JODREPORTS(1)						      General Commands Manual						     JODREPORTS(1)

NAME

       jodreports - use libjodreports-java directly from the command line to merge OpenDocument text with data

SYNOPSIS

       jodreports <template-document> <data-file> <output-document>

DESCRIPTION

       jodreports is a java program that merge OpenDocument text with data by using libjodreports-java. The command line tool is especially useful
       to test templates while you are adding instructions to them. You use a .properties or .xml file to contain the  <data-file>  to	be  merged
       into the template. The <template-document> needs to be an existing OpenDocument text with simple fields. A field that will be replaced with
       the value of a variable passed can be specified using the standard FreeMarker expression notation by typing the variable name into the doc-
       ument as follows

       Hi ${name}!

       here name will be replaced with the value passed in at runtime.

       However,  mixing  processing instructions and normal text into the document may become confusing and clutter the layout. So JOOReports pro-
       vides an alternative way of inserting fields. You can insert a visual field in OpenOffice.org Writer  from  the	menu  Insert  /  Fields  /
       Other...  (or  just  press Ctrl+F2), then click on the Functions tab and select Input field. Change the field Reference to JOOScript and in
       the following field Content enter the variable name (e.g. "$name"). This field will typically be displayed by Writer as a grayed  rectangle
       with the variable name, while moving the mouse over it will reveal the field reference.

       This  is a nice way of keeping processing instructions separate from the document layout and is thus the recommended approach. Whatever you
       specify as the field Reference will be treated as a FreeMarker ${...} expression, so it could also be something more complex than a  simple
       variable name.

       To insert more advanced instructions, e.g. for conditionally displaying a portion of text, or repeating a table row for each item in a col-
       lection, you can use FreeMarker directives.

       A simple directive is assign. You can use it to define a new variable, for example

       [#assign totalPrice = unitPrice * quantity]

       Note that we always use the alternative (square bracket) syntax for FreeMarker directives.

       While it may be possible to insert this directive directly as text into the template, this does not always  work  (for  reasons	we'll  see
       below)  and  as mentioned mixing instructions into the document is a practice we want to avoid anyway. For this reason, JOOReports lets you
       insert FreeMarker directives as scripts. You can insert a script in Writer from the menu Insert / Script..., then change the Script type to
       JOOScript and insert any FreeMarker directives in the script Text box. A script will be displayed by Writer as a small green rectangle, and
       you can double click on it to open it and modify it.

       So you directive will be executed at the point where the script has been inserted. This is ok for something like assign but  as	we'll  see
       will not work for something like list.

       Alternatively,  you  can  insert  a  FreeMarker	directive in OpenOffice.org Writer from the menu Insert / Fields / Other... (or just press
       Ctrl+F2), then click on the Functions tab and select Input field. Change the field Reference to JOOScript and in the following  field  Con-
       tent enter the directive (e.g. "[#assign title='Mr.']"). Sample Open Document Template

       Again this provides a nice way to insert processing instructions and keept them separate from the document layout.

       The <output-document> is also an OpenDocument text and will be created as the result of the merge.

       JOOReports uses FreeMarker as its template engine.

FILES

       /usr/share/java/jodreports.jar

AUTHOR

       jodreports was written by Mirko Nasato <mirko@artofsolving.com> and Terry Liang <terry@polonious.com.au>.

       jodreports was packaged for the Debian project by Sascha Girrulat <sascha@girrulat.de>.

       This  manual page was written by Sascha Girrulat <sascha@girrulat.de>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others). Most of the used
       information are reused from http://jodreports.sourceforge.net.

User Manuals							 January 30, 2011						     JODREPORTS(1)