ReportEngine-API: PDF rendering fails

Hello everybody,

I have a problem generating a report in PDF format with the ReportEngine-API.
I want to generate a report depending on the user's choice on the GUI. HTML or PDF.
For the HTML stuff, the implementation works fine. Now I wanted to extend my
generator tool that it also can generate PDF.

Like it is described in the example on
http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/deploy/reportEngineAPI.php#irendertask
I thought it would be enough to only change the specific IRenderOption:

Instead of HTMLRenderOption I use PDFRenderOption and chenged the output file to
e.g. "report1.pdf" in case of PDF. Unfortunately this doesn't work.
Indeed there is a new file in the output location "report1.pdf", but when I want to
open the file, the PDF-reader says that it isn't a PDF file and that it looks like HTML.

Now I suppose that the rendering still is in HTML instead of PDF.

When I let show me the report within the designer (Run -> View Report -> As PDF) the report is shown
as PDF in the PDF-reader.

Where is my fault?
Did I forget something to get my generator tool producing PDF?

The attached file is a zip file of an eclipse example project that demonstrates my generator-tool.
The generator tool is a command-line-tool. It can be run from within eclipse, the launch-configs are also contained in the archive. The database is the BIRT-example database. So it should be easy to get the program run.

Thanks for any help!

Regards,
Sebastian

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Comments

CBR

Hi Sebastian,<br />
<br />
this is a very common mistake.<br />
If you want to generate a report in some other format then PDF you have to set the format accordingly using the RenderOption object<br />
<br />
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
PDFRenderOption o = new PDFRenderOption();
o.setOutputFormat(RenderOption.OUTPUT_FORMAT_PDF); //do not forget this line otherwise it's html
</pre>
<br />
or set the corresponding emitter:<br />
<br />
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
PDFRenderOption o = new PDFRenderOption();
o.setEmitterID(RenderOption.OUTPUT_EMITTERID_PDF);
</pre>
<br />
hope this helps<br />
Christian

CBR

Another thing that i wanted to bring up (i do not know if it's of relevance for you):

I ve seen that you have multiple report parameters to give the connection details for the database.
You can also inject a existing JDB connection into a report. When injecting a jdbc connection it replaces every database connection in your report.

locutuz

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'cbrell'" data-cid="96164" data-time="1329402238" data-date="16 February 2012 - 07:23 AM"><p>
Another thing that i wanted to bring up (i do not know if it's of relevance for you):<br />
<br />
I ve seen that you have multiple report parameters to give the connection details for the database.<br />
You can also inject a existing JDB connection into a report. When injecting a jdbc connection it replaces every database connection in your report.<br /></p></blockquote>
<br />
Thank you for that hint :-)<br />
But so far our "database" is an XML file that is generated by another tool.<br />
So in the "real-life" project, there is a report parameter that contains the location of that XML file.<br />
Only for this example I use a JDBC connection so it can be run as fast as possible :-)<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Sebastian

locutuz

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'cbrell'" data-cid="96163" data-time="1329401830" data-date="16 February 2012 - 07:17 AM"><p>
Hi Sebastian,<br />
<br />
this is a very common mistake.<br />
If you want to generate a report in some other format then PDF you have to set the format accordingly using the RenderOption object<br />
<br />
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
PDFRenderOption o = new PDFRenderOption();
o.setOutputFormat(RenderOption.OUTPUT_FORMAT_PDF); //do not forget this line otherwise it's html
</pre>
<br />
or set the corresponding emitter:<br />
<br />
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
PDFRenderOption o = new PDFRenderOption();
o.setEmitterID(RenderOption.OUTPUT_EMITTERID_PDF);
</pre>
<br />
hope this helps<br />
Christian<br /></p></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Hello Christian,<br />
<br />
thank you for your very fast reply. I didn't expect an answer today (CET 03:28 pm) :-)<br />
<br />
Unfortunately your suggestion(s) didn't solve my problem :-(<br />
I tried it in both ways and in both the generation ended-up in an exception.<br />
<br />

<br />
first<br />

<br />
Feb 16, 2012 3:22:42 PM org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.EngineTask setupRenderOption<br />
Schwerwiegend: Error.OutputFormatNotSupported<br />
Error creating report engine. The output format pdf is not supported.<br />
<br />
second:<br />

<br />
Feb 16, 2012 3:24:08 PM org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.EngineTask setupRenderOption<br />
Schwerwiegend: Error.InvalidEmitterID<br />
Error creating report engine. EmitterID org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.emitter.pdf for render option is invalid.<br />

<br />
<br />
For me it looks like a version problem of the BIRT engine. But when I check the plugin-versions in eclipse<br />
they say version: 3.7.3.20110905<br />
<br />
Do I have a version problem?<br />
<br />
Thanks in advance!<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Sebastian

CBR

Hi,

it looks like it couldn't find the corresponding PDF emitter. Can you please write which jar files you have in your classpath of your report generator application?

