BIRT
BIRT is the acronym for Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools and is an open source initiative to create a fully functional reporting tool using open source tools. BIRT supports various types of reports such as lists, charts, crosstabs and compound reports. In this chapter we will learn how to create BIRT reports and how to publish them in SpagoBI server.
Note: In case you are reading this at spagolabs blog, then you can get the mysql dump and other files needed for this tutorial by writing the author at the email xogutu at gmail dot com for a small fee.
We will be creating a report similar to the one above.
Let us create a new report.
1. Start the Spago BI studio.
2. Create a new project.
a. Click on File -> New -> Project.
b. Under Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools select Report Project.
c. Click Next.
d. Under project name use “Business Intelligence”. For the storage location, use default.
e. Your new project will now be visible on the navigator on the bottom left of the page.
3. Define a new report. Click on New -> Report.
a. For the report name, use “Administrative Costs”
b. For the report template, select blank report and click on finish.
c. Your new report should be visible on the navigator.
Reports can get their data from various sources such as flat files or relational databases.
We need to create a connection to the database from the SpagoBI Studio. Proceed as shown below.
a. Click on Data -> New Data source.
b. Select JDBC Data Source, and on Data Source Name put “Mysql Local”
c. For the Data source details, enter the following.
Change the URL, username and password appropriately. Click on Test Connection. This should be successful before you proceed.
Click on Finish.
d. When you click on Data Explorer, your new connection should be visible.
e. With the Data Explorer still opened, right click on Data Sets, and select New Data Set.
f. For the data source location select Mysql Local (The data source you just created above).
g. For data set name, put AdminCost.
h. For the query text, use “select * from admincost”. This will select all the contents of the table admincost.
i. Click on finish.
j. On your dataset, click on preview results, this will output the contents of the table admincost.
k. Click on Pallete and under report items, select grid. The grid allows you to organize the items in your reports like images, charts, text etc.
l. Create a grid with 2 columns and one row.
m. Drag an image icon to the first cell.
n. Click on embedded image then select the shemma.jpg image from the BIRT folder on the CD that came with this book.
o. Drag the image to make it smaller.
p. Drag the text item to the second cell.
q. For the type of text, select HTML. Write a header as shown.
r. Once you are done, your report should look like the one shown below.
s. Next we will include the actual data on the report.
5. To include data from the data set we create above on the report, click on the Data Explorer tab. Expand datasets and drag AdminCost on an empty area of your report.
6. Using the property editor, change the heading for id, item and cost.
a. Before
b. After.
c. To test the report we just created, click on
d. And there you have it, your very first BIRT report!
7. Next we need to publish our report to the SpagoBI server. Proceed as follows.
a. In the data explorer, right click on Report Parameters then click on New Parameter. For the name enter driver.
b. Create other parameters url, user and pwd.
c. Right click on the data source “Mysql Local”, click on edit and select Property Binding. Attach the parameters as shown below.
This can be easily be done as follows:
i. Click on the fx (Javascript sysntax) button next to JDBC Driver Class.
ii. Under category select Reports Parameters.
iii. Under Sub Category select All.
d. Under Double Click to Insert, double click on driver.
e. Repeat the procedure for JDBC Driver URL, User Name and Password.
f. If you have not been Saving your work, this is a good time to do so!
g. Right Click on your Business Intelligence project and click on properties. Unser Resource, check the location where your report is stored.
h. Take note of this location as we will use it when creating documents in Spago BI.
8. Start your SpagoBI server and navigate to http://localhost:8080/SpagoBI.
9. Login with username bidev and password bidev.
10. Click on Analytical model -> Documents Development.
11. Click on Insert.
12. Under Show document templates , select the folder you want your document to be stored.
13. Click on browse and navigate to where your AdministrativeCosts.rptdesign report file is stored.
14. Click on Save.
15. Click on Administrative Tasks under the folder you saved your report. You should have the report displayed on the SpagoBI server.