Java Reporting Software

Windward Reports

JasperReports

Software Synopsis (reprinted courtesy of Wikipedia):

JasperReports is an open source Java reporting tool that can write to screen, to a printer or into PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, Comma-separated values and XML files. It can be used in Java-enabled applications, including Java EE or Web applications, to generate dynamic content. It reads its instructions from an XML or .jasper file.

Features

JasperReports is an open source reporting library that can be embedded into any Java application. Features include:

• PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, CSV and XML files. The engine allows report definitions to include charts, with the rendering provided by the JFreeChart library which supports many chart layouts, such as Pie, Bar, Stacked Bar, Line, Area, Scatter Plot, Bubble, and Time series.
• Multiple sources can be merged together. The data can be retrieved from defined data sources such as JDBC, CALS Table Models, JavaBeans, EJBQL, XML, Hibernate, and Comma-separated values, and additional data sources can be added to the JasperReports framework by plugging in a custom JRQueryExecuter. An extension is available to use Oracle PL/SQL stored procedures as a data source.
• Scriptlets may accompany the report definition, which the report definition can invoke at any point to perform additional processing. The scriptlet is built using Java, and has many hooks that can be invoked before or after stages of the report generation, such as Report, Page, Column or Group.
• Sub-reports

For users with more sophisticated report management requirements, reports designed for JasperReports can be easily imported into the JasperServer - the interactive report server.

JasperSoft

Teodor Danciu began work on JasperReports in June 2001, the sf.net project was registered in September 2001 and JasperReports 0.1.5 was released on November 3rd 2001.

JasperReports Version 1.0 was released on July 21, 2005.

The code was originally licenced under a copyleft JasperReports License and later moved to LGPL.

Jaspersoft was originally called Panscopic, and was founded by Al Campa, CEO, and Raj Bhargava, VP of Products in 2001. Panscopic raised $23M from Doll Capital, Discovery Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Partech. In 2004 Panscopic teamed up with Teodor Danciu, acquired the intellectual property of JasperReports, and changed the name of the company to Jaspersoft. Brian Gentile became CEO in 2007.

JasperSoft provides commercial software around the JasperReports product, and negotiate contracts with software developers that wish to embed the JasperReports engine into a closed source product.

JasperSoft's main related product is JasperServer, a Java EE web application that provides advanced report server capabilities such as report scheduling and permissions. It is available under an open source license for use in conjunction with open source infrastructure such as MySQL and JBoss, or a commercial license for enterprise deployments involving commercial databases and application servers.

JasperSoft is a gold partner with MySQL, and JasperReports was included in the PostgreSQL distribution Bizgres version 0.7.

JRXML

JasperReports reports are defined in an XML file format, called JRXML, which can be hand-coded, generated, or designed using a tool. The file format is defined by a Document Type Definition (DTD), providing limited interoperability.

The main difference between using XML and a .jasper file is that the XML file should be compiled at runtime using the JasperCompileManager class.

Third Party Tools

There are many tools providing JasperReport capabilities:

• iReport, an open source standalone graphical program that provides report designer capabilities, and is able to run reports using all data source supported by the JasperReports engine. iReport is actively maintained by JasperSoft.
• DynamicReports, an open source Java API reporting library based on JasperReports which lets you create sophisticated reports at the fastest way without need to use visual designer, main benefit of this library is dynamic report design.
• SWTJasperViewer, an open source reusable component that can be embedded in any SWT/JFace application such as Eclipse.
• WebReportBuilder, an open source Java EE web application that allows web based developers and non developers to create basic and advanced Reports based on JasperReports to be used as a Web Report Server.
• OpenReports, a Java EE web application that provides advanced report server capabilities with support for four open source reporting engines: JasperReports, JFreeReport, JXLS, and Eclipse BIRT.
• JasperTags, a JSP tag library for easy inclusion of reports in web applications.
• Plazma Report Designer an open source JasperReports designer plugin for Eclipse.
• Aspose.Words for JasperReports: Convert reports from JasperReports & JasperServer to Word Formats.
• Aspose.Slides for JasperReports: Convert reports from JasperReports to PowerPoint PPT & PPS Formats.

IDE Integration

Many prominent Java IDEs provide instructions for users wishing to integrate JasperReports into a project.

• IBM Websphere Studio Application Developer
• NetBeans - JasperReports Visual Designer for NetBeans
• Eclipse

Visit the official JasperReports company website.