A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0321580273 ISBN-13: 9780321580276

The first in a two-book series about Business Intelligence and Reporting Technology, BIRT: A Field Guide to Reporting introduces reporting to a broad base of users. Built on the Eclipse platform, this exciting technology makes it possible for programmers and non-programmers to build and deploy complex reports with minimal effort.

BIRT: A Field Guide to Reporting presents information about how to develop and customize reports of progressive complexity using BIRT Report Designer. This tool was designed from the ground up for Web applications and uses a Web page-oriented design metaphor in contrast to older banded report writers that were developed before the advent of the Internet. This unique approach to report creation makes BIRT an approachable and effective tool for developers of all levels.

Report designs discussed include

• Listing reports that include sorting, grouping, and totals

• Summary reports, such as top N reports

• Charts, including pie, line, bar, and gauge charts

• Master-detail reports

Other topics discussed include

• Understanding the technology

• Planning report designs

• Accessing data

• Laying out and formatting reports

• Building charts

• Enhancing reports with interactive viewing, shared libraries, and localized text

• Preparing reports for international data

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 7 Ratings

birt - a field guide: the title speaks for itself - 2006-12-30
Reviewer Rating:
"BIRT: A Field Guide to Reporting" is a great tutorial for learning how to use BIRT. BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools" is described including its relationship to Eclipse. After covering how to install BIRT, the book goes into great detail on how to use the report designer.

The target audience should be familiar with HTML, SQL and JavaScript as stated in the introduction. The book describes functions used, but you are expected to know the basic syntax.

As expected, the book covers how to use each of the features of BIRT. They are all described with step by step instructions. There are also a few tutorials walking you through the process from start to finish. I liked the "how to" style for tasks.

The book includes tips on how to plan a report and what to consider. It also includes common code snippets that you may want to use and lists available functions.

I was particularly impressed with the abundance of screenshots and the excellent glossary. If you are thinking about using BIRT, this book is a valuable addition to your library.

outreach of Eclipse - less programming needed - 2006-12-09
Reviewer Rating:
So Eclipse is migrating slightly... Hitherto, much of Eclipse was used by programmers. Mostly Java programmers, at that. A very nice development and runtime environment. But this book shows that some Eclipse developers want to extend the scope of who can use Eclipse.

The extensive reporting abilities in this book can be implemented by someone who wants to write a report, that will have tables or graphs derived from some data source, typically a database. Unlike most previous books in this Eclipse series, there is less need for the reader to program. BIRT is more akin to a layout or declarative language, like HTML. Not everyone has the aptitude or inclination to be a programmer. And just as HTML is considered easier to understand than C, say, so too is BIRT to outreach to a broader crowd.

However, BIRT is not quite a complete declarative approach. There is indeed scope for programmatic customisation, using scripting languages. Though the only such language described in the text is JavaScript. Most BIRT users won't have to go to this extent, but it is available for special needs.

Unlike other reporting packages, BIRT's output is written as an XML file, with a particular set of XML tags. Instead of being in a proprietary binary format. Much easier to fit into other processing for some extended workflow, if desired.

The blurb on the back cover is a little intriguing. It says that the authors have a combined 165 years experience in various technical fields. But with 3 authors, that amounts to 55 years each?! Really? Is there some double counting going on?

Excellent Text - 2008-11-23
Reviewer Rating:
I am not a reports guy. I have a project that I needed to get some familiarity quickly. There are great online resources from the eclipse and birt-exchange websites but I needed more depth. This text was great for that and as a desk reference. Well written and clearly presented material makes this text worthy.

I'm still not a reports guy but now at least I have a shot at getting through the project.

Birt Book review - 2007-12-18
Reviewer Rating:
The book arrived in a timely manner. It was just what I needed. It help me develop reports and graphs that impressed my boss right away. Birt will be very competitive to high cost vendor solutions for business intelligence reporting. Right now it is a sleeper, best kept secret.

BIRT - A field Guide to Reporting - 2009-10-27
Reviewer Rating:
A well organized book and the tutorials are practical and illustrate clearly how BIRT works.

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