BIRT 2.3 Released

BIRT 2.3 has arrived and with this release many new features are available. Most notable are the JavaScript improvements that include an improved JavaScript Editor (validation, line numbers, code folding), a new JavaScript Debugger, and the ability to add JavaScript files to a report design using the GUI. Also new scripting events are available for crosstabs and charts. BIDI support is also provided in all output formats. Many crosstab enhancements were made, including the ability to display measure data using charts within the crosstab. With BIRT 2.3 crosstabs support derived measures as well.


To read more about the new BIRT 2.3 features see the BIRT New and Notable Features.

To view a webinar on the new feature, check out this Eclipse Live recording. The examples used in this webinar are available on
BIRT-Exchange.

BIRT - Help Wanted

The majority of the work on the BIRT project is done by the core BIRT committers. At the same time, we recognize that we have a huge community of users and integrators that may want to dedicate some time back to our community.

Unfortunately, it is a little difficult to find a place to start. Yes, there are a lot of open issues in Bugzilla, but it is difficult to determine which items would be best to take on. Unless you are well versed on the internals of BIRT, it is difficult to tell which items are easy, and which are difficult. To complicate things a bit, those items that are easy and relatively high priority tend to get fixed pretty quickly.

In an effort to provide better entry points for people that are interested in contributing code to the BIRT project, we have started to tag bugzilla entries with the keyword "helpwanted". You can find the bugs by using this search. The assumption is that discussion and contributions towards the resolution would be handled through Bugzilla.

If you do come up with a contribution for the BIRT team, please make sure that you select the IP review box if you are submitting code. Also please note that the helpwanted tag is new effort for the BIRT team, and will be a bit of a work in progress.

One other friendly reminder is that the BIRT team is in the closing cycles of the Ganymede release at the end of this month. If you decided to get active, please understand that the entire development team is very focused on the release and may take a while to respond to your contributions and questions.