# BIRT contexts

Contexts for items submitted by Actuate, 3/06

## New Report Project

Use this dialog box to specify a project name for the new report project. For the project contents, you can either choose to use the default location or specify an alternate location.

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## New Report - Create a new report

Use this page to specify a parent folder and a file name for a new report project.

If you created a project for the new report, you can select it as the parent folder.

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## New Report - Select a report to copy

Use this page to select a blank report, one of the report templates that are provided with the copy, or a previously created report, and then click Finish.

When you highlight a report template, a preview of the report is displayed to the right.

If you select "Show Report Creation Cheat Sheet," the corresponding cheat sheet will be displayed, if one is available, when you click Finish.

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## New Data Source - Select a Data Source Type or Choose a Connection Profile

Use this page to select the type of data source that you want to include in your report, then specify the name of the data source.

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## New Data Set

Use this page to specify a name for the data set, the source of the data, and the data set type.

A data set is a query that specifies the data to retrieve from the data source.

The data set type indicates the type of query. For example, if your report connects to a JDBC data source, you use a SQL SELECT statement to specify the data to retrieve.

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## Edit Data Set

Use this dialog box to define the attributes of a data set.

A data set is a query that specifies the data to retrieve from the data source.

Selecting an item in the left pane of the dialog box has the following results:

- Query - allows you to specify the data to retrieve.
- Data Source - allows you to change the data source you specified in the New Data Set dialog box.
- Preview - displays a preview of the items that you selected in your query.
- Computed Columns
- Parameters
- Filters
- Output Columns
- Property Binding
- Cache Preference

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## New Style - General page

This page allows you to name a new formatting style or modify an existing style for application in reports.

Select the button for Predefined Style to customize an existing style. Select the button for Custom Style to create a new style from scratch.

On the left of the page, choose a property category that you want to include in the style that you are creating. Define the property on the right of the page.

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## Expression Builder

Use this dialog box to create an expression. You can type in the expression, double-click a listed element, or use a combination of these two methods.

You can also enter operators by typing them or by clicking the operator buttons.

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## New Sample DB Data Source Profile

TBS

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## New JDBC Data Source Profile

TBS

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## Manage JDBC Drivers

TBS

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## New XML File Data Source Profile

TBS

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## New Flat file Data Source Profile

TBS

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## New Data Source - Select a Connection Profile

TBS

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## New Data Set - New Data Set

TBS

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## Query

TBS

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## XML DataSet

TBS

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## Table Mapping

TBS

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## Select or edit the XPath expression

TBS

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## Column Mapping

TBS

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## Column Mapping

TBS

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## New Data Set - Output columns

TBS

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## Select Table - Select Column

TBS

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## Edit JDBC Drivers

TBS

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## New Data Set - Joint Data Set

TBS

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## Edit Data Source - Data Source

TBS

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## Edit Data Set - Data Set

TBS

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## New Report

TBS

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## New Template

TBS

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## New Library

TBS

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## Save as

TBS

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## Publish To Template Folder

TBS

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## Format Builder

TBS

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## Import Values

TBS

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## New Style

Use this dialog box to apply a style for to the report element that you selected in the layout editor. Use this dialog box also to define a new style; you can apply the style at this time, but you do not need to.

The left side displays the property categories. The right side displays the properties for the category you select.

On the General page, specify one of the following settings:

- To apply an existing set of style properties to the report element, select Predefined Style and select a style from the drop-down list.
- To create a user-named style, specify a unique descriptive name for Custom Style. Make sure the name is not the same as any of the predefined style names. If you specify a name that is the same as a predefined style, your custom style takes precedence, and you will no longer be able to use the predefined style to apply cascading styles.

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## New Parameter Group

Use this dialog box to create a visual grouping of parameters.

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## Hyperlink Options

Use this page to define a link to another location

There are three major kinds of links:

- A hyperlink to an external web site, e-mail system, and so forth

  The Hyperlink property returns a standard web-style link with http: or mailto: prefix. Expression hyperlinks can include special BIRT features, but only as encoded into a URL. If the link specifies a target within the document, encode that target within the URL as defined by target document type, as in the URL, `http://MyPage.com/docs/myDoc.html#myTarget`.

- A bookmark to a location within the report as specified by a bookmark.

  Use the Bookmark property of a report item to create the target bookmark.

- A drill-though to a location within another report as specified by a bookmark.
  The drill-though link can link to an existing report, or request to run a new report. It can optionally include:
  - Parameters to pass when creating a new report.
  - A location within the target report as specified by a search.
  - A location within the target report as specified by a bookmark.

