The people behind BIRT

Information Applications continue to be the tools that facilitate

better corporate and operational performance. Organizations
are looking toward Actuates Rich Information Application
(RIA)-ready platform to provide highly interactive access to
enterprise data that empowers 100% of the organization
with timely, accurate, and personalized information. Actuates
platform allows users to view and interact with rich content
produced on demand in the formats they prefer.
BIRT Flash Objects is an Adobe Flash charting library
that provides highly interactive, visually compelling, datadriven animated charts within BIRT-based rich information
applications. BIRT Flash Objects can be used with BIRT, BIRT
Information Objects, and Actuate e.Reports to deliver rich,
contemporary, and powerful data visualizations that allow
users to interact with the information directly.

Product Summary:
BIRT Flash Objects

Product
Summary
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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

Overview
Information Applications continue
to be the tools that facilitate
better corporate and operational
performance. Organizations are
looking toward Actuates Rich
Information Application (RIA)ready platform to provide highly
interactive access to enterprise
data that empowers 100% of the
organization with timely, accurate,
and personalized information.
Actuates platform allows users to
view and interact with rich content
produced on demand in the formats
they prefer.
BIRT Flash Objects is an Adobe Flash
charting library that provides highly
interactive, visually arresting, datadriven animated graphics within
Actuate-based rich information
applications. BIRT Flash Objects can
be used with BIRT, BIRT Information
Objects, and Actuate e.Reports to
deliver compelling, contemporary,
and powerful data visualizations
that allows users to interact with the
information directly.

BIRT Flash
Objects for Rich
Information
Applications (RIAs)
BIRT Flash Objects is for organizations
seeking to incorporate highly
interactive Flash-based visualizations
within their web applications, which
serve to enable user autonomy as
well as provide contemporary and
compelling data representations.
Users who are empowered to interact
with content are better able to
interpret the information, spot issues
or problems, and respond promptly.
These rich, interactive Flashbased visualizations improve user
comprehension and retention while
ensuring an enjoyable, long-lasting
experience, maximizing satisfaction
and adoption.

BIRT Flash Objects make dashboard applications come

alive and can be easily incorporated into new or existing
Actuate reports and applications.

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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

BIRT Flash Object

Library
The BIRT Flash Object library is a
collection of Flash files assembled
into three visualization categories,
each best suited to a different
analysis style or purpose. All of the
graphics use the same framework,
and can run independently or in
conjunction with one another
to create comprehensive data
visualization systems. The categories
consist of Flash file collections (.swf
files), as well as documentation and
examples. These include:

Flash Gadgets: Consisting of

twenty-one visualizations including
real-time gauges, Gantt charts,
funnel/pyramid charts, spark
charts bullet graphs etc. Best suited
for financial, manufacturing and
dashboard applications.
Flash Maps: Nearly five hundred
data driven interactive Flash maps
to show business information
distributed across geographies
such as countries, regions, states,
or counties.

FlashCharts: The standard charting

library consisting of nearly fifty chart
types. Simple charts such as column,
bar, pie, line, area, combination, and
scroll charts are complemented by
twenty-two exclusive and interactive
charts that help create advanced
simulations, what-if analysis charts,
and stock charts.

BIRT Flash Objects embedded into

interactive BIRT reports

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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

Key Benefits
Animated Flash content adds
WOW to applications
BIRT Flash Objects give applications a
modern look with animated graphics
that move upon launch or in response
to changes in underlying data.

Create interactive dashboards

BIRT Flash Objects are ideally
suited to provide at-a-glance data
summarization within information
dashboards. Dashboards give users
instant and interactive insight into
business metrics and performance,
as well as the ability to drill-down to
underlying details in BIRT reports.

Interactivity within Actuate BIRT

BIRT Flash Objects can be embedded
in BIRT report content for web
reports, where they inherit data,
automation, and security, as well as
the rich interactivity of a BIRT report
in the BIRT Interactive Viewer. BIRT
Flash Objects can also be included in
BIRT Studio templates, which provide
web based ad-hoc BIRT report
authoring.

Advanced interactive options

BIRT Flash Objects are based on Adobe
Flash; therefore they inherit Flash

interactive capabilities for data

visualization. Users can scroll across
time, grab and move gauge needles
and dials to simulate data changes,
visually select data series, and monitor
real-time self-updating charts.

Vast library of visualizations

BIRT Flash Objects offers a vast collection
of graphics suitable for any information
application; from multi-series bar charts
to bullet graphs and spark charts,
pyramid charts and geographic maps,
as well as speedometers, thermometers,
and cylinder gauges. There are almost
500 in all!

