The future of iReport Designer

[sallywhite_123]

Hi, I understand "As of version 5.5.0, Jaspersoft Studio will be the official design client for JasperReports. iReport will remain as a supported product in maintenance-only mode until December 31, 2015, meaning we will continue to fix critical defects in upcoming releases but no new features will be added to the iReport client. Continue to maintain your existing reports with the new Jaspersoft Studio!" Does this mean any existing Netbeans applications using Jaspersoft iReport will have to port their applications to Eclipse Jasperstudio, after this date? Furthermore, does it also implies Jaspersoft iReport will no longer be upgraded to support newer versions of Java, after this date? Thanks, Sally

[hozawa]

Looking at what Jaspersoft did with earlier versions of JasperReports Server, they just may close iReport project altogether and make it unavailable for download.

As of this month, only JasperReports Server 5.5.0 is available for download both in Community edition and Enterprise edition. They removed all previous downloads. They did this without any announcements. At least, they're giving notices about discontinusing iReport. Should take them serously and move to Studio.

[Giulio Toffoli]

Hi Sally,

 

iReport, just like Jaspersoft Studio, is just a designer for JasperReports. I'm not aware of any NetBeans based application which is including iReport (even because this is not allowed by the GPL license, in case of commercial applications). On the other side, iReport is available also as NetBeans plugin to create reports and we don't plan to continue to develop it.

 

What NetBeans RCP based applications, like any other java application, can freely use, is the JasperReports library, which is LGPL and not tied in any way to a specific IDE or framework. Don't confuse the ability to use a great reporting library like JasperReports with iReport, which again, is just the software to design your reports. JasperReports is the core of both iReport and Jaspersoft Studio, and is actively developed.

 

Reports, even the ones designed for old versions of JasperReports with iReport, can be modified and edited with Jaspersoft Studio, which also supports most new advanced features offered by JasperReports, like support for HTML fonts and extensions to the Google Map component to cite a few.

 

Maintain two report designers tand be able to work on the visionary plans we have for Jaspersoft Studio with the need to keep up also iReport is just unpractical, and we prefer to focus on a single designer.

Jaspersoft Studio has been designed to be much more easy to extend than iReport and its internal architecture allows us to better support the evolution of JasperReports.

 

With tons of new features, Jaspersoft Studio should be today your primary report development environment. It is available as stand-alone application if you don't use Eclipse.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Giulio

 

[sallywhite_123]

Hi Giulio, Thank you for your reply.

I am currently using iReport plugin for Netbeans. May i know is there any Jaspersoft Studio plugin for Netbeans? I do not seem able to find one yet. Sally

[Giulio Toffoli]

There is not a plugin for NetBeans of Jaspersoft Studio, and there will not be one. Jaspersoft Studio is based on Eclipse.

Thanks

Giulio
 

[lizhearn]

If we have developed a number of JasperReports in Netbeans using iReport what are our upgrade options given that iReports is no longer available and Jaspersoft Studio is not available in Netbeans?

[Giulio Toffoli]

First of all, iReport will remain always available for download, it is just not getting updated, and it does not support the most recent JasperReports additions. You have two options: keep using iReport (without using the newest features of jasperreports) or move to Jaspersoft Studio, which works as standalone applications or as plugin for Eclipse.