Several troubles using iReport all day...

[DocJones]

Heyas,

here is a list of the troubles i overcame using the iReport designer (3.7.3) to create reports:

- In my reports i typically use lots of fields per row. I am forced to use font sizes around 8 to 10pts. To save space, i reduce the band heigth of the detail band down to 2pts bigger than the font size. This results in iReport refusing to show the $F{...} in the designer window. I just see white boxes. This is annoying, since i have to click every "box" to find a certain field. It would be great if the font used in the designer window scales with the object size and the zoom factor.

- In the old iReport, there was a button "Publish Report Unit" to save a modified JRXML directly to the JasperServer Repository. The button is still there, but its constantly greyed out. I have to Save the JRXML locally and select "Replace with current JRXML" from the context menu in my JasperServer-Plug-In

- So is the "Run Report Unit" button from the JasperServer Plug-in (greyed out)

- I am missing the "Modify Band" button to change band heights and print expressions using the designer

- (This may be an issue with JasperServer) I still try to create a report with cascading inputcontrols (Single Value(Date)-->Multi Select Query (Collection)) to no avail. It seems the Date picked from the first parameter input control refuses to express properly into the SQL of the multi select query. I would love to get some better support designing those reports using iReport.

- Some kind of debugging output from a generated report would be great. I know i can trace the SQL generated on the JasperServer, but it would be much easier for development, to have an extended debugging output in the iReport console (generated query, retrieved rows, etc).

- An option to order all fields subsequently in a row (with no space between) would be nice. The current "Organize as table" leaves a tiny space between the fields, which results in extra columns if it comes to an excel based export.

- There should be an option to rearrange ALL fields when the datasource query has been changed (eg. to include more columns). This should take the column header static text into account as well.

So far my few thoughts coming up using iReport frequently over a few days. Great tool, tho, but with "room for improvement".

regards

Marc

 

[baggypants]

On mine the Publish Report and Run Report unit change their availablility depending on what item is currently selected in the Repository. e.g. if I select a folder then the Publish button comes available, If I choose a report unit then the Run button is active. Although they don't work for me either. I normally right click and choose an action from the context menu.