BIRT Project

Infobox Software
name = Eclipse BIRT Project



caption = Eclipse BIRT Report Designer
latest release version = 2.3.1
latest release date = release date|2008|09|24
developer = Eclipse Foundation
operating system = Cross-platform
language = Multilingual
programming language = Java
genre = Enterprise Reporting / Business Intelligence
license = Eclipse Public License
website = http://www.eclipse.org/birt

The Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Project is an open source software project that provides reporting and business intelligence capabilities for rich client and web applications, especially those based on Java and J2EE. BIRT is a top level software project within the Eclipse Foundation, an independent not-for-profit consortium of software industry vendors and an open source community.

The project's stated goals are to address a wide range of reporting needs within a typical application, [cite web| title = BIRT Project Description and Scope| url = http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/project/description.php| accessdate = 2007-05-27] ranging from operational or Enterprise Reporting to multi-dimensional online analytical processing (OLAP). Initially, the project has focused on and delivered capabilities that allow application developers to easily design and integrate reports into applications.

The project is supported by an active community of users at [http://www.birt-exchange.com BIRT Exchange] and developers at the Eclipse.org [http://www.eclipse.org/birt BIRT Project] page.

BIRT has two main components: a visual report designer within the Eclipse IDE for creating BIRT Reports, and a runtime component for generating reports that can be deployed to any Java environment. The BIRT project also includes a charting engine that is both fully integrated into the report designer and can be used standalone to integrate charts into an application.

BIRT Report designs are persisted as XML and can access a number of different data sources including SQL databases, JDO datastores, JFire Scripting Objects, POJOs, XML and Web Services.

History

The BIRT project was first proposed and sponsored by Actuate Corporation when Actuate joined the Eclipse Foundation as a Strategic Developer on August 24, 2004 [cite web | title=Actuate Joins Eclipse Foundation as Strategic Developer and Board Member | url=http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/aug242004actuatepr.html | date=2004-08-24| work=Press Release | publisher=Eclipse Foundation| accessdate=2007-05-27] . The project was subsequently approved and became a top level project within the Eclipse community on October 6, 2004 [cite web | title=Eclipse Foundation and Actuate Announce Approval of Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools Project | url=http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/oct62004birtpr | date=2004-10-06 | work=Press Release | publisher=Eclipse Foundation| accessdate=2007-05-27] . The project contributor community includes [http://www.innoventsolutions.com Innovent Solutions] , and IBM.

The initial project code base was designed and developed by Actuate beginning in early 2004 and donated to the Eclipse Foundation when the project was approved.

Versions

References

External links

* [http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/ Eclipse BIRT project downloads]
* [http://www.eclipse.org/birt Eclipse BIRT project home page]
* [http://www.birt-exchange.com BIRT Exchange: Community site for sharing code, report designs, tips]