Add specific plugins and config when using Birt with Maven - maven

Question

I've got a Maven jar project in which I use Birt in order to generate some PDF.
In order to use Birt engine, I've just added this dependency to my <dependencies>:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</artifactId>
<version>4.4.2</version>
</dependency>
I run my main class using mvn exec:java.
My question is: when I was using the Birt runtime without Maven, I could add Birt plugins in the plugins dir and modify plugins/org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.fonts_4.4.2.v201410272105/fontsConfig.xml in order to add specific <font-paths><path ..., how can I do this using this Maven environment?
I'm not sure also which path I must give to org.eclipse.birt.core.framework.PlatformConfig.setBIRTHome(String) or org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineConfig.setEngineHome(String) now.
I've tried to follow the guide and used config.setEngineHome("absolute_path_to_a_4.4.2_osgi_birt_runtime") but then I've got that stacktrace (inside a call to factory.createReportEngine(config)):
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ReportEngine$EngineExtensionManager.<init>(ReportEngine.java:822)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ReportEngine.<init>(ReportEngine.java:111)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ReportEngineFactory$1.run(ReportEngineFactory.java:18)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ReportEngineFactory$1.run(ReportEngineFactory.java:1)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ReportEngineFactory.createReportEngine(ReportEngineFactory.java:14)
It seems that Platform.getExtensionRegistry() returns null...
If I don't call config.setEngineHome nor config.setBIRTHome, then I've got org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.impl.ParameterValidationException: Required parameter myParam is not set., error that I didn't have before migrating to Maven (actually, my rptdesign use myParam from a linked library).
I've also posted my question to Birt dev forums.

Answer 1

First of all, you can use Birt 4.4.2 with this Maven configuration (due to the fact that the pom.xml of the runtime is buggy and declares 2 different versions of those dependencies) :
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</artifactId>
<version>4.4.2</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>org.eclipse.osgi.services</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>com.ibm.icu</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>org.eclipse.osgi.services</artifactId>
<version>3.4.0.v20140312-2051</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.birt.runtime</groupId>
<artifactId>com.ibm.icu</artifactId>
<version>52.1.1.v201501240615</version>
</dependency>
Then, any Birt plugin can be added just like any classic Maven dependency (provided the fact that there is a correct META-INF/MANIFEST.MF defining Bundle-Name & Bundle-Version properties).
Then you have to launch the Birt engine in POJO mode: without calling EngineConfig.setEngineHome(engineHome).
Finally, for the font config, you can use either:
EngineConfig.setFontConfig(pathToFontsConfigXmlAsUrl) (thanks for that answer)
FontFactory.register("path/to/myfont.ttf") (thanks for that answer) if you want to load a specific font from the classpath
FontFactory.registerDirectory("/path/to/external/dir") if you want to declare an external directory of font to use (thanks for that answer)
Here is an example of bootstrap code (based on Birt website directives):
try{
final EngineConfig config = new EngineConfig( );
config.setLogConfig("c:/temp", Level.FINE);
config.setFontConfig("c:/temp/fontsConfig.xml");
Platform.startup( config );
//If using RE API in Eclipse/RCP application this is not needed.
IReportEngineFactory factory = (IReportEngineFactory) Platform
.createFactoryObject( IReportEngineFactory.EXTENSION_REPORT_ENGINE_FACTORY );
IReportEngine engine = factory.createReportEngine( config );
engine.changeLogLevel( Level.WARNING );
}catch( Exception ex){
ex.printStackTrace();
}
// Run reports, etc.
...
// destroy the engine.
try
{
engine.destroy();
Platform.shutdown();
//Bugzilla 351052
RegistryProviderFactory.releaseDefault();
}catch ( EngineException e1 ){
// Ignore
}