They may be run, viewed, and printed from the application or exported as HTML, Excel, LaTeX2e, XML, PDF, DocBook, or tab- or comma-delimited text files.The output files produced by LaTeX2e and DocBook can in turn be used to produce PDF, text, HTML, PostScript, and more.

DataVision is written in Java and runs almost anywhere. It can generate reports from databases or text data files.

Any database with an available JDBC driver should work: Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Informix, hsqldb, Microsoft Access, Progress, and more. Columns read from text files can be separated by any character.

Report descriptions are stored as XML files. This means you can not only use the DataVision GUI but you may also edit reports using your favorite text editor.

Here are some key features of "DataVision":

· Drag-and-drop report builder.
· Runs anywhere Java runs: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, Solaris, and more.
· Works with any database that has a JDBC driver: Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Informix, hsqldb, Microsoft Access, DB/2, and more.
· Report headers and footers, page headers and footers, group headers and footers.
· Report field formatting: color, numeric and date format, italic, bold, border lines, etc.
· Editable report-wide default field format.
· Subreports.
· Visual table linker.
· Aggregates (sum, min, max, count, average, stddev) by group and at report's end.
· Record sorting.
· Sub-selects allowed within SQL WHERE clauses.
· Formulas, using any language supported by the Bean Scripting Framework (BSF). The default formula language shipped with DataVision is Ruby (via JRuby).
· Record selection (SQL WHERE clause for database data sources, BSF script that accepts/rejects records for character-separated file data sources).
· Run-time parameters; asks the user for values when the report runs; if running from the command line, reads values in from an XML file.
· Run-time variables (again thanks to the BSF). A script run at the start of each report run is the perfect place to set all your initial values.
· User-defined SELECT clause columns; useful for calling stored procedures or SQL functions.
· Hide columns and entire sections.
· Reports can read data from different data sources. Currently, data sources are defined for databases and text data files (comma-separated, tab-separated, etc.)
· When reading text data files, translates date and numeric columns into the appropriate Java classes so they can be manipulated as such (formatted, used in formulas, etc.)
· Run and view reports on-screen.
· Print report from DataVision.
· Exports to HTML, XML, PDF, comma-separated, tab-separated, DocBook, LaTeX.
· GUI translated into eleven languages.
· Report definitions stored as human-readable XML.
· Open source, so you get all the code to play with and use.
· DataVision is embeddable within your own application.
· The download contains the Java source code, a jar file (so you don't have to compile anything), scripts for running DataVision, examples, and the documentation.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Reinstated changelog file because while it's true that the Subversion check-in notes convey the same information, at least 99% of the time, I feel it is nice for people not interested in looking at those notes to still have a place they can look to see what changed from version to version. I'm also modifying this file slightly in that instead of breakout by date, it will be broken down by version/release date now. That way a person can at a glance see what changed in the latest version.
· Modified DOS batch startup file surrounding entire %classpath% on execution line with quotes and removed quotes from env var setting line... this should deal with long filenames in the classpath properly in all cases.
· Applied patch #1463120 from David Bennett to eliminate NPE when copying report connection from existing report file and updated credits file.
· Added a new "all_plus_jar" target to the build script and made it the default... this just called the "all" target, and then the "jar" target, which to me is the more useful typical sequence during development... I guess when someone else is contributing we can debate it then :) It also calls the clean target first.
· Upgraded all libraries. BSF upgraded to version 2.4.0 (required addition of Jakarta Commons Logging, version 1.1). jRuby upgraded to version 0.9.8 (required addition of ASM, version 2.2.3. jCalendar upgraded to version 1.3.2. iText upgraded to version 2.0.1 (required changed to PDFLE.java because compiler error occurred catching DocumentException on call to doc.newPage()... see comment in source for full details). Also added libraries to startup batch file and script.
· Applied patch #1328189 from Steve Kennedy to deal with overlapping header/footer sections.
· Applied patch #1465505 from David Bennett adding XLS export support based on the Excel layout engine from Dean Beeler. Patch required one change due to a deprecated method in POI (HSSFCell.setValue() no longer accepts a String, you need to wrap it in a HSSFRichTextString object now).
· Applied patch #1619924 from Lendle Tseng to allow handling of CJK fonts in the PDF layout engine.
· Fixed the file empty_charsep.xml. There was a missing comment terminator, so it wasn't well-formed XML, so anyone trying to use it would have run into an error.
· Applied patch #1462884 from David Bennett, with some modifications, to add support for specifying a starting report open directory and a default output directory from the command line, and also saving these settings using the JDK Preferences facility for future use. Also update documentation for this, as well as some other things that were missing.
· Added a test report that runs against a Derby database, which is also added. This allows a person the ability to immediately open an example report going against a real database without having to set anything up themselves. Derby is added to the classpath so it'll just work.
· Added debug options to all javac tasks in build file. We weren't getting line numbers, which was making debugging a lot harder. Anyone who wants optimal performance should build from source with those options removed.
· Applied patch #1552277 which implements the CSS-based HTML layout engine from David Bennett. I renamed it CSSHTMLLE, but otherwiwse it's unchanged. Also updated all Datavision_*.properties files to include both the XLS (which was missed) and CSSHTML layout engines in the export dialog. Some of the languages aren't correct for these two options, but better they be there in English than missing entirely I figured. All documentation updated to reflect CSSHTML layout engine as well.