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Producing High Level Reports and Charts with Open Source Software

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Reports Development

Reports are documents that present information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents rendered as hard copy materials; reports can also be typed or computed and submitted electronically, otherwise known as soft copy.


Related Info: Journal Entries in Charts

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Producing High Level Reports and Charts with Open Source Software

Creating high-level reports and charts efficiently involves a combination of best practices in data visualization, understanding your audience, and using the right tools. Here are some key points to consider: Tailor your reports to the audience’s needs. Identify what information is most relevant to them and present it in a clear and concise manner. Use bar graphs to compare data between different groups or track changes over time, and line graphs to reveal trends or progress. Avoid clutter by sharing only the data points that significantly support your point. One point per chart can make the data more digestible. Make your reports visually appealing with consistent color schemes and clear titles. This helps in maintaining the reader's interest and understanding. Tell a story with your data. This involves making a narrative out of your data points to convey a compelling message. Ensure that all relevant teams are involved in the reporting process to provide a comprehensive view of the data. Always keep the end-user in mind. The design and complexity of the report should match their level of expertise and interest. Utilize templates for efficiency and consistency. They can save time and help maintain a standard format across reports. If you're presenting the data, practice with colleagues and ensure that every element of your charts is clear and understandable from a distance. Emphasize the ‘Aha!’ moments in your data. Use visual cues to draw attention to the most important parts of your data. By following these practices, you can create high-level reports and charts that are not only efficient but also effective in communicating the right message to your audience.



Advice for Developers when Providing High Level Reports on Websites

For developers aiming to provide high-level reports and charts on websites or enterprise web applications, the following methods are considered best practices for efficiency and effectiveness. Use of Modern Web Application Architecture: Implement a 3-tier structure with a presentation layer for UI, an application layer for business logic, and a data layer for data management. Design dashboards that are both aesthetic and functional, focusing on clarity and decision-making support. Look at examples of web apps with inspiring reports and dashboards for ideas on how to maximize the potential of your applications. Select tools that cater to the specific needs of your project, whether it is for data visualization, real-time monitoring, or strategic insights. Ensure that your reports and dashboards are responsive and accessible across different devices and platforms. Implement robust security measures to protect sensitive data displayed in reports and dashboards. Optimize the performance of your web applications to handle the load of complex reports and real-time data processing. Continuously test your reports and dashboards and seek feedback to improve their quality and usability. By following these guidelines, developers can create high-level reports and charts that not only meet the business requirements but also provide a seamless experience for the end-users.



Best Open Source Tools for Developers to Showcase Reports and Charts

BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) is an open-source software project that provides reporting and business intelligence capabilities for rich client and web applications, particularly those based on Java and Java EE. It's part of the Eclipse Foundation and offers a robust framework for developers to create reports, visualizations, and dashboards that can be embedded into web applications. Developers who use BIRT will find this tool to be very advantageous. Here are some benefits using BIRT: Its integrated design and runtime engines make BIRT very efficient. BIRT has a visual report designer that can be integrated into an Eclipse IDE, making it convenient for developers to design reports straight away, without too much configuration. The runtime component can generate reports that can be deployed to any Java environment. BIRT supports various data sources, including SQL databases, web services, and XML, allowing developers to create dynamic reports with data from multiple origins. It includes a charting engine that can be used both within the report designer for creating charts and standalone to integrate charts into applications. BIRT provides a Web Viewer that can be used as an example web application deployment, utilizing the report engine to render reports. This tool's architecture supports customization and extensibility, enabling developers to tailor reports to specific needs. There's an active community for user support at the BIRT Developer Center and developer support at the Eclipse.org BIRT Project page. BIRT can be integrated with Spring Boot MVC to serve static and dynamic reports in HTML and PDF formats, which is useful for web applications. In closing, BIRT is a powerful tool for developers who need to produce detailed and interactive reports from their websites or enterprise web apps. Its integration with Eclipse, support for multiple data sources, and active community make it a valuable asset for developers looking to enhance their reporting capabilities.



