A reporting application uses the BIRT Report Engine API to generate reports from report design (.rptdesign) files. Typically, the application produces the report as a formatted file or stream, in HTML or PDF format. Alternatively, the application creates a report document (.rptdocument) file that contains the report content
in binary form and renders the report to one of the supported output formats later.

This section describes the fundamental requirements of a reporting application and describes the BIRT API classes and interfaces that you use in the application. This section also provides detailed information about the tasks that a reporting application performs.

There are two Report Engine run‑time environments. The newer one is a simplified Plain Old Java Object (POJO) configuration and the other is an OSGi run time.

The BIRT APIs in the org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api package support the process of generating a report from a report design. This package provides the ReportEngine class and supporting interfaces and classes.

Optionally, the reporting application can use the BIRT Design Engine API to access the structure of report designs, templates, and libraries. Using this API, the application can create and modify report designs before generating a report. This API supports creating and modifying the report items and other elements within designs. The org.eclipse.birt.report.model.api package and its subpackages provide access to all the items that comprise a report design.

For complete information about all the methods and fields of the classes and interfaces in these packages, see the online Javadoc. You must have the BIRT SDK package installed in order to access the Javadoc. Instructions on installing the SDK are provided in Installing and Deploying BIRT. To view the Javadoc, open the online help and navigate to BIRT Programmer Reference➛Reference➛API Reference. Choose Report Engine API Reference for the Report Engine API and Report Object Model API Reference for the Design Engine API. The Javadoc also shows supporting packages in the public API.