src/content/community/articles/interviews/toffoli-ireport-netbeans.html - netbeans-website-cleanup - Git at Google

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 <h1>iReport for NetBeans - An Interview with Giulio Toffoli, iReport
 Project Leader <br>
 </h1>
 <br>
 JasperSoft's <a
  href="http://www.jasperforge.org/jaspersoft/opensource/business_intelligence/ireport/">iReport</a>,
 the popular open source graphical report and dashboard design tool
 supports the NetBeans IDE as a native plug-in. iReport for NetBeans
 enables developers to build and edit complex reports for rich-client
 and web applications in a native development environment.
 In this interview, iReport creator Giulio Toffoli discusses the latest
 release of the plugin, his experience creating the module using the
 NetBeans Platform, and what users can expect from future updates.<br><br><br>
 <div
  style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 250px; float: left; font-size: 90%;">
 <div style="text-align: left;"><img style="width: 200px; height: 199px;"
  alt="Giulio Toffoli, Project Lead of iReport"
  src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/giulio-toffoli.jpg"
  align="top" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>
 </div>
 <div style="text-align: left;"><br>
 Giulio Toffoli is a Senior
 Software Engineer at <a href="http://www.jaspersoft.com/index.html">JasperSoft
 Corporation</a>, where he serves as the iReport project leader. He has
 been
 developing Java applications since 1999 and founded the iReport project
 in
 2001. His expertise includes designing complex software architectures
 and implementing
 custom software solutions with a focus on desktop and multi-tiered
 web-based
 client-server applications using Java (J2EE/JEE) and open-source
 technologies. He
 has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of
 Bologna and currently
 resides in Italy.<br>
 </div>
 </div>
 <span style="font-weight: bold;">
 </span>
 <h4>What are the
 highlights of the latest release of iReport for
 NetBeans (v0.9.1)?</h4>
 We introduced support for the crosstabs, conditional styles,
 and the new border and pen definitions. We fixed several bugs and
 refactored
 some code portions, thus improving the performance.<br>
 <br>
 <h4>When and where can users get the plugin, and what version of
 the NetBeans IDE does it work with?<o:p></o:p>
 </h4>
 The first version of the plugin (v0.9.0) is already
 available on the <a href="http://plugins.netbeans.org/PluginPortal/">NetBeans
 Plugin Portal</a>, where it is extremely popular.
 The new version
 (v0.9.1) will be out in early April and will be fully
 compatible with
 NetBeans 6.0 and NetBeans 6.1.<br>
 <o:p></o:p><br>
 <table
  style="text-align: left; width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
  border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
   <tbody>
     <tr>
       <td style="vertical-align: top;">
       <div style="text-align: center;"><a
  href="../../../images_www/articles/ireport-screenshot1.jpg"><img
  alt="iReport for NetBeans - New Crosstab Designer in Action"
  src="../../../images_www/articles/ireport-screenshot1-small.jpg"
  style="border: 0px solid ; width: 520px; height: 320px;" align="top"></a><br>
       </div>
       <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">iReport
 for NetBeans: New Crosstab
 Designer<br>
 Click for larger view</span><br>
       </div>
       </td>
     </tr>
   </tbody>
 </table>
 <h4>Are there significant differences between the plugin and the
 stand-alone
 versions of iReport?<o:p></o:p><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></h4>
 <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>
 There are no particular
 differences in terms of
 functionalities. In the future we plan to improve the integration with
 Java
 projects when iReport is executed as a plugin inside the IDE, allowing
 the use
 of the project classpath to run a report. The stand-alone version
 better serves
 non-technical users who are interested only in design reports and not
 in writing
 code; and developers using other environments and looking for something
 lighter
 than the whole IDE.<o:p></o:p>
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>Why integrate iReport with the
 NetBeans IDE? </h4>
 NetBeans provides a set of services and functionalities that we had to
 write on
 our own in the previous version of iReport. Moving to NetBeans gave us
 a lot of
 features—in a modern implementation and completely maintained by Sun—
 for free.
 Such as the visual library for the main designer, the window docking
 system,
 the property sheets, the data oriented tree, and much more. <br>
 <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
 <br>
 We were thus able to concentrate efforts on the core
 functionalities of our application. A standard platform enables the use
 of
 modules provided by third parties to quickly grow the set of
 functionalities
 offered out-of-the-box. It is easier for new developers to be involved
 in the
 project since all the platform APIs are well-known and documented, thus
 making
 the source code of iReport results easy to understand and extend.
