iReport Ultimate Guide - Nimsoft Library

Basic Notions of iReportCHAPTER 3BASIC NOTIONS OF iREPORTThis chapter has the following sections:• The Report Life Cycle• JRXML Sources and Jasper Files• Data Sources and Print Formats• Compatibility Between Versions• Expressions• Using Java as a Language for Expressions• Using Groovy as a Language for Expressions• Using JavaScript as a Language for Expressions• A Simple Program3.1 The Report Life CycleWhen we think about a report, only the final document comes to mind, such as a PDF or Excel file. But this is only the finalstage of a report lifecycle, which starts with the report design. Designing a report means creating some sort of template, suchas a form where we leave blank space that can be filled with data. Some portions of a page defined in this way are reused,others stretch to fit the content, and so on.31