BIRT

**BIRT**
Developer(s)	The Eclipse Foundation
Initial release	June 1, 2005 (1.0.0)
Stable release	4.13.0 (March 2, 2023; 21 months ago) [±]
Preview release	4.9.0 RC1 (May 23, 2019; 5 years ago) [±]
Written in	Java
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Reporting software
License(s)	Eclipse Public License
Website	www.eclipse.org/birt

BIRT is a free open-source "technology platform to create data visualizations and reports that can be embedded into rich client and web applications, especially those based on Java and Java EE."^[2]

Product history

The Actuate Corporation joined the Eclipse Foundation — an independent non-profit corporation stewarding the Eclipse open-source software community — on August 24, 2004, proposing and sponsoring the development of the BIRT project, "the first top-level Eclipse project for the development of applications that include business intelligence and enterprise reporting functionality."^[3] On October 6, 2004, the Eclipse Foundation approved the project, making it a top-level program.^[4] Actuate had begun development earlier in 2004 but released the project to Eclipse upon approval, continuing to act as steward and roadmap developer for the project.^[4]

In early 2005, a GitHub project was started, with the first commit appearing on February 3.^[5] On June 1, 2005, the first stable open-source build of BIRT was created for the public.^[1] Development on the project has been steady since.

In May 2014, Actuate announced via a press release "the number of developers using BIRT worldwide has grown to 3.5 million, an increase of 500,000 in just six months, based on quarterly surveys conducted by an independent, global, developer research firm."^[6]

Releases

These are the known build dates of stable BIRT releases^[1]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]:

Version	Release date
4.3.2	25 February 2014
4.3.1	18 September 2013
4.3.0	13 June 2013
4.2.2	16 February 2013
4.2.1	18 September 2012
4.2.0	13 June 2012
3.7.2	14 February 2012
3.7.1	13 September 2011
3.7.0	15 June 2011
2.6.2	19 February 2011
2.6.1	17 September 2010
2.6.0	17 June 2010
2.5.2	22 February 2010
2.5.1	22 September 2009
2.5.0	18 June 2009

Version	Release date
2.3.2.2	01 June 2009
2.3.2.1	14 April 2009
2.3.2	18 February 2009
2.3.1	22 September 2008
2.3.0	19 June 2008
2.2.2	27 February 2008
2.2.1.1	01 November 2007
2.2.1	01 October 2007
2.2.0	26 June 2007
2.1.3	05 July 2007
2.1.2	27 February 2007
2.1.1	26 September 2006
2.1.0	28 June 2006
2.0.2	04 August 2006
2.0.1	22 February 2006
2.0.0	23 January 2006
1.0.1	09 August 2005
1.0.0	01 June 2005

Features

The main features of the free open-source BIRT include^[11]:

data explorer
resource explorer
WYSIWYG report editor
item property editor
script editor
expression builder
chart builder
outline view of report structure
contextual help via "cheat sheets"

Hardware/software requirements

Prerequisites include:

Java 1.6 JDK/JRE

If you choose something other than the all-in-one install, you may need to download and install additional Eclipse projects. Consult the downloads page and installation guide for more.

Videos, screenshots, and other media

Demos of BIRT can be found here.
Numerous videos about BIRT can be found on Actuate's BIRT YouTube channel.

Entities using BIRT

Entities using BIRT include^[12]:

Blackboard, Business Wire, Cisco Systems, Compass Group, Ericsson, Fujitsu PC Corporation, HSBC, Indiana University, Mastercard, Novartis, Nuxeo, OpenMRS, Symantec, Viacom Media Networks