To make an overview about JasperReports, I quote the introduction from the project website.
JasperReports is the leading open source reporting engine. It is used for business intelligence (reporting, OLAP) in Web and desktop applications. Report templates are used to generate print- quality output (PDF, HTML, RTF, XLS) from many data sources.
Ja, it is really the leading reporting engine, far more powerful than BIRT .
I already tried BIRT for a while, but it has a very bad API, not easy to use and not so flexibel. Many features in JasperReports are not be found in BIRT, for example CrossTab, Virtualizer...
The only thing better making BIRT better than JasperReports is that BIRT has a very nice visual design tool in Eclipse, while JasperReports has a lot of bad designer. iReport is currently the best free tool to design JasperReports templates. However iReport is also ugly and not more than a normal Swing application. Anyway for me iReport is enough, because JasperReport is very powerful and flexible with Scriptlets, ChartCustomizer ... Sometimes it makes reports easier than Crystal Report or Report Builder in MS.Access.
Four steps to make a report using JasperReports engine:
1. Design report template (create file MyReport.jrxml)
In principal you can edit jrxml file by using any Text Editor, but it's move convenient to use iReport. Do not use JasperAssisstant Eclipse plugin, it's not free and not better than iReport.
2. Compile file MyReport.jrxml to MyReport.jasper
iReport is a powerful, intuitive and easy to use visual report builder/designer for JasperReports written in 100% pure java. This tool allows users to visually edit complex reports with charts, images, and subreports. iReport is integrated with leading open source chart libraries for java.
3. Fill report (MyReport.jasper ->MyReport .jrprint)
4. Export to desired format (MyReport.jrprint -> MyReport.pdf/html/doc/...)
In my blogsite I will share all my experiences when I play around with JasperReports.
All your sharing are appreciated !
Ciao
0 responses:
Post a Comment