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features_0_8_11

features_0_8_11

Jan 22, 2009

Note: To simplify the explanation of what's new and noteworthy, this document compares the features of version 0.8.9 and the upcoming version 0.8.11 release. Some of the features described here have been available since version 0.8.10. As 0.8.10 was never bundled with any of the other tools, most Pentaho-Reporting users won't be aware of its new features.

  • Main features

    • side-by-side subreports

    • crosstabs

    • more datasources (SQL, Reflection, Hibernate, Kettle, Mondrian, OLAP4J, Pentaho-Metadata, Scripted Data, ...)

    • advanced email creation support

    • barcodes/sparklines

    • Full runtime metadata support from datasources (OLAP attributes; Pentaho-Metadata properties)

    • Attributes and Attribute-Expressions added

    • Interactivity support: layouted results can drill back to their original report elements

    • new Uniform-Fileformat allows round-trip editing between all reporting tools.

  • Ease of use

    • subreports can now carry their own datasources and thus act like components to the master report

    • report-preprocessors can fully reconfigure reports and subreports based on the data for the report

    • Integrated wizard functionality (on-the-fly generation of report-definitions at runtime)

    • attribute-based aggregate-fields

    • Field/Element system simplified

  • Easier to integrate

    • new APIs for design-time support for elements, functions and datasources

    • Report-Designer is modular; uses engine's designtime support

    • new build system based on IVY to make it easier to work with the project's code

    • Metadata layer describes the features

      • element-type metadata (+ style and attribute metadata) [with built-in design-time support]

      • datasource metadata [with built-in design-time support]

      • function metadata

      • exports metadata

  • Layouter

    • new layout type: row layout

    • inline layout is editable via report-designer

    • report-definition: every structure element has style

  • Unlocking new capabilities

    • html exports can inject content into attributes of the generated html-code

    • html exports can inject raw content

    • Attribute-Expressions: almost every design-time property (like fieldnames, format-patterns, etc) can also be computed at runtime.

  • Report-Wizard and WAQR

    • rewritten from scratch

    • templates editable in report-designer

    • Roundtripping: Generate in Wizard -> tune/refine in PRD -> re-edit in Wizard

    • Uses design-time support metadata (can use all datasource types that are available)

  • Report-Designer

    • rewritten from scratch

    • Removed all duplicate code: PRD is guaranteed to always behave exactly like the underlying engine.

    • Metadata-aware

  • myriads of bug-fixes