Background

“I am learning Java, and I find it really troublesome. Especially when I want to create a form, I have to write all the controls. So I ask all of you for help. Is there a Java web report development tool which can add control directly without writing so much boring code like Visual Basic 6.0?“

I read the post above in a famous Java forum. In a short time, many kind members gave their own answers to the question, and those various answers listed about 10 Java development tool including Eclipse. However, they didn’t really solve the problem.

Maybe you have the same question with the guy. Then, is there a Java development tool which can change the web application develop mode from Java’s B/S web application coding to C/S graphical programming mode like VB?

What about Eclipse? Programmers familiar with it know that it isn’t a good interface design tool. Combined with development modes of various Java web application frameworks, it provides developers flexibility. However, it also increases programming complexity.

For example, there is development project to make a Business MIS (Management Information System) based on webapps and database with Java, and most Web pages are used to do addition, cancellation, amendment, inquiry to database.

According to a common MIS project, it needs a great number of people to work on the project. Artists will design the html interfaces of all pages, and system architects will choose various architectures (struts, spring, habernate, etc.) to build application programs’ basic frameworks, and engineers familiar with Java performance optimization will build underlying performance controls.

Even if we have enough budgets and time to do such a mass of work above, programmers will take a lot of time to study those complex architectures. Moreover, we have to deal with various frustrating problems caused by those complex architectures in the maintenance phase.

Solution

In fact, we have a better choice. We can use RAQ Report to realize our aims easily. RAQ Report is a pure Java reporting tool with real Excel-like design style. You can imagine the feeling of satisfying all the needs of end users with RAQ Report. I believe it is wonderful for project leader, programmers, and end users.

Maybe you will doubt is it really that a Java reporting tool can realize so many functions without writing code. Well, you can refer to the examples below.

Please remember that all those examples are designed with a graphical designer without writing complex Java code.

Examples

1. The input page of Employee ID.

1) The access relation between cells and database can be implemented with simple definition.
2) The data of Title, Region, and City are from the code table in database, users can choose in the dropdown list.
3) Double click the photo, and then users can select, upload or save a photo.

2. User can insert, add, delete, and submit a record easily in the graphical interface without programming.

3. With the legality check function of RAQ Report, if users input an illegal record, a prompt box will appear. Then, users can modify it in the graphical interface with ease.

4. Sometimes, there are easy relations between different fields, and users can describe these relations with simple expressions. Then, the automatic computation of RAQ Report can help a lot.

Source: Knowledge Base of RAQ Report
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Live in Reporting;
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Background

Since the birth of Java, it is always connected with all kinds of configuration files. Following the configuration habit of Java, the installation deployments of most pure Java products are troublesome.

As a result, programmers come from other programming language commonly feel unconformable and difficult with the environment configuration of Java.

Difficulties

A Java web reporting tool is often composed of two parts, designer and server. Commonly, they are independent programs.

As an independent tool, the installation deployment of report designer is relatively simple.
It just needs an installation package. However, as it is pure Java, it must depend on Java environment. As user’s computer may have installed a Java environment before, it does not want to install another during the installation of designer. Moreover, the two may be of different versions and conflict. Nevertheless, if you do not install a new one, you have to write a configuration file to configure the installation directory of Java.

As report server is often deployed on J2EE application server, its installation deployment is more complex.
First, publish the report server as a war package. Second, configure the database connection pool. Last, configure according to the requirement of application. For example, RAQ Report needs to configure semantic layer files, authorization files, log files, etc. For application, it needs to configure application directory, port number, etc.

Beside those above, there is another trouble, the joint of designer and server.
As they both run independently, report made by designer needs to be deployed to server, and this makes the development process troublesome. Moreover, you can look over report in web page only after deployment. As a result, users have to establish the web page framework on server first. After that, they can design report and look over the display effect. This increases the difficulty of fast usage experience.

Solution

As a pure Java web reporting tool, RAQ Report gives a more perfect solution to installation package for users’ convenience. The main advantages of it are as follows:

1. Integrate report designer and server. Users need not to develop any server-side program, and they can look over the report made in designer in web page directly. This makes fast experience easy for users.

2. Being saved, designed report can be deployed to the application of server directly. This increases the development speed by avoiding secondary deployment.

