🚀 go-pugleaf

Xtian wrote:

> Hi, I'm trying to find a way to include reports in my project. I could see
> that there are some utilities like JReport but they are expensive and I
> don't know if they are good enought.
> 
> Can anyone help me find the right tool for report writing or if there is any
> way I can generate state of the art reports in Java.

The unavoidable fact is that reporting tools are 
expensive.  You have to evaluate each one of them
by comparing their features against your needs.  
Many of them have evaluation copies which you
may download and work with for a limited amount
of time.  One good source of references might
be the reporting tools category of the Java 
Developer's Journal's "Reader's Choice Awards".

Start here and look for the reporting tools category
link:

  http://www.sys-con.com/java/readerschoice2001/


One alternative to commercial reporting tools, would
be to cobble something together with Apache Cocoon
and FOP (start at http://xml.apache.org/ and find the
Cocoon and FOP sites).  However, with such a system
you would have no visual report designer.  Instead, 
you would have to write the XML, the database queries, 
etc., to obtain each report.  Once you had the report
in XML and you had created the XSL:FO styles document, 
you would just crank it through Cocoon.  This approach
would not be amenable to having casual users around
the office creating reports of their own.  Instead, 
a programmer who knew the reporting system from top
to bottom would have to design each report.

But, depending upon your needs, such an approach could
work, and it wouldn't cost you anything but the programmer's
time.  (Still costly.)

 
Paul Furbacher (TeamB)
 - Please send responses to newsgroups only.  Thank you.