help in design scenarios , questions

Hi guys 
I am new to Birt 
I am evaluating Birt for use with our local search engine application. 
I need some guidance to see if i am on the right track. and can use birt for 
the report generation(actually i already picked it up ). 
secanario: 
- Csv or XML file is generated uppon web service request with statistic data. 
- File is sorted and filtered (group by) 
- webservice only returns path to file. 
- for each report the number of fields (group by filtering) may change. 
- may need to pass params to webservice requests 
- time frame (from too) mandatory 
- and at least one breaking level (for example state ,city) 
- a top entry param for exampple numof clicks , so i can get all entries surpassed that value 
 
After playing with Eclipse Birt report designer 2.5.0 for a while 
in birt terms: 
 
my Data Sources may be 
1) the webservice but it only returns a path to file (csv) and no data 
 
my Data Set 
2) the csv /xml file 
but it's dynamic and changing 
 
3) i need to construct the report from changing data (number of columns and their names and changing breaking level (group by) 
 
i want to use the birt viewer (with tomcat) for showing the outcome 
 
i may need to have collapsing fields in the output (html) according to groups by levels (can it be done?). 
and since my data source is actually a file and it may be big (not too much) paging is needed (is that possible with a file data source). 
 
 
any ideas ;-) 
 
appriciate any input. 
Thanks in advance 
 
Yuval 
 
<a href='mailto:' title='E-mail Link' class='bbc_email'>yonyuv@yahoo.com</a>

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Comments

Virgil Dodson

Hi Yuval,

What questions do you have? If you're asking if BIRT can work in this scenario then the answer is yes. One thing you may have to work around is around the datasource. If your webservice was returning some XML then you can use BIRT web service data source. Otherwise, since you are returning the location of a file (CSV or XML) then you will need to use the Flat File or XML data source... and then use the property binding of the data set to determine the location of the file using an expression. In this expression, in Java or JavaScript, you can initiate your web service your self, passing parameters, and set the location of the file.

As for grouping and paging, BIRT can do that just fine with dynamic data using the table group settings. As for collapsing fields in the output, the open source viewer does not support that, but a commercial viewer (Actuate Interactive Viewer) supports this.

yuvyon

Hi Virgil, 
 
Thank you very much for answering. 
I figured I’ll need to do something like that in order to work around the way our web service works (returning a path to file and not an xml with data). 
 
As I said I already picked BIRT as the tool for our project reports 
Now I am trying to figure out (for a flow I have in mind) what I need to do and if it can be done using the BIRT tools alone or do I need to add some extra functionally for example writing and using a web application or some plain java code (for integrating the functionality needed for the flow). 
 
It goes like these : 
I need to set a flow where user using a browser go to a URL 
and get a first or combined parameters screen (a List Box with reports type ) where he choose a report type 
 
for each report user chooses (pointing to a different rptdesign file) he would have 
a parameters screen where he can choose time frame and group by fields (list box with pre define/generated data, and maybe free text fields ). 
 
These parameters are to be sent to the web service which create the CSV file (My DATA Source) and return a path to where the file was saved (My DATA SET) 
The CSV data should parsed and present to the user as chart/s and/or table/s depending on the report chosen. 
 
Assumptions: 
I am using the free viewer (for now, already suggested we will buy the more advanced one) as my web application and entry point for the reports flow (running on a dedicated tomcat server). 
For each report I will have data I can used as parameters extracted from search engine or something like that . 
 
This flow in mind I have few questions 
1)parameters screen – can I use the designer parameters screen for such an activity or do I need to write maybe a dedicated jsp using the Birt tags . 
Do I have some built in support for such a flow ,meaning is there a simple way of doing it using birt functionality or do I write it from scratch ? 
2)I need reusability for example for all reports it’s the same web service call, can it be separate so it can be reused I am guessing a java class that will be called for each of the reports? 
3)when using the Eclipse designer with CSV file (flat file source) I had to pick the file manually from the folder can I do that programmatically I do not want the user to have to choose the file (data set). 
 
I am looking for examples for similar stuff done with birt and also saw few webinars( you have done ;-)) especially these regarding integrating Birt and using DE API , but cannot find the examples mentioned in these webinar . 
 
And :-( when trying the DE code from the site the hello world rptdesign file creation I am failing <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/forum/designing-birt-reports/16036-runtime-exception-birt-de-hello-world-example-post51184.html'>http://www.birt-exchange.org/forum/designing-birt-reports/16036-runtime-exception-birt-de-hello-world-example-post51184.html</a> 
 
If you think I am off the track or my flow is not logical or I am missing something and this cannot be done using the Birt tool please advise. 
 
Thanks again for your time and help. 
 
Regards 
Yuval 
 
<a href='mailto:' title='E-mail Link' class='bbc_email'>yuvyon@yahoo.com</a> 
 
Thanks in Advance 
Yuval 
 
Yuval yonayov 
<a href='mailto:' title='E-mail Link' class='bbc_email'>yuvalyo@amdocs.com</a> 
office: +(972) 9 77 61932 
internal:2979-61932 (Raanana)

Virgil Dodson

Hi Yuval, 
 
Most of what you want to do can be done without lots of custom code or getting into the DEAPI. Parameters, Scripting and Expressions should work without programatically designing each report. 
 
To answer your questions: 
>1)parameters screen ? can I use the designer parameters screen for such an activity or do I need to write maybe a dedicated jsp using the Birt tags. Do I have some built in support for such a flow ,meaning is there a simple way of doing it using birt functionality or do I write it from scratch ? 
 
A custom JSP page is likely needed to present a list of reports to the user... You could make this a BIRT report too... that called another BIRT report by URL. 
 
 
>2)I need reusability for example for all reports it?s the same web service call, can it be separate so it can be reused I am guessing a java class that will be called for each of the reports? 
 
Your web service can be called with an input parameter... but you will definately need a Java class in between since you want to use the Flat file data source. 
 
>3)when using the Eclipse designer with CSV file (flat file source) I had to pick the file manually from the folder can I do that programmatically I do not want the user to have to choose the file (data set). 
 
The name of the file can be dynamic using the Property binding (see example at <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/devshare/designing-birt-reports/949-switch-text-datasource-at-runtime/#description'>Switch Text DataSource at runtime - Designs & Code - BIRT Exchange</a>) 
 
By the way, the DEAPI examples from Jason's webinar are located at 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/devshare/designing-birt-reports/409-deapi-examples-from-birt-exchange-webinar/#description'>DEAPI examples from BIRT-Exchange Webinar - Designs & Code - BIRT Exchange</a>