Jasper Reports is an open source Java reporting tool that can write to screen, to a printer or into PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, Comma-separated values and XML files.
It is the world's most popular open source reporting engine. It is entierly written in Java and it is able to use data coming from any kind of data source and produce pixel-perfect documents that can be viewed, printed or exported in a variety of document formats including HTML, PDF, Excel, OpenOffice and Word. It can be used in Java-enabled applications, including Java EE or Web applications, to generate dynamic content. It reads its instructions from an XML or .jasper file.
Generating reports is a common, if not always glamorous, task for programmers. In the past, report generation has largely been the domain of large commercial products such as Crystal Reports. Today, the open source JasperReports report generating library gives developers a viable alternative to commercial software.
JasperReports provides the necessary features to generate dynamic reports, including data retrieval using JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), as well as support for parameters, expressions, variables, and groups. JasperReports also includes advanced features, such as custom data sources, scriptlets, and subreports. All in all, JasperReports combines good features, maturity, community participation, and, best of all, it's free.
JasperReport can save much of the efforts and time of Java programmers in some not so needed part of application development portion. While having this tool with them, Java Developers can put their efforts behind essential part of software product development and few portion of report generation phase.
