Re: Next assignment - Reports

[Pete Helgren <Pete@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron,

Missed your post before posting mine.

Maybe I can add BIRT as an option to what I have for Jasper.  Use the 
same API's at the RPG end but add a "Report Type" parameter that would 
say it's a BIRT type vs a Jasper type.

I'll look into it since right now I am in a "report wrapper" groove.

Pete


Aaron Bartell wrote:
> > One of my colleagues used Jasper Reports to generate High-school Student
> >     
> Transcripts and the PDF output looked great, but runtime performance was
> poor.
>
> How is the Java code being run?  If it was run in a batch job you could
> probably get much better performance out of it.
>
> I have been looking to create an open source reporting project based on the
> Eclipse BIRT stuff.  Basically you could have business users build the
> report in Eclipse and then upload the report definition to the iSeries.
> >From there a Java component could be written that accepts input from an RPG
> process to occupy the BIRT report with business data.  This is similar in
> concept to my RPGChartEngine tooling (
> http://mowyourlawn.com/RPGChartEngine.html).
>
> Let me know if that scenario would interest you and we can possibly put
> together an open source project around it.  I just don't know how much
> interest there would be around such a tool which is why I haven't pursued it
> yet.
>
> Aaron Bartell
> http://mowyourlawn.com
>
> On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 2:50 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>   
> > I'd like to thank folks on this list for their feedback on recent
> > assignments which have included a popup calendar, javascript
> > compression, a utility for maintaining user defined fields, and a
> > utility for uploading and attaching files to records in our database.
> >
> > My next assignment is to come up with a solution for reports.  The scope
> > includes generating, cataloging, and working with reports.  I have the
> > leeway to develop something myself, but I'm not particularly inclined to
> > reinvent the wheel.  Vendor solutions can be considered.  The project is
> > NOT well defined, but I understand that reporting is a broadly scoped
> > topic.
> >
> > The report library (or catalog) needs a browser-based UI and needs to be
> > more robust and extensible than the WRKOUTQ command.  Report formats
> > need to include HTML and PDF as well as ASCII text.
> >
> > One of my colleagues used Jasper Reports to generate High-school Student
> > Transcripts and the PDF output looked great, but runtime performance was
> > poor.
> >
> > For generating reports, I've considered writing an API for RPG
> > programmers to output HTML or PDF files, and cross-reference generated
> > stream files with entries in the catalog.  This is appealing to me as an
> > RPG programmer and addresses a couple concerns.  First, many of our
> > reports are produced as part of a larger process.  Posting fees to
> > accounts generates a transaction listing, for example.  Second, the API
> > that generates the report could also generate index entries in the
> > catalog.  For example, if a program generated a 60,000 page report of
> > student transcripts, it would be helpful if the viewer in the report
> > catalog could filter the page listing to include only those pages for a
> > particular student.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Nathan.
> > --
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