BIRT
With a direct connection to the database
This will allow a simple way to display and generate reports, with a direct rendering based on the data
BIRT Web Viewer
Installation
OFBiz framework allow a developer/user to use BIRT Web Viewer to render a report by copying "webcontent" directory from "birt-runtime-x_x_x/WebViewerExample" directory and paste into birt component's webapp directory ($OFBIZ_HOME/specialpurpose/birt/webapp/birt). BIRT runtime is available to download here.
After installation is finished you can test BIRT Web Viewer by running example reports by using these URLs.
http://localhost:8080/birt/frameset?__report=component://birt/webapp/birt/report/example.rptdesign
http://localhost:8080/birt/frameset?__report=component://birt/webapp/birt/report/chart.rptdesign
Advantages
For user point of view, BIRT Web Viewer provides many options to play over the report:
- Showing table of content
- Changing report's parameters over AJAX dialog
- Exporting data by selecting required columns
- Exporting report with many options
- Printing report
- AJAX pagination
For developer point if view, they can test the report that they are working on by just specify report's path on the address bar, don't need to create request map, view map and screen for testing. For testing, they can use AJAX dialog to change values of parameters which don't need to wait the whole page reloaded every time they change the parameter's values.