It is OSGI based...correct?
In that case i need to know the plugins that are deployed to that platform.
the BIRT runtime would not work if you miss some of the plugins.
I would have a look at your project if there s the possibility for you to share your code.

locutuz

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'cbrell'" data-cid="96270" data-time="1329412008" data-date="16 February 2012 - 10:06 AM"><p>
Hi,<br />
<br />
it looks like it couldn't find the corresponding PDF emitter. Can you please write which jar files you have in your classpath of your report generator application?<br />
<br />
It is OSGI based...correct?<br />
In that case i need to know the plugins that are deployed to that platform.<br />
the BIRT runtime would not work if you miss some of the plugins.<br />
I would have a look at your project if there s the possibility for you to share your code.<br /></p></blockquote>
<br />
Hi Christian,<br />
<br />
thanks again for your reply.<br />
You were right what you said about the missing jar.<br />
After I put the jar: org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.emitter.pdf to the dependencies list in the plugin manifest and to the corresponding launch config, the report is generated as expected as a correct PDF-file that even can be opened by the PDF-reader without any errors! :-)<br />
<br />
For the reason of completeness I attached my example plugin that works correctly so far! :-)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help!!<br />
I am sure I will return to the forum in the foreseeable future! :-)<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Sebastian

CBR

Good to hear that you were able to solve the problem.

