rdl vs jrxml

[2004 IR Help]

By: Borys Burnayev - burnayev

rdl vs jrxml

2005-07-22 04:19

Report sources in Report Showcase at jaspersoft.com seem to be in rdl format while those under demo directory are all jrxml.

 

What is the project strategy regarding the format? Is there a preferrable one? Will both formats be supported a year from now?

 

 

 

 

By: Barry Klawans - bklawans

RE: rdl vs jrxml

2005-07-30 09:48

The sample report in the JasperSoft Report Showcase are all based on the commercial JasperDecisions, and were written using RDL. We will soon be releasing a new version of Jasper Decisions that has full support for both RDL and JRXML files, so existing JasperReports will be able to be used unchanged with our server, and benefit from its security system, repository, scheduling, etc.

 

Our strategy moving forward is to keep developing JRXML. RDL contains a lot of stuff that doesn't makes sense in a pure library, such as ACLs on fields, data source information, pagination information, etc. Its imaging model is web-centric, with flow-based layouts. Since it is architected in a moduler fashion, you can plug in new layout types and RDL does not have to change. Given this flexibility, we don't plan to change the layout section of RDL at all.

 

JRXML may evolve to have an option section giving information that a server based system needs, such as where to get the data.

 

Finally, when to use either language. If you are not a JasperDecisions customer, its easy - use JRXML. If you are a JasperDecisions customer, the answer depends on what type of report you are creating. If you want interactive, web-based reporting, consider RDL. If you want a paper-oriented report (such as an invoice, account statement, etc) use JRXML.

 

-Barry