Chapter 14. Programming Using the BIRT Reporting APIs

A reporting application uses the BIRT report engine API to generate reports from report design (.rptdesign) files. Typically, the application produces the report as a formatted file or stream, in HTML or PDF format. Alternatively, the application creates a report document (.rptdocument) file that contains the report content in binary form and renders the report to one of the supported output formats later.

This chapter describes the fundamental requirements of a reporting application and describes the BIRT API classes and interfaces that you use in the application. This chapter also provides detailed information about the tasks that a reporting application performs.

The BIRT APIs in the org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api package support the process of generating a report from a report design. This package provides the ReportEngine class and supporting interfaces and classes.