Sample Jasper I-Report

We can generate reports using two ways,
1) From "JRXML" (Source) file
2) From "Jasper" (Compiled) file

Tools Needed For This Tutorial
You need to download

1. JDK 6
2. iReport-4.1.1 for designing the report

Following jar must be in classpath (Available from ireport installation directory)

1. commons-beanutils-1.8.2.jar
2. commons-collections-3.2.1.jar
3. commons-digester-1.7.jar
4. commons-logging-1.1.jar
5. groovy-all-1.7.5.jar
6. iText-2.1.7.jar
7. jasperreports-4.1.1.jar

Note
If you are created a JRXML/Jasper file using a particular version of Ireport (For example consider Ireport-4.7.0)

In order to run the report, you must use same set of jar's available on installed Ireport-4.7.0 directory (C:\Program Files\Jaspersoft\iReport-4.7.0\ireport\modules\ext)

If you are creating a report using Ireport-4.7.0 and compiling / running using Ireport-4.2.0 jar files, you will get java.lang.NullPointerException

Creating a Sample Report

A sample report which shows work hours of employees will be created. Report will be created based on the following database entries shown in Figure 2. Any database can be used as long as you can obtain a reference to a java.sql.Connection.

                                                               Figure 2: Sample Table – “tutorial_table” in “tutorial_db”

We want to show the same data in the table, however in a different format, for example, all entries for each employee grouped together. We also want to display the total hours worked for each employee. And finally, to give a comparison among the employees, we want to display these information in a chart. Figure 3 shows what we want to obtain.

                      

Figure 3: Desired Final Report

Creating the XML File for JasperReports using iReport

Start by creating a new document in iReport. (File >New Document) In the report properties screen, specify the report name as “EmployeeReport” and confirm other default values.

Before proceeding further, bear the following in mind:-

􀁺 Use Edit > Insert Element to insert different types of elements into the report. After selecting the element, you will see that   the cursor turns into a “+” sign. Pressing the left button of the mouse and dragging it, specify the bounds of the inserted element. Double-clicking on the element opens the property dialog, use this dialog to edit element properties. Property names are mostly self-explanatory.

􀁺 Dynamic content of the report is provided by three things.

           1. Parameters

           2. Fields

           3. Variables.

All these three are added to the report as “Text Field”s through Edit-Insert element-Text field.

􀁺 To specify a text field’s content to come from a Parameter, specify the Text field expression in the property dialog of the element like the following: $P{parameterName}

􀁺 Similarly, to specify a text field’s content to come from a Field, specify the Text field expression in the property dialog of the element like the following: $F{fieldName}

fieldname can only be columns in a table of the database.

In our case, fieldName can be any of “EmployeeName”, “HoursWorked”, “Date”.

􀁺 Similarly, to specify a text field’s content to come from a variable, specify the Text field expression in the property dialog of the element like the following: $V{variableName}

􀁺 After specifying a text field’s content to come from either a Parameter, a Field or a Variable, you should define the corresponding content name in “Report Fields”, “Report Parameters” or “Report Varibles” through “View-Report Fields”, “View-Report Parameters” or “View-Report Variables”.

􀁺 By defining a “Report parameter”, we ensure that we will provide the JasperReport compiler with a Hashtable having an entry with key=”parameterName” and value=”parameterValue” prior to the compilation of the report.

􀁺 Similarly, by defining a “Report field”, we ensure that resultset obtained by “Report Query” will contain a column named “fieldName”.

􀁺 Variables are of two types: builtin variables or non-builtin variables. You will see examples of both in a few moments.

First, insert a static text as the title of report.

                                                              

Specify title to be “Employee Work Hours Report”. Using geometric shapes, the appearance of the report can be enhanced. However, for the time being, we won’t bother with the aesthetics.

To add a Group to the report, press the “Groups” icon. On the opened dialog, press New. Specify group name as “employee” and group expression as “$F{EmployeeName}”, press OK with other fields in default values. You will see that two new bands are added as “employeeHeader” and “employeeFooter”.

According to the instructions given above, obtain the design in Figure 4. Specify the Report Query through Edit-Report query as

                          “SELECT * FROM tutorial_table ORDER BY EmployeeName”.

“Order by” is necessary because we created “employee” group with group expression “$F{EmployeeName}”

                Figure 4: Final iReport Design

Creating the Final Report using JasperReports

After obtaining the jrxml file, it is only a few steps to obtaining the final report. The following code segment taken from sample.java given in Appendix B is all to get the final report viewed in a PDF viewer.

// First, load JasperDesign from XML and compile it into JasperReport

JasperDesign jasperDesign = JasperManager.loadXmlDesign("path-to-your-jrxml-file\\sam

JasperReport jasperReport = JasperManager.compileReport(jasperDesign);

// Second, create a map of parameters to pass to the report.

Map parameters = new HashMap();

parameters.put("employeeChart", createEmployeeChartImage());

// Third, get a database connection

Connection conn = Database.getConnection();

// Fourth, create JasperPrint using fillReport() method

JasperPrint jasperPrint = JasperManager.fillReport(jasperReport, parameters, conn);

// You can use JasperPrint to create PDF

JasperManager.printReportToPdfFile(jasperPrint, "desired-path\\SampleReport.pdf");

// Or to view report in the JasperViewer

JasperViewer.viewReport(jasperPrint);

// Or create HTML Report

JasperExportManager.exportReportToHtmlFile(jasperPrint, "desired-path\\SampleReport.h

Figure 5: From XML to the final report by JasperReports

PDF Report From JRXML File

JRXML file is a JasperReports Document. JRXML is the XML file format of JasperReport, which can be coded manually, generated, or created using a tools like IReport, JasperAssistant etc
Execution of report from JRXML file will be very slow, as it need to compile before the execution

PDF Report From Jasper File

Jasper file is a compiled format of JasperReports Document.

Execution of report from Jasper file will be very fast, as it is pre-compiled

It is recommended for the production environment

Appendix A

Full Tutorial in PDF :- JasperReports-Ultimate-Guide-3.pdf