Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Watermarks can be used for branding reports and for security purposes, since they
make it difficult to forge reports. All report pages have the same watermark, which
gives them a consistent look and feel.
Subreports
Another feature of JasperReports is that it allows us to create subreports, or reports
within reports. Subreports simplify report design significantly by allowing us
to extract complex report sections into a separate report, and incorporating that
separate report into a master report.
Exporting Capabilities
Reports generated with JasperReports can be exported to a number of formats,
including PDF (Portable Document Format), XLS (Excel), RTF (Rich Text Format,
a format readable and editable by most word processors, including, but certainly
not limited to, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice Writer, and
WordPerfect), HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup
Language), CSV (Comma-separated Values), and plain text. Exporting reports to these
formats is discussed in detail in Chapter 9. There is also a third-party library to export
JasperReports' reports to the
OpenDocument
Format
(ODF)
. The OpenDocument
Format is a standard XML-based file format specification for office applications
developed by the
Organization
for
the
Advancement
of
Structured
Information
Standards
(OASIS)
. OpenOffice.org version 2.0 uses ODF as its default format.
The JasperReports OpenDocument Format exporter was
developed in the summer of 2005, as a part of Google's
Summer of Code program. More information about the
JasperReports OpenDocument Format exporter can be
found at
http://netmoc.cpe.ucf.edu/Projects/
jasper.html
.
The screenshot overleaf demonstrates some of the features of JasperReports,
including data grouping, adding images and watermarks to a report, and exporting
to a PDF:
