noxmldesign Shows how in-memory JasperDesign objects can be created without using the JRXML design template, but only the API directly. How to create in-memory JasperDesign objects without processing a JRXML file, using the object model of the JasperReports API. 0.4.2 Sanda Zaharia shertage@users.sourceforge.net The JasperDesign Object

Standard in reporting applications use report templates to define the layout of generated documents. To start a report generation process a report template is needed. Once created, a report template can be filled with appropriate data and generate output document objects during the report generation.
In JasperReports the report generation relies on creating, compiling and filling report templates.
Report templates are stored in JasperDesign objects. Instances of this class are the raw material that the engine uses to generate reports.
During the report generation a report template object is compiled and completed with additional information about the runtime expressions evaluation into a JasperReport object, then is filled with significant data creating a ready-to-print pixel-perfect JasperPrint object.
One can obtain JasperDesign instances either by parsing the JRXML report template files, or independently, through API calls, where using JRXML files is not a possibility. The main purpose is to make available an in-memory JasperDesign object with all its properties set, in order to generate a valid report.

Taking a look inside the JasperDesign class, one can see that it extends JRBaseReport and inherits all protected member properties below:

Therefore, creating a JasperDesign instance may be accomplished by creating an empty JasperDesign object by calling the default constructor, and then applying setter methods to its members with relevance in the given report.

The No XML Design Sample

This sample shows how to create an in-memory JasperDesign instance. The sample doesn't contain any JRXML template file. The JasperDesign object is hardcoded in the src/NoXmlDesignApp.java file (see the getJasperDesign() method).

The ant compile task only calls the getJasperDesign() method to load the JasperDesign object created above, and compiles it into a .jasper file, which is further used at report filling time:

Running the Sample

Running the sample requires the Apache Ant library. Make sure that ant is already installed on your system (version 1.5 or later).
In a command prompt/terminal window set the current folder to demo/samples/noxmldesign within the JasperReports source project and run the > ant test view command.
It will generate all supported document types containing the sample report in the demo/samples/noxmldesign/build/reports directory.
Then the report will open in the JasperReports internal viewer.