[birt-pmc] Inconsistencies between BIRT 2.2 and 2.1.2

[Michael Fox <foxm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I got this from the team coordinating
reporting for at Tivoli.    These inconsistencies between BIRT
V2.2 and 2.1.2 are causing them problems.  For discussion at the PMC
meeting.

        Mike


Birt 2.2.0 issues problems that have
been noticed or opened:

1. The blank value checkbox and the null value checkbox on the parameter definition panel have been replaced with a "isRequired" checkbox.  Reports written with only the blank value checkbox set in BIRT 2.1.2 do not import and run properly, as the code does not allow the input text box to be blank in BIRT 2.2 unless the "isRequired" flag is set off.   Setting off the "isRequired" checkbox changes the UI presentation and requires code work in the reports, because that allows a null value, and our template code that only allowed blanks does not check for null value.  The UI change is on the parameter input screen, where there is now a radio button in front of the text box and a new "null value" option with a radio button in front of it.  I believe the change  makes the UI more difficult a regular user, who might not understand the "null value" option, and simply needed anDr empty (blank) input text box.    It may not seriously impact TCR as we are writing our own viewer / parameter prompts, but it could easily impact any of our exploiters using the Birt viewer

• Birt bug 195919 ... closed as won't fix.
• Drill-downs don't work correctly on the second and subsequent hyperlink on any report.  The hyperlink does call the report, but the _resourceFolder parameter gets additional characters on each subsequent hyperlink, making the resource folder value incorrect.  Since the library (and hence our styles
  • Birt bug 195785
  • Radio buttons after importing a report written in 2.1.2 into Birt 2.2.0 are displayed incorrectly, with the wrong text.  Thevalue associated with the first radio button is repeated as the display text for all radio buttons in the list.  It appears related to adding of a "distinct" property to the parameter XML definitions,  if I add that manually or via changing the paramter in a BIRT 2.2.0 editor, the text is displayed correctly
    • Birt bug 195873
    • Our expand / collapse and quicklinks sample reports do not work due to changes in Birt 2.2.0.   This code worked by adding client side _javascript_  that would change the display characteristics of HTML elements on the reports,  either changing the display style to "none" or "block" depending on whether it should hide or display the affected HTML element.  This was used to dynamically hide or expose report elements such as parameters or detail tables in the reports and worked by clicking on  toggle icon buttons to invoke the expand / collapse _javascript_..  For this to work properly, the initial HTML output file contained certain HTML  elements with the display "none" property, for the elements that should not be displayed.  We would set these properties on the elements in the report during report creation.       In BIRT 2.2.0,  when we set the properties to display none in the report generation,  BIRT will not create the HTML element in the output html file, rather than setting it as a  style in BIRT 2.1.2.  Since no output HTML element is created, the client side expand / collapse logic cannot work because  the elements to expand do not exist in the html definition.,  I've tried several workarounds, but have not been able to find any reasonable solution to this bug at this time.
      • Birt bug 196042
      • Pixel spacing on the produced report within the HTML page seems to be different on the report in BIRT 2.1.2,   This appears to be reported by another user.
        • Birt bug 194228  (reported by another birt user).
        • Using a computed dataset column without  an alias name,  Birt assigns a number to the computed column.  If you attempt to use this computed column, as  row['2"],  in either a chart generation or on a mouseover action,  the report fails to run.     Assigning an alias name and using that name will circument the issue. We changed our templates to circumvent the problem.
          • Birt bug 195923  (reported fixed on 7/6/07, have not verified it yet).
          • Some of our reports that use icons or small gif files for spacing / viewing  have serious performance issues viewing in an Internet Explorer browser or the preview panel  using Birt 2.2.0.  These reports did not have any noticeable performance  issue in Birt 2.1.2.    This problem does not seem to occur for all users of IE, nor does the problem occur on Firefox.   The problem is noticed as a repetitive download of the same gif file for every time it is displayed / used on a report,  on one report it downloads the same icon over 600 times, on another over 1400 times.   Initial launching or resizing the window seems to trigger the download problem.  The HTML viewer in BIRT 2.2.0 is now driven via Ajax, as is the previewer, so I suspect an issue between the Birt Ajax code and specific versions of IE.
            • Birt bug TBD ... sample report to be created so bug can be opened.
            • Reports in Birt 2.2.0 default to auto layout in HTML, which changes the table spacing to dynamically resize.  Birt 2.1.2. reports imported into 2.1.2  may need tweaking for look / feel issues,   The layout can be changed to fixed layout, but in HTML it will render in the same layout in BIRT 2.1.2,  but then it  enforces the printer margins.  This means a fixed layout HTML  in BIRT 2.2.0 has the printer margin of 1 inch all the way around the html.
              •  no birt bug has been opened, but reports have to be looked at  / changed.  This may also be affected by birt bug 194228, the pixel spacing bug.
              
              
              There is still work to be done on seeing if there are other spacing / sizing issues, along with looking at the globalization of parameters, as at first glance that does not seem to have been fixed in BIRT 2.2.0.