Format an iReport Template

iReport Designer provides many ways to format the appearance of an iReport template. These include the ability to:

add formatting elements to the iReport such as lines, rectangles, circles, etc
edit the position and size of elements on the iReport template relative to one another
change colors, fonts, and other properties
perform conditional displays based on data in the report

Conditional Display

Sometimes it is important to change the display of some data extracted from IMSMA for the resulting report. For example, you want to change:

the value “null” to “no”
the value “Male” to “Men”

To do this, you use conditional statements in the element on the iReport.

Select the desired field or variable displayed in the iReport template (note: this is NOT the field or variable value itself in the iReport Designer, but rather the text element on the report displaying the field or variable value).

Display Properties
On the Properties pane select the Text Expression and open the Text Expression Editor'.

Text Expression Editor
To change the way a particular field is displayed you can use basic "ïf-then-else" logic as in other Variable Expressions. This follows the pattern:

$F{field} == null ? “Something" : $F{field}

Or nested:

$F{field} == null ? “Something" : $F{field} == “SomethingElse” ? “Something Else“ : $F{field}

	The type of field is important (string, float, double, int, date). Stick with strings if you can.

Example:

$F{blockWater} == null ? “No value" : $F{blockWater}

Formatting Dates and Numbers

iReport Designer allows you to apply specific date or number formats to fields of this type. As with other display properties:

Select the desired field or variable displayed in the iReport template (note: this is NOT the field or variable value itself in the iReport Designer, but rather the text element on the report displaying the field value)

Display Properties
On the Properties pane select the Pattern element and open the Pattern Editor'.

Pattern Window

Choose an appropriate Pattern to apply to the field as desired.

Adding Formatting Elements

Additional formatting elements can be added to the iReport template. These include lines, boxes, circles, etc. To add these elements to iReport template:

Ensure that Palette pane is available. If not, on the Window menu, select Palette.
Select the desired element and drag it to the iReport template.

Formatting Tools

iReport Designer provides a variety of formatting tools for aligning, spacing, and sizing elements on the report template. These can be applied using the Formatting Tools pane.

Ensure that Formatting Tools pane is available. If not, on the Window menu, select Formatting Tools.

Formatting Tools
Select the desired element or elements (multiple elements can be selected by using the Control-click key combination) and apply the desired formatting choice.

"fix relative to" vs. "float"

Because iReport elements can expand beyond their expected or allocated vertical space on the report template, elements can occasionally "collide" or overlap one another in the final report. To manage the potential conflict iReport provides the Position Type property on all elements.

Formatting Tools

The Position Type property has three options:

"fix relative to top": This is the default value for all elements and means that the position will be kept relative to the top margin of the report regardless of what data is displayed before it.
"fix relative to bottom": This value means that the position will be kept relative to the bottom margin of the report regardless of what data is displayed after it.
"float": This value allows the element to "float" and will display the element relative to elements that come before it (i.e. closer to the top or closer to the left margins).

Using the float Position Type can help eliminate the overlapping that can occur when displaying multiple charts or cross tabs in a single report template.