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jasperreports is a free, open source business intelligence & reporting project written in Java and released under LGPL-3.0. It has 1,363 GitHub stars, 464 forks and 29 open issues, and was last pushed 14 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #23 of 34 tracked projects in Business Intelligence & Reporting, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 2 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is jasperreports?

What it is

JasperReports Library is an open-source Java reporting library distributed under the LGPL-3.0 license. It lives in the Java ecosystem and the business intelligence and reporting category. It provides a reporting engine that consumes data from various data sources and produces formatted documents for viewing, printing, or export.

The project solves the problem of generating structured reports inside Java applications by providing an embedded reporting engine. It supports templates written as XML files and can render output in formats such as HTML, PDF, Excel, OpenOffice, and MS Word. Version 7 refactors the library into optional JAR artifacts to improve dependency management and support the Jakarta migration.

Key capabilities

  • The library generates reports from Java applications using XML report templates and compiled report files.
  • It exports rendered documents to HTML, PDF, Excel, OpenOffice, and MS Word formats.
  • It consumes data from any kind of data source described in the README.
  • It loads source report templates and style templates through Jackson XML object serialization in version 7.
  • It separates optional functionality into extension JAR artifacts to improve dependency management.
  • It renders charts through JFreeChart 1.5.4, although 3D chart effects are ignored and rendered as 2D.
  • It works with Jaspersoft Studio, an Eclipse-based report designer for editing report templates and style templates.

Who uses it and how

  • Java developers embed the library in applications that need to produce printable or exportable reports from application data.
  • Report designers create or modify jrxml report templates and jrtx style templates using Jaspersoft Studio before deploying them to the library.
  • Teams upgrading to JasperReports Library 7 recompile older report templates and convert old file formats with Jaspersoft Studio 7 or later.
  • Applications that use 3D charts from earlier JFreeChart-based reports may continue to run, but the charts render as 2D in version 7.
  • Projects can deploy reports to a JasperReports Server instance, as mentioned in the README.

Getting started

The README points to the community edition downloads page and states that version 7 replaced the Ant build system with Maven. It does not mention Docker images, package-manager installation, or a hosted option.

When to use it — and when not to

Use JasperReports Library when a Java application needs an embedded reporting engine for template-driven documents exported to common office and web formats. Avoid it when existing jrxml, jrtx, or compiled jasper templates cannot be recompiled or converted, because version 7 breaks backward compatibility for those files. Also avoid it when 3D chart rendering is required, because the upgraded JFreeChart dependency renders 3D charts as 2D.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

[!IMPORTANT] JasperReports Library 7 released!

The version 7 of the JasperReports Library introduces major refactoring of the project, which is needed for the Jakarta Migration. The changes help improving the dependency management by splitting the library into multiple optional artifacts (*.jar files) depending on the functionality they provide. Deprecated code has been removed and the backward compatibility of serialized/compiled *.jasper report template files has been deliberately broken.

More details about the changes can be found here.

JasperReports Library 7.0.0 Change Log

  • removal of the Ant build system and replacing it with a Maven build system;
  • deprecated code removed;
  • breaking backward compatibility of serialized/compiled *.jasper report template files, mostly because of historical deprecated serialization code removal/cleanup mentioned above (source *.jrxml report templates need to be recompiled to *.jasper using the new version of the library);
  • breaking backward compatibility of source *.jrxml report template files and *.jrtx style template files by replacing the Apache Commons Digester based parsers with Jackson XML object serialization. *.jrxml and *.jrtx files created with version 6 or older can no longer be loaded with version 7 or newer of the library alone. The conversion from the old file formats to the new file formats and back can be made using Jaspersoft Studio 7 and later versions of it;
  • extracting various optional extension JAR artifacts from the the core library JAR artifact to allow the Jakarta Migration of certain of these optional features while also introducing better third party Maven dependency management of these artifacts;
  • some Java package names have changed as a consequence of separating functionality into optional JAR artifacts;
  • upgraded JFreeChart to version 1.5.4 which no longer has support for 3D charts. Reports having Pie 3D, Bar 3D and Stacked Bar 3D charts would continue to work, but will be rendered as 2D, all their 3D effects being ignored;

JasperReports® - Free Java Reporting Library

The JasperReports Library is the world's most popular open source reporting engine. It is entirely written in Java and it is able to use data coming from any kind of data source and produce pixel-perfect documents that can be viewed, printed or exported in a variety of document formats including HTML, PDF, Excel, OpenOffice, MS Word and other.

