Problem Installation Tribix with Birt 3.7

Hello,

I am trying to install Tribix with Birt 3.7 and getting error

org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineException: EmitterID org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls for render option is invalid.

I am using Birt 3.7, Tribix 2.5.2(org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls_2.5.2.201107181644.jar)

I followed the instructions provided at http://birtworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/replacing-default-birt-xls-emitter.html.

Modified the plugin.xml and mainifest file of org.eclipse.birt.runtime_3.7.0.v20110615-1818.jar and created a new jar file.

Also I extracted the jars from org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls_2.5.2.201107181644.jar, updated the mainifest file and created a new jar file.

Do I need to make any additional changes ??

Thanks in advance

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Comments

mwilliams

Do you have to use the Tribix emitter for a particular reason? In a recent plug-in contest, we had a couple submissions that were XLS emitters that might work for what you're trying to use Tribix for.

http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/devshare/designing-birt-reports/1421-native-excel-emitter-plugin-for-birt/

http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/marketplace/app-showcase/?app=102

Yaytay

You shouldn't have to do any of the faffing around with jars using Tribix as long as you specify the emitter ID and have BOTH Tribix jars in the plugins dir. 
My guess would be that you don't have both Tribix jars (or that the version of the common library does not match the version of the emitter, which caught me out before, <a class='bbc_url' href='http://sourceforge.net/projects/tribix/files/2.5.2/'>go here to get them both</a>). 
 
That said, as the author of the second of the emitters listed by Michael I'd recommend going here: <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.spudsoft.co.uk/2011/10/the-spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/'>SpudSoft Excel Emitters</a> 
 
Our live system uses the Tribix PPT emitter (rebuilt to work with Apache POI 3.8 beta5), but I couldn't work with the output from the Tribix XLS emitter so wrote the SpudSoft one.

sspavan

I got it working yesterday. Yaytay as you said I need not modify the jars. What I did was extracted the jars from org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls_2.5.2.201107181644.jar and added those jars and org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls_2.5.2.201107181644.jar, org.uguess.birt.report.engine.common_1.1.1.201001221050.jar to buildpath and it worked. I reverted my changes done to birt runtime jar.

Only issue is data in some cells is compressed, I can see only 1/2 of the data.

Also I tried using native excel emitter and it didn't work. I believe it works with birt 2.6.2 and I am using birt 3.7.0.
I thankyou both mrwilliams and Yaytay for your responses.

sspavan

Williams, I see that with Tribix emitter it is spanning data through multiple rows instead of one row. Do you know what the problem could be ?

I am attaching the excel generated with tribix .

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94548" data-time="1327357266" data-date="23 January 2012 - 03:21 PM">
Williams, I see that with Tribix emitter it is spanning data through multiple rows instead of one row. Do you know what the problem could be ? 
 
I am attaching the excel generated with tribix . </blockquote>
I hope you don't mind me answering, but that's just what Tribix does - it tries very hard to produce a spreadsheet that looks identical to the results output via (for example) the PDF emitter, and it does it by using additional columns and merged cells to get things to line up. 
You can limit the effect by ensuring that everything in your report lines up to begin with - in particular get rid of any padding. 
I found I could get good results from Tribix on normal tables by simply removing all padding from every report element - but I could never get good results for crosstabs. 
 
The SpudSoft emitters take the precisely opposite approach - if it's a cell in your report design it'll be a cell in the spreadsheet. 
This means that the output can look very different from the output of other emitters, but it enables very useful spreadsheets. 
It also means that the handling of nested tables/grids is a little unpredictable (well, I can predict it, but you may not be able to

). 
 
If you want a compromise between the two try the latest version of the Arctorus emitter (not free). Earlier versions used a layout engine similar to Tribix, but the latest version claims to be generate far fewer spurious rows/columns (I haven't tried the latest version) and they are active on these forums. 
 
Jim

sspavan

Thankyou Jim for your response. I tried using the spudsoft emitter. It worked perfectly fine with few exceptions.
1. The header of the report was missing
2. The borders of tables in Sheet 1 and 2 are not completely drawn.

Here is the both excels (birt emitter and spudsoft emitter) for your reference.

FYI.. I specified the following as EmitterID.
renderOptions.setOption(IRenderOption.EMITTER_ID, "uk.co.spudsoft.birt.emitters.excel.XlsEmitter");

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94555" data-time="1327380616" data-date="23 January 2012 - 09:50 PM">
Thankyou Jim for your response. I tried using the spudsoft emitter. It worked perfectly fine with few exceptions. 
1. The header of the report was missing 
2. The borders of tables in Sheet 1 and 2 are not completely drawn. </blockquote>
Are you able to post the report design?

sspavan

Here is the report design, sample xml

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94579" data-time="1327416320" data-date="24 January 2012 - 07:45 AM">
Here is the report design, sample xml </blockquote>
Thanks. 
 
