Outerthought has released version 1.0 of xReporter, an open source Java/XML web-based database reporting framework. The goal of xReporter is web-based consultation of databases (read-only). Users choose from a set of predefined report definitions (created by the report designer).

xReporter consists of 2 main components:

- an Avalon Phoenix-based query server, which is configured through XML-based report definitions, and is accessible across an XML/HTTP (ReST) interface

- a Apache Cocoon front-end web application, generating configurable HTML, PDF, Excel and CSV renditions of your database reports, thanks to the wonders of FOP, POI and some custom Cocoon drudgery

Go to the xReporter site

Visit the xReporter documentation

View Architectural diagram

Most compelling features:

  - multiple datasources & report definitions
  - user/role-based report authorization, container-based authentication
  - column filtering & sorting, query by example
  - no programming required to define complex, multistep database reports - they are expressed in a lightweight XML format (SQL knowledge is required)
    - optionally using temporary tables
    - expression language & field validation
    - possibility to access non-SQL, 'Web Services' datasources through XML/HTTP
  - fully customizable look & feel using CSS and XSLT
  - flow control using XML and a ReST HTTP interface

xReporter is released under an Apache-style license, and we welcome contributions as we aim to grow this into a community-owned project. Currently, there is anonymous read-only cvs access and a downloadable tarball. There's a live demo available on the project website.

looks interesting, I was looking for something like this
last summer!

What is URL of downloadable tar URL

http://xreporter.cocoondev.org/en/install.html#N10022

Well, the software itself looks very cool, we needed something like that too. Cocoon2 is also an excellent choice for such an application (in spite of going with Phoenix for the midware, but it's a matter of taste I guess).

Though, installations aren't painless (in spite of the very detailed guide), and the mailing list aint too responsive either (couldn't subscribe for 20+ hours now). I seem to got stuck with defining reports which does not appear and no error logs come.. still fighting, though :)

We wrote something like this based on FOP but we ran into
a problem since FOP didn't support at the time different
character sets. We ended up using JasperReports which
IMO isn't very good since you hardcode the look of the report
and it has no BiDi support whatsoever.

If this engine supports these and an easy to implement Data
source (so I don't have to expose the database and can
reuse beans) then this could be a great solution for our
current reporting needs.

I am sure that the release of the Hibernate 3 into Beta with its many new features must have been welcomed by the users and the new HQL implementation was also something to be excited about!! With the opportunity to try it out, I am sure it must have got a lot of new users as well!!