Documentation:

Older resources:



Jaspersoft® Studio - report designer for the JasperReports Library

The report templates for the JasperReports Library are XML files which can be edited using a powerful, free to use, Eclipse-based report designer called Jaspersoft Studio. Using Jaspersoft Studio, reports can be built out of any data source and can have their look and feel formatted for printing or on-screen reading, or can be deployed to a JasperReports Server instance, JasperReports IO repository or to a custom application using the JasperReports Library implementation and exported to a wide range of output document formats.

JasperReports Server - reporting and analytics server

JasperReports Server is a stand-alone and embeddable reporting server. It provides reporting and analytics that can be embedded into a web or mobile application as well as operate as a central information hub for the enterprise by delivering mission critical information on a real-time or scheduled basis to the browser, mobile device, or email inbox in a variety of file formats. JasperReports Server is optimized to share, secure, and centrally manage your Jaspersoft reports and analytic views.

JasperReports Web Studio - web-based version of the desktop Jaspersoft® Studio

JasperReports Web Studio is a new web visual designer that creates and edits report templates for the JasperReports® Library reporting engine and the whole Jaspersoft® family of products that use the open-source library to produce dynamic content and rich data visualizations.

JasperReports IO - reporting and data visualization in a world of cloud, microservices, and DevOps

JasperReports IO is a RESTful reporting and data visualization service built on JasperReports Library, designed for generating reports and data visualizations in modern software architectures. Just as the JasperReports Library offers a Java API to leverage a powerful and high quality reporting engine inside Java applications, JasperReports IO offers a REST API to leverage the same reporting engine from any other software development platform.

Building the JasperReports Library Project

The JasperReports Library project consists of one core JAR artifact and a number for optional extension JAR artifacts.

The build system relies entirely on the Maven build tool.

Building the core JAR artifact and the optional extension JAR artifacts can be performed from root folder of the project using the following command:

mvn clean install source:jar javadoc:jar

Building the core and extensions JAR artifacts having local non-committed Git modifications requires the suppression of the build number plugin check as follows:

mvn clean install -Dmaven.buildNumber.doCheck=false

From time to time, verifying that the core and extensions artifacts are still compatible with JDK version 1.8 is needed and this is done by turning on the enforcer plugin while building these artifacts:

mvn clean install -Denforcer.skip=false -pl '!ext/ejbql, !ext/hibernate, !ext/servlets'

The project has a separate artifact for tests under the /tests, which can be run using the following command:

mvn clean test

The project documentation consists of general overview, configuration reference, samples reference, functions reference and the aggregated Javadoc. It can be all generated using the following command in the /docs folder of the project:

mvn clean compile

The generated documentation is to be found under the /docs/target/docs folder of the project.

Running the samples

The project shows and documents many of its features using a set of samples which are themselves Maven projects that can be run from command line. Some of these samples make use of a demo HSQLDB data base that needs to be started before the respective reports are run.

Starting the HSQLDB demo database containing demo data is done using the following command in the /demo/hsqldb folder of the project:

mvn exec:java

The samples are each in a separate subfolder in the /demo/samples folder of the project and can be run either individually or all at once. To run an individual sample, the following command should be run in the respective sample folder:

mvn clean compile exec:java

This exec:java Maven goal is calling the test() method of the sample application main class. Calling individual methods from the sample application main class can be performed using a command like the following:

mvn exec:java -Dexec.args=pdf

which calls the pdf() method of the sample application main class to export the reports to PDF. Multiple methods can be called in sequence like this:

mvn exec:java -Dexec.args="pdf xls"

Viewing the source JRXML report design is done using the following command:

mvn exec:java@viewDesign

The compiled *.jasper report template file can also be viewed using something like:

mvn exec:java@viewDesign -Dexec.args=target/repor

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is jasperreports free to use?

jasperreports is open source under the LGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does jasperreports do?

JasperReports® - Free Java Reporting Library

What is jasperreports written in?

jasperreports is primarily written in Java. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/Jaspersoft/jasperreports, and it has 1,363 GitHub stars.