Summary

This chapter covered the required and optional libraries needed to add reporting capabilities to Java applications. All the libraries covered in this chapter are needed at both compile time and runtime. The chapter provided an explanation of the different files available for downloading on JasperReports' web site and in which conditions it is appropriate to use them. We also saw which libraries are required for report compilation under a JDK and the additional libraries required when compiling JRXML templates under a JRE. Besides, we also learned which libraries are required when using JDBC datasources for our reports, and finally the libraries required when exporting our reports to several formats.

Now that we have a sound understanding of the libraries needed to work with JasperReports, we are ready to create our first report, which is what the next chapter is based on.