Teodor Danciu, Founder of JasperReports

JasperReports Tips & Tricks

1

Agenda

� Font Extensions

� Data-Centric Excel Output

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Don’t Forget to Package Your FontsDon’t Forget to Package Your Fonts

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Font Related Issues

� Font metrics are important in report layout� Stretch-with-overflow text fields

� Fonts are not readily available on target platforms� Arial exists only on Windows

� Fonts are required resources in pixel-perfect reports� Think of a font just like you think of a logo on the report� Think of a font just like you think of a logo on the report

� Some document formats can embed fonts� PDF

� Fonts support a limited set of languages� Need different TTF files for CKJ languages

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Font Usage in JasperReports

� JasperReports uses AWT for rendering and layout calculation during report filling

� AWT uses java.awt.Font instances

� Java Logical Fonts: SansSerif, Serif, Monospaced, Dialog, DialogInput

� Physical Fonts (System): Arial, Comic Sans MS, Tahoma, etc

� Dynamically Loaded Fonts (TTF): Font.createFont()� Dynamically Loaded Fonts (TTF): Font.createFont()

� PDF uses com.itextpdf.text.Font instances

� 14 Built-in Fonts: Helvetica, Helvetica-Oblique, Helvetica-Bold, Times-

Roman, Time-Bold, Courier, etc

� Embedded Fonts

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Deprecated Font Usage Techniques

� Missing fonts silently ignored

� PDF font related attributes� pdfFontName, pdfEncoding, isPdfEmbedded

� FONT_MAP exporter parameter

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Font Extensions

� A way to package up fonts together with your reports

� Font extensions add to the list of available fonts

� Simplifies font usage

� Contains exporter related mappings

� Built-in internationalization support� Built-in internationalization support

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

New Font Usage Techniques

� Only fontName, isBold and isItalic attributes

matter

� Missing font raises exception

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Font Extension Example

jasperreports_extension.properties

...net.sf.jasperreports.extension.registry.factory.simple.font.families

=net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fonts.SimpleFontExtensionsRegistryFactory

net.sf.jasperreports.extension.simple.font.families.dejavu

=net/sf/jasperreports/fonts/fonts.xml

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

=net/sf/jasperreports/fonts/fonts.xml

...

Font Extension Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<fontFamilies>

<fontFamily name="DejaVu Sans">

...

</fontFamily>

<fontFamily name="DejaVu Serif">

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<fontFamily name="DejaVu Serif">

...

</fontFamily>

<fontFamily name="DejaVu Sans Mono">

...

</fontFamily>

...

</fontFamilies>

Font Extension Example

<fontFamily name="DejaVu Sans">

<normal>fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf</normal>

<bold>fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf</bold>

<italic>fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf</italic>

<boldItalic>fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf</boldItalic>

<pdfEncoding>Identity-H</pdfEncoding>

<pdfEmbedded>true</pdfEmbedded>

<exportFonts>

<export key="net.sf.jasperreports.html">'DejaVu Sans', Arial,

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

<export key="net.sf.jasperreports.html">'DejaVu Sans', Arial,

Helvetica, sans-serif</export>

<export key="net.sf.jasperreports.xhtml">'DejaVu Sans', Arial,

Helvetica, sans-serif</export>

</exportFonts>

<!--

<locales>

<locale>en_US</locale>

<locale>de_DE</locale>

</locales>

-->

</fontFamily>

Demonstration

� iReport Font Extension Wizard� Install New Fonts

� Export Fonts in JAR

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Data-Centric Excel OutputData-Centric Excel Output

©2011 Jaspersoft Corporation. Proprietary and Confidential13

Free Form vs Grid-based Document

Formats

� Free Form / Absolute Positioned Exporters� AWT, PDF, RTF, PPTX, XHTML/CSS

� Grid-based Exporters� HTML, XLS, XLSX, DOCX, ODT, ODS

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

a) Inefficient Layout b) Grid-friendly Layout

Excel Exporters Configuration

� Preserve Cell Value Type� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.detect.cell.type

� Ignore Graphics� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.ignore.graphics

� Ignore Cell Formatting� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.white.page.background

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.ignore.cell.background

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.ignore.cell.border

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Excel Exporters Configuration

� Ignore Pagination� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.one.page.per.sheet

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.{format}.exclude.origin.{suffix}.{arbitrary_na

me}

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.{format}.exclude.origin.keep.first.{suffix}.{ar

bitrary_name}

� Remove Empty Cell Used for Spacing� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.remove.empty.space.between.columns

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.remove.empty.space.between.rows

� net.sf.jasperreports.export.xls.collapse.row.span

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Demonstration

� Data-centric Excel Output� Set configuration properties

� See the effects

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Conclusions

� Think of fonts as a required resource that go with your report templates

� Exporters are highly customizable/configurable features

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Resources

� More information about these and other features of JasperReports library can be found at:

http://www.jasperforge.org/jasperreports

©2011 Jaspersoft Corp. All rights reserved.

Questions

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Thank You and

Good Luck!