Enterprise report data is frequently stored in a variety of systems and formats. BIRT Report Designer provides wizards to set up access to the following types of data sources:

A report, however, is not limited to using data from these data sources. Developers can write JavaScript or Java scripts to get data from Java objects, such as Enterprise JavaBeans. Developers can also use BIRT’s Open Data Access (ODA) framework to write custom data drivers to access data from any source, including data stored in proprietary systems.

This section discusses how to use the wizards in BIRT Report Designer to set up access to a data source without programming. For information about writing scripts and developing custom data drivers, see Integrating and Extending BIRT (Addison-Wesley, 2011).

After creating a BIRT data source, you specify what data to retrieve. Data sources, especially databases, typically contain more data fields than are needed for a report. Retrieving excess data fields slows report generation. This section also discusses how to create data sets to retrieve data from the different data source types.