Apache Struts 2 Documentation > Home > Guides > Plugin Developers Guide > JasperReports Plugin
Added by casey, last edited by Ted Husted on Jul 13, 2007  (view change)
JasperReports is a powerful open source Java (LGPL) reporting tool that has the ability to deliver rich content onto the screen, to the printer or into PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV and XML files.

The JasperReports plugin enables Actions to create high-quality reports as results.

Features

  • Allows Actions to be rendered through JasperReports

Usage

To use this plugin, have your packages that contain the target actions extend the provided jasperreports-default package, which contains the jasper result type. Then, simply use the result type in the desired actions. The result takes the following parameters:

Generates a JasperReports report using the specified format or PDF if no format is specified.

  • location (default) - the location where the compiled jasper report definition is (foo.jasper), relative from current URL.
  • dataSource (required) - the EL expression used to retrieve the datasource from the value stack (usually a List).
  • parse - true by default. If set to false, the location param will not be parsed for EL expressions.
  • format - the format in which the report should be generated. Valid values can be found in JasperReportConstants. If no format is specified, PDF will be used.
  • contentDisposition - disposition (defaults to "inline", values are typically filename="document.pdf").
  • documentName - name of the document (will generate the http header Content-disposition = X; filename=X.[format]).
  • delimiter - the delimiter used when generating CSV reports. By default, the character used is ",".
  • imageServletUrl - name of the url that, when prefixed with the context page, can return report images.
  • reportParameters - (2.1.2+) OGNL expression used to retrieve a map of report parameters from the value stack. The parameters may be accessed in the report via the usual JR mechanism and might include data not part of the dataSource, such as the user name of the report creator, etc.
  • exportParameters - (2.1.2+) OGNL expression used to retrieve a map of JR exporter parameters from the value stack. The export parameters are used to customize the JR export. For example, a PDF export might enable encryption and set the user password to a string known to the report creator.
  • connection - (2.1.7+) JDBC Connection which can be passed to the report instead of dataSource

This result follows the same rules from StrutsResultSupport. Specifically, all parameters will be parsed if the "parse" parameter is not set to false.

Examples

<result name="success" type="jasper">
  <param name="location">foo.jasper</param>
  <param name="dataSource">mySource</param>
  <param name="format">CSV</param>
</result>

or for pdf:

<result name="success" type="jasper">
  <param name="location">foo.jasper</param>
  <param name="dataSource">mySource</param>
</result>

Settings

This plugin doesn't provide any global settings.

Installation

This plugin can be installed by copying the plugin jar into your application's /WEB-INF/lib directory. No other files need to be copied or created.


See also Compiling JasperReports JRXML Files with Maven (Mark Menard)