Report Engine supports adding reporting capabilities to a Java application. BIRT Report Engine integrates into an existing Eclipse platform on Microsoft Windows, UNIX, or Linux. You can also install report engine components on an existing J2EE application server. To support quick deployment of reporting functionality to an application server, Report Engine includes a web archive (.war) file.
How to install BIRT Report Engine
On the BIRT website, perform the following operations:
1 Navigate to BIRT Downloads for build 4.3.1.
2 In Deployment, choose Runtime, then download the following file:
birt-runtime-4_3_1.zip
3 Extract all files from the BIRT runtime archive to a suitable directory.
4 For each new Java project, add the jars in the ReportEngine\lib subdirectory to your build path.
To test the installation, run the Report Engine report generation command line example. This example uses a batch (.bat) file on a Windows system and a shell script (.sh) file on a UNIX or Linux system. This file takes the parameters shown in Table 3‑1.
Table 3‑1 Parameters for the genReport script
Parameter
Valid for mode
Values
Execution mode
-m
Valid values are run, render, and runrender. The default is runrender.
Target encoding
-e
render, runrender
A valid encoding. The default is utf‑8.
Output format
-f
render, runrender
Valid values are HTML and PDF. The default value is HTML.
Report parameters file
-F
run, runrender
Path to the parameter file. This file contains lines with the format:
<parameter name>=<value>
Locale
-l locale
run, runrender
A valid locale string. The default locale is en.
Output file name
-o
render, runrender
The full path of the output file. The default value is the name of the report design with an extension based on the output format, .html for an HTML file and .pdf for a PDF file.
Report parameter
-p "parameter name=value"
run, runrender
If you provide parameter values with the ‑p parameter, these values override the values in the report parameters file specified by -F.
HTML format
-t
run, runrender
Valid values are HTML and ReportletNoCSS. HTML is the default. This format wraps the HTML output in an <HTML> tag. ReportletNoCSS does not wrap the HTML output in an <HTML> tag.
Report design file
All modes
The full path of the report design file. This parameter must be the last parameter on the command line.
How to test the BIRT Report Engine installation
1 From the command line, navigate to the directory where you installed BIRT Report Engine.
2 Navigate to the ReportEngine subdirectory.
3 To run the genReport script, run the appropriate file for your operating system:
On a Windows platform, run genReport.bat.
On a UNIX or Linux platform, run genReport.sh.
Enclose the value for a command line parameter in quotes. For example, the following Windows platform command uses the value, Hello, for the parameter, sample, to generate an HTML file from the report design, test.rptdesign:
On a Windows platform, run genReport.bat.