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| Re: ERE Report Consumption [message #1689 is a reply to message #1456] |
Fri, 07 January 2005 02:45  |
 Paul Rogers
Messages: 152
Registered: July 2009 |
Senior Member |
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Scott,
BIRT does not have a compilation step; the BIRT Report Engine directly
executes an XML report design. Tools that have a compile step, such as JSP,
Jasper or e.RD-Pro, do so because they must convert code into a compiled
form. The use of JavaScript as the scripting language in BIRT makes the
compile step unnecessary.
Skipping the compile step has some great benefits. 1) It is easier to deploy
reports: there is only one file to worry about instead of a source and
compiled form. 2) An application can easily create a report design on the
fly and submit it to the Report Engine for execution. 3) Parts of the app
(included files, images) can be updated without the need to rebuild and
redeploy all reports that use those shared bits.
All that said, there will likely come a time when BIRT will add the ability
to package a set of files required for a report into a zip file (a "Report
ARchive": RAR?). Suppose your report uses some external images; a couple of
libraries; some JavaScript files and so on. It may be easier to package
these up as is done for JSP files or Java apps. Still, BIRT will likely
retain the ability to run reports directly without the packaging -- much
like Tomcat can execute your web app as a WAR or as a directory full of
individual files.
From your experience with previous reporting tools, does the above sound
reasonable? Anything we could improve?
Thanks,
- Paul
Paul Rogers
Actuate Corp.
BIRT PMC
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