3. After designing, it can generate a war package for deployment directly. During the generation process, users can configure a series of application parameters with a friendly interface. Such as semantic layer files, authorization files, log files, etc.

4. The report designer supports simultaneous development of several applications and it can start/stop several applications simultaneously. As it has a plugin menu for all the applications, users can click corresponding buttons easily. This helps users with less development experience of Web applications a lot.

Graphic Illustration

Source: Knowledge Base of Java Reporting Tool
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Background

With the continual development of information technology, the web report application of enterprise-level reporting tool is also improved gradually. At first, it was stand-alone data operation, and on-line file processing later. Then, OA software appeared before the brilliant shining of standard financial software and QgESS software. After that, the concepts of business process reengineering appeared, such as MRPⅡ, ERP, EPM, BI, etc. Today, there are a lot of reporting softwares available. However, too many choices only make users confused.

Some industries need to flexibly submit data with different data types, but traditional reporting tools can not satisfy their requirements. Users of this kind are often in the industries like finance, consultation, chemical engineering, smelting, communication, etc. With the increase of this kind of application, users are eager for a Web reporting tool which can realize wonderful data input dynamically.

Solution

RAQ Report provides complete data input proposal for data acquisition with great changes and flexible requirements. Therefore, it can meet all kinds of Web data acquisition requirements.

The input model of RAQ Report is a professional tool which can develop all kinds of data acquisition systems quickly. It can implement all kinds of normal/complex input applications, and the design process is easy and efficient.

The input model of RAQ report divides data acquisition into two basic modes, Row Input and Freestyle Input.

Row Input is used to process simple quick input. It can add, insert, delete rows conveniently, and save the single-line data inputted instantaneously.

Freestyle Input can be used to make complex data input formats. Compared with Row Input, the input format of it is more flexible.

With Freestyle Input, you can implement data acquisition requirements of any complex format.

Conclusion

As a pure Java web reporting tool, RAQ Report can make report efficiently, deploy quickly, and implement seamless integration with existing J2EE projects. Therefore, it gains the approval and praise of more and more users. At the same time, RAQ Report is insisting on the realistic attitude for product optimization and technology innovation, and striving to provide more powerful and complete report solutions!

Source: Knowledge Base of Java Reporting Tool
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Background

Designing web reports with traditional web reporting tools of control drag and drop style, we are often troubled by the alignment of gridlines. Especially when the web report has a multi-level complex report header, it has a huge workload and usually can not achieve a perfect effect.

With its unique spreadsheet design style, Excel avoids the trouble of the alignment of gridlines. Therefore, wide end users have a special liking to it, and ask for a reporting software with an Excel-like design interface.

As a result, many report companies emulated Excel, and they thought the only thing was to add a table control.

Difficulty

However, end users are not so easy to be satisfied with only a table control, and they ask for various design capabilities of Excel. Such as merge/split cells, word wrap, shrink to fit, format painter, etc. Then, cell properties are even more, such as border, background, foreground, font, size, etc.

The ideal requirement of end users is an Excel-like web reporting tool with a complete set of report operational models. With it, they can easily make all kinds of reports, no matter simple or complex.

Simple report means linear report, such as freestyle report, grid report, group report, cross report, etc. Complex report means nonlinear report, such as multi-source report, irregular group report, symmetrical row/group report, etc. With operational capability, Excel-like design models will really become end users’ favorite design style.

As end users like Excel so much, they may have made a great number of Excel templates before. When they are making reports, users hope that they can import these templates directly to avoid the trouble of designing again. Similarly, they also hope that they can export reports made with web reporting tool to Excel templates to make a second operation conveniently.

Solution

Above is the ideal standard of Excel-like web reporting tool. Perhaps some people will say that it is too hard, and there can not be such a perfect reporting tool. Luckily, RAQ Report meets all the requirements above and becomes the leader of the new generation of reporting softwares. Of course, besides the perfect Excel-like design style, RAQ Report has many revolutionary functions, such as strong correlation semantics model, multi-source input model, etc.

Source: Knowledge Base of Web Reporting Tool
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Background

In the business of web input report, developers often need to design graphical interface for it.

If they have to use popular SSH structure (strust + spring + hibernate), the workload will be huge. Moreover, if they want to make it universal, it will be more difficult.

