way
San Mateo, CA 94404
www.actuate.com
www.birt-exchange.com
The software described in this manual is provided by Actuate Corporation under an Actuate
License agreement. The software may be used only in accordance with the terms of the
agreement. Actuate software products are covered by certain U.S. patents and patents pending.
Actuate Corporation trademarks and registered trademarks:
Actuate, the Actuate logo, BIRT, BusinessReports, Collaborative Reporting Architecture,
Correlink, Correlink Framework, e.Analysis, e.Report, e.Reporting, e.Spreadsheet,
Encyclopedia, Formula One, Interactive Viewing, Internet Spreadsheet, iPortal, Lens, Lens
Builder, Live Report Document, Nimble, the Nimble logo, Nimble Technology, Pace,
Performancesoft, Performancesoft Track, Performancesoft Views, ReportCast,
Report Encyclopedia, ReportingEngines, the ReportingEngines logo, Reportlet,
Spreadsheets Everywhere, Tidestone Technologies, and XML reports.
Actuate products may contain third-party products or technologies. Third-party trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners, companies, or organizations include:
Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org): Axis, Batik, Batik SVG library, Commons
Command Line Interface (CLI), Commons Codec, Derby, Struts, Tomcat, Xalan-J, Xerces, and
Xerces2 Java Parser. Bits Per Second, Ltd. and Graphics Server Technologies, L.P.: Graphics
Server. Bruno Lowagie and Paulo Soares: iText, licensed under the Mozilla Public License
(MPL). Castor (www.castor.org), ExoLab Project (www.exolab.org), and Intalio, Inc.
(www.intalio.org): Castor. Codejock Software: Xtreme Toolkit Pro. Component One, LLC.:
VSFlexGrid Pro. DataDirect Technologies Corporation: DataDirect JDBC, DataDirect ODBC.
Eclipse Foundation, Inc. (www.eclipse.org): Data Tools Platform (DTP) ODA, Eclipse SDK,
Graphics Editor Framework (GEF), and Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), licensed under
the Eclipse Public License (EPL). International Components for Unicode (ICU): ICU library.
Liferay (www.liferay.com): Liferay, licensed under the MIT License. Microsoft Corporation
(Microsoft Developer Network): CompoundDocument Library. Netscape Communications
Corporation, Inc.: Rhino, licensed under the Netscape Public License (NPL). Oracle
Corporation: Berkeley DB. Rogue Wave Software, Inc.: Rogue Wave library. Sam Stephenson
(prototype.conio.net): prototype.js, licensed under the MIT license. Sun Microsystems, Inc.:
JAXB, JDK, Jstl. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)(MIT, ERCIM, Keio): Flute, JTidy, Simple
API for CSS. XFree86 Project, Inc.: (www.xfree86.org): xvfb.
All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
owners, companies, or organizations.
Document No. 080131-2-745301 January 21, 2008 i
Contents
About
Using the Actuate BIRT Report Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Chapter 1
Using the Actuate BIRT report designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Using the Actuate BIRT report designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About additional data drivers provided by the Actuate BIRT report designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Accessing a database using data drivers provided by the Actuate BIRT report designers . . . . 3
Chapter 2
Accessing SAP BW data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About accessing SAP BW data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Preparing to use your SAP BW data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Connecting to an SAP system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Understanding MDX query terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Querying data from an SAP InfoProvider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Opening SAP BW BEx Query Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Selecting an InfoProvider and BEx query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Selecting the type of data to include on each axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Creating an axis by selecting a set or property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Adding the cross-product of several sets to an axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Moving an axis and changing its axis type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Modifying an axis to include members that do not contain data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Deleting axes, sets, and properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Specifying the values of any SAP Variables that are used in the BEx query . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Specifying how to sort the returned data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Limiting the returned data using filter conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Specifying slices to limit the data returned by the query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Displaying and verifying the resulting MDX query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Solving out-of-memory errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Determining which BAPI call caused an error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Setting the fetch size properties for BAPI calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 3
Accessing an Actuate Information Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
About information objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Working with an information object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Preparing to access information object data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Connecting to an Actuate Information Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Using Information Object Query Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Opening Information Object Query Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 ii
Choosing an editor for designing an information object query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Using the expression builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Creating an information object query in the Basic Design perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Creating a graphical information object query in the Advanced Design perspective . . . . . . . .59
Selecting one or more information objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Defining output columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Setting column properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Specifying a join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
About joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Optimizing joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Specifying filtering on a column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Setting filter conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Setting filter prompt properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Specifying the sort order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Specifying columns to group in the query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Specifying filtering on an aggregate column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Defining parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Specifying a parameters prompt properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Setting parameter properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Setting source parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Synchronizing source parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .