BIRT Report (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools)

BIRT Report with Eclipse Integration

Provisioning of the Business Intelligence Reporting Tool

BIRT Report

Business Intelligence Reporting Tool (BIRT) is the free open-source reporting system based on Eclipse™. Millions of developers use BIRT worldwide.

BIRT is also the foundation for OpenText BIRT iHub, a commercial extension for advanced dashboards, scorecards, predictive analytics, and other sophisticated data visualizations and rich internet applications.

BIRT & CoSort

IRI worked with OpenText to IRI CoSort Combining data preparation with free or commercial BIRT visualizations in Eclipse. BIRT works directly with CoSort SortCL program in the same Eclipse-GUI together to create powerful reports from ready-to-use datasets.

SortCL prepares in particular Data in large file and database sources for BIRT users by filtering, cleaning, sorting, joining, aggregating, masking, and formatting their data, and then forwarding it to BIRT:

static, by creating flat (CSV) file subsets that BIRT can quickly ingest and use as a data source
or

dynamic, through in-memory transfer of CoSort results into industry-specific BIRT templates (via Open Data Access in Eclipse)

This dynamic integration ensures a seamless exchange of metadata and data flows for end-to-end data preparation and presentation – from SortCL to BIRT. Further information can be found below in the text and in this Announcement.

Now you can easily and quickly prepare data for BIRT reports without leaving Eclipse or relying on a database, Hadoop, third-party ETL, or an expensive data blending engine. The SortCL program within the IRI CoSort data transformation product or data management platform IRI Voracity feeds data and metadata at report time directly into BIRT, so you can focus on presenting data rather than preparing it. Additionally, BIRT's integration with SortCL provides advanced capabilities for automating data pipelines.

This allows developers to simplify complex data processing steps and integrate them into the reporting workflow. BIRT creates an end-to-end solution from data transformation to final visualization, making the entire reporting process more efficient and scalable. This is particularly advantageous for companies that need to process large amounts of data while requiring a high reporting frequency. The combination of BIRT and SortCL maximizes the value of your data by enabling you to make data-driven decisions faster and elevate your reporting to a new level. You benefit from seamless integration that optimizes the entire data preparation and reporting process. At the same time, it offers the flexibility to respond to dynamic business requirements.

Data preparation (transformation) in the IRI CoSort program SortCL can occur before or during BIRT reporting. Before BIRT, SortCL can pass data to a CSV file or a DB table that BIRT can use.
In BIRT, the output field SortCL and the metadata are passed to BIRT in real-time via ODA.
Creating a BIRT report that uses SortCL-prepared data in real time is as easy as it is efficient.

Preparation order in the IRI Workbench, where BIRT runs. In the SortCL script, the first target definition section /OUTFILE=stdout to be specified, so that the BIRT report uses the default output of SortCL as the „IRI Data Source“.
Ensure all /OUTFILE, which are included in your report, also specify supporting fields. For example, include the fields /SUMMARY add, so that their formatted fields are populated with aggregate values.
Instruct your BIRT report template to use the output fields specified in the stdout section of the SortCL script so these values can support the display. BIRT can also perform additional calculations on the SortCL results if needed.

Note that when generating stdout for BIRT, you can also independently address other file, table, and/or procedure targets.

Open Data Access (ODA) enables BIRT and IRI CoSort's SortCL data transformation (and masking) program to communicate at report time.

Through the ODA connection, BIRT reads and executes your chosen SortCL script, allowing you to create reports and charts with unlimited design possibilities. This diagram shows the basic data flow from the original file through SortCL and BIRT.

Since a report is run with the SortCL script, changes to the script can be effortlessly added to the report. Simply make your change, save it, and refresh or re-run your report. There is no need to reconnect or change anything else.

BIRT reports can now directly access the data that all IRI software (based on SortCL*) quickly prepares. BIRT templates or report designs can be simple or complex.

The following example reports both used the same input data and a Voracity or CoSort SortCL job script. The source data was Bank of America stock closing prices in September 2013. Aggregate delay functions in SortCL were used to create 20-day and 40-day moving average calculations. Moving standard deviations are also supported.

The following BIRT report displays a basic columnar layout with headings to organize the data:

This next BIRT report displays the same results in a way that the user can better understand:

Linear Regression with BIRT/Statistical Libraries

With IRI Voracity and Open Source Boost Libraries you can simultaneously:
Processing large amounts of data from a variety of sources
Predicting Trends with Linear Regression Analysis
all the reporting data and labels you need.
and design everything with a holistic insight, based on Eclipse.
Learn how to enhance your analytics with Voracity and BIRT.

Commercial BIRT extensions
With OpenText Analytics Designer, you can design and create dynamic reports with embedded analytics, visualizations, personalized dashboards, and much more.
The software for businesses allows users to extract more information from their data. You can use the extension to create hundreds of HTML5-based charts and maps and perform impact analyses.

Discover OpenText Analytics Designer

With BIRT, you can create interactive reports directly in your Eclipse environment. No additional tools, no manual database queries, and no complicated export processes. You define your data source, build the desired report template, and let BIRT handle the visualization. You can access prepared data or let BIRT work with raw data itself. Whichever your use case requires.

Typical reports can be used for a wide variety of business areas. Financial figures, sales overviews, production statistics, or customer analyses. All within a unified platform. Your data, your logic, your presentation in a consistent workflow.

Thanks to deep integration with SortCL, you benefit from optimized data even before report generation. You don't need to write SQL joins or manually merge data from different sources. Instead, you get a consolidated data foundation that BIRT can directly use for tabular or graphical analysis.

Reports can be automated, run on a schedule, and sent directly to other systems or recipients. This saves time and reduces sources of error. And this ensures that the right information is available at the right time.

Whether as a daily management report, a visual analysis for specialist departments, or an operational status report: BIRT supports you in making relevant information visible and understandable. Directly based on your existing data infrastructure. You gain transparency, speed, and control. And all this without media breaks, without detours, and without unnecessary effort.