Description Mike Boyersmith 2006-05-12 14:10:49 EDT

USE CASE:

A user wants to give a .rptdesign and its related support files (the report file artifact closure) to another person so they can use the report with out a lot of effort or problems. 

For example I might have n reporting file artifacts that live in 3 plug-in such as:

1 .rptdesign file which are located in Plug-n A 
1 .properties file that are located in a .NL plug-in B
5 image files that are located in yet another data plug-in C


The problem is that if I want to give my .rptdesign file and all its needed support files (the report design closure) to another person to use, how do I package it in a consumable way? how can I deploy the report design and related artifacts, so the report design is consumable with no additional effort?

What I would like to see is a report design closure technology that can solve this problem.

If we look at the bigger picture this issue is actually farer reaching that just bundling up a set of artifact and giving it to someone else. Perhaps I want to publish my report design (and artifacts) to a server library for others to consume. Perhaps I want to give feedback on the report design as to how useful the report design was to me, and possibly even rate it so others can see my comments and rating.

One way to solve these problems might be to leverage a technology called the Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) technology. 

Here are a couple of links to technology articles 

http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/ras.htm
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/oct05/wilber/

The first link is the OMG technical specification. The second link is good in that it shows much of how RAS can be used to bundle, use, deploy, give feedback on, and share a set of artifacts (a closure) with others in a standard way. It seems to me that if BIRT implemented RAS as a technology to manage reports and dependant file artifacts(the report design closure) that this could be a HUGE win for the BIRT project. 

I could envision a user selects his report design, and right clicks, selects create RAS asset, and gets a wizard that allows them to bundle the report and all its related file artifacts as a RAS asset. I sent the RAS asset to a RAS server, or email it to another person, this person fetches the RAS asset, and imports it, and can then run the report.