About custom report items
Custom report items are either new report items or extensions of existing report items. An example of an extension to a report item is adding a property, such as color. An example of a new report item is the rotated text report item, which is a reference implementation of a report item extension.
Creating a new report item and extending an existing report item both involve extending BIRT through the Eclipse plug-in mechanism. Custom items require an extension to one or more of the following components to support the new item:
BIRT Report Designer
Extending BIRT Report Designer provides user interface components for a report developer to specify properties and other settings for the report item.
The design engine
Extending the design engine validates the report item settings provided by a report developer.
The report engine
Extending the report engine supports generating and presenting report output for the report item.