In this chapter, you walked through Pentaho Reporting's .prpt
bundle file format, and learned about the various XML documents that combine to render a report. You learned how to define parameters, data sources, and expressions in the datadefinition.xml
file. You also learned how to lay out and style a report within the layout.xml
and styles.xml
files. You combined all the files to generate an example .prpt
bundle file, and loaded the result in Report Designer to verify that it renders as expected.
This chapter also covered the basics of building a MasterReport
via Pentaho Reporting's easy to use Java API. You saw examples of defining parameters, adding data sources, and defining expressions. You also learned about how to build the group hierarchy, and add elements to reports via Pentaho Reporting's element factory approach. You then walked through a full example of a simple report, demonstrating how easy it is to build a report from scratch, using just a few lines of code.
Finally...