Qants – Tips in the field of Java Performance & Software Testing

How to send parameter to another in jasper ireport

After i struggled hard for almost a couple of days somewhere in august, for making a connection between two JasperReports (passing parameters from one report to another), these days i was facing the same problem again…so i thought i should write this down before i loose any other minute in the future on the same subject.

The topic is:

Having a Jasper Report, generated with IReport, running on a JasperServer, we want to run a “subreport” by passing a runtime parameter, that was generated in the first report.

As my environment is made up of IReport and JasperServer, running with a JasperServer repository, i was facing two problems:

1. How to pass the parameter between two JasperReport reports
2. Local vs. Repository Input Controls needed

Point 1 – Passing parameter between reports – Prepare the first report

After you created your first report using IReport (and updated it in the repository), suppose you want to build in a hyperlink, that should run a second report (Report2), by using this parameter as a field in a query for example.

These are the steps to perform:

1. In your first report, Report1, right click on the text field containing the book value. Select “hyperlink“
2. Select “Hyperlink Type = Report Execution“
3. Go to “Link Parameter“, the fourth tab.
4. You will have to add two parameters here, both of them of type string:
   • _report : “/reports/MyReports/Report2″ - where `_report` is the name of the parameter, and `/reports/MyReports/Report2` is your relative path in the repository, where Report2 is saved. Just replace the path with your own path
   • paramrep2 : $F{paramrep1} - where `paramrep2` is the name of the parameter, and `$F{paramrep1}` is the field in your first report, containing the value that you want to send to the second report
5. You do not need to add these parameters as parameters in your first report. But you do have to add them in the second, and that takes me to point 2

Point 2 – Preparing the second report for the values passed by the first report

Because we are working with a repository, please try to avoid defining local input controls or datasources.

The parameters sent by Report 1 have to be integrated in Report2 with the help of “input controls”

Define your parameter as an input control in the repository, of the type that you need. Remember it has to have EXACTLY the same name as the parameter defined in Point 1, that being `paramrep2` . After that, refresh the report in IReport, so that you make sure the newly created input control is in the report (check it under the `Input controls` node)

Once you have this settled, you can modify your query accordingly, by using the passed parameter, something like:

where classname=$P{paramrep2}

There it is. It looks straightforward, but we do forget don’t we? And the trick with the repository is a thing to remember (and no, the other way around won’t do it, not with my version of IReport at least, which is 3.5.0)