MyEclipse Reports
BIRT 2.3.1 Support:
MyEclipse Reports has been upgraded and now integrates BIRT 2.3.1,
a major update from versions previously used by MyEclipse. There
are enhancements across the board, from better scripting and
JavaScript capabilities to core reporting improvements in features like Crosstab and the addition of Multi View
reports.
JavaScript & Scripting Improvements:
MyEclipse Reports offers many enhancements to the JavaScript
editor (available in the Scripts page of the Report editor)
including code folding and script validation. The automatic
validation feature will help with the development of JavaScript
event handlers, allowing some code errors to be discovered prior
to the execution of the report.
In addition to automatic JavaScript validation within the
JavaScript editor, a validate button within the Expression
Builder will verify the JavaScript syntax used within a BIRT
expression.
Several report elements have been enhanced to support additional
event triggers. The cross tab element now supports onPrepare,
onCreate, and onRender events for the cross tab and for each
cell within the cross tab. Using these new events the rendered
cross tab element can be altered in many ways. The following
screenshot illustrates a script that alters the cross tab element
in its onPrepare method and alters the individual cell element
instances based on data within the cross tab.
In addition to the new events for the cross tab element, chart
scripting has been improved to support beforeDrawMarker and
afterDrawMarker events. Using these events the individual
markers for the chart and legend can be altered.
Crosstab Enhancements:
Filters, which cull the data displayed in the cross table, can
now be applied to measures. In prior releases, filters could
only be applied to the dimensions.
In this example, the amount measure is filtered to only show
values over 50,000, which results in the following cross table
output. Report elements are alsoe placed in the cross table
header.
Measures represent the intersection point for the column and row
values and are by default displayed as an alphanumeric value,
these values can now be displayed graphically.
Individual charts can be displayed for each measure and can be
generated against the vertical or horizontal dimension. Charts
can also be used for cells containing total elements.
Cross tab elements now support derived measures. These can be
created by using the Derived Measure dialog, which is launched
with the menu context item “Add Derived Measure”. The BIRT
Expression builder is used to construct these derived measures
and all cross tab bound items are available for use within the
expression.
Multi-View Items:
Report items can have multiple views, wherein all views share
the same data, filtering, and grouping. The view of the data
determines how it is to be displayed and is essentially just
another report item sharing the same graphical space and bound
data. Currently only tables and cross tables support this
feature and the secondary view must be a chart. The view
displayed of the data can be selected using the view tab at the
bottom of the report element.
Chart Improvements:
Some of the improvements are explained in the sections above,
which describe multi-view report item support for tables and
cross tables. In addition, grouping and sorting for charts has
been improved. In previous releases, categories and optional Y
series grouping were available, but sorting these groups could
not be done with a separate data value. With this release, a
sort on field has been added to both the category and optional Y
series grouping dialogs. Many new grouping unit types are also
available, including quarters for date time fields. The interval
for numeric data types can now be set to a decimal value.
Charts, embedded in reports, can now consume data from report
cubes. This is in addition to the existing support for data sets
and report items.
Javascript Debugging:
MyEclipse Reports provides an extensive event model that allows
handlers, written in Java or JavaScript, to be called during the
generation and presentation of the reports. These event handlers
can be used to modify report content based external code or on
data currently being processed by the report engine. Event
handlers, written in Java, can be debugged using the Eclipse
Debug perspective.
Switch to the Debug perspective and select Debug Report from the
Run menu:
When the debug configuration is launched the report will be
processed as described in the launch configuration, and will
break on any breakpoints encountered in either the JavaScript or
Java event handlers:
Miscellaneous Improvements:
External Style Sheets
In prior versions, if using a linked style sheet, the css file
had to be located in the resource folder for the given project.
Now you can link the style sheet at view time, and it can be
referenced as a full or relative URL.
Horizontal Page Break Support
To use this feature, within a table select the column(s) you
wish a page break to occur and navigate to the Page Break field
in the Properties View. Then select “Always” either for the
“Before” or “After” setting. This setting will instruct the
report engine to insert a page break at that column. To
configure this setting for a crosstab element, select the
crosstab and navigate to the Column Area tab, then select the
Page Break field and add the appropriate page break setting.
Illustrated below is an example of setting the horizontal page
break for a table.
Copy and Paste Formatting The formatting
specified for a report element can be copied to another report
element.
Library Changes The Library Explorer View supports multiple enhancements, including
navigating all resources within the specific resource folder.
These include images, scripts, jars and libraries that located
in the resource folder. Many UI changes have also been made to
facilitate better resource
management. These changes include the ability to add or create
new content within the resource folder using an improved context
menu. In addition, adding content to libraries has been improved;
any report element can be published to a library by using the context menu.
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