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 both at compile time and at run time.

The chapter provided an explanation of the different files available for download on JasperReports' website and in which conditions it is appropriate to use them. We saw which libraries are required for report compilation under a Java Development Kit as well as which additional libraries are required when compiling JRXML templates under a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Besides, the chapter also covered 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 seen the libraries needed to work with JasperReports, we are ready to create our first report, which is what the next chapter is based on.