[Webwork-devel] Re[4]: Jasper Reports

[Peter K. <pe...@mo...>]

Just an update on how the Jasper Reports stuff is coming:

It proved easier and better architecturally to implement nested
iterators as sub reports in jasper. This now better maps to the
iterator structure that is used in the JSP pages. I have a skeleton
implementation working and Maurice is looking at it before committing
to CVS.

I am now looking at the compilation and caching of report definitions
and I have a question: Would it be a big pain if you had to compile
your reports beforehand rather than having the servlet do it for you ?
The reason I ask is that it will be a real pain figuring out which sub
reports to compile for a given master report and the compilation takes
a long time anyway. On top of this the report compiler doesn't use a
custom classloader and so you need the jasper reports jar files in the
system classpath of your application server. Will the loss of dynamic
report compilation seriously inconvenience anyone ?

Monday, July 15, 2002, 2:28:55 PM, Maurice Parker wrote:

MP> Peter,

MP> Let's move this back to webwork-dev since we're beginning to discuss the 
MP> implementation. I've left the full history tacked on so others can catch 
MP> up.

MP> On Sunday, July 14, 2002, at 10:27  PM, Peter Kelley wrote:

>> Maurice,
>>
>> I have official sanction to work on this as part of my day job and
>> contribute back to WW (we use a lot of open source here) so I should
>> be able to make some good progress over the next few days.

MP> We should all have such jobs.  :-)

>> What were you thinking of in terms of getting values from actions for
>> the report ? One idea I had was to use the expression language in the
>> field name. The other idea I'm toying around with is how to do the
>> equivalent of JSP webwork:iterator tags, either sub reports or by
>> writing some smarts in the data source to denormalise the structure
>> automatically. By the latter I mean that the structure:
>>
>> foo
>>   bar1
>>     foobar1
>>     foobar2
>>   bar2
>>     foobar3
>>     foobar4
>>     foobar5
>>   bar3
>>    foobar6
>>    foobar7
>>
>> would come out looking something like this to the iterator:
>>
>> foo bar1 foobar1
>> foo bar1 foobar2
>> foo bar2 foobar3
>> foo bar2 foobar4
>> foo bar2 foobar5
>> foo bar3 foobar6
>> foo bar3 foobar7
>>
>> This of course leaves the question how would you decide which
>> properties to iterate over and how many levels down to go.
>>
>> What do you think ?

MP> It's interesting.  I'll think more about it tomorrow.

>> I might have a go at putting some code together this afternoon (I'm in
>> Australia by the way) and see what I come up with for a data source.
>> Iterators may take a little longer.

MP> Take a look at what I just put into CVS and see what you think.  It's 
MP> rough still, but at least you can see where my thought process is heading.

MP> One thing that will be a high priority soon will be caching the compiled 
MP> JasperReports for performance reasons.  (or we force people to precompile 
MP> before deploying which isn't convenient).

MP> It's late here and I'm going out for a night cap.  Have fun at work.  If I 
MP> code while you sleep and you code while I sleep this will get done in no 
MP> time.

MP> -Maurice

MP> P.S.  Mike, I'll take the beer instead of that man-love you offered me.  :
MP> -)


>>
>> Monday, July 15, 2002, 12:50:13 PM, you wrote:
>>
>> MP> Peter,
>>
>> MP> My day job has kept me very busy, but I started doing some Jasper/WW
>> MP> integration yesterday.  I have a servlet that generates an empty PDF 
>> as a
>> MP> view from Jasper right now and am in the process of creating a Jasper
>> MP> datasource that uses the WW value stack.
>>
>> MP> I hope to do an initial commit sometime tomorrow.  That will give us 
>> a
>> MP> base to work from if you're interested in working together on it.
>>
>> MP> BTW, we used Jasper on my current project by putting the Jasper code 
>> in WW
>> MP> Actions and wrote the result out using a custom servlet as a view.  It
>> MP> works well and the customer is very happy with the result.  The fully
>> MP> integrated version I'm working on should be much easier to use and 
>> more
>> MP> powerful.
>>
>> MP> I love your sig line.  My personal favorite is:
>>
>> MP> A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is 
>> nothing
>> MP> more to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
>> MP>                         -Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>>
>>
>> MP> -Maurice
>>
>>
>> MP> On Sunday, July 14, 2002, at 08:01  PM, Peter Kelley wrote:
>>
>>>> Maurice,
>>>>
>>>> I notice that there is an issue assigned to you to integrate WebWork
>>>> with JasperReports. I was wondering how far you had progressed in
>>>> doing this and whether you could use some help ? We have a need to do
>>>> this for our current project and so I have some time available to get
>>>> this going.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> regards,
>>>> Peter Kelley
>>>>
>>>> MoveIt Pty Ltd
>>>> mailto:pe...@mo...
>>>> +61-2-9986-3510
>>>>
>>>> "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to
>>>> gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead,
>>>> teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
>>>> - Saint-Exupery
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> regards,
>> Peter Kelley
>>
>> MoveIt Pty Ltd
>> mailto:pe...@mo...
>> +61-2-9986-3510
>>
>> "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to
>> gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead,
>> teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
>> - Saint-Exupery
>>
>>


-- 

regards,
Peter Kelley

MoveIt Pty Ltd    

You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have
nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. -
Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery