Types of textual elements
To support the wide variety of text that a report can display, BIRT Report Designer provides a rich set of textual elements. Table 3‑1 describes these elements.
Table 3‑1 Descriptions of BIRT textual elements
Textual element | Use to |
Data | Display dynamic values that are derived from data set fields, computed fields, or JavaScript expressions. You can add literal, or static, text to the dynamic data. Doing so, however, changes the entire expression to a string, and, if the dynamic value is a number or a date, you can no longer format it as a number or a date. |
Dynamic text | Display memo or Character Large Object (CLOB) data from a data set field. This type of data typically consists of large amounts of text that contain HTML formatting. |
Label | Display a small amount of static text, such as a report title or column heading. |
Text | Display the following types of user-specified text:  Multiline text  HTML text that contains multiple style formats, for example, text with paragraph styles, such as bulleted lists and numbered lists, or text formats, such as bold or italics  Text that combines static text with dynamic values, such as a form letter that includes customer names and addresses that are stored in a data source  Interactive content driven by code, which you specify using the <script> tag |
Figure 3‑1 and
Figure 3‑2 show a report using textual elements.
Figure 3‑1 shows the finished report.
Figure 3‑2 shows the design in the layout editor.
Figure 3‑1 Textual elements in a report
Figure 3‑2 Textual elements in the report design