How to split details across multiple columns while programmatically appending 'continuation' message for subsequent sections? - jasper-reports

Question

I have a customer request to split details of personal information (name, address, secondary addresses, etc) across multiple columns, if the dynamic size does not fit in the current column. As a caveat, the name field, followed by the word '(Continued)', is desired, as the title for the segments in subsequent columns.
Is this behavior possible with jasper-reports?
I have tried toggling an 'inBetween' flag with the beforeDetailEval() and afterDetailEval() hooks, checking that flag in the column header band, to optionally reprint the name + 'Continued', but the column header always calls the scriptlet method AFTER the afterDetailEval() method (does not make sense to my little mind), failing since the 'inBetween' flag is reset to false.
(Note: Detail band has been set with splitType to both 'Immediate' and 'Stretch', but neither approach has behaved as expected. The entire band just gets restarted at the beginning of the next column)
Is this possible, and if so, are there any suggestions for creative solutions for this scenario?
Also, there is strange behavior displaying where if a detail is split across multiple columns, the first part of the detail (up to the subreport element)is duplicated on the following column. This behavior is also undesirable to the customer, and needs to be adjusted so nothing (except the title) is duplicated.
This is the syntax desired by the customer:
Name 1 Name 2
Address 1 (Continued)
City 1 AL – Address 3
State 1 AL - City 3
Zip 1 AL - State 3
Additional Locations: AL - Zip 3
AL-Address 1 ...
AL-City 1
AL-State 1
AL-Zip 1
AL-Address 2
AL-City 2
AL-State 2
AL-Zip 2
Name 2
Address 2
City 2
State 2
Zip 2
Additional Locations:
AL-Address 1
AL – City 1
AL-State 1
AL – Zip 1
AL – Address 2
AL – City 2
AL – State 2
AL – Zip 2
This is what we are actually getting:
Name1 Name1
Address1 Address1
City1 City1
State1 State1
Zip1 Zip1
Additional Locations Additional Locations
AL-Name1 AL-City2
AL-Address1 AL-State2
AL-City1 AL-State2
AL-State1
AL-Zip1
AL-Name2
AL-Address2
This is a sample main jrxml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Created with Jaspersoft Studio version 6.3.1.final using JasperReports Library version 6.3.1 -->
<!-- 2017-06-22T09:48:08 -->
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="Blank_A4" columnCount="2" pageWidth="595" pageHeight="842" columnWidth="555" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" scriptletClass="path.to.my.scriptlet" uuid="af53d807-7975-4ff7-bfc5-e438944aa795">
<property name="com.jaspersoft.studio.data.defaultdataadapter" value="One Empty Record"/>
<queryString>
<![CDATA[]]>
</queryString>
<field name="Name" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="Address" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="City" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="State" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="Zip" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="AdditionalLocations" class="java.util.List"/>
<variable name="IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL" class="java.lang.Boolean" calculation="System">
<initialValueExpression><![CDATA[Boolean.False]]></initialValueExpression>
</variable>
<columnHeader>
<band height="74" splitType="Stretch">
<textField isBlankWhenNull="true">
<reportElement x="-10" y="0" width="100" height="30" uuid="258dce49-fb61-4887-bb30-69e80e96d8f1">
<printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$V{IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL}]]></printWhenExpression>
</reportElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Name}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="-10" y="40" width="100" height="30" uuid="c18b2fab-900b-4641-aaef-2520510a3510">
<printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$V{IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL}]]></printWhenExpression>
</reportElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA["(CONTINUED)"]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</columnHeader>
<detail>
<band height="426" splitType="Stretch">
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="10" width="100" height="30" uuid="853a1b0d-a49e-45c4-8183-83cfd69bf5af"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Name}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="50" width="100" height="30" uuid="46697c6d-1c2f-422b-9170-6b2f36ce13ba"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Address}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="90" width="100" height="30" uuid="31730cd5-0b17-452e-8a22-d16ea2061605"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{City}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="120" width="100" height="30" uuid="b4a4c671-dc63-41b4-b080-9ad5b750bb58"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{State}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="160" width="100" height="30" uuid="8f8bec7c-3d4a-466b-8b02-2bb82e61904d"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Zip}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<subreport>
<reportElement x="0" y="220" width="100" height="110" uuid="8ef583fd-fa23-47d8-80d0-90de4f6478a0"/>
<dataSourceExpression><![CDATA[new net.sf.jasperreports.engine.data.JRBeanCollectionDataSource($F{AdditionalLocations})]]></dataSourceExpression>
<subreportExpression><![CDATA["Blank_A4_1.jasper"]]></subreportExpression>
</subreport>
<staticText>
<reportElement x="10" y="198" width="100" height="30" uuid="4887e0c1-3da2-4350-9454-4a3e33c0fe71"/>
<text><![CDATA[Additional Locations]]></text>
</staticText>
</band>
</detail>
</jasperReport>
This is the sample subreport jrxml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Created with Jaspersoft Studio version 6.3.1.final using JasperReports Library version 6.3.1 -->
<!-- 2017-06-22T10:39:43 -->
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="Blank_A4_1" pageWidth="595" pageHeight="842" columnWidth="555" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" uuid="9b8a1d93-2ee6-4d29-b9ec-7c56a3917729">
<queryString>
<![CDATA[]]>
</queryString>
<field name="Address" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="City" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="State" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="Zip" class="java.lang.String"/>
<detail>
<band height="168" splitType="Stretch">
<textField isBlankWhenNull="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="10" width="100" height="30" uuid="3d74e624-6b6f-40e9-87d2-ddb5022668b2"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Address}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="50" width="100" height="30" uuid="5df31fa3-38ee-44a4-8931-e8eef45fb7a6"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{City}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="89" width="100" height="30" uuid="964a282f-54c7-44a3-954d-27d1c70d3d0c"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{State}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="130" width="100" height="30" uuid="e1349222-d945-4dec-8454-e2d6e3fb6a2a"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Zip}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</detail>
</jasperReport>
This is the basic scriptlet code to toggle the value of IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL:
#Override
public void beforeDetailEval() throws JRScriptletException
{
setVariableValue("IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL", Boolean.TRUE)
}
#Override
public void afterDetailEval() throws JRScriptletException
{
setVariableValue("IN_MIDDLE_OF_DETAIL", Boolean.FALSE)
}

