Data Access Enhancements (Demo Pack)

averma

Union of Data Sets and new Join Data Set capabilities<br />
In Actuate Release 11, BIRT developers can create a union of two or more data sets to create a data set similar to a UNION ALL construct in SQL. This union data set enables developers to distill columns from multiple data sets into one data set and makes it easier to subsequently use the union data set in the design.<br />
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The join data set provides a mechanism to combine data from different data sets which in turn could be derived from different data sources. In Actuate Release 11, the join data set has been enhanced to enable developers to create join data sets using various join options. The supported join options are inner join, full outer join, left outer join, right outer join and side by side join. The join conditions can also be based on multiple columns for cases where the joined tables contain composite primary keys. Hence, developers can use the extensive join options to create appropriate join data sets as per the data requirements of the project.<br />
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Attached BIRT design ("Customer List.rptdesign") demonstrates a JOINED Data Set in BIRT. In this example, the Customers and Employees data sets have been joined to form a Customer Employees Joined dataset. Those individual datasets could have been derived from different data sources as well and hence, this feature provides a mechanism to retrieve and join data from varied data sources. This capability also shields the BIRT developer from the complexities of the data design after the joined data set has been created.<br />
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View Live Example<br />
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Parameters in XML Data Sources<br />
In Actuate Release 11, the support for XML data sources has been enhanced by adding the ability to create new parameters and leverage existing data set parameters. This will enable the developers to design reports that retrieve only the part of the complete input XML file that is required to generate the output.<br />
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Attached BIRT design("Product Inventory.rptdesign") demonstrates the capability to use parameters in XML data sources. In this example, the value of the report parameter is passed as an XPath parameter to the products dataset. Hence, the BIRT developer can filter the input XML data at the dataset creation point directly rather than retrieving the entire data and then filtering them in the BIRT design. Hence, this capability adds flexibility and ease of use to XML data sources.<br />
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View Live Example<br />
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Graphical SQL Query Builder<br />
In Actuate Release 11, the graphical SQL Query Builder is now directly available and no longer requires a report developer to create a connection profile. The Query Builder is available as an option in the Data Source creation wizard. This Query Builder removes the need for the report developer to know the syntax of SQL queries. The report developer can now construct SQL queries and retrieve data by simply dragging-and-dropping tables and then creating the relationships by clicking on the appropriate tabs.<br />
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Ashwini Verma