calling BIRT reports using javascript from salesforce.com

paulgross

We want to use BIRT reports with a salesforce.com application. We are able pull data from salesforce using the BIRT salesforce ODA and display them in the BIRT report viewer running on our tomcat server.

We now need to determine the best way to call BIRT reports directly from our salesforce application. My understanding is that salesforce.com does not support java directly, only JavaScript.

I see Actuate offers a JavaScript API (JSAPI) that enables calling the BIRT API via JavaScript. There are references to the JSAPI being available in various products.

I have 2 questions:

1) Does JSAPI only work for BIRT reports that are served by Actuate iServer?

2) Can we buy the "BIRT Interactive Viewer" and then use it instead of the free BIRT viewer with our existing open-source server?

Thanks

ahsiang

I believe you can still do some customization to your SFDC to perform an external call to a particular URL that is serving your BIRT report as long as your server is out of firewall or in a non DMZ area.

Actuate JSAPI allows you to do many things such as accessing the iServer to list out the reports, writing javascript to schedule reports, etc. You can integrate SFDC with JS to call into Actuate JSAPI to do many things.

Interactive Viewer itself has the capability to view BIRT report. It's an enhancement to the normal BIRT Viewer. In BIRT viewer, you can only view the reports. Using Interactive Viewer, you can customize an existing reports such as regrouping, filtering adding new columns, aggregation, etc. To have Interactive Viewer, you need Actuate iServer.