Answer 1

Drop the scriptlet, there is no need for this, lets use the fact that subreport's has its own page count, hence when it breaks in main report it counts a page
The solution I would use is the pageHeader band in the subreport with a printWhenExpression on page number (>1).
Which means that the text that you like to display when subreport splits to new "page" (name and "Continue") goes into pageHeader of the subreport and should be printed on all subreport "pages" except the first one.
Since name does not seems to be part of the subreport datasource I will pass this as a parameter to the subreport.
Code in subreport to display header when page > 1
<pageHeader>
<band height="44">
<printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$V{PAGE_NUMBER}>1]]></printWhenExpression>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="0" width="220" height="20" uuid="8cce4cab-6ccf-4ddb-b1f1-508dc97bfcfe"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isBold="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$P{name}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="20" width="220" height="19" uuid="c18b2fab-900b-4641-aaef-2520510a3510"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isItalic="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA["(Continued)"]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</pageHeader>
Example output
I have cut down page height to reduce image
Full example
**main report jrxml**
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="Blank_A4" columnCount="2" pageWidth="595" pageHeight="500" columnWidth="277" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" uuid="af53d807-7975-4ff7-bfc5-e438944aa795">
<queryString>
<![CDATA[]]>
</queryString>
<field name="name" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="address" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="city" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="state" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="zip" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="additionalLocations" class="java.util.List"/>
<detail>
<band height="141" splitType="Immediate">
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="20" width="280" height="20" uuid="46697c6d-1c2f-422b-9170-6b2f36ce13ba">
<property name="com.jaspersoft.studio.unit.height" value="pixel"/>
</reportElement>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{address}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="40" width="280" height="20" uuid="31730cd5-0b17-452e-8a22-d16ea2061605"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{city}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="60" width="280" height="20" uuid="b4a4c671-dc63-41b4-b080-9ad5b750bb58"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{state}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="80" width="280" height="20" uuid="8f8bec7c-3d4a-466b-8b02-2bb82e61904d"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{zip}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<subreport>
<reportElement x="0" y="120" width="280" height="20" isPrintWhenDetailOverflows="true" uuid="8ef583fd-fa23-47d8-80d0-90de4f6478a0"/>
<subreportParameter name="name">
<subreportParameterExpression><![CDATA[$F{name}]]></subreportParameterExpression>
</subreportParameter>
<dataSourceExpression><![CDATA[new net.sf.jasperreports.engine.data.JRBeanCollectionDataSource($F{additionalLocations})]]></dataSourceExpression>
<subreportExpression><![CDATA["C:/Users/pette/JaspersoftWorkspace/MyReports/SplitSubreport.jasper"]]></subreportExpression>
</subreport>
<staticText>
<reportElement x="0" y="100" width="280" height="20" uuid="4887e0c1-3da2-4350-9454-4a3e33c0fe71"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isItalic="false" isUnderline="true"/>
</textElement>
<text><![CDATA[Additional Locations]]></text>
</staticText>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true" isBlankWhenNull="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="0" width="280" height="20" uuid="258dce49-fb61-4887-bb30-69e80e96d8f1"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isBold="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{name}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</detail>
</jasperReport>
**subreport jrxml**
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="Blank_A4_1" pageWidth="280" pageHeight="200" columnWidth="280" leftMargin="0" rightMargin="0" topMargin="0" bottomMargin="0" uuid="9b8a1d93-2ee6-4d29-b9ec-7c56a3917729">
<parameter name="name" class="java.lang.String"/>
<queryString>
<![CDATA[]]>
</queryString>
<field name="address" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="city" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="state" class="java.lang.String"/>
<field name="zip" class="java.lang.String"/>
<pageHeader>
<band height="44">
<printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$V{PAGE_NUMBER}>1]]></printWhenExpression>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="20" width="220" height="19" uuid="c18b2fab-900b-4641-aaef-2520510a3510"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isItalic="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA["(Continued)"]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField>
<reportElement x="0" y="0" width="220" height="20" uuid="8cce4cab-6ccf-4ddb-b1f1-508dc97bfcfe"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font isBold="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$P{name}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</pageHeader>
<detail>
<band height="85" splitType="Stretch">
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true" isBlankWhenNull="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="-1" width="220" height="21" uuid="3d74e624-6b6f-40e9-87d2-ddb5022668b2"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{address}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="20" width="220" height="20" uuid="5df31fa3-38ee-44a4-8931-e8eef45fb7a6"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{city}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="40" width="220" height="20" uuid="964a282f-54c7-44a3-954d-27d1c70d3d0c"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{state}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
<textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">
<reportElement x="0" y="60" width="220" height="20" uuid="e1349222-d945-4dec-8454-e2d6e3fb6a2a"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{zip}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</detail>
</jasperReport>