Featurestop for current version and call for feedback

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

JFreeReport ante portas

the next release of JFreeReport is now almost done. Until the next version is officially released I will not add any new features to JFR.

During the next 2 weeks we will update the documentation and testcases get defined, to guarantee a stable and reliable version of JFreeReport.

You could make a simple developer very happy, when you just download the current version from the cvs and test this version a little bit. And when you are looking at this package, just tell me what you are missing, what features would you like to see included?
What is good, what is not so good?

I also have almost no clue where you are using this lib:
Client or server sided?
In a servlet environment?
And how do you use this lib? Do you just let the parser do it's job, or do you modify the result? Or do you ignore the parser and create the complete report manually?
How do you feed you data in? Do you use DefaultTableModels or do you create custom models? Where does the data originate and how much calculation is involved to form the fed in datamodel?
Do you use functions? Which ones? Aggregate functions or more complex functions?

To make it harder for you to resist the cvs, let's list the new features
The upcoming version will include the following features:

- PDF truetype printing with font embedding.
- PDF unicode support
- Rectangle-Shapes
- a better structured parser for easier extendability
- a possibility to access elements within a band.
- shapes can be filled with an color
- Stackable data filter interface to easily convert data types
- ReportState now does a prepare run before printing the report allowing for instance the printing of total pages per report
- preview frame got improved (number of pages is shown)
- printing improved a bit (Number of pages in the print dialog)
- relative element bounds (using percents instead of absolute positions, for instance use x="50%" for the center of the band)
- all text elements are linebreak capable (so no more manual linebreaks in the report definition needed)


Tasks that are marked for the next release are visible via sourceforge.
And as said: If you miss something or have an idea and/or contribution, just shout out lout. It is your feedback that will make JFR strong!

Have more fun,
said Thomas

[Anonymous]

Some new features we are looking for are...

1. the ability to save the report template which we manually created into XML file.
2. the ability to scroll through each page without using the prev/next buttons on the preview frame.
3. the ability to save the report into CSV or Excel file format.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
thanks for your answer:

1. got the task id 55057 in the JFreeReport usablity subproject. Please don't take the given date serious, I simply states that the task will be started after the next release is out.

2. After the wmf writing support is done, the print preview pane gets modified to use this vector format as internal datastorage. Currently there is no chance to keep multiple pages in full resolution in memory, the vector format will reduce the memory used to some kbyte instead of megabytes.
I filled in a task, in sourceforges JFreeReport Base subproject. (# 55058)

3. How should this data be displayed? Do you want a band per line? Can you describe the format, or if you have one, could you give a small example of the resulting output?

Have more fun,
said Thomas

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm using a cvs-snapshot of JFreeReport which is only 3-4 days old.
My test report resembles very much the 3rd example which is delivered with JFreeReport.
There are two problems which I'd like to tell you:

1. I put a gif-Image in my report which displays in the preview without any problems.
But the image is not saved to a pdf file when I create one from the preview window.

2. I'd like to adjust the page margins of the page but I didn't manage it.
I tried it with the width-attribute in the report-tag in the xml-file, but it had no effect.
I also tried to put a PageFormat-Object into the created JFreeReport-Object, but that had no effect, too.
The only way to change page margins was to use the page setup-dialog in the preview window.

Bye, Stefan

[Anonymous]

My two cents:

- View multiple pages in preview window, either scrolling or multiple page view.
- Without using page headers, the ability to repeat column headers for groups that span multiple pages.
- No argument PreviewFrame that can be reused for .rtf, .htm, etc...
- Save as .rtf, .xls, etc...

[Anonymous]

...continued

- Support for multiple data sources.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

multiple pages are on the way, repeating group headers for multiple pages is marked and will get its way into JFreeReport in one of the next versions.

The previewframe: The PDF-Save implementation will be removed from the previewFrame and will form an own object. The previewFrame will use this (and similiar objects for more-to-come outputTargets) in a more generic/plugin fashion.

If you want to reuse the preview frame for other programs, I have to admit, that this will be difficult. The previewFrame is heavily bound to the reportPane, and in its current state it wont work without the pane. But in general (and for future versions) it should be possible to remove all JFreeReport specific code and completly rely on the PrintableInterface.

Support for multiple datasources is marked and will be implemented in (hopefully) this or in the next version.

Have more fun,
said Thomas