OFBIZReportswithBIRT

GeneratingOpenForBusinessReportswiththeBIRTRCPDesigner
byLeonTorresandSiChen
TheBusinessIntelligenceReportingTools(BIRT)isasuiteoftoolsforgeneratingprofessional
lookingreportsfromadatabase.BIRTcanbeintegratedintoawebapplicationserverframeworkto
renderreportsinHTMLorPDFonthefly.Alternatively,BIRTcanrunstandaloneusingtheRich
ClientPlatform(RCP)Designerapplication,whichisinstalledonaclientmachineandconnectstoan
OFBizdatabaseremotely.
Overview
ThistutorialdescribesindetailhowtosetuptheBIRTRCPDesignerapplicationonaWindows
machineasaclienttoanOFBizdatabaserunningonanothermachine.Italsopresentsabrieftutorial
onhowtogeneratereportsusingsamplesalesorderscreatedintheOFBizOrderManagerapplication.
ThedatabaseusedinthistutorialisPostgreSQL8.0.However,itiseasytoreplicatetheinstructions
foranyotherdatabase.
Prerequisites
OFBizrunningonadatabaseofyourchoice.Inthistutorial,wewillcoverPostgreSQL8.0.
StandaloneBIRTRCPDesigner(downloadthelatestontotheWindowsclientmachine).

http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/
Configuration
First,youwillneedtoconfiguretheOFBizdatabasetoallowconnectionsfromtheWindowsclient
machine.
InordertodothisinPostgreSQL,editthepg_hba.conffileandenteralinetoallowaccessfromthe
clientmachine'sIPaddress,or,ifdesired,fromtheIPblockwhichtheclientmachineresidesin.Inthis
examplewewillassumethattheclientmachineandtheserverrunningOFBizandPostgreSQL8.0are
inthesameinternalnetworkblock192.168.1.0/24.
# Enter this line into pg_hba.conf
host
all
all
192.168.1.0/24

md5

DatabaseconnectivitycanbetestedfromwithintheBIRTRCPDesigner.
Next,youwillneedtodownloadtheJDBCdriverforyourdatabaseontotheWindowsclientmachine
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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
sothatBIRTcanconnect.Youcanplacethedriveranywhereontheclient.ThePostgreSQL8.0JDBC
driverisdistributedwithOFBizatthefollowinglocation,
ofbiz/framework/entity/lib/jdbc/postgresql-8.0-311.jdbc3.jar
PlanningaReport
BeforewebeginusingBIRT,weshouldplanwhatourreportisgoingtobe.Forthistutorial,wewill
bedeterminingthetotalnumberofproductssoldandtherevenuegeneratedbyproductID.This
involvessummingthequantityofeachorderitem,summingthequantitytimesunitpriceofeachorder
item,andgroupingtheresultsbyorderID.
Ifyou'rerunningademo,createsomesalesordersusingtheordermanagerapplication.Thereisno
needtocompletetheorders.
BIRThasadatamodelnavigationtoolandahandySQLeditor,soitisunnecessarytowritedownthe
SQLhere.Withthereportplaninmind,wecannowbeginwritingthereport.
RunningBIRT
UnziptheBIRTRCPzipfilethatyoudownloadedanywhereontheclientmachine.Clickonthe
BIRT.exefiletostarttheprogram.BIRTshouldlooklikethefollowingillustration.

Illustration1:ThisishowBIRTshouldlookwheneveritstarts.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
Thefirststepistocreateanewreport.FromtheFilemenu,selectNewReportandgiveitanamesuch
astest.newrpt.Whenyoufinish,theviewwillfillupwithmanyoptions.Oneofthewindowsiscalled
CheatSheets.Goaheadandcloseit,youwon'tbeneedingit.

Illustration3:ViewwithaLabelandText

Illustration2:Whenanewreportiscreated,theviewfillsupwithmanyoptions.ClosetheCheatSheetswindow.

