BIRT report as PDF with landscape layout

Question

I'm facing an issue with BIRT report generator. I created a report using the designer and having set its masterpage orientation to landscape and page type to A4, there's no way to get it working using the report engine of my server (it always renders with the portrait orientation). If I ommit pdfOptions adding, the problem still appears.

However, it works when I use designer's preview option.

That's my ReportRenderer class:

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineConfig;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineConstants;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineException;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.HTMLRenderOption;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.IPDFRenderOption;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.IRenderOption;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.IReportEngine;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.IReportRunnable;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.IRunAndRenderTask;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.PDFRenderOption;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.RenderOption;
import org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.ReportEngine;
import org.springframework.web.context.ServletContextAware;

public class ReportRenderer{

    public ByteArrayOutputStream renderReport(ReportPath reportPath,
            Map<String, Object> reportParams,
            Locale locale) throws EngineException {

        IReportEngine engine;
        ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        EngineConfig config = new EngineConfig();
        engine = new ReportEngine(config);

        final IReportRunnable design = engine
                .openReportDesign(this._ServletContext.getRealPath("/") 
                   + reportPath.get_Path());

        // design.get
        // engine.
        // Create task to run and render the report,
        final IRunAndRenderTask task = engine.createRunAndRenderTask(design);

        //report arguments and language
        task.setParameterValue("data_url", this._DataUrl);
        task.setParameterValue("user_name", this._UserName);
        task.setParameterValue("user_password", this._UserPassword);
        for (Entry<String, Object> entry : reportParams.entrySet()) {
            task.setParameterValue(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
        }
        task.setLocale(locale);

        // Set parent classloader for engine
        task.getAppContext().put(EngineConstants.APPCONTEXT_CLASSLOADER_KEY,
                GenericReportRenderer.class.getClassLoader());

        final IRenderOption options = new RenderOption();
        options.setOutputFormat("pdf");

        options.setOutputStream(os);

        final PDFRenderOption pdfOptions = new PDFRenderOption(options);
        pdfOptions.setOption(IPDFRenderOption.PAGE_OVERFLOW,
                IPDFRenderOption.FIT_TO_PAGE_SIZE);
        pdfOptions.setOption(IPDFRenderOption.PAGE_OVERFLOW,
                IPDFRenderOption.OUTPUT_TO_MULTIPLE_PAGES);


        task.setRenderOption(options);

        // run and render report
        task.run();
        task.close();
        return os;
    }
}

It seems to be an option to change the page orientation using javascript as this link says, but I don't know where to apply that. I'm using birt runtime 4.2.0.

Any idea?

Answer 1

I finally managed to get it working without setting the class loader for the engine and without specific options for pdf rendering:

ReportEngine engine = new ReportEngine(new EngineConfig());

// open design document
IReportRunnable runnable = engine.openReportDesign(this._ServletContext
    .getRealPath("/")
    + reportPath.get_Path());

IRunAndRenderTask task = engine.createRunAndRenderTask(runnable);

for (Entry<String, Object> ent : reportParams.entrySet()) {
    task.setParameterValue(ent.getKey(), ent.getValue());
}

task.setParameterValue("data_url", this._DataUrl);
task.setParameterValue("user_name", this._UserName);
task.setParameterValue("user_password", this._UserPassword);

task.setLocale(locale);

final IRenderOption options = new RenderOption();
options.setOutputFormat("pdf");
options.setOutputStream(os);

task.setRenderOption(options);
task.run();

task.close();

Answer 2

You should add this to your code:

options.setMasterPageContent(true);
options.setOutputMasterPageMargins(true);

Answer 3

Xtreme Biker' solution did not work for me.

My problem was that I did not have the orientation setting in the rptdesign file.

After two days of browsing, I've found the following working:

IReportRunnable runnableReport = engine.openReportDesign("myreport.rptdesign");

ReportDesignHandle designHandle = (ReportDesignHandle) runnableReport.getDesignHandle();
designHandle.getMasterPages().get(0).setStringProperty("orientation", "landscape");

(that is the same of the javascript code linked in the question)

I also had to fit my content:

PDFRenderOption pdfOptions = new PDFRenderOption(options);
pdfOptions.setOption(IPDFRenderOption.PAGE_OVERFLOW, IPDFRenderOption.FIT_TO_PAGE_SIZE);

As alternative solution (I found it later - thanks Xtreme Biker) there is an option in the GUI to force the orientation

However, I had to handle the page overflow programmatically.