Generate a dynamic report from POJO in BIRT

Question

I was wondering what's the best way to create a dynamic report from POJO(and not databases!) in BIRT. I'm new to BIRT, but I'm overwhelmed by the variety of information and no one go-to place for all the information. So, I'll be glad if anyone can suggest me the best way so that I can learn and build on it.

My program generates a POJO(let's call it report) that contains all the data to be published. Now, the BIRT should read this POJO and generate the report. The report contains several tables(say A,B,C...) and each table has its own structure(all this information is in the report). Since no aspect is static, I'm lost.

I read some tutorials, but they all explain from static(/mock) datasets or datasets retrieved from databases and don't explain many things like how to create columns on the fly....

Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

Scripted data sets are one way. Another is to create your own ODA data source. The latter is much more complicated, but better if you plan on reusing it frequently and need to access several different forms of data on the backend.

Answer 2

BIRT can be daunting. Don't feel bad. I had to do something similar to what you are talking about last year. Here are some references that were helpful to me.

http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/home/

They have forums at birt-exchange. These seem to be read more by BIRT experts than a general site like StackOverflow. You may have better luck getting specific answers there.

The book Integrating and Extending BIRT was also very useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Integrating-Extending-BIRT-Jason-Weathersby/dp/0321443853

And last but not least, I recommend looking at the examples on Birt Exchange that produce graphs and reports that are similar to what you are trying to do. It is much easier to figure out the patterns of usage from an example.

Good luck.