iReport Ultimate Guide - Nimsoft Library

Getting StartedCHAPTER 2GETTING STARTEDIn this chapter you will learn the basic requirements for using iReport, where you can get it and how to install it.This chapter has the following sections:• Platform Requirements• Downloads• Development Versions• Compiling iReport• Installing iReport• The Windows Installer• First iReport Execution• Creating a JDBC Connection• Creating Your First Report2.1 Platform RequirementsiReport needs the Sun Java 2 SDK to run, Version 1.5 or newer. If you want to build the tool from the source code or write aplug-in, you will also need NetBeans IDE and the NetBeans platform 6.5.1.As for hardware, like all Java programs, iReport consumes a lot of RAM, so it is necessary to have at least 256 MB of memoryavailable as well as about 50 MB of free disk space.Some features documented in this guide require UR software. The features are indicated with a specialnote.In order to avoid problems with the file chooser in iReport, Windows Vista users should have Java 1.5.0_17-b04 ornewer installed. Windows 7 users should have Java 1.6.0_18-b03 or 1.7.0-b74.2.2 DownloadsYou can download iReport from the dedicated project page on SourceForge.net, where you can always find the most recentreleased iReport distributions (http://www.jaspersoft.com/jaspersoft-business-intelligence-software-trial). Four differentdistributions are available:• iReport-x.x.x.zip. This is the official binary distribution in ZIP format.13