The report item extension framework supports creating a customized report item in the palette of BIRT Report Designer. You can use a report item extension in a report design in the same way that you use a standard report item, such as Label, Text, Grid, Table, or Chart.
The sample code for the rotated label report item extension creates a label element that renders text at a specified angle. To implement the rotated label report item extension, perform the following tasks:
Configure the plug-in project.
Build the rotated label report item plug-in manually by following the instructions in this section.
Add the report item to the report designer UI.
Use org.eclipse.birt.report.designer.ui.reportItemUI to extend the report item UI extension point.
Add the report item property pages to the report designer UI.
Use org.eclipse.birt.report.designer.ui.elementAdapters to extend the report item UI property page extension point.
Add the report item definition to the ROM.
Use org.eclipse.birt.report.model.reportItemModel to extend the report item model extension point.
Add the report item run-time behavior.
Use org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.reportItemPresentation to extend the report item presentation extension point.
Deploy the report item extension.
Export the rotated label report item plug-in folder from your workspace to the eclipse\plugins folder. This step is not necessary to test the extension when you launch it as an Eclipse application in the PDE.
The source code for the rotated label report item extension example is available at http://www.actuate.com/birt/contributions.
The rotated label report item extension depends on the following Eclipse plug‑ins:
org.eclipse.core.runtime.compatibility
org.eclipse.birt.core.ui
org.eclipse.birt.data
org.eclipse.birt.report.designer.core
org.eclipse.birt.report.designer.ui
org.eclipse.birt.report.designer.ui.views
org.eclipse.birt.report.engine
org.eclipse.ui
Downloading BIRT source code
The BIRT source code is available to the developer community as a downloadable package. BIRT source code is not needed to compile any required plug-ins.
By default, the system uses the JAR files in the $INSTALL_DIR\eclipse\plugins folder. These plug-ins must be in the classpath to compile successfully. To debug, you may need the source code for the required BIRT plug-ins.
BIRT source code is not needed to develop the sample rotated label report item plug-in. You work only with the Java classes in the org.eclipse.birt.sample .reportitem.rotatedlabel package.
Configure the plug-in project.