Creating reports using JasperReports

Introduction

iDempiere includes the Jaspersoft reporting software library as standard to produce reports in a simple format from many Windows, such as Business Partner Details, Bank/Cash, and so on.

You can also use the embedded JasperReports engine to generate reports in your own customized format.

Standard Reporting

Ready-made reports

Many iDempiere Windows include standard, ready-made tabular reports that can be generated from the Report button on the Toolbar (or type Alt-R). Some Windows, for example Invoices (Customer), also have a Print button (Alt-P) that produces a formatted page.

By default the standard report format includes features like:

• Zoom across to related documents (e.g. zoom to a Business Partner from the report);
• Drill down using hyperlinks in HTML reports;
• Export to HTML, PDF, and Excel.

You can see the full list of ready-made reports by logging in as System/System role, then select Report&Process and execute an advanced query with the filter Report=Yes to select the reports.

Use these ready-made reports as a guide to create your own.

Customise a report

You can customise these reports and prints using the Toolbox icon from the print-preview window to change:

• Add and remove columns;
• Page format and orientation: A4 Landscape for example;
• Font: serif or sans serif;
• Display order of the items on the page;
• Sort order of the rows or pages;
• Format of the columns: alignment, width, colour, and so on.

Once you have made your changes, save the new print format and re-create the print-out.

Report Wizard

iDempiere also provides a Report Wizard using the Wizard icon which provides more functionality, in particular:

• Grouping criteria: group by date or by customer, for example;
• Summary Fields: provides aggregate functions like sum, count, minimum, maximum, mean, variance, and standard deviation;
• Copy print format: make a copy of the standard format of the ready-made reports and then changing the format to suit your requirements, leaving the original print format intact.

Create new reports

You can also create your own reports using a Report View of a database table, or by creating a more complex database view using SQL. Follow the guidelines here.

Customised reporting

If you want the freedom to create any kind of report, with different layouts, fonts, colours and logos, especially for documents that are external such as customer invoices or statements, you can create reports using JasperSoft Studio and integrate them into iDempiere. See this video by Evenos about using JasperSoft Studio.

There is a shorter, word-less video here.

There is also a video by Red1 demonstrating a powerful plug-in by Niemcor, with ready made sample reports, that uses OSGi to install the plugin without restarting the server.

See Also

• Making fonts available to your JasperReports
• Making resources such as images and language files available to your JasperReports
• Multi-Lingual Jasper
• Link to historical Compiere documentation on JasperReports
• Another link to historical Compiere documentation about Financial Reports