I'm looking at embedding JasperReports into an existing web app for reporting. The webapp sits on top of an existing database which is ancient and complex, and really not suitable for report writers to use to write reports against directly.
What I want to look at is writing some kind of wrapper around our existing data access layer (written to make our life easier talking to aforementioned ancient and complex db). Does anyone have any experience of writing custom data sources for JasperResports, or of doing anything like this?
Updated
I guess I probably wasn't clear in my question - which is probably because my requirements aren't clear either. I want to provide some way that the end-users can use something like iReport to author reports against the database, and then to use JasperReportServer for scheduling/viewing of the reports. However, the database is really, really nasty and was never designed for use in this way. We've got a access layer around it that the webapp uses to talk to it. I want to keep my end users away from the DB altogether, and the idea of a custom data source that used the access layer seemed a good option. However, I've found very little documentation on how to do that. Maybe it's just a whole lot easier than I think it is, and I'm just trying to make a dead simple thing too complicated.
Updated
Thanks for the answers. I don't think my problem has been solved, but I think the answers have helped to inform the requirements phase.
Jasper reports allows you to use a "JavaBean" data source. You can load your data into any Java Bean structure and build the reports against that. Works well.
See the "Custom Data Source" section here.
Every JasperReports template can have two different data sources. One is hooking it directly to a database using some jdbc driver or, in your case, providing a collection of java beans (POJO's), usually list.
JasperReports template is similar to a method definition. It has a name, i.e. compiled JR object and parameters (data source and a list of input parameters of some of the most popular Java types).
My suggestion is to use iReport tool. Open some example that comes with the JasperReports bundle, analyze it and tweak it. It's not so complicated.
UPDATE
Letting customers authoring JasperReports templates, compiling and adding to the classpath means that you'll need to open your system too much. Usually clients provide description of a desired report and developer(s) create the data source and design the template. JasperReports can have parameters. If these parameters are exposed through UI users can change the behavior of reports in the runtime.
If you really need to allow more flexibility then use the API provided by JasperReports for authoring templates. I could imagine some simple DLS for advanced users to communicate with your system creating on-fly reports.
Related
I have been asked by a client to assist in making the web frontends of number of Lotus / IBM Notes databases, used for critical LOB functions, compatible with modern browsers.
As it stands, the web frontends of these databases only work in IE7, and even then they're temperamental at best. The JS uses IE-specific extensions, everything is in tables, and they render poorly on pretty much every browser available today. With IE7 no longer in support, they want to modernise these interfaces.
I have very little experience with Notes, but as an exploratory exercise I've managed to open up the databases in Domino Designer, add a few Stylesheet / Script resources, include them in the $$HTMLHead variable and reworked one Form to use a frontend framework, which looks good.
Obviously working on live applications is out of the question, so my thinking is to take a copy of the NSF files, and make the changes on the copies. My question is: how can I then deploy only the form / subform / resource changes to the 'live' NSF files?
Deployment:
In your new modified database :
You define in the Database properties that is a Database file is a master template (give a name)
In the production database :
first do a backup ! copy (only design) to a new copy of the prod
You define in the Database properties that it inherits from master template (same name)
on the prod make refresh design
more details : https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSVRGU_9.0.1/com.ibm.designer.domino.main.doc/H_ABOUT_REFRESHING_A_DESIGN.html
Sorry to state the obvious, but since you have a Notes client and a Domino server, you have a quite extensive documentation at your disposal in the form of databases located in the /help/ directory. Make sure they are full-text-indexed.
And since we are on the subject of templates, Domino comes with a host of ready-made, ready-to-use apps that you can customize and canibalize. Look for discussion9.ntf for starters.
You may want to start here, then go there, and finally that will give you the keys to build word-class web apps on Domino.
Last thing, if you are on V9, the Designer help is crap. Grap a copy of the 8.5 version. Seriously.
If you want to build a modern web based front-end to existing Domino data, take a look at the following presentations:
http://www.slideshare.net/TexasSwede/ad102-break-out-of-the-box
and
http://www.slideshare.net/TexasSwede/break-out-of-the-box-part-2
As others already said, you should create a template and then just refresh/replace the design of the production database using that template.
You may want to consider working with an experienced Notes/Domino developer for that project, there are quite a few caveats and workarounds you need to know know about...
I am working on a web application for a client that uses a postgresql database. I want the client to be able to go to a certain area of the site where the data from the database is displayed in graph form (for example, sales figures over a 6 month period). Is there a plugin I could use for this (I don't have any experience of this, so an easy one, or one with tutorials available would be great). I had a look at BIRT, which says it has a web based option but I couldn't really figure it out. I don't want the client to have to download and go through another program, I just want them to go to a url within their site, and it's all just presented to them there and then.
