Open Flash Chart Component Sample

openflashchart Open Flash Chart Component Sample Shows how Open Flash Chart objects could be included in HTML and PDF reports using a specially designed component. How to implement a custom component to wrap charts rendered by the Open Flash Chart library. 3.1.2 Sanda Zaharia shertage@users.sourceforge.net The Open Flash Chart Component - Overview

This sample illustrates how the pie and bar charts produced with the Open Flash Chart library can be implemented and used as JasperReports components.
Charts based on the Open Flash Chart library are converted into single embeddable Flash objects and provide interesting dynamic visual effects that could make them represent the best candidate to display various statistics, especially on interactive web sites.
The generated Flash objects are reading their data and configuration parameters in the JSON format. Data can be either read from existing text files, or dynamically passed through JavaScript.
An apparent inconvenient is that there are no built-in elements in the basic JasperReports library to handle Flash objects. But the very flexible JasperReports engine can easily integrate such kind of objects, if they come with their own rendering mechanism to be plugged in at report filling time. In other words, if they are embedded into a JasperReports component.
Here we have an example.

The Open Flash Chart Component - Schema

The schema definition for the pie and bar chart components can be found in the src/net/sf/jasperreports/components/ofc/openflashchart.xsd:

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According to the schema, the pie chart component resides on a pie dataset and a title expression, along with the evaluationTime and evaluationGroup attributes. In a similar mode the bar chart is completely characterized by the bar dataset, the title expression and attributes evaluationTime and evaluationGroup.
Slices in the pie dataset are configured using the keyExpression and valueExpression.
Series in the bar dataset are each one characterized by a seriesExpression, a categoryExpression and a valueExpression.

Embedding The Open Flash Chart Component

The src/jasperreports_extension.properties file contains the following entries:

net.sf.jasperreports.extension.registry.factory.fcharts=net.sf.jasperreports.extensions.SpringExtensionsRegistryFactory
net.sf.jasperreports.extension.fcharts.spring.beans.resource=net/sf/jasperreports/components/ofc/chart_beans.xml

Hence the Open Flash Chart components will be registered as Spring-based extension, in accordance with beans in the net/sf/jasperreports/components/ofc/chart_beans.xml:


  
    
  
  
    
      
        
      
      
        
      
    
  



  
    http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/openflashchart
  
  
    http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/openflashchart.xsd
  
  
    net/sf/jasperreports/components/ofc/openflashchart.xsd
  
  
    
  



  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  



  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  



  
  
    
      
        
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
          
            
          
        
      
    
  
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One can notice the Chart*Handler classes in the chartsExportHandlerBundle, used to handle the output for different export formats. Excepting the HTML/XHTML and PDF that provide support for Flash objects, all other output format handlers extend the net.sf.jasperreports.components.ofc.BaseChartHandler class, ensuring that the generated element will display the replacement text '[Open Flash Chart Component]' instead.
All necessary APIs to implement these components are found in the src/net/sf/jasperreports/components/ofc directory:

BarChartCompiler.java - the compiler class for the bar chart component
BarChartComponent.java - the bar chart component class
BarChartFillFactory.java - the fill factory class for the bar chart component
BarChartXmlFactory.java - the XML factory class for the bar chart component
BarChartXmlWriter.java - the XML writer class for the bar chart component
BarDataset.java - the embedded bar dataset class
BarSeries.java - the bar series class
BaseChartHandler.java - the basic chart handler class that produces either a simple text replacement or a cell containing a text replacement, to be used in output formats that not support Flash
ChartDataGenerator.java - class that generates data for pie and bar charts in JSON format
ChartDocxHandler.java - handler class for the DOCX output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartHtmlHandler.java - handler class for the HTML output format. Embeds the Flash object into the HTML page.
ChartJExcelApiHandler.java - handler class for the Excel 2003 output format, using the JExcelApiExporter (based on the JExcelApi library). Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartNoPdfHandler.java - handler class for the PDF output format that produces text replacement for the Flash object
ChartOdsHandler.java - handler class for the ODS output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartOdtHandler.java - handler class for the ODT output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartPdfHandler.java - handler class for the PDF output format that embeds the Flash object into the PDF document
ChartPptxHandler.java - handler class for the PPTX output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartRtfHandler.java - handler class for the RTF output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartsDigester.java - the digester class for the chart component
ChartXhtmlHandler.java - handler class for the XHTML output format. Embeds the Flash object into the generated HTML page.
ChartXlsHandler.java - handler class for the Excel 2003 output format, using the JRXlsExporter (based on the Apache POI library). Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartXlsxHandler.java - handler class for the Excel 2010 (XLSX) output format. Produces text replacement for the Flash object.
ChartXml4SwfHandler.java - handler class to be used when exporting the document to the Flash viewer.
CompiledBarDataset.java - class for compiled bar dataset
CompiledPieDataset.java - class for compiled pie dataset
DefaultBarSeries.java - class that configure the series structure in a bar dataset
DesignBarDataset.java - design class for the bar dataset
DesignPieDataset.java - design class for the pie dataset
FillBarChart.java - the fill bar chart class
FillBarDataset.java - the fill bar dataset class
FillBarSeries.java - the fill bar series class
FillPieChart.java - the fill pie chart class
FillPieDataset.java - the fill pie dataset class
PieChartCompiler.java - the compiler class for the pie chart component
PieChartComponent.java - the pie chart component class
PieChartFillFactory.java - the fill factory class for the pie chart component
PieChartXmlFactory.java - the XML factory class for the pie chart component
PieChartXmlWriter.java - the XML writer for the pie chart component
PieDataset.java - class for the pie dataset

The JCharts Component - Sample

The OpenFlashChartReport.jrxml template in the demo/samples/openflashchart directory contains both the pie chart and the bar chart components in the summary section:


  
  
    
      
      $F{ShipCountry}
      $V{CountryFreight}
    
    "Pie Chart"
  


  
  
    
      
      
        $F{ShipCountry}
        $V{OrderYear}
        $V{CountryYearFreight}
      
    
    "Bar Chart"
  
]]>

One can see the very simple configuration requirements for both Open Flash Charts prefixed with the ofc: namespace prefix. They only need to know the chart data source and some adequate expressions for series in the dataset, all the remaining TODO stuff being automatized by the Open Flash Chart and JasperReports libraries working together.

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/hsqldb within the JasperReports source project and run the > ant runServer command. It will start the HSQLDB server shipped with the JasperReports distribution package. Let this terminal running the HSQLDB server.
Open a new command prompt/terminal window and set the current folder to demo/samples/openflashchart within the JasperReports source project and run the

> ant 
test

command.
It will generate all supported document types containing the sample report in the demo/samples/openflashchart/build/reports directory.
You will notice that all generated documents excepting OpenFlashChartReport.html and OpenFlashChartReport.x.html are displaying two text elements labeled '[Open Flash Chart Component]'. Also, when opening the HTML and XHTML pages, they are apparently empty. That's because of security restrictions that prevent Flash objects to communicate with the HTML pages wherein they are embedded.
Such a problem could be avoided using a HTTP server. This exactly happens when the > ant viewHtml command is run in the terminal. A NanoHTTPD server is started and the served web page may now access the trusted SWF file. Both pie and bar charts can be observed in the browser, for both HTML and XHTML output formats.