In this condition, I believe that programmers will miss those days in which client side programming was popular. For users’ data input, programmers can make a web input report with graphical interface easily with tools like Powerbuilder (PB).

Solution

Now, you have a wonderful choice!

RAQ Report is a professional web-based Java reporting software, it has a powerful programming class libraries without code. As a result, users can solve common problems in web programming easily. Such as drop-down box, automatic computation, sequential number generation, validity check, etc.

Moreover, common functions have been encapsulated in RAQ Report, and users can use them without writing programs. Such as export Excel/Wordfile, printing, page break, image upload, etc.

With the real Excel-like design interface of RAQ Report, the alignment of controls is very convenient. You can see the design interface of RAQ Report shown below. Is it much better than those client-side design tools?

Compared with open source control can be downloaded from Internet, RAQ Report has many advantages:

1. RAQ Report is a commercial product, so the quality and performance is better. While open source controls are only developed by programming enthusiast, so no one can guarantee its qualiti and performance.

2. The company RAQSOFT will maintain and update RAQ Report. But for open source controls, it is impossible to ask the makers to modify for you. If you want to modify them by yourself, the workload may be huge.

3. RAQ Report is designed and developed congruously, so you can develop a application project with it. However, if you use many open source controls in a project, the application may be very unstable.

4. RAQ Report has a graphical design interface, and it can increase the efficiency of web data maintain and input greatly.

Graphic Illustration

A web input report with graphical interface is showed as below:

Source: Knowledge Base of Java Reporting Tool
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Nowadays, many reporting tools claim that they are Excel-like, and they support Excel-like report design after improvements. Then, what is a real Excel-like reporting tool?

Today, we will discuss this problem from two aspects.

1. What are the most basic functions a real Excel-like reporting tool should have?
2. According to the data characteristics of report, what are the extended functions a real Excel-like reporting tool should have?

Generally, programmers and end users are familiar with Excel, and programmers often choose to develop reports in an Excel-like style. The main purposes are to realize complex report forms and improve report creation efficiency. For users’ convenience, reporting software companies should provide a report IDE closer to Excel usage pattern as much as possible. In other words, besides Excel-like appearance, they need to spend more time on operation details to improve its service efficiency.

In my opinion, a real Excel-like reporting tool should have the basic functions below:

Same Cell Naming
Cells in Excel are named according to their horizontal and vertical positions in the table. If set another naming mechanism, on the one hand it is very troublesome, on the other hand it will bring some inconveniences in expression editing.

Cell’s Properties Definition
It should be able to define those most basic properties of a cell: font, font size, color, border, foreground, background, edit style for whole row or column or table, and format painter supporting, etc.

Cell Content Editing
The editing method of expression should be the same with that of Excel. For example, “=sum(A3+B5)”. When insert or delete a related row or column, the expression is supposed to transform automatically without manual updating.
When the content/expression of a cell is too long to display in it, the entire content/expression should be displayed in the edit box in the toolbar of the reporting tool.

Custom Functions
It should provides a great number of common functions, and retain some application programming interfaces for users to add their own custom functions.

Import and Export Excel files
Commonly, before involving a reporting tool or starting an information project, users may have had a lot of Excel files. Therefore, it is requisite to allow users to import and export Excel files.

RAQ Report is a pure Java reporting software. As an enterprise class Excel-like reporting tool, it inherits all the advantages of Excel. At the same time, RAQ Report pays great attention to convenience and practicability in details. Therefore, programmers and end users can learn to use it freely in a short time.

Source: Knowledge Base of Web Reporting Tool
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

Generally, Web reporting tool accounts for about 10% of a software development project. In recent 2 years, it showed an increasing trend. According to my own projects, the cost of Web reporting tool can reach 20% at most. However, in calculations below, we still use 10% as a standard, and assume the cost of each man-month as $2,500.

Take a $100,000 software development project for example, then the procurement cost of Web reporting tool is $10,000. As the cost of each man-month is $2,500, it needs 4 employees to accomplish the report. In a practical project, there are several ways to split this $100,000.

1. Integrators’ previous code accumulation + Programmers’ customization according to project.
In short, it is pure manual coding. It can be classified into 2 conditions:
A. Based on integrators’ previous code accumulation, customize according to project directly.
B. Look for an open source reporting software, and amend it according to requirement.
This can reduce programmers’ workload and latter maintenance cost to some extent. However, your development will be limited by the open source reporting software. Besides whether product information and APIs are all included, bugs of the open source reporting tool will drive you crazy.