Any sort of pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
HighCharts, at http://www.highcharts.com/, works well for this case -- I use it fairly often. It supports Ajax data feeds in JSON format, so you can write an endpoint which returns the JSON representing the data from Postgres and which gets called from a JavaScript function which creates the graphs using that data (you would place that call in a ready function).
Also, if you're using Postgres 9.3 or higher, it supports JSON natively, so you can do the JSON conversion in the SQL query itself, as opposed to post-processing the results in your Python or other backend code.
Highcharts is reasonably flexible and allows for a variety of nice-looking, functional charts and graphs. If you want to get much fanicer, d3 may be worth a look. These are some the types of graphs/charts it can do: https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery
I have not used d3 myself, however.
For the scenario you described above, Highcharts seems like it would work just fine.
It's been a while, and a lot has happened since 2016. There is now ChartJS as well - http://chartjs.org/, for example, which is easier to use than HighCharts and very flexible (I've used both).
What they both don't do is dynamic data. If you want that your client decides which data he wants to watch - that part you need to write yourself.
I'm using version 8.0.858 of Enterprise Architect and I am hoping someone knows how to make an external requirement internal again.
I have searched thru the EA user guide, and this tells me how to make an internal requirement external, but is silent on how to reverse the process.
I have hundreds of requirements linked to Use Cases where the requirement is marked as external, but they shouldn't be as they each only relate to one Use Case.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about
This makes it difficult to get an overview of what the Use Case requires because when you click on an external requirement, the description does not show up in the textbox, and you have to double-click it to open in a separate window.
My only thought is to hack the database in Access, but I'd rather not if there is any UI functionality. That said, if you have know how to edit the database directly to achieve my goal, then that would be a valid solution too.
To my knowledge this isn't possible, for the reason #observer notes. External requirements are model elements in their own right and thus have far more information associated with them than internal requirements do.
External requirements (and other model elements) are stored in the t_objects table, while internal requirements are in t_objectrequires. Connectors are in t_connector.
I'd advise against trying to hack the database directly. Use the automation interface instead (it can be accessed from an in-EA script); look at the Element and ElementRequirement classes.
I am new to JasperReports, I need a few heads up before going forward with my development. My colleagues told me they are able to generate a basic report, but they are stuck with what approach should be used.
I was told we could:
write the queries in each report
run the queries outside the report, and pass it to the report as a
datasource
Which approach is preferable? Does passing the datasource have any performance hits compared to passing the bean? Also would like to know does first approach run in a different jvm?
Current Project Architecture
Struts 2 - Spring 2.5 - Spring JDBC
If you and your team are just starting out with JasperReports I would recommend embedding the SQL query into each report. It makes building the reports in iReport much easier, since you can constantly preview your report with live data while working on it.
As far as performance, I do not think it really is not going to matter in the most basic of examples. If it is just a SQL query then no matter what scenario you use it is going to be using JDBC with the connection you give it. So I would ignore performance for now.
With that said, if you already have the data (i.e you have displayed on a screen and you want to allow the users to then export it to PDF or whatever), you could simply pass it in as a datasource and not take the performance hit of running the query again.
Another scenario you may want to use your own datasource is if you wanted to manipulate the data before it was exported in the report. Maybe some crazy sort that you could not pull off in SQL or something.
As far as your last question, it should all run in the same JVM (at least from my understanding).
I'm researching Umbraco for use as a base in a large CMS project, however the project calls for the SQL Server 2008 database to store spatial data against content.
Being new to Umbraco I'm still reading through the documentation and slowly building up an idea of it's architecture. However so far it doesn't look like Umbraco supports the storage of spatial data.
There only appears to be four database datatype options: date, integer, ntext, nvarchar
Is it possible to store spatial data to the database?
Update: Futher research into how Umbraco works has showed me I was on the wrong track. It seems the way to do this is store the lat/long data in the data inside the usual XML format Umbraco uses.
Then to use the Spatial.net extensions that have been built on top of Lucene.net, rather than use the limited search capabilities Examine exposes.
However this is all still theoretical, I've just not been able to achieve this. If I do before someone answers this question, I'll post my findings here to help others.
You could take a look at how to make user controls (with Visual Studio) in Umbraco.
It is also possible the versatility in Umbraco 'Document Types' is enough for you.
It is possible to extend Umbraco in any sort of way to get the solution you want. I don't know how you want the spatial data to interact with your frontend - so it is difficult to provide a direct solution.
Although there are ways to store spatial data and perform queries against it using Spatial.net, it's not a very elegant solution.
Instead I've created an additional table in SQL Server 2008 with the geometry/geography datatype and a reference to the Umbraco content it's connected with.
I've then got a event hook which updates this whether content is added/updated/deleted.