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>What features of the NetBeans IDE does the plugin use? </h4>
 iReport makes good use of pretty much all the base NetBeans API. The DB
 module
 in particular functions as a way to define the database connections,
 and the
 user can use it to design SQL queries and explore the database as
 well—a handy
 feature that’s beyond the scope of the application, but that we got for
 free
 using the module just to manage the JDBC drivers and connections. As I
 already
 mentioned, tight integration with Java projects is on the roadmap. <o:p></o:p>
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>Prior to creating iReport, what was your experience with the
 NetBeans Platform?
 </h4>
 My experience was essentially null. I started by reading the book:
 “<a
  href="http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0132354802,00.html"><span
  style="font-style: italic;">Rich Client
 Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform</span></a>”, written
 by Tim Boudreau, Jaroslav Tulach and Geertjan
 Wielenga.<o:p></o:p>
 <o:p></o:p>The book was a good starting point. <br>
 <br>
 It does
 not make assumptions about your knowledge of the NetBeans Platform,
 making it perfect
 for people approaching platform development for the first time. Using
 real life
 samples, it goes through all the main APIs and allows you to start
 writing code
 almost immediately. It is not a exhaustive reference of the NetBeans
 APIs and
 the Platform (this would&nbsp;require more than a single book) but it
 gives you
 the tools to find out the rest.<br>
 <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
 <br>
 The second great place to get started with plugin development
 is looking at the code. This may be a bit rude, but there are so many
 code
 patterns that when you compare several modules you discover that you
 are more
 or less writing the same code. Finally, the <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/lists/top.html">NetBeans
 mailing lists</a> are great
 sources of knowledge. It’s where you really get the sense that there is
 a strong
 and passionate community centered around NetBeans. And finding someone
 to help
 solve a problem is pretty easy.
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>Why did you choose to build iReport with the NetBeans Platform? </h4>
 I began to consider moving iReport to the NetBeans Platform after
 attending
 JavaOne in 2007. During that occasion, I met Toni Epple who was already
 working
 on a designer for JasperReports based on the NetBeans Platform, and
 that
 I
 thought was pretty cool. I was looking for a platform to move iReport
 onto;
 iReport was completely written using Swing, so the opportunity to reuse
 a lot
 of the existing code for the UI in the new version was great.<o:p></o:p>
 <br>
 <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
 <br>
 <h4>Are there improvements you'd like to see in the NetBeans Platform?
 </h4>
 An easy way to dynamically extend the global classpath. Currently,
 several
 third parties libraries still rely on the system classpath when they
 dynamically look for a class (using the Class.forName() method instead
 of
 relying on the thread context class loader). In the original version,
 iReport
 had a special directory (lib) for this purpose: all the jars in that
 directory
 were added to the system classpath at startup. Of course, there are
 lots of
 implications to allowing users to add a jar with a global visibility in
 the
 NetBeans IDE: this would break all the rules and the efforts to manage
 classpath visibility of each module, but it would solve a lot of
 problems at
 platform level, where the risk of a class conflict is really low.<o:p></o:p>
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>Are there updates to the plugin for NetBeans 6.1?</h4>
 We just fixed a couple of incompatibilities (due to API changes). The
 good news
 is that Sun has been really responsive in helping to figure out the
 problem and
 reconsidering the particular API change.<o:p></o:p>
 <br>
 <br>
 <h4>What is the roadmap for iReport for NetBeans, and what can users
 expect?<o:p></o:p>
 </h4>
 We still have a lot of work to do, but iReport 0.9.1
 represents a very important milestone since it is the first version
 that
 provides visual support of all the JasperReports 2.0.5 features
 (meaning you do
 not have to write a single line of jrxml).
 <br>
 <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
 <br>
 The next major steps will be better support for export
 formats (currently the export of a report in a particular format can be
 done
 only using the preview window), full support for internationalization
 (i18n)
 and usability improvements (and here the list is very long). <br>
 <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
 <br>
 We plan to reach all the functionalities offered by the
 current standard version of iReport in June, at which time the port
 will
 be
 complete and the old version will be no longer be developed in favor of
 the
 NetBeans version.<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p><br>
 <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(April
 2008)</span><br>
 </div>
 <br>
 <br>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
	<html>
	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../netbeans.css" media="screen">
	<meta name="author" content="Tinuola Awopetu">
	<meta name="keywords" content="NetBeans IDE, NetBeans Platform, iReport, Jaspersoft, Giulio Toffoli">
	content="NetBeans, NetBeans IDE 6.0, iReport, NetBeans 6.1">
	<title>iReport for NetBeans - An Interview with Giulio Toffoli, iReport Project Leader </title>
	</head>
	<body>
	<h1>iReport for NetBeans - An Interview with Giulio Toffoli, iReport
	Project Leader <br>
	</h1>
	<br>
	JasperSoft's <a
	href="http://www.jasperforge.org/jaspersoft/opensource/business_intelligence/ireport/">iReport</a>,
	the popular open source graphical report and dashboard design tool
	supports the NetBeans IDE as a native plug-in. iReport for NetBeans
	enables developers to build and edit complex reports for rich-client
	and web applications in a native development environment.
