1. Architecture Pentaho Reporting Thomas Morgner 20th March 2014

2. Today’s To-Do List Family Picture – The Pentaho Reporting Components
5 minute Speed-run: How to process Reports
Detailed Report Processing and Modules
Designing Reports manually
Generating Reports
Reporting on the web
How to get the code

3. Pentaho Reporting from above
Pentaho BA-Server
Interactive Reporting
Report Designer
Reporting Plugin and Report Viewer
Libraries (Base, Fonts, Formula, Loader, Xml, DocBundle)
Reporting Engine
Design-Time-UI
Data-Source
Integration
Data-Source Modules
Server Integration

4. Pentaho Reporting from above
Libraries and Engine
Libraries
Encapsulate slowly changing code
Serve only one purpose per library
XML parsing, Resource Loading, Font Management etc
Engine
Embeddable reporting engine
For Desktop and Server
Small footprint
Extra functions are plugins
Defines report structure
Layout calculation
Parameter

5. Pentaho Reporting from above
Data-Sources and Report Designer
Data-Source
Split into runtime and designtime modules
Runtime: Query, serialize and deserialize as XML
Designtime: UI for report-designer
Report Designer
Swing Fat-Client
Aimed at power users
Infrastructure for
visual editing
Plugins
Introspection of reports

6. Speed-Run: Processing a Report
Create a report definition
Parse PRPT file
Build from Scratch
Parameterise (optional)
Call ReportProcessor:
A: Query Data
A: Iterate over Data
A: Detect groups, calculate values
B: Generate Layout Model
B: Compute Layout
C: Print Content (PDF, XLS etc)

7. Speed-Run: Processing a Report
Engine runs multiple passes over data
Data computation
Computes global sums
Can happen multiple times, for instance when computing averages
Average = pre-computed count / pre-computed sum
Percentage = current value / pre-computed sum
Pagination
Compute total number of pages
Critical for ‘page-of-pages’ text in footer
Used to pre-compute layout and style for table-exports
Content Generation
Same as pagination, but with final content

8. Deep Dive into Reporting
Acquire a report definition
Load a report definition
See OEM-SDK Sample-use-full
Use LibLoader
Load from binary storage
Caching and parser Selection
Create a report from scratch
Use Reporting API for that
(No SDK sample yet, use legacy-demo for sample code)
Maintenance nightmare
Prefer PRPT for all static reports
OK for simple unit-tests

9. Deep Dive into Reporting
Grab some data
Data processing usually invoked by engine
Parameter-processing
During Report-run
From functions
Data-Factory Interface
Data-Sources produce Swing-Table-Models for engine
Query Selector for engine = String, logical name
Actual representation inside data-source is implementation detail
Query = Logical Name + parameter dataset
Data-Factories extra modules due to large dependencies
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.DataFactory

10. Deep Dive into Reporting
Parameter processing
Input
Validate
Failed OK
Parameter Validation
User
Report Processor
Report hold parameter Info
Contains presentation info
Validation rules
Parameter values are untrusted
Data needs validation
Beware of SQL injections!
Iterative Process
Feed-back loop between UI and engine
Cascading parameter
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.parameters.DefaultReportParameterValidator

11. Deep Dive into Reporting
Report Processor and State Machine
Report Processing is state machine
Stack-level encapsulation of data
Divides long process into smaller tasks
Interruptible, suspendable
States hold minimum of data
Allows roll-back on page breaks
Widow/Orphans
Generate correct header and footer
See package org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.states

12. Deep Dive into Reporting
Layout Calculations
Some states can generate content
Starts in DefaultOutputFunction
Data-Model = (Report Elements + Data)
Translate Data-Model into Layout-Model
Layout Model based roughly on CSS Box model
Boxes are placed on an infinitely large canvas
General process
Determine box-sizes for contained content
X-axis is minor axis: static, mostly pre-defined by user
Y-axis is major axis: Position depends on previous content
Compute final position of content on paper
Shift content across page breaks
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.layout.output.DefaultOutputFunction
Layout code is called from implementation of the org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.layout.Renderer interface

13. Deep Dive into Reporting
Layout Model into Content
When page-finished:
Copy content
Print
Replace final content with empty box of same size
Output processor
Translates layout-model to output-document
Free-form, page oriented: Graphics2D, PDF, Plain-Text
Table-based, stream oriented: HTML, CSV, Excel, RTF
Special output: Table-XML, Pageable-XML
used in Unit-Tests
Validate reports against a known good output
- org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.layout.output.OutputProcessor
To see how output is handed over to the OutputProcessor see:
- org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.modules.output.pageable.base.PageableRenderer#performPagination

14. Designing Reports API basics
API defines structure of report definition
Not pluggable, engine depends on this
Main classes:
Master-Report, Sub-Report
Section – Internal structuring, groups and group-body
Band – layout structure for user content
Element – base class, styles and attributes, element-type
Attributes and styles can be dynamic
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.MasterReport
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.Element
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.Band
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.Section

15. Designing Reports Elements, Attributes and Styles Element Type
Defines role of element in report
Defines data transformation/formatting for content elements
Defines meta-data, available styles and attributes
Attributes
(Namespace,Name) -> Value map
Namespaces to separate attributes into groups
Attributes define data-processing rules
Content used by report-processor
Styles
(StyleKey) -> Value map
Defines look of elements
Used by layout calculations
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.AttributeNames
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.ReportAttributeMap
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.style.StyleKey
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.style.StyleSheet
org.pentaho.reporting.engine.classic.core.metadata.ElementType

16. Designing Reports Report Designer Swing Application
Report-Designer Core:
Visual editor loop
Introspection of Structure
Editors for style and attributes
Parameter
Plugin-Infrastructure
Data-Sources as plugins
Visual editor is in: org.pentaho.reporting.designer.core.editor.report.RootBandRenderComponent
Style and Attributes as tables:
org.pentaho.reporting.designer.core.editor.attributes
org.pentaho.reporting.designer.core.editor.styles
Structure editor: org.pentaho.reporting.designer.core.editor.structuretree

17. Designing Reports Report Designer Visual Editor
Visual Editor provides WYSIWYG interface
PRD works on standard MasterReport object
Changes trigger design-time report processing
Layout computation handled by Reporting Engine
Rendering handled by Graphics2D output
Extra handling for drawing selections
Main class: org.pentaho.reporting.designer.core.editor.report.layouting.ReportLayouter

18. Get the Code Pentaho Reporting
In-official Reporting SDK
Report-Viewer

19. Compile and Run Use IntelliJ
Project is defined in Git and ready to use
Don’t forget ‘ant resolve’
Lib split into external and internal
External: new dependencies not covered by upstream module
Internal: Dependencies provided by other IntelliJ-modules
Transparent when used from command line