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Choosing Java reporting tool

My current goal is to obtain an universal solution to be able to export application data in any format I'd prefer. Mainly it includes exporting tables with various data.

I've done an overview and have considered the following alternatives:
  1. Own implementation.
    Here I mean implementation of own Java library that will accept some abstract data (say, valuelist) and will perform export using known open-source libraries (MS Office Excel - Apache POI, PDF - itext, etc). This is the way we've already used at work before.

    The critical disadvantage of this proposal is that much efforts will be required.
  2. Existing solution.
    This is also known as reporting engine software.

    Main points:
    • JasperReports is the most popular open-source reporting engine.
    • There are 3 ways to use it:
      • JasperReports API - gives complete control on report creation but is extremely complex.
      • Different visual report designers (e.g. iReport) - allows creating report templates manually.
      • Software tools that use JasperReports API and allow generating reports during run time (no visual designer is required).

Definitely the last point is what I need at the moment. There are two alternative quality solutions here:
  1. DynamicJasper
  2. DynamicReports
They are quite similar and each has its own pros and cons. Although the first is recommended in this comparison, I suggest implementing a simple prototype report for both alternatives to come up with the final choice. Probably it'll be described in the next post.
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