BIRT Community Version Versus Actuate BIRT

We are evaluating BIRT for our Enterprise reporting. Will like to get some guidance on the difference in capabilities between BIRT Community version versus Actuate's commercial BIRT offerings.

Can someone please list out the differences between capabilities of BIRT community versus Actuate BIRT?

Any issues / challenges with community BIRT versus Actuate BIRT if the deployment is global and the need is to have the reporting available 24X7 as the reporting will be a core part of the global OLTP application?

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averma

Hi aogupta,
Actuate BIRT uses open source BIRT as a foundation and adds value added features on top. Some of these features includes: flash charts/gadgets/objects, page level security, better performance, bundled Data Direct database drivers, new excel emitter for live spreadsheets, improved pdf emitter, support for BIRT documents as data source, meta data support, better integration with Actuate commercial products etc... You can read about the differences in details here:
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-design/birt-designer-pro/features/

Actuate also offers commercial products that will help you distribute your BIRT reports to the end users in a secure fashion and offers a rich user experience:
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-server/overview/features/
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-user-experience/

You will be able to run all your community BIRT report with Actuate products without any change.

Ashwini Verma

aogupta

Thanks Ashwini.

The links you posted took me to the commercial BIRT rather than open source BIRT community page. Instead of evaluating what can community BIRT not do versus Actuate BIRT, I will be interested in what can the community BIRT can do. Can you or someone please point me in the right direction?

quincyj

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'averma'" data-cid="69924" data-time="1288668528" data-date="01 November 2010 - 08:28 PM">
Hi aogupta, 
Actuate BIRT uses open source BIRT as a foundation and adds value added features on top. Some of these features includes: flash charts/gadgets/objects, page level security, better performance, bundled Data Direct database drivers, new excel emitter for live spreadsheets, improved pdf emitter, support for BIRT documents as data source, meta data support, better integration with Actuate commercial products etc... You can read about the differences in details here: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-design/birt-designer-pro/features/'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-design/birt-designer-pro/features/</a> 
 
Actuate also offers commercial products that will help you distribute your BIRT reports to the end users in a secure fashion and offers a rich user experience: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-server/overview/features/'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-server/overview/features/</a> 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-user-experience/'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-user-experience/</a> 
 
You will be able to run all your community BIRT report with Actuate products without any change. 
 
Ashwini Verma </blockquote>
 
 
Hello, 
 
You talk about better performance and improved pdf emitter. Can you tell us more on these points please ? In which steps performances are better in the actuate solution ? Why pdf emitter is better ? 
 
Thanks a lot

Virgil Dodson

Hi Aogupta,

There are a few documents that compare the features from open source to commercial.

Comparison of BIRT Designers
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/download/BIRT-Designers-Comparison-Table.pdf

Comparison of BIRT Viewers
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/download/Viewer-Product-Comparison-Table.pdf

Comparison of BIRT Deployment Options
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/download/Deployment-Product-Comparison-Table.pdf

You can also find more specifically about open source BIRT at the Eclipse.org website
http://www.eclipse.org/birt

averma

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'quincyj'" data-cid="69952" data-time="1288714932" data-date="02 November 2010 - 09:22 AM">
Hello, 
 
You talk about better performance and improved pdf emitter. Can you tell us more on these points please ? In which steps performances are better in the actuate solution ? Why pdf emitter is better ? 
 
Thanks a lot </blockquote>
Hi quincyj, 
Actuate BIRT has built in smarts for data caching, connection pooling and threading, here is a wiki article on how to configure these aspects: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration'>http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration</a> 
In addition Actuate Viewers have built in progressive viewing, this feature gives the ability for to view a particular page out of a BIRT report document while the Report Document itself is still rendering (A very helpful feature for long running reports) 
BIRT server takes performance to a who new level by scaling to a very large users and supports meta data layer: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-server/performance-tuning/'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/products/birt-server/performance-tuning/</a> 
 
The new PDF emitter in Actuate BIRT keeps your layout consistent with the web layout and provides flexible export options to Embed fonts, Substitute fonts, Chart DPI settings etc. For more details here is a link to my blog: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/index.php/blog/3/entry-163-dont-tweak-that-birt-design-for-pdf-output/'>http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/index.php/blog/3/entry-163-dont-tweak-that-birt-design-for-pdf-output/</a> 
 
Ashwini

aogupta

Being very new to BIRT, and pardon my ignorance. I checked the comparisons, my question is which of these titles refer to Actuate BIRT versus Community version of BIRT:

1) Eclipse BIRT
Report RCP
Designer
Eclipse

2) BIRT Report
Designer Allin-
One and
Framework*
(*plug-in version
of All-in-One)

3) BIRT Designer
Professional

4) BIRT Studio

averma

Hi aogupta,
1 and 2 are open source(community) BIRT desingers
3 and 4 are Actuate BIRT designers.

Ashwini

aogupta

Ashwini,

Thanks for your response.

How can I connect or talk to organizations who are using BIRT community version for enterprise reporting especially where they are using BIRT reports as part of their operational system?

Regards

-Avinash

johnw

Avinash,

Feel free to contact me. I can answer any questions you have. We have helped several organizations implement both the Eclipse BIRT and Actuate into solutions. If you would like, send me an email, lets talk about what your requirements are, and I can steer you towards the right direction.

John
johnw@innoventsolutions.com

Ray Gans

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'johnw'" data-cid="69970" data-time="1288745995" data-date="02 November 2010 - 05:59 PM">
Avinash, 
 
Feel free to contact me. I can answer any questions you have. We have helped several organizations implement both the Eclipse BIRT and Actuate into solutions. If you would like, send me an email, lets talk about what your requirements are, and I can steer you towards the right direction. 
 
John 
johnw@innoventsolutions.com </blockquote>
 
Thanks John. 
 
And Avinash, unfortunately we don't have a list of Eclipse BIRT enterprise users on BIRT Exchange who have told us they are open to direct contact for questions like you have, however, many of them may be willing to talk to you. Probably your best bet is to look on the forums for people who are doing work similar to your interests. You can send a PM (personal message) to their member ID (just click on their userID and then send them an e-mail message from their profile). Like John, some people may be willing to have a conversation with you. 
 
To be clear, no one is required/expected to respond to personal messages, so please keep that in mind whenever sending a PM. The BIRT Exchange members are generally very friendly, so I would expect you can get a good response to your questions. 
 
Another thing you could try is to start a topic in the General forum to look for specific help. Title your topic such that it will get the right people to read/respond to it. For example, "Community Members: How are you using Eclipse BIRT in your enterprise operations?" 
 
I hope this helps. 
 
Ray Gans 
Community Manager 
BIRT Exchange

ajaypudota

HI all,

this is ajay, i am new to actuate BIRT.

Can someone please list out the differences between eclipse BIRT versus Actuate BIRT?

Thanks in advance...

Ray Gans

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'ajaypudota'" data-cid="98442" data-time="1333345286" data-date="01 April 2012 - 10:41 PM">
HI all, 
 
this is ajay, i am new to actuate BIRT. 
 
Can someone please list out the differences between eclipse BIRT versus Actuate BIRT? 
 
Thanks in advance... </blockquote>
 
Hi ajay, 
 
This may help: <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.actuate.com/download/OSorActuateOne.pdf'>http://www.actuate.com/download/OSorActuateOne.pdf</a> 
 
You can also find more information on the Products and Services tab above. 
 
-Ray

ajaypudota

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your response.

Regards
Ajay