Viewing reports generated by BOXI in local Java application?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am developing a Java client that will act as a front-end to a BOXI R2 server and am having some problems finding a suitable way to display the generated reports in an integrated manner.

I have been using the Web Services component to interact with the server as this seems like the easiest (only) way to run reports on demand, including setting parameters. The ReportViewerBean java applet seems like the only tool available to integrate in a client java application but I have some problems with it. The only way I have been able to get it to display a report is by getting an IReportSource from the page server. It also doesn't let me set parameters programatically and so what my app has to do at the moment is set parameters and retrieve a view using the web service, put the retrieved view back on the server in a temporary location and then retrieve the temporary view on the server using the IReportSourceFactory and feed that to the ReportViewerBean.

This solution is no good and I need some help getting this to work.

I have used an ActiveX CR viewer component in a separate project written in VB6 which allowed me to set parameters, data sources, ect. and run the report. It was very flexible, but unfortunately tied to windows. Is there any similar component available in java that isn't as crippled as the ReportViewerBean and allows me to just view the report I retrieved from the server?

Thanks,

Elliot.

[ted_ueda]

The ReportViewerBean does not, within itself, have the features you're looking for.

Our client desktop saved-data viewer - Crystal Reports Viewer - does something similar to what you're trying to accomplish.

It uses Web Services to set parameters, run the report on the server, then stream the rpt file back. Then the Crystal Report Viewer displays the saved data rpt file using the Java Reporting Component.

But as you can see, much of the heavy lifting is done in code, like in your solution.

Sincerely,

Ted Ueda

[Former Member]

The Crystal Report Viewer looks good, but it seem that it's only available for Windows and Mac platforms. The reason why I am using Java is because the company I am working for has clients using both Windows and Solaris workstations.

The reporting component I am investigating needs to be integrated with our current software solution.

There are a few requirements that restrict this to an integrated solution:

We will be managing cascading and custom dynamic prompts and feeding formatted strings from that to the report parameters

Solution has to be cross platform, including Unix platforms

Interface has to be restricted so that viewing, printing, exporting can be controlled and audited by us.

An interface that I can catch hyperlink events from to trigger extra functionality in the parent program.

Thanks for the suggestion, but are there any other thick client java options for viewing a generated report?