Learning BIRT, part 2

(This is the second half of my review for Practical Data Analysis and Reporting with BIRT).

Chapters six through ten cover various ways that reports can be enhanced. Each of these chapters is relatively self-contained, making it easy to refer back for details later when writing reports. Chapter six describes how reports can be parameterized, obviously a necessary capability to promote reuse. In particular the distinction between data set and report parameters in BIRT needs to be understood, and chapter six does a good job in explaining this difference. Also explained are more advanced parameter concepts, such as dynamic, cascading and group parameters. While a number of these parameter concepts are covered quickly, if you are a Java developer as the book assumes, the explanation should be a sufficient overview, and the BIRT documentation can serve to fill in the details.

Report project and libraries are described in chapter seven. By using the Eclipse projects configured for BIRT and report libraries, further reuse is enabled. For example, images that need to be shared across a team of developers creating reports can be stored in libraries, and these libraries are then referenced by each consuming report. As with the previous chapter, Java developers should have no problem understanding these concepts, and the use of specific project types will be very familiar to experienced Eclipse developers as well. Chapter seven also contains a tutorial about reusing resources, and this is useful for checking understanding.

An important aspect of report development is being able to customize rendering. Obviously we’d like to separate rendering instructions from main report data (if possible), so changes in rendering can be made independently. In chapter eight there are examples of several style options BIRT supports: BIRT built-in styles, custom styles, CSS, and style templates. For simple formatting requirements either the built-in style support or slight customizations of it will suffice. Style templates are more useful to apply over a range of reports, probably across groups or departments. Finally, the capability to use CSS allows BIRT users leverage vast resources from that style language. The examples in chapter eight are brief, but detailed enough to suggest the possibilities in each option.

Charts are a common requirement for reports. Luckily, BIRT’s Charting Engine supplies a number of thirteen popular charting options, including scatter, pie, bar and line charts. Further, drill-down (the ability to see more detailed information for a specific chart element) is supported by the Chart Engine. Chapter nine uses the pie, gauge and bar charts in simple, illustrative examples. While table reports are common and useful, you really get to see the power of BIRT as a reporting tool through these chart examples. Well designed charts can convey a lot of information in an attractive form, and drill-down allow you to present additional details without cluttering the initial chart presentation. Perhaps because of the visual appeal of charts, I found the examples in chapter nine more interesting than those in other chapters, and this made me wonder if incorporation of charts throughout the book might have been a good strategy.

BIRT includes scripting support using Java and JavaScript. Chapter ten discusses these capabilities, interestingly starting with a comment that knowledge of Java is useful for understanding the scripting examples. Yet the assumptions stated at the beginning of the book include being a Java developer and, as I’ve mentioned several times, those without Java experience will have to work hard to grasp much of the book’s content. Perhaps in an attempt to limit chapter size or to keep it accessible to those without Java experience, the script examples in this chapter only scratch the surface. A minor criticism: much of the code has pedestrian comments (about things that method names, etc. should suggest) and subsequent paragraphs have explanations similar to the comments. It would have been better to omit these comments, hence making the code more compact. Event handling, an integral part of BIRT scripting, is also covered briefly in a few examples. My feeling is that this chapter should assume a fair amount of experience with Java and the ability to pick up JavaScript while showing more detailed examples. Granted this would increase the length of the chapter and still would only show a fraction of the possibilities, but a more comprehensive example would be more instructive to the (stated) target readership.

The final two chapters deal with report deployment and a case study. The deployment material is good to get started with, and ideally your deployment requirements will fit within the basic cases. But, as is often the case with real world deployment scenarios, likely there will be complications requiring studying further BIRT documentation for alternatives. The working example chapter is only suggestive – to follow the example exactly requires a lot of set up and I doubt few readers will attempt it. As a summary of many of the concepts covered earlier, however, the case study is a nice summary and useful for pulling all of the previous threads together.

In conclusion, I believe John Ward’s book does a fine job of providing a quick start to BIRT. If you are a Java developing using Eclipse and want to take advantage of BIRT, starting with the BIRT “all in one” download and working through Practical Data Analysis and Reporting with BIRT will quickly get you up and running.