Each BIRT application has an HTML landing page that is accessible from a web browser. You can use this page to include additional content for your application such as a description of the application, online help, and HTML links to the contents of the application. You can run a project as a BIRT application to test how the application responds when published.
How to edit the application landing page
While you can put any HTML code into the landing page, this example adds a link to a dashboard and a report file in the BIRT application.
To edit the landing page using BIRT Designer Professional, complete the following steps:
1 Use Navigator to right-click the index.html file in the BIRT project, as shown in Figure 46‑3.
Figure 46‑3 Selecting the landing page
2 Choose Open With➛HTML Editor, as shown in Figure 46‑4.
Figure 46‑4 Opening the landing page in the HTML editor
3 In the HTML editor type the following text on the second line of the landing page:
<a href=
Figure 46‑5 shows the new line in the landing page.
Figure 46‑5 Editing the landing page
4 In the Navigator, drag a dashboard file and drop it at the end of the new line in the landing page, as shown in Figure 46‑6.
Figure 46‑6 Selecting a file to add to the landing page
The relative location of the file is added to the HTML page, as shown in Figure 46‑7.
Figure 46‑7 Adding a link to a file in the BIRT application
5 Finish the HTML link by closing the a tag and adding text for the link. Verify your finished link is similar to the code below:
9 Choose File➛Save to save your changes to the landing page.
How to run a project as a BIRT application
To test how a BIRT application runs using BIRT Designer Professional, complete the following steps:
1 Right-click the BIRT project that you want to deploy as a BIRT application in Navigator, as shown in Figure 46‑8.
Figure 46‑8 Selecting a BIRT project to test
2 Choose Run As➛BIRT Application, as shown in Figure 46‑9.
Figure 46‑9 Running a project as a BIRT application
If prompted to save any unsaved resources, choose OK.
3 In Device Chooser, select the local browser device and choose OK, as shown in Figure 46‑10.
Figure 46‑10 Selecting the default viewer
The landing page of the BIRT application appears in a local browser. Edit the landing page file in BIRT Designer Professional to display links to files in the BIRT application, as shown in Figure 46‑11.
Figure 46‑11 Displaying the BIRT application landing page