caroline

<div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:14px;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);"><p>Hi, </p><p> </p><p>I want dynamic rendering of the report format. </p><p> </p><p>In the jsp page I have div where I load the generated report. </p><p> </p><p>Report is loading properly if the format is html. But pdf format has a problem rendering. It is loading ascii characters and prints <%--pdf something like that..</p><p> </p><p>For export, pdf, doc, xls format reports are loading properly as attachment.</p><p> </p><p>I have given below the report rendering method. Please let me know how to correct this issue. Also attached the jsp when in html format and pdf format. </p><p> </p><p> </p><div>/**</div><div>* This is overridden method which responsible for processing report i.e .rptdesign document.and also rendering the report.</div><div>* <br>It also handles downloading the report.</div><div>* </div><div>*/</div><div> </div><div>protected void processReportDesignDocAndRenderReport(HttpServletRequest request,</div><div>HttpServletResponse response) {</div><div> </div><div>try{</div><div> </div><div>//get report name from request object. </div><div>String reportName = request.getParameter( this.reportNameRequestParameter );<span> </span></div><div> </div><div>//logger.info("Processing report:"+reportName);</div><div> </div><div>//get format in which we are going to render report i.e:html,pdf,excel</div><div>String format = request.getParameter( this.reportFormatRequestParameter );</div><div> </div><div>//pagination handling </div><div>String pageNumber = request.getParameter("pageNumber");</div><div>int currentPageNumber = 0;</div><div>if(pageNumber != null && !pageNumber.equals(""))</div><div>{</div><div>currentPageNumber = Integer.valueOf(pageNumber);</div><div> </div><div>}</div><div> </div><div>//give the download report Name here.</div><div>String downloadFileName = reportName.substring(0, reportName.indexOf(".rptdesign"));<span> </span></div><div> </div><div>//Base URL</div><div></div><div> </div><div>ServletContext sc = request.getSession().getServletContext();</div><div>if( format == null ){</div><div>format = "html";//default format</div><div>}</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>IReportRunnable runnable = null;</div><div> </div><div>//opend design document</div><div>runnable = birtEngine.openReportDesign( sc.getRealPath("/resources/report")+"/"+reportName );</div><div> </div><div>//first process the report using Iruntask which will create the temp.rptdocument </div><div>IRunTask iRunTask = birtEngine.createRunTask(runnable);</div><div> </div><div>iRunTask.getAppContext().put( EngineConstants.APPCONTEXT_BIRT_VIEWER_HTTPSERVET_REQUEST, request );</div><div> </div><div>//put the parameter values from request to the report parameter</div><div>iRunTask.setParameterValues(discoverAndSetParameters( runnable, request ));</div><div> </div><div>String tmprptDoc = sc.getRealPath("/resources/report")+"/temp.rptdocument" ;</div><div> </div><div>//create temp rpddocument</div><div>iRunTask.run(tmprptDoc);</div><div> </div><div>iRunTask.close();</div><div> </div><div>//now do the rendering operation</div><div>IReportDocument reportDoc = birtEngine.openReportDocument( tmprptDoc );</div><div>IRenderTask iRenderTask= birtEngine.createRenderTask(reportDoc);</div><div> </div><div>//set the format </div><div>response.setContentType( birtEngine.getMIMEType( format ));</div><div>IRenderOption options = null == this.renderOptions ? new RenderOption() : this.renderOptions;</div><div> </div><div>//if html set html related options </div><div>if( format.equalsIgnoreCase("html")){</div><div> </div><div>HTMLRenderOption htmlOptions = new HTMLRenderOption( options);</div><div>htmlOptions.setOutputFormat("html");</div><div>htmlOptions.setOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());</div><div>htmlOptions.setImageHandler(new HTMLServerImageHandler());</div><div>htmlOptions.setHtmlPagination(true);</div><div>htmlOptions.setBaseImageURL(baseUrl+"/resources/report/img");</div><div>htmlOptions.setImageDirectory(sc.getRealPath("/resources/report/img"));<span> </span></div><div>htmlOptions.setSupportedImageFormats("PNG;JPG");</div><div>htmlOptions.setEmbeddable(true);</div><div> </div><div>iRenderTask.setRenderOption(htmlOptions);</div><div> </div><div>//if pdf set pdf related downloading options </div><div>}else if( format.equalsIgnoreCase("pdf") ){</div><div> </div><div>PDFRenderOption pdfOptions = new PDFRenderOption( options );</div><div>pdfOptions.setSupportedImageFormats("PNG;GIF;JPG;BMP");</div><div> </div><div>pdfOptions.setOutputFormat("pdf");</div><div>//pdfOptions.setOutputFormat(RenderOption.OUTPUT_FORMAT_PDF);</div><div>//pdfOptions.setEmitterID(RenderOption.OUTPUT_EMITTERID_PDF);</div><div>pdfOptions.setImageHandler(new HTMLServerImageHandler());</div><div>pdfOptions.setBaseURL(baseUrl);</div><div>//pdfOptions.setOutputFileName(baseUrl+"/resources/report/"+downloadFileName+".pdf");</div><div>pdfOptions.setOption(IPDFRenderOption.PAGE_OVERFLOW, IPDFRenderOption.FIT_TO_PAGE_SIZE);</div><div>response.setContentType("application/pdf");</div><div>response.setHeader(<span> </span>"Content-Disposition", "inline; filename="+downloadFileName+".pdf" );</div><div>//File file = new File(baseUrl+"/resources/report/"+downloadFileName+".pdf");</div><div>pdfOptions.setOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());<span> </span></div><div>iRenderTask.setRenderOption(pdfOptions);</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>//if XLS set XLS related downloading options </div><div>}else if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("xls")){</div><div> </div><div> EXCELRenderOption xlsOptions = new EXCELRenderOption(options); </div><div> xlsOptions.setOutputFormat("xls");</div><div> response.setHeader(<span> </span>"Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename="+downloadFileName+".xls");</div><div> xlsOptions.setImageHandler(new HTMLServerImageHandler());</div><div> xlsOptions.setOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());</div><div> //xlsOptions.setOption(IRenderOption.EMITTER_ID, "org.uguess.birt.report.engine.emitter.xls");</div><div> xlsOptions.setOption(IRenderOption.EMITTER_ID, "org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.emitter.prototype.excel");</div><div> iRenderTask.setRenderOption(xlsOptions);</div><div> </div><div>}else if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("doc")){</div><div> </div><div>response.setHeader(<span> </span>"Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename="" + downloadFileName+".doc" + """ );</div><div>options.setOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());</div><div>options.setOutputFormat(format);</div><div>iRenderTask.setRenderOption(options);</div><div> </div><div>}else{</div><div>PPCommonLogger.printInfo("REPORT FORMAT NOT SUPPORTED : " + format);</div><div>}</div><div> </div><div>/*</div><div>* This is used for pagination and setting the page number we want to display </div><div>*/</div><div>long pageCount = iRenderTask.getTotalPage();</div><div> </div><div>if(currentPageNumber!=0)</div><div>{</div><div>if(pageCount >=currentPageNumber){</div><div>iRenderTask.setPageNumber(currentPageNumber);</div><div>}</div><div>}</div><div>//save the page count in session to use for pagination.<span> </span></div><div>//using this page count we can implement pagination.</div><div>Map<String, Long> pageCountMap = (Map<String, Long>)request.getSession().getAttribute("pageCount");</div><div>if(pageCountMap == null){</div><div>pageCountMap = new HashMap<String, Long>();</div><div>}</div><div>pageCountMap.put(reportName, pageCount);</div><div>request.getSession().setAttribute("pageCount", pageCountMap);</div><div> </div><div>//render report</div><div>iRenderTask.render();</div><div>//close task and doc</div><div>iRenderTask.close();</div><div>reportDoc.close();</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>//logger.info("Processing report completed successfully:"+reportName);</div><div> </div><div>}catch (Exception e) {</div><div> </div><div>//logger.error("Exception while proceessing report ",e);</div><div>e.printStackTrace();</div><div>}</div><div>}</div><p> </p><p> </p><p>Thanks,</p><p>Caroline</p></div>