BIRT: A Field Guide, Third Edition

Chapter 4. Planning Your Report

The tutorial in the previous chapter demonstrates how easy it is to build a report using BIRT, so it may be puzzling to see a chapter that recommends planning your report development. In practice, planning is an essential task, particularly when addressing more complex reporting requirements.

Planning helps clarify the report requirements and saves time in the long run because you do not waste time creating and fine-tuning a report that does not meet the users’ needs. Before creating a report, you should have the following documents:

• A specification that describes the requirements for the report project

• A prototype, or mock-up, of the report

Ideally, these documents should be reviewed and approved by your report ...