Dynamic report columns in BIRT - birt

Question

I have a BIRT report, which simply selects all the columns of a table. Every time a new column is added to the table I have to modify the report to visualize the new column. Is it possible somehow to show the result of a "select * from table" query in the report, so I shouldn't modify the report template anymore? The order of columns is not important.
Thank You.

Answer 1

This is not directly possible.
However, using the DE API, you can create and save a new rptdesign file based on the query, then in a second step execute that report.
The example at https://www.eclipse.org/birt/documentation/integrating/deapi.php only shows how to create layout items, but you can as well create Data Sources and Data Sets.
This is a bit tricky however, so unless you need this quite often, it is not worth the effort.
Here is an excerpt from a script I am using in a file sql2rptdesign.rptdesign to create a new report design. This should give you an idea:
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.data.engine.api);
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.data.engine.core);
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.report.model.api);
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.report.model.api.elements.structures);
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.report.model.api.util);
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.data.engine.api.querydefn);
var engine = reportContext.getReportRunnable().getReportEngine();
var myconfig = reportContext.getReportRunnable().getReportEngine().getConfig();
var designFactory = designHandle.getElementFactory();
// Ein neues DataSet anlegen
var de = DataEngine.newDataEngine( myconfig, null );
var dsrc = reportContext.getDesignHandle().findDataSource("lisa");
var dsHandle = designFactory.newOdaDataSet("Main", "org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc.JdbcSelectDataSet" );
dsHandle.setDataSource(dsrc.getName());
dsHandle.setQueryText(sql);
designHandle.getDataSets( ).add( dsHandle );
Then I add the output columns (I parsed the SQL statement beforehand to get the necessary information). I don't know if this is strictly needed.
var numColumns = 0;
for (var position=0; position<rows.length; position++) {
var row = rows[position];
var colName = row[0];
if (colName == "__Template") {
continue;
}
var colTyp = row[1];
var colWidth = row[2];
var resultCol = new OdaResultSetColumn();
resultCol.setColumnName(colName);
resultCol.setNativeName(colName);
resultCol.setDataType(colTyp);
resultCol.setPosition(position+1);
numColumns = position + 1;
dsHandle.getPropertyHandle(DataSetHandle.RESULT_SET_PROP).addItem(resultCol);
var resultHint = new ColumnHint();
resultHint.setProperty(ColumnHint.COLUMN_NAME_MEMBER, colName);
dsHandle.getPropertyHandle(DataSetHandle.COLUMN_HINTS_PROP).addItem(resultHint);
}
And then add a table, its column bindings, columns, detail rows and cell contents to the layout. This is a bit lenghty.
// Tabellarisches Layout
var elementFactory = designHandle.getElementFactory();
var body = designHandle.getBody();
var tab = elementFactory.newTableItem("Main", numColumns);
tab.setDataSet(dsHandle);
tab.pageBreakInterval = 9999;
for (var colNum=0; colNum<numColumns; colNum++) {
var r = rows[colNum];
var colName = r[0];
var colNameSlashes = addSlashes(colName);
var colType = r[1];
var width = r[2];
var pattern = r[3];
var align = r[4];
// Binding
var colBinding = StructureFactory.createComputedColumn( );
colBinding.setName(colName);
colBinding.setExpression( 'dataSetRow[' + colNameSlashes + ']');
colBinding.setDataType(colType);
tab.addColumnBinding(colBinding, true);
// Überschrift
var textdata = elementFactory.newTextData(null);
textdata.setContentType("plain");
textdata.setValueExpr(colNameSlashes);
textdata.setStringProperty("whiteSpace", "normal");
tab.getLayoutModel().getCell(1,colNum+1).getContent().add(textdata);
// Wert
var textdata = elementFactory.newTextData(null);
textdata.setContentType("plain");
textdata.setHasExpression(true);
textdata.setStringProperty("whiteSpace", "normal");
var expr = 'row[' + colNameSlashes + ']';
textdata.setValueExpr(expr);
tab.getLayoutModel().getCell(2,colNum+1).getContent().add(textdata);
// Spaltenbreite und Ausrichtung
var columnHandle = tab.getColumns().get(colNum); // 0-basiert?
if (width) {
columnHandle.setProperty("width", StringUtil.parse(width));
}
}
body.add(tab, 0);
And finally save the new file:
designHandle.saveAs(designFilename);
However, this doesn't use a template as you would like to do.