Features

Eclipse Unveils BIRT Modules

By Dilip Thomas

Actuate Corporation and the Eclipse Foundation have unveiled all of the modules currently under development for the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools Project (BIRT). In addition, a build infrastructure has been established to provide regular builds of BIRT to the Eclipse Open Source community to allow for regular community feedback. BIRT, which was approved as a top level Eclipse project in September 2004, is the industry's first Open Source Business Intelligence and Reporting Technology project. BIRT version 1.0 is scheduled for release in the first half of 2005.

The elements of BIRT now available include:

Report Object Model (ROM): which is a schema for describing the elements that make up the design of a BIRT report.
Eclipse Report Designer: an Eclipse-based desktop authoring environment that generates reports based on the ROM.
Eclipse Report Engine: which enables reports to be generated using the ROM designs created by the Designer.
Eclipse Charting Engine: which provides a rich business chart generation capability within BIRT and can also be used as a standalone charting component.

BIRT will benefit developers and, in particular, the Eclipse Java Developer, by expanding the availability of Business Intelligence and reporting to a wider audience, and allow faster incorporation of reporting within Java applications. Developers require tools such as BIRT that are simple to use and widely applicable in order to minimize the development costs associated with building core application functions such as reporting and analysis. In addition, BIRT will promote interoperability with commercial reporting offerings by offering ROM, a report definition language that allows for the easy transfer of report definitions, making it easier for developers to migrate report designs amongst tools.

Those who wish to become involved in the development of BIRT or wish to provide feedback via the BIRT newsgroup can do so by visiting www.eclipse.org/birt.


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