How to Execute A Report using iReport

Assuming that you have your Data source ready (ie. A Query/Hibernate) It’s a simple matter to execute the report.

You can execute a Report either with data or without data. If you are going to view without data you need to set your “When No Data Type” to “All section No detail” as demonstrated here.

You can execute the report by using the Buildà Execute (Empty Data source) OR Buildà Execute (With Active Connection) in the Main Menu under Build. OR you can simply click the execute button which in the toolbar. (Which will be place on the right hand side by default).

How to Execute a SQL Query using iReport.

Click Data --> Report Query. The Following window will appear

Type the SQL Query you want. To pass Parameters user $P{PARAMENTER_NAME} (in iReport 2.0 or higher). You can click the “Automatically Retrieve Fields” check box to retrieve the fields.

Keep in mind if there’s an SQL error the fields will not be retrieved and the SQL error will be displayed.

You can also select the fields you want from a Database Model and generate the Query automatically. I DO NOT recommend this. Although you can set the conditions before hand I always find it reliable when I have a working Query in my hands. It’s always better to know that the query works. So create the query using SQL Navigator or a similar tool using sample data for “Parameters” and use that query.

Click OK after Fields are retrieved.

How to Connect to a Database Or a Data Source using iReport

To connect to a data source using iReport you need to configure the Data source. To do that go to Dataà Connection/Data Sources From the Main Menu items.

You would get the Connection/Data Sources Window. Click “New”

Most of the time you would be using a JDBC data source or a Hibernate Connection. For the sake of the first report we will look at the much simpler and common way of using a JDBC connection. To configure a JDBC connection click “JDBC Connection” and click “Next”

To connect to a MySQL or a Oracle Database first you need to define a Driver. While iReport comes with a lot of dirvers it for some strange reason does not include an Oracle Driver.

Connecting to MySQL

Set your server path and data base name in the JDBC URL Wizard. Then Click Wizard and it will automatically set your JDBC URL. Make Sure you have selected the com.mysql.jdbc.Driver and Type the User name and password to the database and click Test.

Your Data base connection should be working properly. If not check your MySQL database URL is correct or/and the database server is running properly. If the test is Successful click Save.

Connecting to Oracle Database.

As I mentioned above iReport does not have a Oracle JDBC driver included. To Connect to Oracle you need to have a Oracle JDBC Driver compliant with your Oracle Version. They can be found here. I’ve used ojdbc14.jar with Oracle 9i and 10i.

Place the Oracle JDBC Driver in your lib directory. If you have installed using the default settings this would be in the c:/Programfiles/jaspersoft/ireport2.0.5 directory

Set your Server Path and the database name in the JDBC URL wizard. Then click “Wizard” button and the Database URL would be set WITH THE PORT 1521. If you are not using that simply modify it to the port u are using in the JDBC URL Field. Type the User name and password to the database.

Set the JDBC Driver Field to “oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver” and click test. If not successful check your username/password and Database URL and Try again. After the test is successful click Save.

Now you are ready to start designing a report.

UPDATE on 08 Dec 2010

A Better Example Through Comments (@author prakash)

Steps to set the Classpath for iReport:
1) go to "Tools / Options" menu and select iReport
2) verify that database JDBC driver is present:
- Choose "Classpath" tab
- Click "Add JAR" and then locate the mysql.jdbc.Driver
- Click "OK"
3) click "Connections / Datasources" icon in toolbar
5) click "New" and set up a "Database JDBC Connection" using driver from step 2
6) click "Test" to verify the data source works correctly
7) click "Save" to save the data source