BIRT: Dynamic Adding Tables and Columns

I had a request from a co-worker the other day wanting to know how Columns could be Dynamically added to Tables in BIRT. The following example is a Initialize Event Handler used in a BIRT report to dynamically create a table, add a few columns, and a single row. Once added to the report, the script then finds the Table in the report, and adds a single column to the report.

//get a reference to the ElementFactory
elementFactory = reportContext.getReportRunnable().designHandle.getElementFactory();

//create a new table with 3 columns
dynamicTable = elementFactory.newTableItem("myNewTable", 3);
dynamicTable.setWidth("100%");

//set reference to the first detail row
myNewRow = dynamicTable.getDetail().get(0);

//get references to the first 3 cells
firstCell = myNewRow.getCells().get(0);
secondCell = myNewRow.getCells().get(1);
thirdCell = myNewRow.getCells().get(2);

//create the cells and add
label = elementFactory.newLabel("firstCellLabel");
label.setText("First Cell");
firstCell.getContent().add(label);

label = elementFactory.newLabel("secondCellLabel");
label.setText("Second Cell");
secondCell.getContent().add(label);

label = elementFactory.newLabel("thirdCellLabel");
label.setText("Third Cell");
thirdCell.getContent().add(label);

//although it is not in the autocomplete, getBody is a method of the ReportDesignHandle class
reportContext.getReportRunnable().designHandle.getBody().add(dynamicTable);

//now, to demonstrate, get a reference to the table fromt he report design, this automatically cast
//to a TableHandel type
dynamicTable = reportContext.getReportRunnable().designHandle.findElement("myNewTable");

//now insert the column to the right of the indicated column position. Column number is 1 based, not 0 based
dynamicTable.insertColumn(3, 1);

//get the first detail row and the 4th column. This is 0 based
myNewRow = dynamicTable.getDetail().get(0);
forthCell = myNewRow.getCells().get(3);

//create a new label
label = elementFactory.newLabel("forthCell");
label.setText("dynamic cell");
forthCell.getContent().add(label);