The APIs can be
used in two different cases:
- The
user calls this API directly to change the report design, it may be used
in the report designer, report template. In this case, the user doesn’t
need the report engine, only the report model is enough. The user cases
are:
The user has got the report handle somewhere.
The user gets the IChart though the MODEL’s script API.
The user changes the IChart through CHART API.
The user saves the change the report design or uses it in somewhere
else.
In this case, the CHART instance is created through MODEL API (such
as getReportElement(“Chart”)).
- The
script API is used by BIRT, it is defined in the report design, and called
by the report engine. In this use cases, there are several kinds of script
need to be evaluated:
1. onPrepare
User can define this script used to
change the chart definition before execution.
2. onCreate
User can define this script used to
change the content created by the chart, the changing will be serialized into
the report document.
3. onRender
User can define this script used to
change the content before the rendering. The changed content will be rendered
immediately.
4. onPageBreak
The script is called when there
exits a page-break. The behavior is undefined now.
In this case, the report engine should create the CHART Script instance
(IChart) and evaluates the script. This spec only defines the CHART APIs used
in onPrepare. The onCreate/onRender is not defined here.
It seems that:
- The
extension point should be defined in MODEL plugin instead of engine, as
the user may call this API directly in case 1.
- We
don’t define a mechanism for extended container, such as XTAB. In
this case, an XTAB is an extended item, the user may add other report
items in the XTAB. After call the XTAB’s onPrepare, the report
engine needs call the onPrepare defined in the inner child. To implement this,
we needs exports getChildren() in the IReportItem, which returns the children
IReportItem.
From: birt-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:birt-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of David Michonneau
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007
3:40 PM
To: For developers on the BIRT
Charting project
Cc: For developers on the BIRT
project
Subject: [birt-dev] BPS 66 - Chart
Simple API SPEC.pdf
Hi
All,
Here
is the specification document for the Chart Simple API project. Its goal is to
provide a simple API to modify charts inside a report design through the BIRT
Report Engine Scripting API. Note that there is a new extension point in the
engine plugin for extended items to extend the engine’s IReportItem
interface.
You
can also find this document on the wiki at http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/BPS66
Thanks,
David