You design a report using the Design tab, which is divided into different horizontal portions, named bands, where you can place report elements. When the report design is combined with the data to generate the print, each band is printed multiple times based on its function (and according to the rules that the report designer has set). For instance, the page header is repeated at the beginning of every page, while the detail band is repeated for each record.

Jaspersoft Studio provides a graphical interface for creating JRXML files. The layout is visual, so you can ignore the underlying structure of the JRXML. You can specify the precise page locations of different types of text and data, such as title, footers, detailed records, groups, and summary information. Some portions of a page defined in this way are reused, others stretch to fit the content, and so on. Additional tools let you add charts and subreports, set up an optional query retrieve data out of a data source, and more.

Understanding Bands

The Design tab is divided into nine predefined bands to which new groups are added. In addition, Jaspersoft Studio manages a heading band (group header) and a recapitulation band (group footer) for every group.

A band is as wide as the page width (right and left margins excluded). However, its height, even if it is established during the design phase, can vary during print creation according to the contained elements; it can “lengthen” toward the bottom of a page in an arbitrary way. This typically occurs when bands contain subreports or text fields that have to adapt to the content vertically. Generally, the height specified by the user should be considered “the minimal height” of the band. Not all bands can be stretched dynamically according to content; in particular the column footer, page footer, and last page footer bands are statically sized.

The sum of all band heights (except for the background) has to always be less than or equal to the page height minus the top and bottom margins.

Band Types

The following table contains brief descriptions of the available bands:

Specifying Report Properties

To view or edit report properties, select the report root node in the Outline view. The report properties are shown in the Properties view.

To change the page dimensions of a report, click the Report tab in the Properties view for the report, then click Edit Page Format to open the Page Format dialog. Here you can edit the width, height, units, orientation and margins of the report.

The unit of measurement used by Jaspersoft Studio and JasperReports is the pixel. However, it is possible to specify report dimension using other units of measurement, such as centimeters, millimeters, or inches. Note that because the dimensions management is based on pixels, some rough adjustments can take place when viewing the same data using different units of measurement. The following table shows standard page sizes and their dimensions in pixels.

By modifying width and height, it is possible to create a report of whatever size you like. Although Jaspersoft enables you to create pixel-perfect reports, the page orientation options, Landscape or Portrait, are there because they are used by certain report exporters. The page margin dimensions are set by means of the four options on the Page Margin tab.

Columns

Pages, one or more of which make up a report, present bands that are independent from the data (such as the title or the page footers) and other bands that are printed only if there are one or more data records to print (such as the group headers and the detail band). These last sections can be divided into vertical columns in order to take advantage of the available space on the page. A column does not concern the record fields, but it does concern the detail band. This means that if you have a record with ten fields and you desire a table view, ten columns are not needed. However, the element must be placed correctly to have a table effect. Ten columns are returned when long records lists (that are horizontally very narrow) are printed.

Next, let's set up columns in a report as an example. Create a new report from File > New > Jasper Report. Choose as template BlankA4 and name it ColumnExample. Use Sample DB - Database JDBC Connection for the data adapter, with the following SQL query: select * from orders. Fields from the database are discovered. Double-click SHIPNAME, to add it to the report field and click Next twice. Finally, click Finish.

From the outline view drag the SHIPNAME field in the report in the detail band, resize the detail band, and remove the unused bands. Go to the Preview tab to see the compiled report.

By default the number of columns is 1, and its width is equal to the entire page, except the margins. The space between columns is zero by default. Most of the page is unused. If multiple columns are used, this report would look better. On the Page Format dialog set the number of columns to two and compile the report to see the changes.

Jaspersoft Studio automatically calculates maximum column width according to the margins and the page width. If you want to increase the space between the columns, increase the value of the Space field.

The restricted area is used to mark every column after the first, to show that all the elements should be placed in the first column; the other columns are replicated automatically during compilation. If you want you can also put elements in the other columns, but in most cases you need only the first. It is not recommended that you use parts of the report as margins and columns after the first, if they have to be considered as though they were a continuation of the first.

Multiple columns are commonly used for print-outs of very long lists (for example, a phone directory). It is important to remember that when you have more than one column, the width of the detail band and of linked bands is reduced to the width of the columns.

The sum of the margins, column widths, and space between columns has to be less than or equal to the page width. If this condition is not met, the compilation results in an error.

Advanced Options

From the Properties view of the report there are many other options for the report configuration. Select the report root node from the outline view, and in the Properties view you see: