Using data object data in a report
A data object provides a report access to predesigned data sources, data sets, and cubes. Report developers create data objects to streamline the report creation process. Data objects provide the following benefits:
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Simplified data access and retrieval. The predesigned data sources, data sets, and cubes in a data object enable report developers to select the data to use in a report without knowledge of the underlying data source, how to connect to it, and how to extract data from it.
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Reusability across multiple reports. If a suite of reports require the same data, designing the data sources, data sets, and cubes once in a shared data object eliminates the need to design the same elements repeatedly for each report.
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Dynamic updates to data items. Changes to data items in a data object propagate to reports that use the data object, ensuring that reports have the latest updates, such as connection properties.
A report accesses data from a data object through either a data object design (.datadesign) file or a data object store (.data). The data design file retrieves data, on demand, each time the report is run. A data object store contains cached, or materialized, data, and provides much more efficient access to data. If getting real-time data is more important than report generation speed, use the data object design file. If data in the underlying data source does not change constantly, or if a data object store is generated regularly, use the data object store.
As with other types of data sources, for a report to use data from a data object, you must create the following BIRT objects:
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