Understanding the BIRT report viewer context parameters
To determine the locations for report designs, images in reports, and log files, the BIRT report viewer uses context parameters defined in the web.xml file. The path provided as the value for any of these parameters can be relative or absolute. A relative path is relative to the root folder of the BIRT report viewer application. A path to a writable location for a BIRT report viewer that is deployed as a WAR file must be an absolute path.
By default, the relative path for report designs is relative to the BIRT report viewer’s root folder. Place all report designs in this folder or use the full path to the report design in the URL. Using a relative path is not convenient for deployment of the BIRT report viewer in a WAR file as changes to report designs would require repackaging the WAR file. To set a different location for report designs, change the BIRT_VIEWER_WORKING_FOLDER parameter in the BIRT report viewer application’s web.xml file.
Other context parameters determine other aspects of the behavior of the BIRT report viewer, such as the default locale and the level of detail in the viewer’s log files.
How to set the location for report designs
1 Navigate to $TOMCAT_INSTALL/webapps.
2 Open web.xml in a code editor by performing one of the following steps, based on your deployment configuration:
If you use a WAR file to deploy the BIRT report viewer, extract WEB-INF/web.xml from birt.war into a temporary location.
If you use a folder to deploy the BIRT report viewer, navigate to <context root>/WEB-INF.
3 Locate the following element:
<context-param>
<param-name>BIRT_VIEWER_WORKING_FOLDER</param-name>
<param-value></param-value>
</context-param>
4 Change the param-value element, so that it includes the absolute path to the folder for the report designs, similar to the following code where Report_Folder is the absolute path to the folder for the report designs:
<context-param>
<param-name>BIRT_VIEWER_WORKING_FOLDER</param-name>
<param-value>Report_Folder</param-value>
</context-param>
5 Save web.xml and close the editor.
6 If you use a WAR file to deploy the BIRT report viewer, replace WEB-INF/web.xml in birt.war with the file just modified.
7 Copy the report designs into the folder specified in the param-value element for BIRT_VIEWER_WORKING_FOLDER.
8 Restart Apache Tomcat.