iReport is an open-source reporting tool that allows users to create and publish reports in various formats. iReport comes with many pre-designed templates and layouts, as well as the ability to customize those templates by adding new fields or changing the background color or font style. iReport allows you to access your data from some sources.

What does the app consist of?

iReport consists of the following modules:

• The iReport Designer – this is where you create your reports. It includes several pre-designed templates and layouts that can be customized by adding new fields and changing the background color or font style.

• Jasper Reports consists of the engine that actually runs your reports. When you publish your report, you can run this on-demand or schedule it for automatic execution at specific times throughout the day.

• Jasper Server – this is the web application that hosts your reports. It's what users will access to run their reports. It also provides an interface for administrators to manage their reports, settings, and permissions.

What is a report creation process?

Before running a report, your application needs to create and connect to an existing data source or database. You then design the information by choosing which fields from that data source will appear in each column. Finally, the application runs this compiled JRXML document by exporting it into Jasper format for use in other apps or displaying it onscreen.

Tools and features

Report layout

The report layout is where you define the structure and contents of your report. It comes with a set of powerful features that allow you to create reports in minutes:

• It is highly customizable, and you can tailor it to your needs using the many options available. Depending on your report requirements, you can choose from different layouts, including columnar, tabular, and two-dimensional.

• You can add new sections to your report easily by dragging and dropping them into place. You also have complete control over which details appear in each area.

• You can include multiple datasets in a single report, comparing different data sets. You can use variables within these datasets to perform calculations at different levels within a single report.

Designing Tools

The app enables you to use a variety of tools to design your reports:

• The report wizard helps you to create new reports quickly.

• The hyperlink editor lets you insert links into your text. The padding and borders editor permits you to format numbers and dates.

• Palette tools include current date, page number, page X of Y, total pages, and percentages. There's also a wizard that creates internal variables so that they can be used throughout your report without having to repeat their definitions every time.

Data sources

The data sources tool is used to create and manage connections to databases and other report sources:

• iReport allows you to connect to any JDBC-accessible data source. This includes local and remote XML files, arrays, and collections of Java Beans, CSV files, Hibernate connections, EJBQL connections, XMLA servers, custom data sources, and JRDataSourceProviders.

• There is also built-in support for SQL, HQL (Hibernate Query Language), MDX, and XPath. The tool can also be used to write queries in these languages.

• iReport has an integrated SQL query builder and MDX designer, so you can easily create reports using these tools. It also has field mapping tools for Java Beans, XML, and CSV files.

• reports exporting

• The app allows you to export your reports to various formats, including PDF, HTML, XHTML, XLS, RTF, DOCX, Text, CSV, and more. You can also preview your report using the integrated viewer.

• An extensive set of export options are available for each document format. Subreports are automatically compiled when exported to PDF or XLS. The JasperReports properties can be configured for each report.

• The report supports multiple character encodings, password protection, and encryption for PDF files. It also automatically allows the launching of external viewers when exporting the reports as HTML or CSV files.

Conclusions

iReport is an excellent tool for creating reports. It has many features and options that will help you create professional-looking reports. You can use it to export your information to a variety of formats. The software also supports multiple character encodings and password protection for PDF files.