[Mifos-developer] Instructions for upgrading reports (.rptdesign files) to Birt 2.5.0

[Keith Randall]

We've recently checked in a change to Mifos to use the Birt 2.5.0 report engine instead of Birt 2.3.2.2 (and before that, Birt 2.1.2).  For the most part, reports written for Birt 2.1.2 or Birt 2.3.2.2 should still work under Birt 2.5.0.  However, Birt compatibility is not perfect.  If you have trouble with reports not running or displaying strangely, here are some things to try.

First, download Birt 2.5.0 (http://download.eclipse.org/birt/downloads/), load your report in the editor, then save it.  This load/save step will do all the recommended upgrades from your older version.  Then, edit the resulting file to change a few things the upgrader doesn't seem to handle quite right:

1) Remove the mustMatch property from any parameters.  This will get rid of spurious radio buttons for each parameter.
2) Change the default value of any parameters from -3 to -2 (possibly cascaded parameters only?).  This will initialize parameter pulldowns with the proper "---Select---" text.
3) Remove any PageBreakBefore or PageBreakAfter properties.

There will probably be a few more gotchas as we get more experience with upgrading MFI's rptdesign files.  I will post those if/when we get them.

[Jeff Brewster]

>There will probably be a few more gotchas as we get more experience with upgrading MFI's rptdesign files.  I will post those if/when we get >them.

Thank you Keith.   One other thing I was encountering with BIRT 2.5 was the following error when executing a report in Mifos:

java.lang.ClassCastException: org.eclipse.birt.report.service.api.ParameterSelectionChoice cannot be cast to java.lang.String

To get rid of this error, I stopped tomcat, deleted the tomcat/work/catalina/localhost/mifos directory, then redeployed the mifos war. 

Regards,

Jeff

[Ryan Whitney]

FYI, I added Keith’s notes here to the Mifos Troubleshooting and FAQ page (http://www.mifos.org/developers/wiki/MifosTroubleshootingFAQ).  If there are any other tips people have for the upgrade, please post them so we can add them.

Thanks!
Ryan

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