7.5. HTML Report with Groovy template engine

The example is based on the sample Library application, which source code is available on GitHub. Let’s create a report that displays the list of book publications for the selected city. The output format is HTML.

  1. Create a report with JPQL dataset:

    html groovy template structure
    Figure 77. Report data structure

    The BookPublications band outputs the list of book’s publications by running the following JPQL query:

    BookPublications dataset
    select
    book.name as "book",
    publisher.name as "publisher"
    from library$BookPublication e
    left join e.book book
    left join e.publisher publisher
     where e.town.id = ${city}

    This query uses the external report parameter – city. The parameter has the Entity type; however, in JPQL queries you can compare it directly with entity identifier fields; the conversion will be done automatically.

  2. Describe the report parameter:

    The Parameters and Formats tab contains one declared report external parameter – City:

    html groovy template parameter
    Figure 78. The report parameter

    When running the report, the user will have to enter this parameter. The city selection will be performed via the library$Town.browse screen, available in the application.

  3. Create a report template

    The Templates tab contains a single defined HTML template, generated by default with FreeMarker tags.

    Create the new HTML file with the following content:

    PublicationsTemplate
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="ru">
       <head>
          <title> Publications by city </title>
          <style type="text/css">
     body {font: 12pt Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; padding-top: 30px;} tbody tr {height:40px; min-height:20px}
          </style>
       </head>
       <body>
          <h1>Publications, published in <% out << "${Root.fields.city.name}"%></h1>
              <% def bookPublications = Root.bands.BookPublications.fields %>
          <table class="report-table" border="1" cellspacing="2" >
             <thead>
             <tr>
                <th>Book</th>
                <th>Publisher</th>
             </tr>
             </thead>
             <tbody>
                <% bookPublications.title.eachWithIndex{elem, index -> out << "<tr><td> ${bookPublications.book[index]} </td><td> ${bookPublications.publisher[index]} </td></tr>"}%>
             </tbody>
          </table>
       </body>
    </html>

    The value of the input parameter is used to generate the report title: ${Root.fields.city.name}.

    The variable bookPublications is defined below:

    <% def bookPublications = Root.bands.BookPublications.fields %>

    This variable is used in the table’s body to display the report fields.

    <% bookPublications.title.eachWithIndex{elem, index -> out << "<tr><td> ${bookPublications.book[index]} </td><td> ${bookPublications.publisher[index]} </td></tr>"}%>

    Upload the new template to the application, select HTML output type, select Groovy template in the Template type radiobutton and make it default:

    publicationsTemplate editor
    Figure 79. Report template editor

Run the report to make sure it works:

publications report
Figure 80. Report result