	In this interview, iReport creator Giulio Toffoli discusses the latest
	release of the plugin, his experience creating the module using the
	NetBeans Platform, and what users can expect from future updates.<br><br><br>
	<div
	style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 250px; float: left; font-size: 90%;">
	<div style="text-align: left;"><img style="width: 200px; height: 199px;"
	alt="Giulio Toffoli, Project Lead of iReport"
	src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/giulio-toffoli.jpg"
	align="top" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br>
	</div>
	<div style="text-align: left;"><br>
	Giulio Toffoli is a Senior
	Software Engineer at <a href="http://www.jaspersoft.com/index.html">JasperSoft
	Corporation</a>, where he serves as the iReport project leader. He has
	been
	developing Java applications since 1999 and founded the iReport project
	in
	2001. His expertise includes designing complex software architectures
	and implementing
	custom software solutions with a focus on desktop and multi-tiered
	web-based
	client-server applications using Java (J2EE/JEE) and open-source
	technologies. He
	has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of
	Bologna and currently
	resides in Italy.<br>
	</div>
	</div>
	<span style="font-weight: bold;">
	</span>
	<h4>What are the
	highlights of the latest release of iReport for
	NetBeans (v0.9.1)?</h4>
	We introduced support for the crosstabs, conditional styles,
	and the new border and pen definitions. We fixed several bugs and
	refactored
	some code portions, thus improving the performance.<br>
	<br>
	<h4>When and where can users get the plugin, and what version of
	the NetBeans IDE does it work with?<o:p></o:p>
	</h4>
	The first version of the plugin (v0.9.0) is already
	available on the <a href="http://plugins.netbeans.org/PluginPortal/">NetBeans
	Plugin Portal</a>, where it is extremely popular.
	The new version
	(v0.9.1) will be out in early April and will be fully
	compatible with
	NetBeans 6.0 and NetBeans 6.1.<br>
	<o:p></o:p><br>
	<table
	style="text-align: left; width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
	border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
	<tbody>
	<tr>
	<td style="vertical-align: top;">
	<div style="text-align: center;"><a
	href="../../../images_www/articles/ireport-screenshot1.jpg"><img
	alt="iReport for NetBeans - New Crosstab Designer in Action"
	src="../../../images_www/articles/ireport-screenshot1-small.jpg"
	style="border: 0px solid ; width: 520px; height: 320px;" align="top"></a><br>
	</div>
	<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">iReport
	for NetBeans: New Crosstab
	Designer<br>
	Click for larger view</span><br>
	</div>
	</td>
	</tr>
	</tbody>
	</table>
	<h4>Are there significant differences between the plugin and the
	stand-alone
	versions of iReport?<o:p></o:p><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></h4>
	<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>
	There are no particular
	differences in terms of
	functionalities. In the future we plan to improve the integration with
	Java
	projects when iReport is executed as a plugin inside the IDE, allowing
	the use
	of the project classpath to run a report. The stand-alone version
	better serves
	non-technical users who are interested only in design reports and not
	in writing
	code; and developers using other environments and looking for something
	lighter
	than the whole IDE.<o:p></o:p>
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Why integrate iReport with the
	NetBeans IDE? </h4>
	NetBeans provides a set of services and functionalities that we had to
	write on
	our own in the previous version of iReport. Moving to NetBeans gave us
	a lot of
	features—in a modern implementation and completely maintained by Sun—
	for free.
	Such as the visual library for the main designer, the window docking
	system,
	the property sheets, the data oriented tree, and much more. <br>
	<o:p> </o:p>
	<br>
	We were thus able to concentrate efforts on the core
	functionalities of our application. A standard platform enables the use
	of
	modules provided by third parties to quickly grow the set of
	functionalities
	offered out-of-the-box. It is easier for new developers to be involved
	in the
	project since all the platform APIs are well-known and documented, thus
	making
	the source code of iReport results easy to understand and extend.
