Pentaho Reporting 3.5 for Java Developers

Pentaho Reporting 3.5 for Java Developers

Pentaho Reporting lets you create, generate, and distribute rich and sophisticated report content from different data sources. Knowing how to use it quickly and efficiently gives you the edge in producing reports from your database. If you have been looking for a book that has plenty of easy-to-understand instructions and also contains lots of examples and screenshots, this is where your search ends.

This book shows you how to replace or build your enterprise reporting solution from scratch with Pentaho's Reporting Suite. Through detailed examples, it dives deeply into all aspects of Pentaho's reporting functionalities, providing you with the knowledge you need to master report creation.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1—An Introduction to Pentaho Reporting provides a quick overview of Pentaho Reporting, including a feature summary and architectural summary, as well as a history of the product.

Chapter 2—Pentaho Reporting Client and Enterprise Examples tells how to install and create reports, and how to embed reports in your J2EE and client Java applications.

Chapter 3— Pentaho Reporting Examples in the Real World tells how to connect to a JDBC data source and create realistic inventory, balance, and invoice reports, including charts and sub-reports.

Chapter 4—Design and Layout in Pentaho's Report Designer takes a deep dive into Pentaho's Report Designer, learning how to create great-looking reports.

Chapter 5—Working with Data Sources teaches the various ways to connect your report to live data, including JDBC, Hibernate, Java Beans, OLAP, and many other data sources.

Chapter 6—Including Charts and Graphics in Reports is about incorporating Pie, Bar, Line, and many other chart types in your reports, as well as including dynamic images in your report.

Chapter 7—Parameterization, Functions, Formulas, and Internationalization in Reports defines parameters for dynamic report generation. It helps you write formulas and use available functions for rich summary and calculated values in your reports, along with dynamically adjusting colors and styles using expressions in your report.

Chapter 8—Adding Sub-Reports and Cross Tabs to Reports gives an overview of how to build reports that include side-by-side sub-reports and cross tabs.

Chapter 9—Building Interactive Reports teaches how to add dynamic interaction to HTML and Swing reports, for immediate feedback and dashboard-like functionality.

Chapter 10—API-based Report Generation is about building reports from XML and by using Pentaho Reporting's Java Bean API.

Chapter 11—Extending Pentaho Reporting teaches how to write custom functions and elements within Pentaho Reporting.

Chapter 12—Additional Pentaho Reporting Topics discovers how to use Pentaho Reporting with the Pentaho BI Server, including Pentaho Metadata. It aids in learning more about Pentaho Reporting's open source approach, and how you can contribute to the free software movement.

Including Charts and Graphics in Reports

In this chapter, you'll learn how to incorporate charts and graphics into Pentaho Reports. You'll learn about the different types of charts supported, and how to configure them in Pentaho Report Designer. You'll also learn how to populate a chart with various types of data.

In addition to learning all about charts, this chapter also covers the various methods for including visual information in your report, including embedding images and Java graphics in your report.

Supported charts

Pentaho Reporting relies on JFreeChart, an open source Java chart library, for charting visualization within reports. From within Report Designer, many chart types are supported. In the chart editor, two areas of properties appear when editing a chart. The first area of properties is related to chart rendering, and the second tabbed area of properties is related to the data that populates a chart.

Following is the screenshot of the chart editor within Pentaho Report Designer:

All chart types receive their data from three general types of datasets. The first type is known as a Category Dataset , where the dataset series and values are grouped by categories. A series is like a sub-group. If the exact category and series appear, the chart will sum the values into a single result. The following table is a simple example of a category dataset:

Pentaho Reporting builds a Category Dataset using the CategorySetDataCollector. Also available is the PivotCategorySetCollector, which pivots the category and series data. Collector classes implement Pentaho Reporting’s Function API.

The second type of dataset is known as an XY Series Dataset, which is a two dimensional group of values that may be plotted in various forms. In this dataset, the series may be used to draw different lines, and so on. Here is a simple example of an XY series dataset:

Note that X is often referred to as the domain, and Y is referred to as the range. Pentaho Reporting builds an XY Series Dataset using the XYSeriesCollector. The XYZSeriesCollector also exists for three dimensional data.

The third type of dataset is known as a Time Series Dataset , which is a two dimensional group of values that are plotted based on a time and date. The Time Series Dataset is more like an XY Series than a Category Dataset, as the time scale is displayed in a linear fashion with appropriate distances between the different time references.

Pentaho Reporting builds a Time Series Dataset using the TimeSeriesCollector.

Common chart rendering properties

Most charts share a common set of properties. The following properties are common across most charts. Any exceptions are mentioned as part of the specific chart type.

Common category series rendering properties

The following properties appear in charts that render category information:

Common XY series rendering properties

The following properties appear in charts that render XY series information.