iReport Ultimate Guide - Nimsoft Library

IntroductionCHAPTER 1INTRODUCTIONiReport is an open source authoring tool that can create complex reports from any kind of Java application through theJasperReports library. It is written in 100% pure Java and is distributed with source code according to the GNU General PublicLicense.Through an intuitive and rich graphic interface, iReport lets you rapidly create any kind of report very easily. iReport enablesengineers who are just learning this technology to access all the functions of Unified Reporter (UR), as well as helping skilled users tosave a lot of time during the development of very elaborate reports.With Version 3.1, iReport was almost completely rewritten, with the new application based on the NetBeans rich clientplatform. Even though the user interface appears pretty much the same, a complete new design of the iReport core and the useof the NetBeans platform will allow us to quickly create new features, making iReport even easier to learn and use.With this iReport Ultimate Guide you’ll learn how to add visual and analytic features to complex reports with charts, images,and subreports. This informative guide has transformed many a newcomer into designers of pixel-perfect, complex, and highlyinteractive reports. It is written and updated by Giulio Toffoli, iReport project founder and architect.This chapter has the following sections:• Features of iReport• The iReport Community• JasperReports Commercial License• Code Used in This Book1.1 Features of iReportThe following list describes some of the most important features of iReport 5.0:• 100% support of JasperReports XML tags.• WYSIWYG editor for the creation of reports. It has complete tools for drawing rectangles, lines, ellipses, textfields,labels, charts, subreports and crosstabs.• Built-in editor with syntax highlighting for writing expressions.• Support for Unicode and non-Latin languages (Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.).• Browser for document structure.• Integrated report compiler, filler, and exporter.• Support for all databases accessible by JDBC.• Virtual support for all kinds of data sources.Wizard for creating reports and subreport automatically.• Support for document templates.9