BIRT Project
| Company type | Open source software project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Business intelligence software |
| Founded | August 24, 2004 |
| Founder | Actuate Corporation |
Area served | Global |
| Products | Reporting tools, business intelligence software, charting engine |
| Owner | Eclipse Foundation |
| Parent | Eclipse Foundation |
| Website | www |
The Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Project represents an open source software effort focused on delivering reporting and business intelligence capabilities tailored for rich client and web application environments, especially those built on Java and Java EE. As a premier project under the Eclipse Foundation, a nonprofit alliance comprising software vendors and an open source community, BIRT addresses a broad spectrum of reporting requirements, ranging from operational and enterprise reporting to complex multi-dimensional online analytical processing (OLAP).
BIRT comprises two primary elements: a visual report designer embedded within the Eclipse IDE to facilitate report creation, and a runtime engine that supports report execution across various Java platforms. Additionally, it features a charting engine that can be utilized both inside reports and independently for integrating charts into applications. The report templates are stored in XML format and can connect to multiple data sources, including JDO datastores, POJOs, SQL databases, Web Services, and XML files.
History
The inception of the BIRT project traces back to its launch and sponsorship by Actuate Corporation when it joined the Eclipse Foundation as a Strategic Developer on August 24, 2004. Shortly thereafter, on October 6, 2004, BIRT was elevated to a top-level project within Eclipse, with contributions from organizations such as IBM and Innovent Solutions.
In 2007, IBM's Tivoli Division incorporated BIRT into its Tivoli Common Reporting (TCR) suite to facilitate historical reporting on IT assets. The foundational code originated from Actuate’s development efforts in early 2004 and was subsequently contributed to the Eclipse Foundation following project approval.
Versions
| Version | Release Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 Preview | March 1, 2005 | Preview showcased at EclipseCon 2005: included Eclipse Report Designer, Report Engine, Chart Engine |
| 1.0 | June 6, 2005 | First official release featuring BIRT Report Designer, Report Engine, Chart Engine |
| 1.0.1 | July, 2005 | Added support for Eclipse 3.1; introduced RCP version of BIRT Report Designer |
| 2.0 | January 23, 2006 | Significant update release |
| 2.0.1 | February 22, 2006 | Maintenance update |
| 2.1 | June 28, 2006 | Major release aligned with Eclipse Callisto Simultaneous Release |
| 2.0.2 | August 4, 2006 | Maintenance update |
| 2.1.1 | September 26, 2006 | Maintenance update |
| 2.1.2 | February 27, 2007 | Maintenance update |
| 2.1.3 | July 5, 2007 | Maintenance update |
| 2.2 | June 28, 2007 | Major release as part of Eclipse Europa Simultaneous Release |
| 2.2.1 | October 2, 2007 | Maintenance update |
| 2.2.1.1 | November 1, 2007 | Maintenance update |
| 2.2.2 | February 27, 2008 | Maintenance update |
| 2.3 | June 25, 2008 | Major release coinciding with Eclipse Ganymede Simultaneous Release |
| 2.3.1 | September 24, 2008 | "SR 1" Fall maintenance update |
| 2.3.2 | February 25, 2009 | "SR 2" Winter maintenance update |
| 2.5 | June 24, 2009 | Major release aligned with Eclipse Galileo Simultaneous Release |
| 2.5.1 | September 25, 2009 | "SR 1" Fall maintenance update |
| 2.5.2 | February 28, 2010 | "SR 2" Winter maintenance update |
| 2.6 | June 24, 2010 | Major release as part of Eclipse Helios Simultaneous Release |
| 2.6.1 | September 17, 2010 | "SR 1" Fall maintenance update |
| 2.6.2 | February 25, 2011 | "SR 2" Spring maintenance update |
| 3.7 | June 22, 2011 | Major release coinciding with Eclipse Indigo Simultaneous Release |
| 3.7.1 | September 23, 2011 | "SR 1" Fall maintenance update |
| 3.7.2 | February 24, 2012 | "SR 2" Maintenance update |
| 4.2.0 | June 27, 2012 | Major release aligned with Eclipse Juno Simultaneous Release |
| 4.2.1 | September 28, 2012 | Maintenance update |
| 4.2.2 | February 22, 2013 | Maintenance update |
| 4.3 | June 26, 2013 | Major release as part of Eclipse Kepler Simultaneous Release |
| 4.3.1 | September 27, 2013 | Maintenance update |
| 4.3.2 | February 28, 2014 | Maintenance update |
| 4.4.0 | June 25, 2014 | Major release coinciding with Eclipse Luna Simultaneous Release |
| 4.4.1 | September 26, 2014 | Maintenance update |
| 4.4.2 | February 27, 2015 | Maintenance update |
| 4.5.0 | June 24, 2015 | Major release as part of Eclipse Mars Simultaneous Release |
| 4.6.0 | June 22, 2016 | Major release aligned with Eclipse Neon Simultaneous Release |
| 4.7.0 | June 28, 2017 | Major release coinciding with Eclipse Oxygen Simultaneous Release |
| 4.8.0 | June 27, 2018 | Major release as part of Eclipse Photon Simultaneous Release |
| 4.9.0 | June16,2021 | Minor maintenance update |
Bibliography