This section covers the installation of BIRT using the Eclipse plugin manager. Suppose we already have an Eclipse instance that we use regularly. Because Eclipse can typically be a rather large package, installing a separate instance may not be feasible due to disk space constraints, I.T. policy, or some other limiting factor. In cases such as these, it is more appropriate to add to our existing Eclipse installation.
If one takes it upon himself/herself to install BIRT as a set of plugins, he/she must also install all the prerequisite plugins that the BIRT designer is built on top of. This is part of what makes the All-in-One installation method preferable to the manual installation of plugins. Another reason is that this is the avenue in which I have traditionally encountered the most installation problems such as dependency issues.
In order to proceed, we must first make sure the following dependency packages are installed with BIRT.
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BIRT 2.6 |
BIRT 2.5.2 |
BIRT 2.3.2.2 |
|---|---|---|
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HYPERLINK "http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.6-201006080911" Eclipse Version 3.6 SDK |
Eclipse Version 3.5.1 Release SDK |
Eclipse Version 3.4.2 SDK |
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HYPERLINK "http://download.eclipse.org/datatools/downloads/1.8/dtp_1.8.0.zip" DTP Version 1.8.0 |
DTP Version 1.7.1 Release |
DTP Version 1.6.2 |
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HYPERLINK "http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/downloads/?project=emf" EMF Version 2.6.0 EMF+XSD |
EMF Version 2.5.0 Release EMF+XSD |
EMF Version 2.4.2 EMF+XSD |
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HYPERLINK "http://www.eclipse.org/gef/downloads" GEF Version 3.6.0 runtime |
GEF Version 3.5.1 Release runtime |
GEF Version 3.4.2 runtime |
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HYPERLINK "http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/drops/R3.2.0/R-3.2.0-20100615235519" WTP Version 3.2.0 |
WTP Version 3.1.1 Release |
WTP Version 3.0.4 |
These requirements can be installed separately alongside your BIRT plugin installation, given that one includes the appropriate repositories. Plugin installation is done through the Eclipse Software Update menu, located under the Help toolbar menu, under Install New Software….
Once in the software update tool, there are two options we can select. We have the option of searching for updates or to install new features. If we do not already have BIRT installed, we should choose Install New Features. Otherwise, we can get updates to our existing BIRT installation by choosing Search for updates.
If we choose to update existing software, the software update tool will prompt us to verify which repositories or mirror sites to check for updates from. If we chose to install new updates, we will have to complete an extra step in choosing the list of repositories to search for new software in. As BIRT has been a member of the Eclipse consortium since 2004, it has been listed under the sites to include in one's search; one doesn't need to add BIRT as a new repository to search under. This makes things much easier.
However, as BIRT is collaborating with a number of other Eclipse projects such as the Web Tools Project for site deployment and the Data Tools Project for a future revision of the query editor inside of BIRT, in order to leverage their tools, we will need to include their repositories in our update search path.
Now, with the correct repositories and projects selected, we click Next. A list of details about the installation will be shown. Once we verify that the correct packages and dependencies have been selected, a license will be presented and we must agree to it. When we click Ok, the installation will continue. Installation can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on network speed.