Inthemiddleisaviewwindowwhereyouwillconstructthereportbydragginganddroppingelements
fromthePalette.ThePaletteislocatedintheupperleft.
Let'sbeginbyconstructingatitleforthereport.DragaLabelobjectfromthePaletteontotheview
window.You'llbepromptedtoenterthelabeltext.Typeinthenameofthefirstreport,Sales
ByProductandpressEnter.Tochangethetextagain,rightclickontheLabelandselectEdit.
UnderneaththeviewisaPropertyEditorwhichdisplaysoptionsfortheLabel.Youcanchangethe
font,colors,andgeneralappearance.MaketheLabellookslikeatitlebychangingthebackground
color,increasingthefontsize,centeringthetextandmakingitbold.
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OFBIZReportswithBIRT

Illustration4:LabelandTextobjectsintheview

Nowaddatextobjectunderneaththetitletodescribethefirstreport.Todothis,dragaTextfromthe
Paletteandaboxshouldpopuppromptingforinput.Enteradescriptionsuchas,Thisisareportthat
showsthesalesbreakdownbyproduct.Thetextshouldappearastheillustrationabove.
Connectingtothedatabase
DatabasesarerepresentedasDataSourcesinBIRT.FindtheDataExplorertabnexttothePaletteand
clickonit.YoushouldseeaDataSourcesfolder.TocreateaDataSource,rightclickontheData
SourcesfolderandselectNewDataSource.

Illustration5:CreatinganewDataSource

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
You'llbepromptedtoselectaDataSourcetype.SelectJDBCDataSourceandclickonNext.

Thenextdialogrequeststheconnectioninformation.FirstwewillneedtoaddourJDBCdrivertothe
listnamedDriverClass.Todothis,selectManageDrivers.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
IntheManageJDBCDriversdialog,usetheAddbuttontoaddtheJDBCjarfilewhichyoucopied
overtothismachine.ItwillshowupinthelistofJARFiles.

Oncethedriverislisted,clickOKtoreturntothedialogaskingforconnectioninformation.

Illustration6:Enteryourconnectioninformationfromentityengine.xml

NowyoucanselectyourdriverfromtheDriverClasslist.Theremainingconnectioninformation
shouldbethesameasthatdescribedinyourOFBizentityengine.xmlconfigurationfile.Enterthe
informationandthenclickonTestConnectiontoseeifyoucanconnect.ThenclickOKtoreturnto
themainview.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
CreatingReportQueries
Assumingtheconnectionwassuccessful,wecanproceedtodefinequeriesthatourreportwilluse.
ThesequeriesarecalledDataSets.TheyarelocatedintheDataExplorerundertheDataSources.

TocreateanewDataSet,rightclickontheDataSetfolderandselectNewDataSetfromthecontext
menu.

ThisdialogasksforbasicinformationabouttheDataSet.Giveitaname,suchasSalesByProduct.
Thereisonlyonedatasource.TheDataSetTypeisSQLSelectQuery.
ThenextdialogallowsyoutoconstructaSQLqueryandnavigatethedatabaseandallofitsobjects,
includingtables,sequences,foreignkeys,etc.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
Youcanalsonarrowdownthelistofchoiceswiththefilteroptionsatthebottom.Itisagoodideato
showtablesonlybyselectingTablesforType.Thiswillgetridofthenontableobjectsfromthe
databaseitemtree.

Illustration7:Creatingaquery

Goaheadandtypethequeryasshownintheillustrationabove.Alternatively,youcandragthenames
oftheobjectsfromthetreeontothequerytosavesometyping.Thequerycouldbemoresophisticated,
butthisissufficientforthepurposeofthetutorial.NotetheuseofAStorenamethefields.BIRTwill
useQuantityandAmountasthecolumnnamesforthesums.
Whenyou'refinished,theDataSetshouldlooklikethe
illustrationontheright.Noticethattheresultcolumnsarepart
ofthelist.Thisisimportantbecausewecandragthesecolumns
ontoobjectsintheviewtocreateanassociationbetweenaview
objectandtheresultcolumn.