The borders are missing because of a limitation in Apache POI (borders on merged cells need extra work from me to be handled correctly). 
I'll get a fix ASAP. 
 
The header is there, but my emitter translates headers into Excel headers, so it will only appear when you print the report. 
 
I'm also confused about why the column is so wide, I'll take a look at that too. 
 
Jim

sspavan

Jim,

Let me know once you fix the borders and cell spacing issue.

Thanks,
Pavan

sspavan

Jim,

FYI.. When we rebuilt the table the cell spacing got reduced.

I would also like to you how I could turn-on the Gridlines and specify names for sheets when I use the spudsoft emitter.

Thanks,
Pavan

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94643" data-time="1327603913" data-date="26 January 2012 - 11:51 AM">
FYI.. When we rebuilt the table the cell spacing got reduced. </blockquote>
Interesting. 
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94643" data-time="1327603913" data-date="26 January 2012 - 11:51 AM">
I would also like to you how I could turn-on the Gridlines and specify names for sheets when I use the spudsoft emitter. </blockquote>
Sheet names come from either the report title or from the name of the last named table/grid on the sheet. 
 
There isn't any way to turn gridlines on at the moment (you can use borders, when they work for your merged cells

). 
If you want me to add an extra flag to turn on gridlines file an issue on my bitbucket repository (<a class='bbc_url' href='https://bitbucket.org/yaytay/spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/issues?status=new&status=open'>https://bitbucket.org/yaytay/spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/issues?status=new&status=open</a>) and I will when I get breathing space. 
 
I've sorted out borders on single row merged cells, but it really throws out borders on multi-row merged cells, so I need to fix that before I can release it (and my day job is busy right now)

Yaytay

New version 0.6 <a class='bbc_url' href='https://bitbucket.org/yaytay/spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/downloads'>uploaded</a>. 
 
This has borders on merged cells and options for turning gridlines off.

sspavan

Thanks Jim, I get the borders and gridlines now with new jar.

sspavan

Jim, What is the option to turn off the gridlines

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94811" data-time="1328036230" data-date="31 January 2012 - 11:57 AM">
Jim, What is the option to turn off the gridlines </blockquote>
Doh! Must find time to update the blog about it! 
 
Anyway, this is the complete set of special things that the emitters understand: 
<ul class='bbc'><li>ExcelEmitter.DEBUG 
RenderOption: Turns on debug spew (not really intended for end users).</li><li>ExcelEmitter.RemoveBlankRows 
RenderOption: Removes blank rows from the output.</li><li>ExcelEmitter.Rotation 
UserProperty on anything that outputs a cell: Rotates text.</li><li>ExcelEmitter.ForceAutoColWidths 
UserProperty on a table/grid: Forces the emitter to calculate the widths of all columns.</li><li>ExcelEmitter.DisplayFormulas 
RenderOption or UserProperty on a table/grid: Turns on display of formulas (almost entirely useless).</li><li>ExcelEmitter.DisplayGridlines 
RenderOption or UserProperty on a table/grid: Turns off display of gridlines.</li><li>ExcelEmitter.DisplayRowColHeadings 
RenderOption or UserProperty on a table/grid: Turns off display of row/column headings.</li><li>ExcelEmitter.DisplayZeros 
RenderOption or UserProperty on a table/grid: Turns off display of zero values.</li></ul>

sspavan

Jim,

The gridlines option worked out fine.

I have following issues
1. I have set the font as Arial but when the excel is generated it changes to TimesNewRoman.
2. The data in cells of generated excel is always in Text format, is there a way that we can have them as numbers in excel.

I have following requirement
On my excel I have 3 columns, 1st two columns have numeric data and 3rd column should have a formula say
=SUM(C1:C2). What I did was in 3rd column I have set the text as =SUM(C1:C2). When the file is generated
excel is treating it as text but not as a formula, but when I edit the cell by adding a space then it recognizes it as formula. Even at that point as data in first 2 cells is text the formula is not working.

Is there a way that we can have data generated as numeric data and activate the formula.

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'sspavan'" data-cid="94874" data-time="1328139007" data-date="01 February 2012 - 04:30 PM">
1. I have set the font as Arial but when the excel is generated it changes to TimesNewRoman. 
2. The data in cells of generated excel is always in Text format, is there a way that we can have them as numbers in excel. 
 
I have following requirement 
On my excel I have 3 columns, 1st two columns have numeric data and 3rd column should have a formula say 
=SUM(C1:C2). What I did was in 3rd column I have set the text as =SUM(C1:C2). When the file is generated 
excel is treating it as text but not as a formula, but when I edit the cell by adding a space then it recognizes it as formula. Even at that point as data in first 2 cells is text the formula is not working. 
 
