Like the open-source BIRT Report Designer, Actuate BIRT Designer supports connecting to many relational databases, such as Oracle, Sybase, Informix, DB2, SQL Server, and Derby, through database-specific JDBC drivers. Actuate BIRT Designer provides these JDBC drivers, whereas, users of the open-source designer must download and install the appropriate JDBC drivers.
Both designers provide a query editor for typing the SQL statement to specify the data to retrieve. In addition, Actuate BIRT Designer includes a SQL query builder that you can use to create SQL statements graphically. The query builder provides two advantages over the query editor:
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The ability to create and edit SQL statements quickly without typing SQL code. This feature is particularly useful when creating multiple joins, using SQL functions, or writing complex expressions.
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The ability for BIRT to modify a SQL query when you sort, group, or filter data using the graphical tools. BIRT maps these user-interface actions to the equivalent SQL expressions, and because the database processes the data, the report’s performance improves.
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This chapter describes how to access database data using the query builder. For information about using the query editor, see BIRT: A Field Guide.