Contextual drill-down
BIRT Flash Objects can drill down
into detailed BIRT web reports and
spreadsheets for root cause analysis.

BIRT Flash Objects placed in a dynamic,

interactive, web-based information dashboard

Reusable components
BIRT Flash Objects can be reused
across applications and projects.
Simply change the underlying
data source, and the focus of the
visualization can be radically different
from application to application.
Additionally, the foundation for
BIRT Flash Objects (BIRT reports) is
comprised of reusable components,
which overall maximize the efficiency
of application development and
maintenance.

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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

Key Features
Self contained, data-driven
Adobe Flash objects
Flash content is supported by the
most popular web browsers, and is a
common component in many RIAs.

Huge selection
of visualization choices
More than five hundred contemporary
Flash visualizations are available to
represent virtually any business data in
highly compelling and interactive ways.

Geospatial data representation

Flash Maps can plot geospatial data
and display it as a map on web reports
or dashboards, and provide contextual
drill-down to detailed BIRT reports from
any area on the map display.

Works with BIRT reports

The Suite includes samples of datadriven Flash visualizations embedded
in -BIRT content. Embedding BIRT
Flash Objects is as easy as adding
dynamic image files to the report,
and when viewed through the BIRT
Interactive Viewer, visualizations can
be manipulated by user actions on the
report data.

Drill down to report detail through BIRT Flash Objects

Mashup dashboards
BIRT Flash Objects are ideal for
creating dashboards and mashups
of summary visualizations driven
by disparate data sources. To create
a dashboard, simply combine BIRT
Flash Objects on a single web page,
or within a single page Actuate
e.Report or BIRT report.
Hyperlink to details: BIRT Flash
Objects visualizations allow the
user to click any relevant area of the
display to drill-down into detailed
BIRT web reports and spreadsheets.
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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

Visualizations can be customized:

Change and modify Flash Objects
styles, fonts, and color palette to suit
the web application. Modify threshold
polarity and ranges, navigation, legend
interactivity, and effects to improve
clarity of the information.

Attention-grabbing animation
BIRT Flash Objects visualizations offer
a compelling animated launch, and
they move and change perspective
in response to user interaction or
underlying data changes. Users can
move sliders to review history, and
turn dials to simulate data variances,
which in turn change values in
associated charts and graphs with
graceful fluid motion.

Flash Objects
Availability
The BIRT Flash Objects Library is
available in BIRT 2.3 for Actuate v10
and above. Documentation on using
BIRT Flash Objects in BIRT reports is
available here.

Actuate web report samples

Actuate ships with multiple Flash Objects.

Examples in the various deployment

formats and configurations can be
found on the new BIRT-Exchange
Open Marketplace and elsewhere on
the BIRT-Exchange site. You can find
additional material about designing
BIRT reports on the BIRT Exchange
DevShare, here.

Flexible XML-based design

BIRT Flash Objects works on an XMLbased definition, driven by BIRT content,
scorecards, and metadata. This allows all
visualizations to easily maintain context
and localization with the application.

Flexible deployment
BIRT Flash Objects can be quickly
integrated to any Actuate
implementation, large or small. BIRT
Flash Objects visualizations can be
deployed through the massively
scalable BIRT iServer, as well as
through BIRT iServer Express.

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Product Summary: BIRT Flash Objects

Flash Objects
Limitations

System
Requirements

BIRT Flash Objects is intended for

online (web) use only, and is not
recommended for printed report
documents.
BIRT Flash Objects can only be used
with Actuate products.
Actuate Flash Maps do not support postal
code areas for geospatial data display.
BIRT Flash Objects are not a
supported Actuate product. They are
available as-is, without warrantee,
maintenance or upgrade.

System requirements vary with options

chosen. For a system analysis based
on your specific needs, please contact
an Actuate expert at 1-800-914-2259
(US & Canada) or contact us by email.
You can also contact one of our offices
worldwide.

Summary
BIRT Flash Objects add highly
interactive Flash-based visualizations
to Actuate web applications, which
empowers users with rich interactivity
and provides a contemporary look and
feel. These rich interactive visualizations
serve to improve user comprehension
and retention while ensuring an
enjoyable user experience, and
maximizing satisfaction and adoption.

For More
Information
To get more information about BIRT
Flash Objects, please contact an
Actuate expert at 1-800-914-2259 (US
& Canada) or contact us by email. You
can also contact one of our offices
worldwide.

Actuate Corporation
2207 Bridgepointe Pkwy., Ste. 500
San Mateo, CA 94404

Tel: (888) 422-8828

Web:http://www.actuate.com

http://birt-exchange.com

Live, interactive content is available to

BIRT reports with BIRT Flash Objects.

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