Before we started, I want to let you know that once we using native functions in sql, we might got problem when we tried to deploy on another database server. So be wise.

Here is simple example how to do that :

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

import groovy.sql.Sql;
 
class ReportController { 
    def dataSource ; 
    .....
    def print = {
        .....
        def sql = new Sql(dataSource);
        List lparams = [startDate, endDate];
        def query2 = "select * from invoiceh where trx_date between ? and ? ";
        def result = sql.rows(query2,lparams);
        ......  // fetch the result into your gsp / you can process it further
    }
}

This code will return result as array / collections.
Simple isn’t it ?

jasper report

I will show you step by step how to use Dynamic Jasper Report with custom query. I won’t show how to use static reportable in Domain because there are lots of tutorial like this one

Installing Plugins
It is as simple typing

grails install-plugin dynamic-jasper

Generating Domains step
We create 2 domains name: Book and Author simply type

grails create-domain-class Book
grails create-domain-class Author

and add some field on the domains :

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

class Book {
    String name ; 
    String barcode ;
    String summary;
    Author author; 
 
    static belongsTo = [author:Author];
 
    static constraints = {
        name(nullable:false, blank:false);
        barcode(nullable:false, blank:false);
        summary(nullable:false, blank:false);
    }
 
    String toString() {
        "${name}"
    }
}

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

class Author {
    String name ;
    String summary ;
 
    static hasMany = [books:Book];
 
    static constraints = {
        name(nullable:false, blank:false);
        summary(nullable:false, blank:true);
    }
 
    String toString() {
        "${name}";
    }
}

Create a controller for displaying the Jasper

grails create-controller Report

Here we want to create an excel report so we fill ReportController with this :

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38

import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.data.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.export.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.util.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.view.*;
 
import ar.com.fdvs.dj.domain.DynamicReport;
import ar.com.fdvs.dj.domain.builders.FastReportBuilder;
import ar.com.fdvs.dj.core.DynamicJasperHelper;
import ar.com.fdvs.dj.core.layout.ClassicLayoutManager;
import ar.com.fdvs.dj.output.*;
 
 
 
class ReportController {
 
    def index = { 
        FastReportBuilder drb = new FastReportBuilder();
        drb = drb.addColumn("Book Name","name",String.class.getName(),30);
        drb = drb.addColumn("Barcode","barcode",String.class.getName(),20);
        drb = drb.addColumn("Author","author.name",String.class.getName(),30);
        drb = drb.addColumn("Author Summary","author.summary",String.class.getName(),70);
        DynamicReport dr = drb.setTitle("My tester ").setUseFullPageWidth(true).build();
 
        JRDataSource ds = new JRBeanCollectionDataSource(Book.list());   
        JasperPrint jp = DynamicJasperHelper.generateJasperPrint(dr, 
                new ClassicLayoutManager(), ds);
 
 
        def reportFormat = 'XLS';
        def reportFileName = "myReport";
        ReportWriter reportWriter = ReportWriterFactory.getInstance().getReportWriter(jp, reportFormat, [(JRHtmlExporterParameter.IMAGES_URI): "${request.contextPath}/report/image?image=".toString()]);
        if (reportFileName) {
            response.addHeader('content-disposition', "attachment; filename=${reportFileName}.${reportFormat.toLowerCase()}")
        }
        reportWriter.writeTo(response)
    }
}

FastReportBuilder will create columns and do what the jrxml does.
DynamicReport will build the report for you (i think it identical with compiling jrxml to .jasper)

You fill data of the report using JRBeanCollectionDataSource. here we use simple query Book.list(). You might try it using Criteria as well.

To display the report in the browser, we just tell the browser about the header and its content by this code :

ReportWriter reportWriter = ReportWriterFactory.getInstance().getReportWriter(jp, reportFormat, [(JRHtmlExporterParameter.IMAGES_URI): "${request.contextPath}/report/image?image=".toString()]);
        if (reportFileName) {
            response.addHeader('content-disposition', "attachment; filename=${reportFileName}.${reportFormat.toLowerCase()}")
        }
        reportWriter.writeTo(response)</blockquote>

done … that’s so easy.

dynamic jasper result in excel format

more information about dynamice jasper visit:
http://dynamicjasper.sourceforge.net/

The difference is that 0.6 using OFC version 2 and 0.5 still using version 1. Version 2 is not compatible with version 1 so please watch out when you tried to update that plugin.

More information about Open Flash Chart 2, check the maker web on http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

 dataSource {
      pooled = true
      driverClassName = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
      username = "wysmedia"
      password = "password"
      dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect
 }

dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect that’s the main idea to set mysql using innodb. With InnoDB you can use service transaction or database transaction

1
2
3
4
5
6

<g:form action="save">
... table ... 
<g:checkBox name="myCheckbox" value="" />
... other element ... 
<input type='submit' value='Save'/>
</g:form>

did you know what the happened ? myCheckbox always returned empty or null value everytime I saved the form. I thought Grails has bug at first, I did check and create a checkbox using scaffold and I found that value=”" makes the null value everytime I saved the form
The solution was simple enough:

1
2
3
4
5
6

<g:form action="save">
... table ... 
<g:checkBox name="myCheckbox"/>
... other element ... 
<input type='submit' value='Save'/>
</g:form>

Just eliminate value=”" and it all solved. I learned that using value=”somethingHere” can be useful if we want to save a value into our database. I hope my tricks can save you from headache. Be aware of checkbox .. hahaha…

So here is how you can trap all errors and displayed on your screen (without using firebug).

This example works on grails main layout (but you can use this tips on any programming language, just put this code on main layout). My code using Jquery and JQalert to display the error

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

$(document).ready(function(){
                $(document).ajaxError(function(event, request, setting){
                    var re = /<br\/>|<br>/g; // for replacing all <br/> with empty string in error 404
                    var txt = request.responseText.replace(re,"");
                    jqalert(txt,"Server Error");
                });
});

1
2
3
4

class Person {
String personName ;
BigDecimal monthlyIncome ;
}

Now we want to eliminate/change the monthlyIncome and replace it with BigDecimal weeklyIncome

we type

1
2
3
4

class Person {
String personName ;
BigDecimal weeklyIncome;
}

But, when we look at the table, it still have monthlyIncome field. That’s why we need to eliminate it. If we works as a team, this could be a messy and troublesome, because monthlyIncome is not nullable. So it produce error (JDBC errors) when someone tried to update or save into that table.

That’s why we need Autobase for this dirty job. Autobase is Grails plugin that created base on Liquibase. Liquibase, however using xml format to do database migration. I hate to write on xml actually.
Luckily, Robert Fischer, wrote this useful Grails’s plugin, so that we can write it using Groovy DSL.

Here is the steps we need to make:

1. command line: grails install-plugin autobase. This command willl install autobase plugin into your project. You can download manually from http://plugins.grails.org
2. command line: grails create-migration Person, this will produce migration script under migrations/computerName/PersonMigration.groovy
3. write this inside PersonMigration.groovy

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7

   changeSet(id:'PersonMigration-1', author:'R61') { preConditions{ columnExists(tableName:"person", columnName:"monthly_income"); } comment("remove monthly_income from person table"); sql("alter table person drop monthly_income"); }

4. Re run your grails and this script will be executed.

For more details about the syntax that you can have inside migration file, try to read the documentation at liquibase manual