The tutorial scenario

The reports we build in this tutorial are related to a fictional, mid-size retail coffee chain named Jinfonet Gourmet Java. All documents needed to run the business and drive decision-making are reports generated by JReport.

The business questions that our reports can answer include:

• What were the Sales totals last month? Last year?
• Which regions had the highest sales? Which sales representative?
• Which product was the best selling last month? Last year?

Reports deliver real-time data

By integrating sophisticated reporting functionality in enterprise applications, organizations can access, analyze and deliver real-time data as well as unlock critical business data hidden within applications.

The reports access the same data storage as the applications of Jinfonet Gourmet Java:

Data sources used in the tracks

The data store for the company is an RDBMS and XML files. The applications of the company—inventory management system, store operations, supply chain management, and order tracking—access and update the data store.

For the reports that you will be creating and managing in this tutorial, the data sources are predefined in a built-in HyperSonic DBMS database and an XML data source. The table below shows the tables in the DBMS and XML data sources. The DBMS Name/XML Name is the name of the table as it is known in the DBMS or XML data itself; the Table Name is the table name that is shown in the JReport Designer:

By mapping the actual data source names to JReport Designer names, report designers can work with more intuitive or customized names.

Where to go next

Choose any of the following tracks for a step-by-step walk through of the JReport solution:

• Track 2: Creating New Reports
• Track 3: Creating Business Cubes and Report Cubes
• Track 4: Creating Business Views and Web Reports
• Track 5: Creating Library Components
• Track 6: Publishing, Running and Administering Reports
• Track 7: Integrating Reports with JSP
• Track 8: Creating and Analyzing Ad Hoc Reports