The way of i-net Clear Reports: Concept
Business Intelligence, data analysis and visualization has become more and more important as the sheer amount of information has increased dramatically over the past years. It has become vital to be able to take company data and summarize, visualize, and analyze it in a way that makes it useful.
Here is an overview of how you can accomplish this from start to finish with i-net Clear Reports.
Create a "report template" defining the structure and data of your report, feed it into your i-net Clear Reports server and have your report be shown in an “Acrobat Reader”-like Java Viewer applet. Alternatively you can export it into a number of formats such as PDF, HTML, CSV, and many others. Using the Scheduler it is possible to set up automatic report generation and have the reports be sent by email, stored on an ftp server, or archived away.
Report templates are zipped, XML-based files and can be created in a number of ways.
- Take advantage of the free and easy-to-use i-net Designer, a graphical Report Designer which runs on any platform with Java installed.
- Integrate our Java library into a program of your own.
- if you already have existing Crystal Reports templates, these can be read by i-net Clear Reports as well, meaning that migration is quick and easy
The i-net Clear Reports server is completely written in Java, meaning it can be run on any platform with an installed Java VM version 1.5 or higher. It can make use of various report cache systems such as a hard drive cache or a database cache. Also it can be used in failover or load-balancing clusters for high load or failover scenarios. The server comes in various flavors:
- It can be run as a servlet on a variety of application servers such as Tomcat, Websphere, Weblogic, JBoss, Oracle Application Server, and many others.
- It can be run as a stand-alone server.
The data for the reports can be fetched from any JDBC data source. Note that there are JDBC drivers available for all major databases such as MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and so on. Many drivers are already included with i-net Clear Reports.
Features
i-net Clear Reports1) is a flexible and powerful reporting solution for many different purposes. You can use a lot of report features to make your reports useful, clear and meaningful.
Below you will find a list of our top features. In the samples section there are lots of simple samples showing specific features supported by i-net Clear Reports. If you are interested in complex samples, have a look at the application samples.
The following features are being completed by the i-net Clear Reports Plus version features.
Platform Independent with multiple Environments
- i-net Clear Reports Java Edition runs on every platform (OS) that supports Java 6 or higher (e.g. Windows, Unix, Solaris, OSX 10.4+, AIX). A GUI is not required for the server.
- i-net Clear Reports .NET Edition runs on Windows platforms that support .NET version 3. or higher.
- It can be used with many application servers like Bea WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, JRun, JBoss, Oracle Application Server, Tomcat, Jetty, IIS, Apache. You can also integrate it in every Java application.
- In order to use Failover and Load-Balancing, you can use i-net Clear Reports with operating system or application server cluster.
Remote Interface
- The Remote Interface is the most convenient way for administrators to configure the i-net Clear Reports Server when a direct access to the server is impossible. It currently offers the Configuration Manager, a Repository Browser, online AdHoc Reporting and a Datasource Configuration Tool.
- The Interface can be activated during installation or from the standalone configuration manager.
- It is being secured by the System Permissions where modules can be activated or hidden for certain users
See more details.
Ad Hoc reporting
i-net Clear Reports offers a streamlined version of i-net Designer to create meaningful reports very fast and easy. Ad hoc reporting is available as browser based HTML or applet version and can be embedded in other applications as well. The i-net Designer uses an ad hoc component as report wizards to easily create new reports.
Database independent
You can use data from every database with a JDBC driver or ODBC driver. It is also possible to access the data directly or via Java Beans. You can change the database at runtime or design time.
Free Visual Report Template Designer
You can install the i-net Designer on as many clients as you want - absolutely free3) of charge.
The Designer program is a easy-to-use report template designer with a lot of layout elements like charting or cross-tabs. It sports wizards for ad hoc report creation as well as formula editors for professional data extraction and visualization.
Compatible to Crystal Reports
You can read and render your existing Crystal Reports templates.
See our Documentation for technical details.
Multi-Language Reports
A single report can be available for different languages (labels and formating). The i-net Designer offers a translation dialog which helps to translate static content of your report files.
Users who access the reports will be presented with localized versions if a translation is being provided for their browser or system language.
User Interface Language support
i-net Clear Reports currently supports English, German, Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese for most graphical elements. We strive to support even more languages - including yours - so we offer an online interface to submit translations.
Would you like to contribute? Let us know which language you'd like to create or contribute to and we will send you the links and credentials.
Dynamic Reports
The reports can be customize with parameters and two different scripting languages. Parameter can be set via
Scheduler
You can create reports with an execution time plan and send them via email, save them onto disk or do any other custom action. See more details.
Report Permissions
There are many options to limit the visibility of reports or just for a part of a report.
(Have a look at the security guide too.)
With clicking a group you can show details. Our reports support unlimmited grouping levels.
Output Formats
Generate your report into different output formats like Java, PDF, RTF, HTML, SVG, etc.
Many Layout Controls
Design your reports with Charts, Cross-Tabs, Fields, your custom Java Beans and many more layout elements. See the samples for an idea what is possible.
Font Embedding
Font Embedding makes your report look the same on every system. This is very important for special fonts like barcode or symbolics.
64-bit
Java is a multi-platform language offering 64-bit installations for a large number of operating systems. You can install and run i-net Clear Reports on 64-bit installations of Java and maximize the benefits of your hardware.
System Permissions
Besides the Report Permissions this is a new way to restrict users to certain areas and functions of the i-net Clear Reports server. Administrators can set individual permissions for all available remote modules to restrict or grant certain users access to them.
Since i-net Clear Reports version 10.02) there is a second set of system permissions called “interfaces”. This set includes Remote Datasources, an Ad Hoc applet services and the online Designer including WebDav access for the Repository.