These 2 ways do not involve the cost of reporting tool. Its advantage is that developers can control programs completely, and the development cost is intuitively. However, its disadvantages are as follows:
1) If the report requirement is high, programmers’ workload will be very heavy.
2) Report developing is inefficient.
3) Latter maintenance cost is higher. If a client wants to modify a report, he has to ask the developer for service. Then, it will involve the problem of money.
In practice, these 2 ways are usually used in small and medium projects.

2. Web reporting tool + Programmer development.
The advantages of using a reporting tool are as follows:
1) Improve developing efficiency.
2) Save time, and shorten construction period.
3) Latter maintenance is convenient.

There are a great number of reporting softwares available in the market now. Then, how to choose a Web reporting tool which can satisfy the project requirement and control the cost reasonably?
In my opinion, you should choose your Web reporting tool according to the principle below:
It should reduce the workload of report developing for at least 50%, and cut down the total development cost for about 1/3.

According to the example above, it needs 4 man-month to make the report. With a Web reporting tool, it only needs 2 man-month to do the job. Add the procurement cost of the reporting tool, you only need about $6,000 to accomplish the job which costs you $10,000.

You can compare several famous reporting tools, such as Crystal Report, RAQ report, and BIRT, etc. Then, you can make your own choice.

Source: Knowledge Base of RAQ Report
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Knowledge Base of RAQ Report; Freezea’s Report Lesson; Mark Lorenz on Technology; Vara Prasad S Manjula’s Blog; Jackson’s Reporting Review

About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article

After making reports for a long time, I found something strange recently. Various reporting tool vendors advertise by all means to attract users’ attentions; however, programmers show great interests in Jasper report + ireport, the representatives of free and open source Java reporting software. You can find that it is discussed in full swing in almost all the forums with Java report board, and there are always a lot of questioners.

Why?

Jasper report + ireport are pure Java reporting tools. I believe that the reasons for users to choose them are as follows:
1. They are free reporting tools, and this is the most important reason.
2. They are professional reporting tools.
3. They are pure Java reporting tool.
It means that most people have realized that they should make reports with professional reporting tools, not coding, and this is a progress. Now, there are many pure Java reporting tools available, such as JATOOLS, RAQ Report, and Style report, etc. According to users’ choice, you will find that free is the deciding factor.

However, I have a problem. Free and chargeable, which one is better?

It seems that free Jasper report + ireport bring us a lot, reporting software with certain usability, open source code with flexible customization capability and complete control, and the most important, low cost.
But is this really the case?
1. The tabling capabilities of them are not very good.
2. Written too minutely, the Help documents of them are hard to read. And more important, all of them are chargeable.
3. The tabling logicalities of them are not very strong.
Sometimes, you may find it very hard to make a complex report with them. For example, if there is a report can not be made directly, you have to write SQL statements troublesomely or ask your clients change their requirements unreasonably.
You can find a great number of consultation posts in forums, and the questioners usually have to wait for answers on line. However, maybe there is no answer to their questions, or there is no one to answer their questions by coincidence. You can count the time and labor cost spent on it. Then, whether it is advisable to buy a chargeable reporting tool?

The advantages of buying a chargeable reporting tool:
1. The tabling capability of a chargeable reporting tool must be better than a free one.
2. The Help documents of chargeable reporting tool are free.
3. When you have a question, you can consult the technical support of your reporting tool directly; even ask them to come to help you.

Judging from the social trend, labor division will becomes more and more detailed, and work will becomes more and more professional. In report industry, the optimal condition is that professional reporting tool vendor is the peripheral R&D Center of other companies. Each company gives some money to the vendor for using the reporting tool, while the vendor is dedicated to solve the report problems of all the cooperators.
To sum up, making report is a professional job, and it is advisable for you to buy a chargeable reporting tool. With it, you can do your own job better.

Source: Knowledge Base of Java Reporting Tool
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The Basic Standard of Excel-like IDE; Integrating BIRT with PHP; More BIRT Tips for Java Developers; Arrange card type reports easily with reporting tool;
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About Web Reporting Tool Entire Article