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## Expression Builder

Use this dialog box to create expressions for any purpose that your report requires.

For example, you can create a computed field in your report layout, or create aggregate expressions to display summary information.

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## New Parameter

Use this dialog box to create a report parameter to allow users to filter your report. The report parameter prompts users to specify values that determine the rows to retrieve.

Specify the following basic properties:

- For Name, type a name for the parameter. If you do not specify a value for Prompt text (the next property), the report user sees the Name value as the parameter prompt.
- For Type, select a data type for the parameter.

  The data type you select does not have to match the data type of the field in the data source. Values in an orderID field, for example, could be stored as integers in the database but the report parameter associated with this field can be of decimal or string type. The data type you select for the report parameter determines the formatting options available should you choose to provide a default value or a list of values for the report parameter.

  For date fields, you can select either Date Time or String. Specifying string data type provides more flexibility for the user to specify dates in a variety of formats. The user can enter, for example, 02/04/2004, 2/4/04, or Feb 4, 2004. The trade-off is that you cannot use date and time formats to change how dates are displayed should you choose to provide the user with a list of date values.

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## New Cascading Parameter

Use this dialog box to define a cascading parameter group.

A parameter group is a visual grouping of dynamic parameters. When the value of a particular parameter in the group depends on the value of another parameter, the parameter group is a cascading parameter group.

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## New Image Item

Use this dialog box to insert an image directly on the page or in any container element.

In you are inserting an linked image, select the Linked image button. Under Enter URI, specify the location of the image file. Enclose the URI in double quotation marks (" ").

In you are inserting an embedded image, select the Embedded image button, then click Add Image to select the image that you want to embed.

Typically, you insert data source images in the detail row of a table to display all the pictures stored in the data source. If you are entering an image that is stored in a data source, select the Dynamic image button, then click Binding to specify the data source.

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## Insert Table

Use this dialog box to insert a Table element.

The Table element presents data from a data set in using a tabular layout. The columns property is optional and defines the columns. The header appears at the top of the table, and on each new page. The table can contain groups. (Right-click in the table that you inserted and click Insert Group.) The footer displays totals and appears at the bottom of the table. The detail appears for every row in the data set.

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## Edit Text Item

Use this dialog box to edit and format Text elements.

The Text element displays a multi-line block of text defined within the report. This element can contain embedded formatting and value expressions.

The Text item allows the report developer to provide the text as part of the report design. Text can be in HTML or plain text format and can be localized. HTML text can contain placeholders for data and expressions, much like the mail merge feature of a word processing program.

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## New Group

Use this dialog box to define and configure groups.

Grouping data in a report can make the data easier to interpret and use. For example, you can group customer data by credit limit.

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## Data Binding

Use this dialog box to specify the data set that contains the images that you want to insert.

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## New Highlight

Use this dialog box specify the condition, or rule, for applying a particular format to the report element.

The dialog box helps you specify the If and Then parts of the rule by breaking them down to more specific parts.

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## Preferences - Data Set Editor page

Use this page to

Use this page to control how the Data Set Editor displays SQL queries and previews reports.

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## Preferences - Element Names page

Use this page to

Use this page to assign default names to elements of the Report Object Model (ROM).

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## Preferences - Library page

Use this page to add or remove libraries.

A BIRT report library is a collection of report components that can be used in a report design. Report components include reusable visual report items, data sources, data sets, parameters, translations and more.

A library is a customizable, pre-defined set of rules that helps a user quickly create a report with a specific look.

A BIRT library includes both formatting information and rules that help you the developer create a report. A library is like a "skin" for a report; it takes the data, structure and layout of a report and applies formatting defined in the library to transform the report's appearance.

A library may start with a "style sheet": a set of common styles to apply to all reports within an application. The library can then add commonly-used data sources, reusable components, translated text, images and more.

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## Preferences - Preview page

Use this page to control how reports are previewed in web browsers.

To add a browser, select Custom Browser and enter the command to open it.

You can enable an SVG device renderer for the chart engine. This reference implementation (located in the org.eclipse.birt.chart.device.svg plug-in) defines basic SVG drawing primitives based on the SVG 1.1 specification.

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## Preferences - Preview Server page

Use this page to set up an internal application server to preview your reports.

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## Preferences - Template page

Use this page to

Use this page to specify the folder that contains your templates.

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