It is very easy to select
and expand high-level elements to easily select contained report elements, such
as rows, cells, and groups. Rather than having to muck around with the Report
Designer to find the element you are changing, you have it right at your fingertips
with the Outline. It also makes things easier when you begin scripting, to ensure
The BIRT Environment and Your First Report
[ 38 ]
that you are writing script for the correct components. I can tell you this from my
experience; it is an incredibly useful view, and learning how to use it can save time
and headaches in the long run.
In the following example image, I am showing an expanded view of a very simple
report demonstrating the different elements of reports that are visible in a report
Outline. Here I am showing my Data Sources, Data Sets, the fields in the Data Sets,
the visual report elements, my Libraries, and library components.
Chapter 3
[ 39 ]
The Palette
Now, taking a page from many other visual IDE's, BIRT provides a component
Palette that contains visual report design components. Just as in Visual Basic you can
"drag and drop" components like buttons, text boxes, and labels into a form, BIRT
allows you to "drag and drop" visual report components such as labels, data text
items, HTML text items, graphics, and layout modifiers such as grids and tables.
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