Version 2.0 focuses on report development and adds support of the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) scripting language for Web development. Previously, BIRT 1.0 was geared to Java.

"BIRT allows the application developer to add reporting" for generating Web reports or PDF reports, said Mike Thoma, a member of the BIRT marketing committee at Eclipse and vice president of product marketing at Actuate.

Featured in BIRT 2.0 is a reuse library, for collecting information for use in report development. A report component reuse function in BIRT 2.0 enables organizations to share reports and premade report components.

The report engine in Version 2.0 has been re-architected to produce reports of any size. Previously, the limit was two to three pages.

Additionally, reports can be generated and sent to many users. New report types are supported; for example, a report could be developed that provides information such as who the top 15 percent of customers are.