Java Report-Writing Roundup

Java and report-writing are not usually synonymous, but all that has changed over the past three years as Linux, Java and J2EE have won a hefty market share of enterprise application developments. Suddenly there are dozens of report-writing, charting and BI analysis tools vying for some of those Java users. And as might be expected of report-writing newly wedded to Java and J2EE there is something borrowed, something blue and something uniquely Java new in all the vendor offerings. Here, Business Intelligence Pipeline takes a look at what you can expect from some of the Java report-writing tools, and gives a quick overview of individual tools' capabilities.

The Borrowed

Java reporting tools have obviously been influenced by the PC report-writing market represented by such vendors as Crystal Reports (now a part of Business Objects), Cognos and of course Microsoft itself. In fact we included Microsoft Reporting Services in our roundup table (see Table 1, below) just as point of comparison.

Now that Microsoft has a full-featured report writer in the Windows market, it has driven a number of players out and into the Java marketplace. BI vendors saw what happened first to OLAP server, then data ming, and now OLAP client-side players as Microsoft gave away significant software offerings for free, bundled with SQL Server. Significantly, Oracle and IBM, to ensure competitiveness in the larger DBMS market, have had to offer free giveaways in the OLAP and data mining arenas too. The number of OLAP players has shrunk as small and third-party BI vendors have dropped out of the market.

Originally PC-only database and BI players had to move. For example, Quadbase once had a database and report writer in the Windows market; now its report-writer is Java-oriented. Ditto for Crystal Reports, which has added strong, new Java report-writing capabilities, including a Java GUI report designer that embeds directly into BEA Weblogic Workshop or Borland's JBuilder IDEs.

Crystal Reports has had a different kind of influence on the Java report writer market. There are a couple non-Crystal tools that mimic Crystal's banded GUI report designer fairly closely. Open Source Datavision's and JInfonet's JReport Report Designers bare some marked resemblances to early PC versions of Crystal Reports. Of course, all of these report-writers offer their own distinctive features and functions, which we've detailed in Table 1.

The Blue

I fully expected IBM with its WebSphere product to be like Microsoft's Reporting Services. I thought IBM would have bought out a report-writing vendor and integrated into its own technology. Not so. Rather, IBM provides a simple baseline J2EE reporting service and then lets third party developers fill in the gaps. This may change, especially with competition from Oracle, a major Linux and Java player, heating up. The SQL Server crowding-out effect may yet appear in the broader Java report-writing market. But in the meantime, Java reports are not only thriving but also bringing new innovations.

The Java New

The new Java report-writers are bringing a lot of new innovations and enhancements to the report-writing genre. On the enhancements, Java report writers have added Flash, XML, Java Applet and DHTML output. For example, Flash and XML using XHTML+SVG add new animation, multimedia and better styled reports. Java applets and DHTML output allow reports to be automatically customized by the end user -- new sort fields, or grouping in reports, or pivot dimensions and field selections in pivot tables. The use of Java is also enhanced by the availability of JavaBeans, customized JSP tags, and interactions with Java application servers for scheduling and redirecting reports based on critical content.

But the Java report writers are also doing novel things. Crystal Reports has specific report writers for BEA and Borland IDEs, but also can easily add optional and user-selectable choices within the development or runtime environment. ReportMill takes this a step further as portions of its designer IDE are part of the report-writing API. And several vendors provide Java applet reports that not only draw on new data but also allow dramatic and dynamic report customizations in a Web Browser. Part of this richness in report-writing is due to the fact that ISVs don't have to suffer Microsoft's lack of native or direct support for JDBC, Java applets, Flash, SVG, PNG and other standards in its development tools. Part is due to the cross-platform reach of Java. But a part that should not be overlooked is the new technologies available in Java like Java Server Faces, J2ME, and Java Portlets.

So try some of the new Java Report writers. You have a lot of new, interesting options to choose from while getting polished services. Also the easy cross-platform reach and some novel pricing options make Java and report-writing a new bargain.

Jacques Surveyer is a consultant and trainer; see some of his tips and tutorials at theOpenSourcery.com