BIRT Designer displays information about data source connection problems in several different places. Error reports can appear in the previewer, the Problems view, the error log view, and as pop-up messages. Generally, BIRT Designer displays JDBC connection-related problems in pop-up error messages. If the connection information is syntactically correct, but the data source is not available, you see a pop-up message and entries in the error log view.

A list of errors appears in the Problems view if a data source is incorrectly defined. You cannot manually delete items from the Problems view. They display until you resolve the problem or delete the object that is creating the problem.

If you have problems connecting to a data source from BIRT Designer, try connecting using a third-party tool to confirm that the connection string works as expected. This troubleshooting exercise can help you determine whether to focus your troubleshooting on the driver or on the parameters that you have provided.

If you make changes to the connection parameters and BIRT Designer behaves as though it is still using the original values for the parameters, restart Eclipse using the -clean option. What has happened is that Eclipse is using cached information that contains the previous values. To clear the cache, exit Eclipse and restart using the -clean option.