Types of textual elements
To support the wide variety of text that a report can display, BIRT Report Designer provides a rich set of textual elements. Table 7‑1 describes these elements.
Table 7‑1 Descriptions of BIRT textual elements
Textual element
Use to
Data
Display dynamic values that are derived from data set fields, computed fields, or JavaScript expressions. You can add literal, or static, text to the dynamic data. Doing so, however, changes the entire expression to a string, and, if the dynamic value is a number or a date, you can no longer format it as a number or a date.
Dynamic text
Display memo or Character Large Object (CLOB) data from a data set field. This type of data typically consists of large amounts of text that contain HTML formatting.
Label
Display a small amount of static text, such as a report title or column heading.
Text
Display the following types of user-specified text:
*Multiline text
*HTML text that contains multiple style formats, for example, text with paragraph styles, such as bulleted lists and numbered lists, or text formats, such as bold or italics
*Text that combines static text with dynamic values, such as a form letter that includes customer names and addresses that are stored in a data source
*Interactive content driven by code, which you specify using the <script> tag
Figure 7‑1 and Figure 7‑2 show a report using textual elements. Figure 7‑1 shows the finished report. Figure 7‑2 shows the design in the layout editor.
Figure 7‑1 Textual elements in a report
Figure 7‑2 Textual elements in the report design