Hi, I need to create some reports, in different formats (xls, pdf, rtf). I am currently using JasperReports, in conjunction with IReport. I have no major complaints about it (except for the cases when IReport messes up my xml files), but i've been having some problems with it, when exporting to xls files and with some "special" characters, such as '&'.
Is there a widely use alternative? Is JasperReports the right choice?
There is a long list of reporting tools for Java. We did our homework twice 4 years apart for 2 unrelated software products that required reporting functionality and both times JasperReports came out on top unchallenged.
The maturity of the product, rich functionality, Java roots, JasperSoft support and resources, community and third-party support make it easy to choose. On top of that you can upgrade to JasperServer (not free) if you require sophisticated reporting management system integrated into your product.
DISCLAIMER: I am not associated with JasperSoft in any way; my company is licensed user of both JasperReports and JasperServer.
Jasper Reports with iReports is so painful to use, it's become a standard joke around the office. We are all Java Enterprise developers, and any time someone is assigned a task to create a report, they almost walk out in disgust.
iReport is not compatible with itself, report created in the current version fail with "Null Pointer Exception" consistently. Go back a version and nothing compiles because NMTOKEN is empty.
It's very frustrating, and if we had another option we would gladly walk away from it.
Some java developer colleagues of mine working for the Education department have chosen Docmosis for some of their new projects over Jasper and IReports because, even though they seem to be pretty experienced programmers, were bothered by the coding effort in maintaining reports. I'm fairly biased towards Docmosis for Java embedded reporting too but would use Yellowfin or Cognos for warehouse and ad-hoc reporting requirements.