Introducing the  BIRT Viewers : Using Interactive Viewer

Using Interactive Viewer

This section describes the additional functions available using Interactive Viewer. Interactive Viewer provides users with complete access to the features available in the BIRT Viewer. In addition, Interactive Viewer enables users to easily customize reports based on individual needs and preferences. Using Interactive Viewer, users can modify a report’s layout, compute report data, move or delete columns, modify charts and graphs, and rearrange report data using simple menu options.

When you purchase the viewers, you have immediate access to the BIRT Viewer. To access Interactive Viewer, your system administrator must enable this option on your system. You must purchase the Interactive Viewer option from Corporation and it requires its own license.

To view a BIRT report in Interactive Viewer, first view the report using the BIRT Viewer. From the main toolbar menu, choose Enable Interactivity to launch Interactive Viewer.

The change in the name of the viewing pane to Interactive Viewer indicates that you are in Interactive Viewer mode. Also, notice the appearance of the undo and redo buttons on the Viewer toolbar, as shown in Figure 1-3.

When you choose Disable Interactivity from the main toolbar menu, the undo and redo buttons disappear, and the name of the viewing pane changes to Viewer.

Figure 1-3  Viewing a report in Interactive Viewer

After you launch Interactive Viewer, you can select any column in the report to highlight it. You notice the appearance of a toolbar on the top of the selected column having sort, filter, and the right-arrow buttons as shown in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4  Column toolbar

To modify the column, choose any button, then choose the appropriate option from the menu that appears. You can also display the options that appear in the right-arrow menu by right-clicking the selected column to display a context menu. This document uses the right-arrow menu to refer to the available modification options. The following example in Figure 1-5 displays the right-arrow menu.

Figure 1-5  Right-arrow menu

You can use Interactive Viewer to perform the following additional tasks:

n  
n  
n  
n  
n  
n  
n  
n  
n  

More information about using the functions in BIRT Viewer and Interactive Viewer is available in later sections of this document.