Report design information common to report designs and libraries. This is most of the report except for the body.

The module element describes the common characteristics between libraries and designs. It provides a wide variety of properties to help people understand the module, and provide lists of most components: page setup, data sources, data sets, reusable report items, and so on. It also provides a list of custom color definitions.

Name Spaces

ROM defines a number of name spaces within a report design. A name space holds a set of named components. Each name space is independent of the other. ROM name spaces are:

Name Space	Contents
Styles	Shared styles
Data Sources	Data sources (database connections)
Data Sets	Queries and other data sources
Master Pages	Page definitions.
Layout Elements	All visual elements such as lists, tables, etc.
Parameters	Report parameters

The name is optional for elements that can appear in the Layout Elements name space. The name is required for all other elements.

Report Design element

Library element

The person who created the report. The user can fill this in to keep track of the person who wrote the report, or is responsible for maintaining the report. This is purely documentation; BIRT does not use this property at runtime.

Module element createdBy Property

A base directory to use when computing relative links from this report. Most often used for reports created externally to the server and submitted on the fly. Used when computing hyperlinks, library includes, image includes and other relative file references. See the W3C XML Base standard for background: http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xmlbase-20010627/.

 

The developer can define a set of custom color names as part of the design. The developer can then reference these names within properties. Defining the colors in the palette helps the developer achieve a consistent look throughout the report, and allows colors to be refined by changing just one place.

Every custom color has three parts: a display name, an internal name and an RGB value. The display name is what the developer sees. If the palette will be used by people in different countries, then the display name can be externalized and translated. The internal name identifies the color within the design and in the XML design file. The internal name cannot be localized. Finally, the RGB value gives the actual color.

Custom Color structure

Text that describes the report design. It can contain embedded HTML. The comments are notes for the people who develop and maintain the report. Comments cannot be externalized. BIRT does not use this information at runtime, it is purely documentation for the report developer.

See the helpGuide and the description properties for a way to provide information for the users of the report.

Reports frequently have deployment-specific dependencies. For example, developers often use a test database during development, but target a production database once the report is deployed. Or, an OEM may use a different company name in report titles for each of their customers. BIRT provides configuration variables to support such cases. A configuration variable is a name/value pair.

See the helpGuide and the description properties for a way to provide information for the users of the report.

 

Name of the tool that created the design. Designs created by BIRT will contain the text "BIRT Version xxx". Customers or third parties who generate designs can insert their product name here. This is purely a documentation property; BIRT does not use it at runtime.

author property

A description presented to the end user of report when it is deployed. Can contain HTML. Can be externalized. This is a full description, and can be shown to the user when using the report in the UI. The actual use of this property is determined by the application UI.

title property

helpGuide property

Localization resource key for the description presented to the end user of report.

description property

 

The help guide is an external file that provides help information for the report. Help information can include detailed information about parameters, report content or other information. The file can be in any format supported by the browser. The help guide will open in a separate popup window.

Library element

A design often uses images. Most images in a report will be accessed via a URL, or a file deployed externally to the report. However, some reports may want to embed an image directly into the report design. Embedded images are especially helpful if a report design is generated in a custom application and sent to the server for one-time execution.

Images have a name. The name allows an image item to reference the embedded image. Scripts can use the image name to retrieve the image from the images array:

var img = report.design.images["MyImage"]

Image item

Report designs support externalized strings by storing the resource keys; which are stored in the resource file. This property stores the resource file name.

 

The name(s) of JavaScript files to include into this report. BIRT reads and executes these scripts before calling the initialize method for the design. The scripts can define reusable variables, functions, objects, Java imports and so on. The design can contain any number of script includes.

initialize method

Includes a list of libraries.

There is requirement that a property value for an elemenet can be overridden at runtime. This list is used to bind a property of an element to an expression, user can override the value if expression bind to an parameter.

When a report/library include another library, it can use one of the theme provided by the included library. When a theme is applied, the report/library is able to reuse all the styles contained in this theme.

A short description of the report presented to the user when the report is deployed. The string can be externalized. The use of the string depends on the application UI used at deployment.

description property

helpGuide property

title property

Localization resource key for the title

title property