Widely Used and Versatile Open Source Reporting and Charting Library

JasperReports is a popular open-source reporting tool that is beneficial for web developers in creating reports and charts. It’s part of the TIBCO JasperSoft suite and is known for its ability to deliver rich content onto the screen, to the printer, or into various file formats like PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV, and XML. We need to give you fair warning, we are going to see a little bias here but we do prefer JasperReports, we are going to show you why. JasperReports is versatile, it can be used in Java-enabled applications, including Java EE or web applications, to generate dynamic content. It offers extensive support for integration with Java, .NET, and other programming languages, providing APIs and libraries for embedding reports into applications. JasperReports is known for its high-performance engine, JasperReports provides efficient processing of large data sets with caching mechanisms and optimized SQL queries. With advanced caching and efficient querying, JasperReports is highly scalable and can handle large volumes of data without significant performance degradation. JasperReports includes Jaspersoft Studio, an advanced design environment for creating highly formatted, pixel-perfect reports and data visualizations. There is also a JasperReports Web Studio option which is a web-based version of Jaspersoft Studio, allowing developers to produce dynamic content and rich data visualizations from anywhere.



How does BIRT Stack up against JasperReports, in Terms of Usability?

OK, here comes the best part. We really do not like to compare software or tools because they have their strengths and weaknesses, but in this case we will make an exception. JasperReports is known for its efficiency in processing large datasets. BIRT is not as efficient due to its reliance on data retrieval from the database. JasperReports is considered more scalable than BIRT, especially when dealing with big datasets. JasperReports is designed for seamless integration with various platforms, on the other hand, BIRT is primarily designed for integration with Eclipse-based applications. So it is not surprising that JasperReports is often chosen for performance-critical scenarios because of its efficiency and scalability. BIRT is a great tool overall, it is preferred for less complex reporting requirements and ease of use. The choice between JasperReports and BIRT ultimately depends on the specific needs and preferences of the developer or the project requirements.



Environment-Specific Data Visualization for Enterprise Web Apps

Oracle ADF (Application Development Framework) does have a reporting and charting library that can be used within JDeveloper. It's called ADF Data Visualization Components (DVT), and it provides a rich set of interactive components for graphical representation of data. These components include more than 50 types of graphs, including bar, pie, line, scatter, and stock graphs. The library also produces gauges, to display quantitative information or trends. Developers can create gantt charts which are useful for project management to illustrate project schedules. For those who prefer to consume data through reports, the ADF reporting and charting library also render pivot tables, for data summarization and analysis. We are going to list everything here, as some charting options may be used by developers with specialized skills, because the charting or reporting has a specialized application. An example of specialized charting is a geographical map to represent geo-specific data. Another one is thematic map, which is menat for displaying statistical information on a map. Timelines, Hierarchy Viewers, Treemaps, and Sunbursts. The ADF library is loaded for various specialized data visualizations. These components are fully integrated with ADF Faces and support the use of ADF data controls. They allow for declarative design-time creation using the Data Controls Panel, the JSF visual editor, Properties window, and Components window. Each component offers live data preview during design, which is especially useful to see the effect of your design as it progresses without having to compile and run a page. For developers using JDeveloper, the ADF DVT provides a convenient and powerful way to create sophisticated reports and charts that can be seamlessly integrated into web applications, enhancing the overall user experience with rich, interactive data visualizations.



Open Source and Native Reporting with Charting Library for MVC Apps

Microsoft ASP.NET provides a native reporting and charting library that can be used in Visual Studio for CSharp applications. The ASP.NET Web Pages (Razor) framework includes a Chart helper that can render more than 30 types of charts, such as area, bar, column, line, pie, and stock charts. This helper supports a variety of formatting and labeling options and is designed to work with ASP.NET Web Pages 1.0 and 2.0. For more advanced reporting capabilities, developers often turn to third-party libraries that offer additional features and flexibility. One such tool is ActiveReports.NET, which is an award-winning .NET reporting tool for MVC, .NET Core, Blazor, ASP.NET, WPF, and WinForms. It provides developers with a familiar Visual Studio integrated designer, components, and extensive API, including powerful interactive charts and end-user report designers for both desktop and web applications. Another option is FastReport, a free open-source reporting tool for .NET that can be used in MVC, Web API, and console applications. FastReport is compatible with .NET Standard 2.0 and higher, and it allows creating your own objects, export filters, wizards, and DB engines. Choosing the right reporting and charting library depends on the specific requirements of your project, such as the complexity of the reports, the need for customization, and the preferred development environment.



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Download in computer networks, means to receive data from a remote system, typically a server, such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is sent to a remote server. A download is a file offered for downloading or that has been downloaded, or the process of receiving such a file.


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Green Coding Habits

Make your work count, add comments and instructions to your code, thoroughly test your samples before submission (mention what may still need additional testing), try not to be a litter bug in your community or forum, help save time and effort. Be Green! After all, what is the purpose of your submission if it cannot be used or comprehended. Might be a good idea to also mention, or at least give credits to works being used in your submissions.