It looks like you are facing a sort of pivot table challenge. Even when you expect just one single value for a known row, unknown column cell.
In this case, you are in the right track. I I see no other way to pre-prepare the collection programmatically, and once known the number and name of the columns (your units), you can in two steps have the report done: step 1, based on some attributes of the resulting collection, write the XML report design. Then compile and fill the report. Just my 2 cents.. Regards, Gustavo. "Keith Rogers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 28/04/2004 10:29:10 a.m.: > It did not look easy to produce the following report, > > The report details which units in a course a student has passed. The > rows are students, the columns are units (and one for the student id). > The problem here is that the unit columns are retreived from the course, > so it will not be known at runtime how many there are or what their > names are. I undestand that it is possible to programmatically adjust > the report definition, but this would then require me to use two XML > docs for each report - the JasperReport xml and another to define how > this should be modified at runtime. > > My impression (which I hope is wrong) is still that JasperReports is > mainly a report presentation tool, and that producing tabular reports > like the one above that has variable fields produced by a query at > "filling" time would be difficult to do using it. > > Keith > > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 28/04/2004 12:53:20 >>> > Keith, > > We ve been using JasperReports with OJB por a while now. Reading your > > requirements, it seems JasperReports deservs a deep look. > Let me quote you > > >I'd like to be able to write > > a definition of the report in XML > > Well, this is exactly what you do with JR. Jasper will parser the > report > definition for you, will "compile" the report and will it have it ready > to > be "filled" which means "run" in JR jargon on demand. > > From JasperReports tutorial a simple report definition > (http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/tutorial/): > > <?xml version="1.0"?> > <!DOCTYPE jasperReport > PUBLIC "-//JasperReports//DTD Report Design//EN" > "http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/dtds/jasperreport.dtd";> > > <jasperReport name="name_of_the_report" ... > > ... > </jasperReport> > > If you like to try a visual designer for JR try ireports at > http://ireport.sourceforge.net/ > > JasperReports will work with any jdbc datasource and with OJB you will > be > able to pass him a collection of objects. > BTW, we are no related to JR in any form. > > Regards, > Gustavo. > > > > > > "Keith Rogers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 28/04/2004 > 08:18:08 a.m.: > > > Thanks to all who replied to this! > > > > All of these seem to be report presentation libraries rather than > > report generators, so I think I might try to write something more > > specific to my needs. > > > > Keith > > > > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 26/04/2004 14:30:28 >>> > > A quick search of sourceforge finds: > > > > OpenReports : http://sourceforge.net/projects/oreports/ > > JasperReports : http://sourceforge.net/projects/jasperreports/ > > JFreeReport : http://sourceforge.net/projects/jfreereport/ > > > > I think all 3 of these tools use an xml based syntax. I have played > > > around w/ then a little, but not enough to offer any advice. I don't > > > think any integrate directly w/ OJB, but you could probably write a > > wrapper for the OJB Report Query class for use with the tools. Good > > luck. > > > > Keith Rogers wrote: > > > > >I've gotten around to the part of my application that needs to > > produce > > >reports on various things. Rather than hard-code reports, which > > would, > > >admittedly make my job more secure :-) , I'd like to be able to > write > > a > > >definition of the report in XML, and have some parser take this and > > >produce the report automatically on demand. > > >I realise that this is not going to be a trivial task, so my first > > >question is - Has anyone done anything similar for OJB? > > > > > >Assuming the answer is "No", I suppose I'll have to try it > myself... > > >Does anyone know of a similar report-from-xml-definition that I > might > > >draw ideas from? > > > > > >Keith > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Robert r. 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