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>What features of the NetBeans IDE does the plugin use? </h4>
	iReport makes good use of pretty much all the base NetBeans API. The DB
	module
	in particular functions as a way to define the database connections,
	and the
	user can use it to design SQL queries and explore the database as
	well—a handy
	feature that’s beyond the scope of the application, but that we got for
	free
	using the module just to manage the JDBC drivers and connections. As I
	already
	mentioned, tight integration with Java projects is on the roadmap. <o:p></o:p>
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Prior to creating iReport, what was your experience with the
	NetBeans Platform?
	</h4>
	My experience was essentially null. I started by reading the book:
	“<a
	href="http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0132354802,00.html"><span
	style="font-style: italic;">Rich Client
	Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform</span></a>”, written
	by Tim Boudreau, Jaroslav Tulach and Geertjan
	Wielenga.<o:p></o:p>
	<o:p></o:p>The book was a good starting point. <br>
	<br>
	It does
	not make assumptions about your knowledge of the NetBeans Platform,
	making it perfect
	for people approaching platform development for the first time. Using
	real life
	samples, it goes through all the main APIs and allows you to start
	writing code
	almost immediately. It is not a exhaustive reference of the NetBeans
	APIs and
	the Platform (this would require more than a single book) but it
	gives you
	the tools to find out the rest.<br>
	<o:p> </o:p>
	<br>
	The second great place to get started with plugin development
	is looking at the code. This may be a bit rude, but there are so many
	code
	patterns that when you compare several modules you discover that you
	are more
	or less writing the same code. Finally, the <a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/lists/top.html">NetBeans
	mailing lists</a> are great
	sources of knowledge. It’s where you really get the sense that there is
	a strong
	and passionate community centered around NetBeans. And finding someone
	to help
	solve a problem is pretty easy.
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Why did you choose to build iReport with the NetBeans Platform? </h4>
	I began to consider moving iReport to the NetBeans Platform after
	attending
	JavaOne in 2007. During that occasion, I met Toni Epple who was already
	working
	on a designer for JasperReports based on the NetBeans Platform, and
	that
	I
	thought was pretty cool. I was looking for a platform to move iReport
	onto;
	iReport was completely written using Swing, so the opportunity to reuse
	a lot
	of the existing code for the UI in the new version was great.<o:p></o:p>
	<br>
	<o:p> </o:p>
	<br>
	<h4>Are there improvements you'd like to see in the NetBeans Platform?
	</h4>
	An easy way to dynamically extend the global classpath. Currently,
	several
	third parties libraries still rely on the system classpath when they
	dynamically look for a class (using the Class.forName() method instead
	of
	relying on the thread context class loader). In the original version,
	iReport
	had a special directory (lib) for this purpose: all the jars in that
	directory
	were added to the system classpath at startup. Of course, there are
	lots of
	implications to allowing users to add a jar with a global visibility in
	the
	NetBeans IDE: this would break all the rules and the efforts to manage
	classpath visibility of each module, but it would solve a lot of
	problems at
	platform level, where the risk of a class conflict is really low.<o:p></o:p>
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Are there updates to the plugin for NetBeans 6.1?</h4>
	We just fixed a couple of incompatibilities (due to API changes). The
	good news
	is that Sun has been really responsive in helping to figure out the
	problem and
	reconsidering the particular API change.<o:p></o:p>
	<br>
	<br>
	<h4>What is the roadmap for iReport for NetBeans, and what can users
	expect?<o:p></o:p>
	</h4>
	We still have a lot of work to do, but iReport 0.9.1
	represents a very important milestone since it is the first version
	that
	provides visual support of all the JasperReports 2.0.5 features
	(meaning you do
	not have to write a single line of jrxml).
	<br>
	<o:p> </o:p>
	<br>
	The next major steps will be better support for export
	formats (currently the export of a report in a particular format can be
	done
	only using the preview window), full support for internationalization
	(i18n)
	and usability improvements (and here the list is very long). <br>
	<o:p> </o:p>
	<br>
	We plan to reach all the functionalities offered by the
	current standard version of iReport in June, at which time the port
	will
	be
	complete and the old version will be no longer be developed in favor of
	the
	NetBeans version.<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p><br>
	<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(April
	2008)</span><br>
	</div>
	<br>
	<br>
	</body>
	</html>