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PresentingtheDataSetinaTable
Thenextstepistodisplaytheresultsinatable.Gotothepaletteand
dragaTableobjectontotheview.Youwillbepresentedwithadialog
requestingthenumberofcolumnsanddetails.Therearethreeresult
columns,sothedefaultofthreeshouldbefine.
Detailsiswhereourdatawouldbedisplayed.ThinkofDetailsasaunion
ofDataSets.SincethereisonlyoneDataSet,thedefaultofonedetailis
good.

Thetableappearsontheviewshowingthreekindsofrows,aHeaderrowforthecolumntitle,aDetail
rowforourdata,andaFooterrow.

Illustration9:TablewithaDetailRowcellhighlighted.
Illustration8:ATableontheviewwiththethefirstcelloftheDetailrowselected.

Inordertolinkthetablecolumnswiththeresultsetcolumns,allyouneedtodoisdragthedesired
columnfromourDataSetintheDataExplorerontothecellintheDetailrowwhereyouwantthedata
todisplay.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
Thisisbestexplainedbythefollowingillustration,wheretheproduct_idcolumnisdraggedontothe
firstDetailcell.BIRTfillsintheHeaderforyou.

Illustration10:Linkingtheproduct_idresultcolumntothefirstDetailcolumnbydragging.

Toformatthetable,clickoneachobjecttobeformattedandedittheirpropertiesasyoudidwiththe
LabelandTextobjects.Youcanformatindividualcellsorwholerowsandcolumns.
Finally,ourreportisfinished.PreviewtheresultsbyclickingonthePreviewtab,whichislocated
alongthebottomoftheview.Alternatively,youmayselectapreviewoptionfromtheFilemenu.

Illustration11:Reportpreview

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
SavingtheReport
Tosavethereport,selectSavefromtheFilemenu.Thispreservesalltheworkyou'vedoneuptothis
pointasa.rptdesignfileandallowsyoutoresumethereportcreationatalatertime.The.rptdesignfile
isalsousedtogenerateareporttotheuserdynamicallyaswillbedescribedinthenextsection.
PresentingtheReportDynamically
Onceyou'vesavedyourreportasan.rptdesignfile,you
canusethereportasHTMLorPDFbyusingaweb
browser.InPreviewmode,rightclickonthewindow
andselectCreateShortcutfromthecontextmenuas
shownintheillustrationontheright.BIRTwillplacea
URLshortcutonyourdesktopthatcontainsthe
.rptdesignfile.
Whenyouwanttoviewyourreport,firstopentheBIRT
RCPDesigneronyourdesktop.Then,opentheshortcut
inawebbrowser,andyoushouldseethereportas
HTML.Thereportwillbeupdatedeverytimethelink
isrefreshed.ToservethispageasaPDFinstead,look
fortheURLparameter__format=html.Changeitto
__format=pdf.AslongastheBIRTRCPDesigneris
running,your.rptdesignreportwillberendered.
Alternatively,the.rptdesignfilesthatyoucreatecanbe
Illustration12:CreatingaShortcutURL
incorporatedintoanapplicationsuchasOFBizoran
applicationserversuchasGeronimoandservedupovertheweb.TheuserwouldtypeinaURLthat
containsthe.rptdesignfileandbepresentedwiththeHTMLorPDFresult.Thiswilldeservefurther
investigation.
Conclusions
InthistutorialyoulearnedhowtosetupBIRTRCPDesigneronaclientmachine,howtoconnect
BIRTtoaremoteserverrunningOFBiz,howtogenerateareport,andhowtopresentthereportas
HTMLorPDFdynamically.
Fromthispoint,youmaywishtoexplorehowtointegrateBIRTintoOFBizorserveitfromGeronimo
sothatthereportsmayberunfromawebbrowser.Inallcases,thereportfiles(.rptdesign)mustbe
createdfirst,asyoudidherewiththeBIRTRCPDesigner.

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OFBIZReportswithBIRT
BIRTisalsoavailableasanEclipseperspective.Ifthepersonwhowillbegeneratingthereportsalso
usestheEclipseIDE,heorshemaywishtoinstallitasaplugin.Instructionsfordoingthismaybe
foundattheEclipseProjecthomepage.
http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/

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