About BIRT Extension Developer Guide
BIRT Extension Developer Guide shows Java programmers how to add new functionality to the BIRT framework. By building on the Eclipse platform, BIRT provides an extension mechanism that is familiar to developers of Eclipse plug‑ins. This guide also provides information about how to build the BIRT project for developers who need access to the complete BIRT open-source code base. Part V includes the following sections:
Building the BIRT Project. This section explains how to download BIRT 4.3.1 source code and build the BIRT project for development. This is an optional task and usually performed when a developer is directly modifying BIRT source code.
Extending BIRT. This section provides an overview of the BIRT extension framework and describes how to use the Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) and the BIRT extension points to create, build, and deploy a BIRT extension.
Developing a Report Item Extension. This section describes how to develop a report item extension. The rotated label extension example is a plug-in that renders the text of a report item as an image. The extension rotates the image in the report design to display the text at a specified angle. This section also describes how to build a rotated text report item plug-in and add the report item to the BIRT Report Designer using the defined extension points.
Developing a Report Rendering Extension. This section describes how to develop a report rendering extension using the Eclipse PDE with sample CSV and XML report rendering extensions as the examples. The section describes how to extend the emitter interfaces using the defined extension points to build and deploy a customized report rendering plug‑in that runs in the BIRT Report Engine environment.
Developing an ODA Extension. This section describes how to develop several types of DTP ODA extensions. The CSV ODA driver example is a plug-in that reads data from a CSV file. The Hibernate ODA driver example uses Hibernate Query Language (HQL) to provide a SQL‑transparent extension that makes the ODA extension portable to all relational databases. This section shows how to develop an ODA extension to the BIRT Report Designer 4.3.1 user interface that allows a report designer to select an extended ODA driver.
Developing a Data Extraction Extension. This section describes how to develop a report data extraction extension using the Eclipse PDE. The data extraction example exports report data to XML format. The Eclipse PDE provides the basis for the extension.