BIRT

BIRT stands for Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools. It is an open-source reporting platform for web-based Java applications, designed to create, format, and deliver data-rich reports within integrated environments.

Origin and governance: BIRT was originally developed by Actuate Corporation and contributed to the Eclipse Foundation in the mid-2000s, where it has been maintained as an Eclipse project. It is supported by a community of contributors and commercial supporters through the Eclipse ecosystem.

Components and architecture: The BIRT project comprises several components. The BIRT Report Designer is an Eclipse-based tool used to visually design reports. The BIRT Runtime is a Java library that enables embedding reporting capabilities into applications. A separate BIRT Viewer can render reports in a web context, and reports themselves are stored as .rptdesign design files. The platform is designed to be embedded in Java applications and web applications, providing a flexible reporting solution.

Data access and formats: BIRT uses the Open Data Access (ODA) framework to connect to varied data sources, including JDBC databases, XML data sources, flat files, and web services, with support for scripted data sources as needed. Output formats include HTML, PDF, RTF, and Microsoft Excel, with rendering options suitable for both embeddable components and standalone report viewing.

Deployment and status: BIRT is distributed under the Eclipse Public License and remains an active project within the Eclipse Foundation. It is widely used as an open-source alternative for integrating reporting capabilities into Java-based applications and is complemented by commercial offerings from its ecosystem.