Understanding an ODA extension
A BIRT report design specifies the type of data access and data transformations required to generate a report. All data comes from an external data source. The BIRT data engine supports the DTP ODA framework. The DTP ODA framework provides access to standard and custom data sources using an open API.
Using the DTP ODA framework makes it possible to create a plug-in driver to any external data source. BIRT uses DTP ODA extension points for the report designer and report generation environments.
A DTP ODA extension adds a new data source driver to the BIRT framework by implementing the following extension points:
*ODA data source
org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda.dataSource supports the extension of BIRT design-time and run-time data source access. The XML schema file, org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda/schema/dataSource.exsd, describes this extension point.
*ODA user interface
org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda.design.ui.dataSource supports optionally adding an integrated user interface for an ODA driver to BIRT Report Designer. The plug-in can provide user interface support used by a report designer to specify the data source and edit the data set. The XML schema file, org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda.design.ui/schema
/dataSource.exsd, describes this extension point.
*ODA connection profile
org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda.connectionProfile supports optionally adding different types of connection profiles to an ODA driver user interface for BIRT Report Designer. A connection profile can define a category or set
of configuration types such as JDBC connection profiles. This user interface defines a corresponding newWizard element used to create the resource.
The XML schema file, org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity/schema
/connectionProfile.exsd, describes this extension point.
*ODA connection properties page
org.eclipse.ui.propertyPages supports optionally adding a page used to edit the properties of a connection profile. The XML schema file, org.eclipse.ui.propertyPages/schema/propertyPages.exsd, describes this extension point.
For more information about the DTP ODA APIs, see the Javadoc for the org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda package hierarchy. The Javadoc is in the DTP Software Development Kit (SDK) available from the Eclipse Data Tools Platform project at http://www.eclipse.org/datatools.