Nuxeo incorporates reporting functionalities in NuxeoEP

 

BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) enables creation of reports for web applications via a graphic design interface. This is an open source project with a particularly active community. BIRT integrates well into customised applications to meet report generation needs and it can also be integrated with open source decision making tools like Pentaho and SpagoBI.

In brief, BIRT is used to define data sources (DB, txt, web services, etc.) and the data set(s) to be displayed (SQL queries that can be linked between one another from different databases, a sort of integrated mini-ETL tool). A graphic report publisher then inserts various components into the report (images, tables, graphs, etc.). The report is recorded in a readable XML file format. The JEE execution engine allows users to view the results in HTML or PDF format and can be called up via a simple URL.

BIRT reference 1

BIRT reference 2

BIRT reference 3

BIRT integration with Nuxeo

BIRT can be integrated by installing a package available on the Nuxeo marketplace, on a Nuxeo EP instance (Nuxeo Document Management, Nuxeo Digital Asset Management or Nuxeo Case Management Framework). The functionalities offered by this package allow administrators to import report models built using BIRT Report Designer, into Nuxeo. EDM users can then run these reports by selecting the values for the parameters defined in the report. Where certain report templates require parameter definition (as in the case of calculation of statistics between two dates), these can be entered directly into the reports created by the users.

The BIRT report generation engine is integrated with Nuxeo such that users can preview their reports directly in Nuxeo. It is also possible to generate reports in HTML or PDF format from the following URLs: http://NuxeoUrl/nuxeo/site/reports/REPORT_KEY/pdf

http://www.nuxeourl.com/nuxeo/site/reports/REPORT_KEY/html

The REPORT_KEY can be found in the Summary tab on the report.

BIRT reference 4

BIRT reference 5

BIRT reference 6

Conclusion

The use of Nuxeo / BIRT is also suited to report generation from a document database. It can access and calculate statistics from this DB. Report creation however requires an understanding of the Nuxeo database data model and must therefore be performed by developers working on this tool. For more information about BIRT, see:

http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix

http://decisionnel-open-source.smile.fr/Les-composants-decisionnels/Birt

For more information about BIRT’s integration with Nuxeo:

http://www.nuxeo.com/en/products/integration/nuxeo-birt-integration

https://doc.nuxeo.com/display/CONNECT/Nuxeo+-+BIRT+Integration

https://connect.nuxeo.com/nuxeo/site/marketplace/package/nuxeo-birt-integration-1.0.0