Setting up the reporting environment

Now that you have installed JReport Enterprise Server, you can start it. However, it is better to first check the reporting environment to see whether you have published the report sets including the catalog files, added the necessary class paths, and set up the data sources.

Report set publishment & creation

The separation of the report set file and the data is powerful. It facilitates easy re-use of the report set's layout. Report set files built with JReport Designer can then be published to JReport Enterprise Server for running in the thin-client/server mode. Today, computing is a service-based model in which web based applications are rapidly replacing monolithic fat-client hosted and maintained software applications. JReport Enterprise Server is a high performance server for running report sets on demand or unattended on a scheduled basis. In this environment, thousands of clients may view, print and generate new report sets.

JReport Enterprise Server has its own resource tree with each node mapping to a folder or file in your physical drive. So when publishing report set files to the server, it is recommended that you check:

• Whether the report set files reside somewhere in the server machine.
• Whether the files are mapped in the resource tree.
• That not only the report set files, but also the catalog files (including the .fml file) exist and are in the same directory. In addition, one directory can only contain one catalog. However, it can contain many report set files which use that catalog.

Data sources

You may have your own catalogs and report sets that you developed, and want them to be run and be distributed by JReport Enterprise Server. In order to do this, the data sources used by your catalogs must be correctly set to the runtime environment of JReport Enterprise Server.

User data source

Append the class path of your user class files to the first item of the class path set in your batch file or command line that starts JReport Enterprise Server. If you are using JReport Enterprise Server embedded in an application server, add your user class files to the WAR file used to deploy JReport Enterprise Server.

Additional class paths

If your report sets reference any external classes, you will need to add them to the class path option in the batch file and command line that starts JReport Enterprise Server. For example, if your report sets contain user defined objects (UDO) or user defined formula functions, do not forget to add them to the class path or to the WAR file.