# Getting Started with JReport

JReport Product Overview

JReport delivers operational business intelligence to enterprise applications through powerful embedded reporting.

System Requirements

Both JReport Designer and JReport Server have some basic installation requirements. Before installing them, check your system to make sure all the requirement have been met.

JReport Licenses

JReport has several special licenses which allow you to use some specific features in JReport.

Supported Report Databases

JReport supports all of the current mainstream databases as well as most databases which support ODBC or JDBC drivers.

Test Server Installation

Before you log onto the JReport Server, you have to first start the server.

Fast Launch Pad for Local Users

Local users can also access JReport Server in a fast way with the launch pad, which is a convenient entry to access the server without having to start it.

View Sample Reports

After successfully logging onto the JReport Console page, you can then perform tasks according to your requirements, such as viewing reports in different formats, running them via URLs, customizing them by setting properties, etc.

Create Library Components and Dashboards

You can create dashboards using JDashboard and build a user portal user interface. However, before you can create dashboards, the report developer should first create library components to present data using JReport Designer and then publish them to JReport Server.

Create Ad Hoc Reports

In Page Report Studio, you can create ad hoc reports based on predefined business views that are published to JReport Server. However, you will only see the New Report link in the console when the current folder has a catalog in it that contains a business view.

Start a Visual Analysis session

You can visualize the result of every step of business data analysis by dragging and dropping business data fields to the layout module using Visual Analysis.

Open Sample Report Templates

There are many sample reports in JReport Designer, you can open any one sample report and preview the report result.

Start Creating New Reports

Before you create new reports using JReport Designer, you have to make it have access to your data source. Currently, seven methods are provided for you to achieve this goal: via JDBC/ODBC Connection, XML Connection, Web Service Connection, MongoDB Connection, HIVE Connection, Hierarchical Data Source, or by creating a User Defined Data Source.

Build Business Views

To make use of business views in Page Report Studio and Web Report Studio, you need to first define them at report design time in JReport Designer.

Online Help

Online documentation includes all information about the JReport products.

Note: If you are using Google Chrome, because of its security policy to not allow local file access by default, this guide will not be displayed normally. To solve this, you have to add the parameter `--allow-file-access-from-files` to the Target property of your Google Chrome shortcut, then launch Chrome with this shortcut and open the guide in it. The guide is located in your `<install_root>\help\start` folder.