BIRT provides many types of visual report components. Every type of visual report component has a corresponding ROM element that derives from the ReportItem element. Visual report components are called report items. Every report item type has an entry in Palette, the view in BIRT Report Designer that the report developer uses to build a report layout.
Report item types
BIRT provides container and simple report items. Container items are structural components provide slot elements to hold other report items. The slots in container items support both container and simple report items, so a grid can contain tables that contain other tables and grids, and so on. Simple report items are not structural and do not contain other items. These report items have properties that describe their behavior and appearance and do not provide slots. For example, the Image element is a simple report item.
Examples of container report items include:
Grid
A grid contains a set of report items arranged into a matrix having a fixed set of columns and rows. Each cell in the grid can contain one or more simple or container report items.
List
A list contains a set of arbitrary content based on data retrieved from a data set. A list is appropriate when some report items require a sophisticated layout and repeat that layout for each row in a query.
Table
A table contains a set of report items arranged into a matrix. A table has a fixed set of columns and an arbitrary number of rows. A table produces a detail row for every row of data retrieved from a data set.
Report item element properties
Each type of report item has its own set of properties in addition to the properties it inherits from ReportItem. Types of inherited properties include:
Method, which defines executable code.
Property, which includes such values as names and dimensions.
Slot, which contains Type elements that define its contents, as shown in the following element definition.
Grid