How to create a report

 

To incorporate the BIRT engine to a 4gl-based application, you need to write your 4gl source code and create and style your report.

 

Here you can find some general explanations about how to create and style your report.

 

Step 1

Create the file of the future report:

 

File > New > Other (or CTRL + N)

 

 

Step 2

Specify the data source:

 

 

Refer here to find out how to specify JDBC driver URL (below, you get the generalized example of specifying the Informix URL):

 

jdbc:informix-sqli://<HOST>:<PORT>/<DATABASE_NAME>: informixserver=<IBM Informix instance name>;user=<user_name>; password=<password>

 

 

Step 3

Add the necessary libraries:

 

 

 

Edit the inet.env file by adding the path to the necessary database to the CLASSPATH variable:

 

CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;C:\ProgramFiles\IBM\Informix_JDBC_Driver\lib\ifxjdbc.jar;$BIRT_LIBDIR\com.ibm.icu_4.4.2.v20110823.jar; ...

 

Step 4

Create data sets by specifying the query to the database.

 

For a simple report without parameters, you need only to create one data set with the query:

 

 

For more complex reports with parameters, you need to create separate data sets for the query and the parameters:

 

 

 

Step 5

(optional)

Link the data sets with the specified report parameters:

 

 

 

In the simplest possible example - which supposes no reports - this step can be omitted.

 

Step 6

Style the report: