Print application version for each report using JasperReports - jasper-reports

Question

We are using JasperReports 6.0.0 and have about 30 templates for different reports that have almost nothing in common. Today we have got a requirement to print application version at the bottom of each page for every report.
I could not find any good solution to do it without modifying every template file. Does JasperReport allows to specify general layout for all templates? Is there any solution to add label to each page without modifying existent templates?

Answer 1

Some approaches:
Modify all .jrxml files and add a footer to each one, manually.
Use XSLT to modify all the .jrxml templates and add a footer.
Use iText to modify the report output after generating the report PDF.
Use the JasperReports API to programmatically inject a footer band into the in-memory template prior to compilation and execution.
Use the JasperReports API to programmatically inject a footer band into each .jrxml file and save the file back to disk.
Create a master template and include a parameterized subreport.
The last approach would have a master template as follows:
-----------
| Title |
-----------
| Subreport |
-----------
| Footer |
-----------
Then, when running the report, pass in a parameter that indicates what subreport to include (i.e., one of thirty). In this fashion, the Title Band and Footer Band are shared by all thirty reports. It's more work, but ultimately the most flexible solution.
If the Title Band differs completely across all reports, parameterize it to use a subreport.
Here's a screenshot of a master report that includes a subreport, which is given as a parameter. In the screenshot, the Title Band doesn't include a subreport because each of the several reports looks identical (the human-readable report title is also a parameter). It should be easy to see that if the Title Band had to change its layout for each report, then using a subreport instead would facilitate such a solution:
The footer, though, as shown in the screenshot, is one possible answer to your question.
You may need to define a variable that allows for calculating the page numbers:
<variable name="V_CURRENT_PAGE_NUMBER" class="java.lang.Integer" resetType="Page">
<variableExpression><![CDATA[1]]></variableExpression>
<initialValueExpression><![CDATA[$V{PAGE_NUMBER}+1]]></initialValueExpression>
</variable>
And a corresponding text field that references the page number:
msg("Page {0} of {1}", $V{V_CURRENT_PAGE_NUMBER}, $V{PAGE_NUMBER})
Keeping in mind that JasperReports uses absolute paths, define a few parameters to avoid hard-coding the location of the subreports. For example:
$P{P_REPORT_SUBREPORTS_PATH} + $P{P_SUBREPORT_NAME} + ".jasper"
Here, P_REPORT_SUBREPORTS_PATH is defined in terms of a P_REPORT_BASE variable:
$P{P_REPORT_BASE} + "subreports/"
This allows the report IDE to use a different directory than that of the web server by providing a different value for P_REPORT_BASE, depending on context.
Finally, keep in mind that what might be seemingly different reports could be a parameterized report. JasperReports allows for custom styles, which makes possible to dynamically change the report appearance (e.g., text justification, fonts, emphasis, borders, and so forth). In the screenshot, the report title, for example, is changed with each of the several reports--but they all share the same Title Band because the report title is passed in as a String parameter.