Is there a way that we can have data generated as numeric data and activate the formula. </blockquote>
 
The attached report and associated output shows that 
1. The Arial font is carried through correctly. 
2. Data is numeric in Excel if it is numeric in BIRT. 
 
I don't know what you've done to stop the font working - possibly set a style on the grid cell as well as on the data item (if you do this the two styles are merged, the data item should take precendence). 
 
If you post your report I'll take a look at why this isn't working. 
 
For the numeric cells my guess is that you've created a grid and added textual items to it (labels or text objects). The emitters try to retain the data type of things seen in the report, so textual items come out as text. To get numeric items you need to have numeric input, which means using data objects (as the attached report demonstrates, these don't need a data source). 
 
There is currently no way to have live forumlae in the output spreadsheet. The attached report demonstrates performing the calculation in BIRT, but that it limited in some ways. The only thing preventing me from having live formulae is that I can't work out how to express them nicely on the BIRT side. Some options: 
<ul class='bbc'><li> Just accept whatever is entered. 
i.e. you would create a UserProperty on a data item called "ExcelEmitter.Formula" and give it a value like "=SUM(A1:C3). 
The problem with this is getting the references right, I suspect you'd either end up having to run the report a lot to work out where things end up or have most formulas contain a load of reference functions using row() and column().</li><li> Try to interpret a BIRT formula. 
I think this is too much work to get right and is still limited to things that BIRT can express, so what's the point?</li><li> Come up with a custom way to express relative references in a formula. 
This is like the first option, but with some way to express relative references. 
Unfortunatelt Apache POI, which the emitters use, does not support R1C1 references, so getting references relative to the current cell is awkward.</li></ul>
If you really want to see live formulae file an issue on <a class='bbc_url' href='https://bitbucket.org/yaytay/spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/issues?status=new&status=open'>BitBucket</a> and I'll see what I can do. 
 
Jim

evgenyak

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="94524" data-time="1327332710" data-date="23 January 2012 - 08:31 AM">
Do you have to use the Tribix emitter for a particular reason? In a recent plug-in contest, we had a couple submissions that were XLS emitters that might work for what you're trying to use Tribix for. 
 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/devshare/designing-birt-reports/1421-native-excel-emitter-plugin-for-birt/'>http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/devshare/designing-birt-reports/1421-native-excel-emitter-plugin-for-birt/</a> 
 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/marketplace/app-showcase/?app=102'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/marketplace/app-showcase/?app=102</a> </blockquote>
 
SpudSoft emitter is great, but it's GPLv3 license. And it cannot fit all applications.

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'evgenyak'" data-cid="94891" data-time="1328176955" data-date="02 February 2012 - 03:02 AM">
SpudSoft emitter is great, but it's GPLv3 license. And it cannot fit all applications. </blockquote>
Not all, no, but if the licence causes a problem for you let me know and we'll see what can be done about it. 
 
The only problem you should find with the use of the GPL is if you want to distribute a closed source application based on BIRT - you are quite at liberty to host an application based on BIRT within the terms of the licence. 
 
And then I was going to list way in which you could contact, including via BitBucket, and I see that you have done so and BitBucket didn't tell me! Reply now sent, sorry for the delay. 
 
In theory I should be contactable via <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/index.php/user/39057-yaytay/'>BIRT Exchange</a>, <a class='bbc_url' href='https://bitbucket.org/yaytay/spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters'>BitBucket</a> or <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.spudsoft.co.uk/2011/10/the-spudsoft-birt-excel-emitters/'>my blog</a>. 
I will try to ensure that they all work! 
 
Jim

evgenyak

Thanks for your reply

I understood from guys in my company that I can't embed GPL JARs in the application.
I need some other license to be able to use it: Apache, Eclipse - kind, LGPL.

Yaytay

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'evgenyak'" data-cid="94894" data-time="1328183904" data-date="02 February 2012 - 04:58 AM">
Thanks for your reply

I understood from guys in my company that I can't embed GPL JARs in the application. 
I need some other license to be able to use it: Apache, Eclipse - kind, LGPL. </blockquote>
Please can you <a class='bbc_url' href='http://esbtest.groupgti.net:8080/GroupGtiEsbManager/systems-list.action'>send me an email via my profile</a> so that we can continue this disucssion offline.

evgenyak

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'Yaytay'" data-cid="94907" data-time="1328198336" data-date="02 February 2012 - 08:58 AM">
Please can you <a class='bbc_url' href='http://esbtest.groupgti.net:8080/GroupGtiEsbManager/systems-list.action'>send me an email via my profile</a> so that we can continue this disucssion offline. </blockquote>
 
The link here didn't work, so I "emailed" you inside this forum.