10. Course objectives You learn to Build and customize reports
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Course objectives
You learn to
Build and customize reports
Design charts
Use interactive Flash gadgets

11. Course agenda Course structure Product overview Setup instructions
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Course agenda
Course structure
Product overview
Setup instructions
Creating a listing report
Formatting a report
Using parameters
Using charts
Using hyperlinks
Using Flash gadgets

12. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Course structure
Concepts
Demos
Exercises

13. Supporting information
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Supporting information
BIRT: A Field Guild to Reporting
YouTube: Search for BIRT Videos

14. Actuate BIRT Designer overview
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Actuate BIRT Designer overview

15. About the report design environment
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About the report design environment
Actuate BIRT Designer Professional is a designer tool for report developers
Installation includes the full Eclipse workbench
Views and editors control what appears in menus and tool-bars
Each view is a tool provided in a window you can maximize, minimize, move, resize, or close
You can customize report designs using Java code

16. The report editor

17. Report design views Report Editor Layout editor Master page editor
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Report design views
Report Editor
Layout editor
Master page editor
Script editor
XML source editor
Previewer
Palette
Data Explorer
Resource Explorer
Property Editor
Navigator
Outline

18. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Accessing data
A report can access data from the following types of data sources
Relational database through a JDBC driver
Flat file — text or CSV
XML document
Web services
Other data sources, such as Java objects, through a custom driver
Use Data Explorer to
Create a data source element to connect a report to a data source
Create a data set element that identifies the data to extract from the data source

19. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Laying out the report
Drag report elements from the palette and drop them on the page in the layout editor
Drag data set fields from Data Explorer
Drag customized report elements from Resource Explorer

20. Report layout elements
Label
Text
Dynamic text
Data
Grid
List
Table
Image
Chart
Cross tab
Flash chart
Flash gadget
Flash object
HTML button

21. Previewing and viewing the report
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Previewing and viewing the report
Use the Preview window to test the report format
View a complete report in the following formats
Adobe PDF
HTML and XHTML
Microsoft Excel, XLS
Microsoft PowerPoint, both PPT and PPTX
Microsoft Word, both DOC and DOCX
Postscript
You can also view a report in the interactive report viewer

22. Set up: Import report files
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Set up: Import report files
Extract the report files and resources from the CD
Import files and resources into a workspace

23. Exercise: Creating a listing report
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Exercise: Creating a listing report
You learn to
Create a new report
Build a data source
Build a data set
Lay out the report to display data
Preview the report in different formats
Edit and format column headings
Review the data bindings

24. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Formatting a report

25. Formatting options To make a report visually appealing and effective
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Formatting options
To make a report visually appealing and effective
Change the color, font, size, and other visual properties of report elements
Customize the display of dates, numbers, and currency values
Use styles to apply these formats to report elements

26. Formatting tools and techniques
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Formatting tools and techniques
Formatting options are available through the following views
Property Editor
Properties
To format report content, select a report element, then set property values using the property editor
Many of the formatting properties are the same as CSS properties

27. Exercise: Formatting a report
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Exercise: Formatting a report
You learn to
Resize columns
Create a report header that includes text and an image
Import and use predefined styles
Create a new style
Replace the display values of a data set field
Format text data
Adjust the space between report elements
Alternate row colors in a table

28. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Using parameters

29. About report parameters
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About report parameters
User-entered values that determine the data to display in the report, for example
Sales in a particular region
Sales over a certain amount
Sales for a particular quarter
Report parameters support
Designing a report once, and running it many times to display different data
Managing large reports

30. Running a report having report parameters
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Running a report having report parameters
Parameters prompts the user for input

31. Using a parameter to specify the data to retrieve
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Using a parameter to specify the data to retrieve
Create a report parameter
Insert a parameter marker in the query, for example
Select …
Where Products.ProductLine = ?
Create a data set parameter to supply a value for the parameter marker
Bind the data set parameter to the report parameter, so that the data set parameter gets the user-specified value from the report parameter and passes it to the query

32. Exercise: Using a parameter to specify the data in a report
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Exercise: Using a parameter to specify the data in a report
You learn to
Write a query to return order information for all products
Lay out the data
Create a report parameter
Edit the query to use a parameter to filter rows
Bind a data set parameter to a report parameter
Create a title that displays a parameter value
Run the report using different parameter values

33. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Using charts

34. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
About charts
A chart is a graphical representation of summary data or the relationships among sets of data
A chart displays data as category series and value series

35. Common types of charts Bar Area Line Pie Scatter Meter Stock
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Common types of charts
Bar
Area
Line
Pie
Scatter
Meter
Stock

36. Parts of a chart y-axis labels Value or y axis Chart title Legend
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Parts of a chart
Sales by Region
Chart title
Chips
Boards
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
Regions
North
South
East
West
Sales $
Value or y axis
y-axis
(value) title
Legend
Series labels
Category or x axis
x-axis labels
x-axis (category) title
y-axis labels

37. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Using the chart editor
Create a chart by performing the following three major steps
Select the chart type
Select the data
Format the chart

38. Exercise: Using charts
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Exercise: Using charts
You learn to
Connect to a MySQL database
Create a vertical bar chart
Create a horizontal bar chart
Create a pie chart

39. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Using hyperlinks

40. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
About hyperlinks
Use hyperlinks to provide the report user with access to additional information
Hyperlinks can link
Two sections in a report
A section in a report to a section of a different report
A report to a web page or other external document

41. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Creating a hyperlink
To create a hyperlink, select the following elements
A source element, which is a data, label, or image element
A target element, which is any report element, another report, or a web page

42. Linking two sections in a report
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Linking two sections in a report
To link two sections in a report
Select the target element and create a bookmark The bookmark expression must be enclosed in quotation marks (“ “)
Select the source element and create an internal hyperlink to specify the bookmark

43. Linking to another report
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Linking to another report
To link to a section in another report
Select the target element in the target report and create a bookmark
Select the source element and create a drill-through hyperlink to specify the target report and the bookmark
Optionally, pass a report parameter value to the target report to display specific data
Specify where to open the target report

44. Linking to a web page To link to a web page
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Linking to a web page
To link to a web page
Select the source element and create a URI hyperlink to specify the target location The URI must be enclosed in quotation marks (“ “)
Specify where to open the target page

45. Exercise: Creating hyperlinks
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Exercise: Creating hyperlinks
You learn to create hyperlinks that
Link to a web page
Link to another report

46. 4/19/2017 7:38:54 PM
Using Flash gadgets

47. About using Flash in reports
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About using Flash in reports
Actuate BIRT Release 11 supports
Flash charts
Flash gadgets
Flash object library—Visualizations, charts, maps
Displaying Flash elements in reports requires Adobe Flash Player

48. Examples of Flash in reports
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Examples of Flash in reports no

49. Examples of Flash gadgets
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Examples of Flash gadgets no

50. Adding Flash to a report
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Adding Flash to a report
Create a Flash object for a specific report
Add a Flash object from the Flash Object Library
Use a third-party Flash object

51. Exercise: Using a Flash gadget
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Exercise: Using a Flash gadget
You learn to
Create a meter gadget
Format a meter gadget