JasperReports for Java Developers: Create, Design, Format and Export Reports with the world's most popular Java reporting library (Paperback)

by David Heffelfinger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Create, Design, Format and Export Reports with the world's most popular Java reporting library

• Get started with JasperReports, and develop the skills to get the most from it
• Create, design, format, and export reports
• Generate report data from a wide range of datasources
• Integrate Jasper Reports with Spring, Hibernate, Java Server Faces, or Struts

In Detail JasperReports is the world's most popular embeddable Java open source reporting library, providing Java developers with the power to easily create rich print and web reports. This book shows you exactly how to get started, and develop the skills to get the most from JasperReports.

The book steers you through each point of report setup, to creating, designing, formatting, and exporting reports with data from a wide range of datasources, and integrating JasperReports with other Java frameworks.

Starting with the basics of adding reporting capabilities to your application, and creating report templates you will first see how to produce your reports through the use of JRXML files, custom ANT targets, and then see preview them in both the browser and the native browser of JasperReports.

Getting data into your reports is the next step, and you will see how to get data from a range of datasources, not only databases, but XML files, and Java Objects, among others.

You will create better looking reports with formatting and grouping, as well as adding graphical elements to the report. You will export your reports to a range of different formats, including PDF and XML.

Creating reports will be made even easier with a walkthrough of the iReport Designer visual designing tool. To round things off, you will see how to integrate your reports with other Java frameworks, using Spring or Hibernate to get data for the report, and Java Server Faces or Struts for presenting the report.

What you will learn from this book?

• Overview of JasperReports, and what it can do for you
• Adding reporting capabilities to your application
• Creating and formatting reports
• Report layout and design
• Working with database datasources
• Working with other types of datasource such as arrays, collections, TableModels and XML
• Creating subreports
• Adding charts and graphics to a report
• Working with the iReport report designer
• Exporting reports to PDF, Excel spreadsheet or Word document format
• Integrating JasperReports with other Java frameworks like Spring, Java Server Faces, Struts, and Hibernate

Approach

This book is a concise and practical guide aimed at getting the results you want as quickly as possible.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for Java developers who want to create rich reports for either the web or print, and want to get started quickly with JasperReports to do this. No knowledge of JasperReports is presumed, although obviously familiarity with Java, SQL, and XML are assumed where they are required.

About the Author
David Heffelfinger has been developing software professionally since 1995, he has been using Java as his primary programming language since 1996. He has worked on many large scale projects for several clients including Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the US Department of Defense. He has a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University. David is editor in chief of Ensode.net, a web site about Java, Linux and other technology topics.

David Heffelfinger

David Heffelfinger is the Chief Technology Officer of Ensode Technology, LLC, a software consulting firm based in the greater Washington DC area. He has been architecting, designing and developing software professionally since 1995, he has been using Java as his primary programming language since 1996. He has worked on many large scale projects for several clients including the US Department of Homeland Security, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the US Department of Defense. He has a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University. David is editor in chief of Ensode.net (ensode.net), a web site about Java, Linux and other technology topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing; 1 edition (August 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811906
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811909
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #170,538 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heffelfinger Shows us the Yellow Brick Road, April 22, 2007

By	G. Smetzer "Jerry Smetzer" (Juneau, Alaska United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Heffelfinger's book meets all my tests for excellence in technical manuals. First, it addresses a development problem I am having today; and it is the only book on the market - including books and articles published by the vendor - that does so. Other favorable attributes include these: the book is less than 3/4ths of an inch thick, weighs less than a pound; cost less than $50 bucks; and there is more white space than dense text.

Some authors of technical books must think we buy their books in order to better understand and appreciate their verbose writing styles. I did that sort of thing in my literature courses. When I am under the gun to produce bullet-proof code I want the insight and keyboard sequences that get me to user acceptance with the shortest time, and the least grief.

Finally, maybe most important, the book is full of brief, readable, complete, and relevant code. When compiled, the code actually works on my ratty old development machine with a minimum number of obscure error messages. There are many references to needed downloads and sources of information relevant to the topics discussed. The error messages can be resolved with some careful re-reading and re-thinking. Thus do we get through our learning curves. Unlike some technical books, the error messages generated by the code in this one are not black holes where hours of time disappear without ever regurgitating a solution to the problem that caused the error.

My first programming opportunity in college had me using machine language techniques to write a five card inventory program on an IBM 1620 with 4K of magnetic core memory. I followed that up with a couple of years on a Displaywriter. In recent years I've had better equipment, and I've learned how to make Agile XP and use cases a part of my daily life, but youthful and sophisticated users who have grown up with the web want lots of tricky stuff on their pocket-size devices. The problem for old guys like me is that the tricky stuff and the devices themselves were never dreamed of in the late 20th century when I was trying to get my programmer chops, but today's users want the stuff, and they want it now.

So, since I enjoy trying to make this stuff, I have been recently engaged in a massive struggle to figure out how to drag my decades of programming experience with Basic, Visual Basic, MS Access, and client-server architectures into the brave new 21st century world of n-tier, the web, java, open source, and mobile, disconnected data gathering.

On page 25 David H told me, the reader, that I was required to use ANT in order to work the examples in his book. This was not an option. By doing so he has shined a light on the yellow brick road to the geek promised land, and this old geek is now going happily down that road. Five stars for "Jasper Reports for Java Developers."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction To Jasper Reports, April 10, 2007

By	Sulalith Rajapakse "SR" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was looking for complex examples on crosstab reports but found only basic examples. I wish they had a chapter on Dynamic reports and a section describing the jasper report object model.

Otherwise it is a good introduction into Jasper Reports as it goes through all the features (rather than searching through the jasper report forum).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well Written, but POORLY Indexed, October 14, 2007

By	James A. Brownfield - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a pretty well written book, but it's lacking in two respects:

1) The index is terrible. You literally have to thumb through the book to find what you're looking for. For a technical manual, this is inexcusable and greatly reduces the usability of the book.

2) The examples are far too trivial and it never ups the ante so you can see JasperReport examples that are closer to "real world."