Skip to main content


Eclipse Community Forums
Forum Search:

Search      Help    Register    Login    Home
Home » Archived » BIRT » Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2)
Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2) [message #1067915] Thu, 11 July 2013 08:47 Go to next message
Ruud Senden is currently offline Ruud SendenFriend
Messages: 2
Registered: July 2013
Junior Member
I am creating a BIRT library in which I want to define some report item, then re-use this item within the same library in other report items. For example:

  • Top-level Table A
  • Top-level List B, containing Table A
  • Top-level Grid C, containing Table A and List B

In the library source XML, Table A can be added to B and C using the following element:
<table name="TableARef" id="55076" extends="TableA"/>

Usually BIRT designer correctly shows this item link, but it sometimes shows 'Content of this report item is corrupted' in layout view. The items always work fine though when used in an actual report.

I am currently using BIRT 2.6.2, as this the version that is bundled with the product where these reports are generated.

So my questions are:

  • Is this the correct approach for re-using elements within a single library, or are there better ways (without having to create a complete hierarchy of libraries, i.e. LibA containing Table A, Lib B containing List B referencing LibA.TableA, ...)
  • Is there any way to accomplish this using BIRT Designer, without having to manually edit the XML?
  • Why do such items sometimes show up correctly in the Layout view, and other times as 'corrupted'; how can I fix this?
  • Is there any way to stop BIRT Designer from generating <overridden-values> when there are no values being overridden? For example, the generated overridden value elements include the item name, causing inconsistencies when a name is changed in the parent item.
  • Do later versions of BIRT have better support for re-using items within a single library?
Re: Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2) [message #1068059 is a reply to message #1067915] Thu, 11 July 2013 20:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kristopher Clark is currently offline Kristopher ClarkFriend
Messages: 130
Registered: January 2013
Senior Member
Yes, you can create libraries from the designer without needing to modify the XML. You do this from file > new > library. I'm not sure why the items appear as corrupted unless a change was made to the XML that triggers that.
Re: Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2) [message #1069256 is a reply to message #1068059] Mon, 15 July 2013 14:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ruud Senden is currently offline Ruud SendenFriend
Messages: 2
Registered: July 2013
Junior Member
Kristopher Clark wrote on Thu, 11 July 2013 16:57
Yes, you can create libraries from the designer without needing to modify the XML.


Thanks for your reply. However my question was not on how to create a library. I already have a library; within that library I basically want to copy report items by reference. I.e. after I have created an item in the library, I want to re-use this item inside some other item within the same library.

So, for example, I would like to have the following items in my library X:
- Top-level List A
- Top-level Grid B
    - Reference to List A (<list extends="List A"/>)

Whenever the top-level List A is changed, the same change should be visible inside Grid B.

As far as I know BIRT designer only allows (deep) copying of items within a single library. For example, if I try to drag an existing item from library X from the Resource Explorer onto another element in the Layout View, BIRT shows the following error message: The library with the namespace "X" is included recursively.
Re: Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2) [message #1071300 is a reply to message #1069256] Fri, 19 July 2013 19:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kristopher Clark is currently offline Kristopher ClarkFriend
Messages: 130
Registered: January 2013
Senior Member
Ah, sorry I misunderstood. I created three libraries and recreated the same error you are getting. To reuse that item in the same library I went to the outline, selected the item I wanted to reuse, copied it. After that I added my new item and copied from the clipboard the item that I wanted to reuse, this way I didn't get the error and the item worked when including it from the library in my new report. You could file an enhancement for this here.
Re: Re-use items within single library (BIRT 2.6.2) [message #1236124 is a reply to message #1071300] Sun, 26 January 2014 09:16 Go to previous message
Shlomi Lanton is currently offline Shlomi LantonFriend
Messages: 7
Registered: May 2013
Junior Member
I know that this is an old post but I'm dealing with the same issue.

can you explain the steps that you did again?
Or if there is any better way to do so?

Have a great day
Shlomi
Previous Topic:Building and Exporting BIRT 4.3.0 Viewer for Tomcat
Next Topic:Expression parse error: first child is null
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Thu Mar 28 19:24:21 GMT 2024

Powered by FUDForum. Page generated in 0.01862 seconds
.:: Contact :: Home ::.

Powered by: FUDforum 3.0.2.
Copyright ©2001-2010 FUDforum Bulletin Board Software

Back to the top