When a user clicks Create > Ad Hoc View on the Home page, the list of Topics on the Topics tab is populated from the Ad Hoc Components/Topics folder in the repository. There are two types of Topics:
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JRXML-based Topics – Created by administrators using iReport and uploaded as JRXML files to the proper location in the repository. Topics are typically of this type. |
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Domain Topics – Created from a Domain by administrators using JasperReports Server. |
Either type of Topic is an empty view associated with a data source in the server, and is then built on in the Ad Hoc Editor.
Creating and Uploading a Topic
JRXML-based topics are the most common type of topic. You can upload previously-created JRXML topics via the repository.
To upload a JRXML-based Topic:
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Log into the server as administrator and select View > Repository. |
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While any user with sufficient repository permissions can upload a Topic to the server, this example requires an administrator login to access the JServer Jdbc data source.
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Locate thefolder where Topics are stored. The location of the Topics folder depends on your system configuration; by default, Topics are in the Ad Hoc Components > Topics folder. |
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Right-click the Topics folder and select Add Resource > JasperReport from the context menu. |
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Add Resource appears on the context menu only if your login account has write privilege to the folder.
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After selecting Add Resource > JasperReport, the Set Up the Report page of the JasperReport wizard appears.
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In the Set Up the Report page, give the Topic a name, a Resource ID, and an optional description, then click Next. |
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The Name field is the visible name of the file in the repository, such as Example Topic. |
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The Resource ID field is the internal ID of the object, such as Example_Topic. The server does not accept spaces in an internal ID. |
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The Description field, such as Topic uploaded for User Guide example, helps users understand the purpose of the file. |
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In the Locate the JRXML File section, select Upload a Local File, and click Browse to locate the file and upload the Topic from the file system. In this example, the file is <js-install>/samples/adhoc/topics/adhoc_sample.jrxml. |
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To locate adhoc_sample.jrxml, you need access to the server host file system.
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Because this is a simple Topic without parameters, there are no controls and resources associated with it. If the Topic has a Parametrized query, you can create input controls for it. See Selecting a Data Source for Running the Complex Report. Such input controls can appear in the Ad Hoc Editor and when the report is run.
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Click Select data source from repository and Browse to locate the data source named Data Sources/JServer Jdbc data source. |
Topics must be associated with the data source that they were designed for.
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In Locate Query, click Submit. |
Topics usually do not need a query or customization, but you can define them.
When you select Create > Ad Hoc View, the Example Topic appears on the Topics tab of the Data Chooser wizard. If you select the Example Topic, you can create a report using the columns available in the data source selected in step 7.
When you create a JRXML file for use as a Topic, you can specify the name to display for each field that the Topic returns. To do so, define a field property named adhoc.display for each field declared in the JRXML. The adhoc.display field property must have the following syntax:
<property name=”adhoc.display” value=”Any Name”/>
For example, this JRXML code declares a StoreState field that is displayed in reports as Store State:
<field name=”StoreState” class=”java.lang.String”> <property name=”adhoc.display” value=”Store State”/>
</field> |
Topics also support the $R expressions for field names; for more information, see Localizing Reports.
For fields in a non-domain topic the following properties may be of interest:
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dimensionOrMeasure: marks a field as a field or a measure |
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defaultAgg: which aggregation should be used for this measure (avg, etc) |
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semantic.item.desc: A description for the field |
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DefaultMask: set a measure as a $, date etc |
