New to JasperReport : Build your first impressive application (part 2)

So now, you’ve seen the 2 previous articles. And now, let’s move on the core of JasperReport and the integration of it to the desktop application. I guarantee you that you really need this article because you don’t want your application only capable to do just System.out.println(“Hello Everybody!”); do you?

Let’s get it on!

1. Building your report
You can see in the right panel, there’s a palette panel. If you can’t see it, go to Window -> Palette to activate palette panel. Drag a static text to the Title Section as follows :

Make it look like this

After that, insert column title into similar like this :

Note : You can add additional line, text, etc as you like.

2. Integrate it with Query
Click on the button with this icon :
You will see a query window. Type this query on the text area (note that this is SQL query, not Hibernate query, JPQL, etc.)

SELECT employee_id AS "E_ID", employee_name AS "E_NAME", salary AS "E_SALARY" FROM employees

Let’s analyze the code above. I’m sure that all of you must be familiar with this code. But one thing you have to know that, in JasperReport, ALIAS will be converted automatically into FIELDS. In this case, you have 3 aliases, E_ID, E_NAME, and E_SALARY. All of these will be converted into JasperReport FIELDS Variable, so that you can place these elements in this design.

Next, place these 3 elements into your design (Dont forget, put these in Details Section), just simply like this :

3. Testing your report
Click on preview button in the toolbar. If you work in the right way, you will see display like this :

The report works fine. Remember, whenever you clicked on Preview, the iReport will automatically compile the report from .jrxml into .jasper. The .jasper file is the generated object that you can use it and directly integrate it with the application.

Note : for iReport 3.7.0 user, you have to change the default language from Groovy to Java. Right click on your report name node in the left side, choose properties, and change the language from Groovy to Java.

Let’s move on to Netbeans.

4. Create a new Java Application Project and Insert JasperReport library
Create the java application first. Uncheck the Create Main Class option. After that, add JasperReport library and MySQL JDBC Driver to your project (Right click on the library node of your project, add new library)as follow :

Add New Library

Add JasperReport library & MySQL JDBC Driver on it. You will see like this once you get done :

Next, create 2 package in your Source Packages, 1 package to place your report, the other one to place your main application. Give it name :

Move your .jasper file into your report package.

Insert a main class into your application package.

5. Code your application

Open your main class, and insert this code to your class (i will explain it component per component) :

package id.hans.employee.application;

import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRException;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperPrint;
import net.sf.jasperreports.swing.JRViewer;

/**
 *
 * @author Hans Kristanto
 */
public class MainApplication {

    Connection conn = null;

    public void initConnection(){
       
        String HOST = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/DATABASE_NAME";
        String USERNAME = "YOUR_MYSQL_USERNAME";
        String PASSWORD = "YOUR_MYSQL_PASSWORD";
        try {
            Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }

        try {
            conn = DriverManager.getConnection(HOST, USERNAME, PASSWORD);
        } catch (SQLException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public void showReport(){
        
        //Path to your .jasper file in your package
        String reportName = "id/hans/employee/report/EmployeeReport.jasper";
        
        //Get a stream to read the file
        InputStream is = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(reportName);

        try {
	 //Fill the report with parameter, connection and the stream reader		
            JasperPrint jp = JasperFillManager.fillReport(is, null, conn);
	    
  	 //Viewer for JasperReport
            JRViewer jv = new JRViewer(jp);
	
	 //Insert viewer to a JFrame to make it showable
            JFrame jf = new JFrame();
            jf.getContentPane().add(jv);
            jf.validate();
            jf.setVisible(true);
            jf.setSize(new Dimension(800,600));
            jf.setLocation(300,100);
            jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        } catch (JRException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        MainApplication ma = new MainApplication();
        ma.initConnection();
        ma.showReport();
    }

}

If no problem occured, you will see display like this :

Your Report display. Cool isn't it?

Congratulations! you’ve created your first JasperReport application!

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