Jinfonet Adds Enterprise-Class Features to Reporting Software

by Alex Woodie

Jinfonet Software recently announced JReport 5.0, the latest version of its suite of report generation software for OS/400 and other platforms that support Java. JReport helps users create sophisticated reports and other documents using dynamic data pulled from ODBC, JDBC, and XML data sources, and then provides the means to deliver those reports in a variety of formats. With the 5.0 release, designers gain new report generation capabilities, while the server portion gains enterprise-class features such as load balancing and failover.

Rockville, Maryland, based Jinfonet was founded in 1998 and launched the first version of JReport in October of that year. Since then, the company has delivered a new version about once every year, and has attracted several large customers, including Deutsche Bank and Honeywell's Federal Manufacturing & Technologies division in New Mexico, in addition to several ISVs that have embedded JReport into their applications. Jinfonet announced compatibility with the iSeries running WebSphere in 2001; today, several of its customers are running JReport on OS/400 servers, with several more reportedly in the works.

While it's hard to beat the speed and efficiency of a native RPG query on an OS/400 server, some people don't like reading reports on green-bar paper, and some users would prefer a GUI over a green-screen to develop their reports. Crystal Decisions has been very successful in selling its Web and Windows-based Crystal Reports software to shops--including OS/400 shops--that need more flexibility in the way they create and manage reports. JReport provides some of the same types of functionality, but does so through a Java framework, which makes it somewhat unique.

JReport has two parts: the JReport Designer and the JReport Server. The PC-based JReport Designer uses wizards and a visual report design tool to let non-technical users build complicated and sophisticated reports, including tabular reports, mailing labels, crosstab reports, form letters, and interactive graphs. The JReport Server, the component that could be deployed on an OS/400 server, handles everything from report scheduling, caching, version control, security, and resource and user management. The JReport Server is a multithreaded engine that can be integrated with any servlet-enabled Web server, including WebSphere or Apache, and delivers reports to Web browsers via HTML, XML, PDF, applets, or servlets, or exports those reports to Microsoft Excel, RTF, e-mail, PostScript, or CSV formats.

With JReport 5.0, Jinfonet has introduced more ways to support and manipulate data with the JReport Designer. For example, Jinfonet has added another type of data object, a "crosstab," to the other types of data that it supports, which include section, table, and chart. This version also includes the Query API, which helps to generate queries dynamically, allowing users to fetch data from different database and tables at runtime. Also, users will be able to combine records from more than one query into a single result set with the new Union option. This version also features new support for CSV output options, text justification for layout of reports, and support for very long character strings.

But the biggest enhancements with JReport 5.0 lie in the JReport Server. With this release, Jinfonet has cluster-enabled the product, allowing multiple JReport Server installations to function as a unit and be administered from a single location. JReport Server 5.0 features load-balancing, disk-sharing, and failover capabilities, ensuring that performance problems in one node will not affect the whole.

Jinfonet has also made other improvements in the way that users interact with JReport 5.0, such as adding descriptions to reports, viewing administrative functions to be performed, and scheduling tasks. This version also provides new support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology and has several other changes.

JReport 5.0 is available now. Pricing for the JReport Designer starts at $3,500, while the JReport Server starts at about $19,000 for a single-processor server and an unlimited number of users. The company is also selling a JReport Server package that supports five concurrent users and costs $7,500. For more information, go to www.jinfonet.com.

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