Location data for filling the report in JasperServer

Question

I have developed a template design in JasperSoft Studio and upload jrxml file to JasperServer. I want to send data (JSON or XML) to filling report template from my python application and take back report in some popular formats like PDF, XLS using REST API. I do not want to store the data on the server. How can I do this? Or data must be stored on the server and there is no alternative way of their transmission by WEB-Service?

Answer 1

The data does not necessarily have to reside on the server.

You could design your template in such way that you can pass the data via input control parameters as @tobi6 suggested. Then you could use either the reports service or the reportExecutions service to get the desired output.

In your case, the data could be the actual data(XML or JSON) or the source of the data(a URL to the data file).

Here are some basic samples for working with XML data(for JSON is quite similar):

With actual data as parameter

The JasperReports template:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Created with Jaspersoft Studio version 6.1.1.final using JasperReports Library version 6.1.1  -->
<!-- 2016-05-25T14:18:00 -->
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="XmlDSReport_with_data" pageWidth="595" pageHeight="842" columnWidth="555" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" uuid="85d7b9ad-6feb-43dc-84cc-5175bf629546">
  <parameter name="xmlString" class="java.lang.String">
    <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA["<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><a><b><val>val1</val></b><b><val>val2</val></b></a>"]]></defaultValueExpression>
  </parameter>
  <parameter name="XML_INPUT_STREAM" class="java.io.InputStream">
    <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA[new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream($P{xmlString}.getBytes("UTF-8"))]]></defaultValueExpression>
  </parameter>
  <queryString language="xPath">
    <![CDATA[/a/b]]>
  </queryString>
  <field name="value" class="java.lang.String">
    <fieldDescription><![CDATA[val]]></fieldDescription>
  </field>
  <columnHeader>
    <band height="31" splitType="Stretch">
      <staticText>
        <reportElement x="150" y="0" width="100" height="30" uuid="b33a123d-8987-4da4-b21b-1f9ccc50e92d"/>
        <text><![CDATA[value]]></text>
      </staticText>
    </band>
  </columnHeader>
  <detail>
    <band height="30" splitType="Stretch">
      <textField>
        <reportElement x="150" y="0" width="100" height="30" uuid="14c51219-5ce2-47ce-abb9-71bc11a6f28c"/>
        <textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{value}]]></textFieldExpression>
      </textField>
    </band>
  </detail>
</jasperReport>

After you deploy the report and create the input control for the xmlString parameter you can test it. Let's say you want to pass this XML instead of leaving the default in place:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<a>
  <b><val>new_val1</val></b>
  <b><val>new_val2</val></b>
</a>

To test the reports service you run something similar to this in a terminal(I URL-encoded the XML string) and check the result:

curl  -u user:password \ 
      http://localhost:8080/jasperserver/rest_v2/reports/reports/XmlDSReport_with_data.pdf?xmlString=%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Ca%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cb%3E%3Cval%3Enew_val1%3C%2Fval%3E%3C%2Fb%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cb%3E%3Cval%3Enew_val2%3C%2Fval%3E%3C%2Fb%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fa%3E > report.pdf

To test the reportExecutions service, the main steps are:

1.Create an XML file with the request(name it reportExecutionRequest.xml)

<reportExecutionRequest>
    <reportUnitUri>/reports/XmlDSReport_with_data</reportUnitUri>
    <outputFormat>pdf</outputFormat>
    <freshData>true</freshData>
    <saveDataSnapshot>false</saveDataSnapshot>
    <interactive>true</interactive>    
    <allowInlineScripts>true</allowInlineScripts>
    <async>false</async>
    <parameters>
        <reportParameter name="xmlString">
            <value><![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
                <a><b><val>new_val1</val></b><b><val>new_val2</val></b></a>]]></value>
        </reportParameter>
    </parameters>
</reportExecutionRequest>

2.Make the request(you need to save the session cookie to retrieve the output):

curl  -u user:password \
      -H "Content-Type: application/xml" \
      -d @reportExecutionRequest.xml \
      -c cookies.txt \
      http://localhost:8080/jasperserver/rest_v2/reportExecutions

3.Get the output with the requestID and exportID from the result of the previous request:

curl  -b cookies.txt \
      http://localhost:8080/jasperserver/rest_v2/reportExecutions/cc57b351-cfb6-429e-8c92-d0aebebbed66/exports/b71d6353-1eec-4304-8713-5d0f3105680e/outputResource > report.pdf

With data as source URL

It is the same report template, but with the two parameters replaced with:

<parameter name="xmlSource" class="java.lang.String">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA["http://serverwithdata/xmlData.xml"]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>
<parameter name="net.sf.jasperreports.xml.source" class="java.lang.String">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA[$P{xmlSource}]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>

Note: I created two parameters here just because I wanted to keep a shorter name for the parameter when passing it through the reports service. I also created an input control just for the xmlSource parameter.

The tests in this case are similar.

EDIT: To use JSON instead of XML, the original JasperReports template needs to be adjusted in this way:

For data as parameter, just change the xmlString parameter, the XML_INPUT_STREAM parameter and the queryString to this:

<parameter name="jsonString" class="java.lang.String">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA["{\"a\": [ {\"b\": { \"val\": \"val1\"}}, {\"b\": { \"val\": \"val2\" }}]}"]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>
<parameter name="JSON_INPUT_STREAM" class="java.io.InputStream">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA[new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream($P{jsonString}.getBytes("UTF-8"))]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>
<queryString language="json">
  <![CDATA[a.b]]>
</queryString>

For data as source URL, change the xmlString parameter, the XML_INPUT_STREAM parameter and the queryString to this:

<parameter name="jsonSource" class="java.lang.String">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA["http://serverwithdata/jsonData.json"]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>
<parameter name="net.sf.jasperreports.json.source" class="java.lang.String">
  <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA[$P{jsonSource}]]></defaultValueExpression>
</parameter>
<queryString language="json">
  <![CDATA[a.b]]>
</queryString>

The cURL tests for the REST services are basically the same with the main difference that you will be passing JSON instead of XML and use the JSON specific parameters jsonString or jsonSource.

Answer 2

The API is separated in three domains:

• Administration services
• Repository services
• Report services

To generate reports, they first have to be deployed to the server via the repository service. If later on the report needs to be generated, it is called via the report services. Here, it is also possible to start synchronous or asynchronous report generation.

Therefore the report needs to be in the repository.

EDIT

Since you also need to deliver parameters, referring to this example it would work like this:

• Add a report parameter
• Add a input control for a report parameter
• Call the API with your input parameter: http://<host>:<port>/jasperserver[-pro]/rest_v2/reports/reports/samples/EmployeeAccounts.html?EmployeeID=sarah_id
• Do as needed for other parameters