Every BIRT data source object specifies the connection properties required to connect to an underlying data source. Typically, many report designs access the same data source. Rather than typing the same connection properties for each design, you can create a connection profile to reuse the same connection properties across multiple designs. Usually you change database connection properties used in the development environment when you publish the reports to BIRT iHub.

To change the connection properties dynamically when you design or deploy your reports, you can use one of two approaches, connection configuration file or connection profile. The connection profile approach is the recommended method of managing database connections. The following sections describe these two approaches.