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How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #124383]

Thu, 12 March 2009 05:11

Eclipse User

> 1.
> Birt has offered a WebViewer class for RCP programmer and it works well
> during my test, but the WebViewer class does not want to work with my
> RAP project. Many materails have been refered and many methods have
> tested during these days, but the problem existing still. How could I
> integrate birt into my RAP project ?
>
> I have downloaded the source of the birt and tracked the execution of
> WebViewer class. I found that WebViewer is implemented with Jetty and
> the problem occured in my RAP project is just the "Jetty: can not start
> the sever with config". Does this means I need to rewrite WebViewer with
> Jetty for my RAP project ? Oh, It is big task for me!! So, thank you for
> your suggestion on "How to integrate Birt into RAP project".
>
> 2.
> The web viewer example of birt-runtime for tomcat server (and so on)
> uses the osgi framework and the eclipse plugin conceptions together,
> this is the same as RAP during the deployment of my RAP program. Birt
> uses osgi and RAP uses osgi. How could I set them together using the
> same osgi as a standalone web program during the deployment. I think
> this is a king of integration for Birt and RAP.

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #124396 is a reply to message #124383]

Thu, 12 March 2009 05:16

Eclipse User

These days, I have write a tiny web server using jetty in my rap project
to launch the "Birt Web Viewer" web demo application treating the birt web
demo as a part of my rap project, so, now, I could access the birt and run
the rptdesign and the report generated could appear in my rap view. I hope
you could give me some suggestions.

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #124427 is a reply to message #124383]

Thu, 12 March 2009 08:13

Eclipse User

Hi,

depending on your needs there are two ways to go. Personally I would not
try to get the BIRT WebViewer to work inside a RAP application as you
already have a rich UI and most of the time only want to show the report
itself.

First of all you need to setup a correct target platform. Personally I
don't like big target platforms so I only pull the bundles and their
dependencies when I need them. One little side note: BIRT requires the
usage of com.ibm.icu - a typical RAP target platform delivers the
lightweight version of it (com.ibm.icu.base). Be sure to include and
right one and see https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=268240

If you only want to show some charts you can use the PNG renderer (from
the chart extensions). In the same fashion as you're using the SWT chart
renderer (which uses GC) you should do it with the PNG renderer. This
way you can use the png as SWT Image and place it wherever you want. Be
sure to think about a caching strategy to cope with multiple users and
maybe resizable charts.

If you're doing reports the easiest way is to setup a IRunAndRenderTask
which renders the report on the server side. Depending on your output
options it renderes the report as HTML or PDF. The easiest way is to use
PDF as everything is included in one file and it can be delievered
easily as resource (see several newsgroup posts). Doing it with the html
renderer is a little bit tricky as you need to delegate the resourced
which are not included in the html page (images, charts, etc). BIRT
offeres several APIs to include your own loading strategy (see
HTMLOptions for example).

After EclipseCon the slides and examples of my talk about BIRT and RAP
can be found at http://www.eclipsecon.org/2009/sessions?id=611
We also plan to write a little summary how to use BIRT inside of RAP. CC
yourself on this bug if you're interested:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=267871

Cheers
Benny

JonsenElizee wrote:
>> 1.
>> Birt has offered a WebViewer class for RCP programmer and it works
>> well during my test, but the WebViewer class does not want to work
>> with my RAP project. Many materails have been refered and many methods
>> have tested during these days, but the problem existing still. How
>> could I integrate birt into my RAP project ?
>>
>> I have downloaded the source of the birt and tracked the execution of
>> WebViewer class. I found that WebViewer is implemented with Jetty and
>> the problem occured in my RAP project is just the "Jetty: can not
>> start the sever with config". Does this means I need to rewrite
>> WebViewer with Jetty for my RAP project ? Oh, It is big task for me!!
>> So, thank you for your suggestion on "How to integrate Birt into RAP
>> project".
>>
>> 2.
>> The web viewer example of birt-runtime for tomcat server (and so on)
>> uses the osgi framework and the eclipse plugin conceptions together,
>> this is the same as RAP during the deployment of my RAP program. Birt
>> uses osgi and RAP uses osgi. How could I set them together using the
>> same osgi as a standalone web program during the deployment. I think
>> this is a king of integration for Birt and RAP.
>
>

--
Benjamin Muskalla | EclipseSource Karlsruhe
http://www.eclipsesource.com | http://twitter.com/eclipsesource

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #125459 is a reply to message #124427]

Wed, 18 March 2009 01:13

Eclipse User

Hi Benjamin, JonsenElizee!

I've added my tutorial to
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=267871

I collected BIRT plugins into one directory, changed them as I described
in comment and connected them as separate folder to target platform.
BIRT WebViewer works in my application.

I hope it will help you to integrate BIRT into your RAP application.

--
Boris Stepanov

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #125499 is a reply to message #125459]

Wed, 18 March 2009 06:31

Eclipse User

Hi Boris,

thanks for your help.
Do you have any strong opinion why you use the WebViewer instead of
generating the reports and displaying it in a browser widget?

Cheers
Benny

Boris Stepanov wrote:
> Hi Benjamin, JonsenElizee!
>
> I've added my tutorial to
> https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=267871
>
> I collected BIRT plugins into one directory, changed them as I described
> in comment and connected them as separate folder to target platform.
> BIRT WebViewer works in my application.
>
> I hope it will help you to integrate BIRT into your RAP application.
>
> --
> Boris Stepanov

--
Benjamin Muskalla | EclipseSource Karlsruhe
http://www.eclipsesource.com | http://twitter.com/eclipsesource

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #125705 is a reply to message #125499]

Thu, 19 March 2009 00:12

Eclipse User

Hi, Benjamin,

The main reason for using WebViewer is it contains all features which I
need (paging, exporting, parameter dialogs etc.). So if I need something
like this I need a time to implement it.

Other reasons:
- It should be similar to RCP application.
- The users who already work with non-rap application (previous version)
will be confused if they will see something different.

Benjamin Muskalla wrote:
> Hi Boris,
>
> thanks for your help.
> Do you have any strong opinion why you use the WebViewer instead of
> generating the reports and displaying it in a browser widget?
>
> Cheers
> Benny
>
> Boris Stepanov wrote:
>> Hi Benjamin, JonsenElizee!
>>
>> I've added my tutorial to
>> https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=267871
>>
>> I collected BIRT plugins into one directory, changed them as I
>> described in comment and connected them as separate folder to target
>> platform. BIRT WebViewer works in my application.
>>
>> I hope it will help you to integrate BIRT into your RAP application.
>>
>> --
>> Boris Stepanov
>
>

Re: How to integrate Birt into RAP [message #125821 is a reply to message #125705]

Fri, 20 March 2009 10:19

Eclipse User

Hey,

I have published a tutorial at my new blog about integrating BIRT into RAP
applications.

Short version:
- render a BIRT report as HTML
- show the rendered BIRT report in the Browser widget
- handle the path of the rendered chart image for every user

http://blog.tim-pietrusky.de/2009/rich-ajax-platform-rap/int egrating-birt-into-rap-applications/

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