Jinfonet Software has announced the general availability of JReport 9 on Monday November 10th. The latest release of this reporting solution touts more than 50 enhancements. JReport 9 delivers these enhancements in three key areas: performance, usability and standards support.

Performance improvements with the advanced report engine are focused on faster response time and better scalability. Through internal system tuning and minimizing redundancy, JReport now has a smaller footprint with faster response time for on-demand report generation, report delivery, and interactive reporting and analysis. Benchmark results show that it is up to 40% faster compared to the previous version.

One of the key performance improvements is Multiple Report Bursting. With Report Bursting, JReport 9 runs the report once and distributes results to different recipients according to predefined criteria. JReport 9 is able to perform Multiple Report Bursting using different multiple criteria in a single run.

JReport now also provides enhanced report delivery using Page Level Security. A pre-run report can be shared by a large group of users, each permitted to view only the authorized portion instantly. And by reducing the system footprint (memory usage by reports), JReport 9 now provides much enhanced scalability.

Usability is improved with a simpler interface and more tools that enhance productivity. Redesigned report wizards make report creation more natural. The user interface is improved by hiding complexity from first time users. A Launch Pad makes the system much more accessible and intuitive. New productivity tools include relative date support (for example, first day of last month), runtime user defined formula, runtime user defined filter for any report component, and a customizable user interface.

"JReport 9's improved interface delivers a more intuitive and user friendly environment, coupled with the easy-to-use workflow guide. We believe that our overall productivity will improve with the performance and usability changes in JReport 9," said Andre Tay, Director of IT Biz Solution. "Useful features like ad-hoc reporting and information analysis will deliver great value to our users. We look forward to the general release of this product."

JReport 9 also provides many new features for developers. From development tools like cascading parameter wizard to deployment features like server monitoring, JReport 9 provides better usability for developers and administrators alike. Charting enhancements include better control of label font and orientation, flexible axis label and tick marks, and other chart properties. This version now provides interactive map support. Map definitions can be imported from ESRI Shapefiles or defined by developers. With the conditional formatting, the appearance of the map and each area can be fully customized and controlled. For Eclipse users, JReport 9 now comes with a Report Designer for Eclipse Plug-in, allowing report design directly within the Eclipse IDE (Interactive Development Environment).

Standards support has always been an important part of JReport architecture, which was further enhanced in JReport 9. With JSR 168 support, users can run reports as standard portlets to enable dashboard applications. APIs are provided to access the system through SOA for better interoperability. NLS support enables multiple language localizations. JReport 9 is compliant with JDK 1.4 and above.

"With the release of JReport 9, we continue to improve on a flexible and robust product that can be scaled to the largest installations. JReport gives customers of large BI solutions an alternative to high maintenance fees and complex architectures," said Whit Mathis, Jinfonet VP of Sales.

JReport 9 will be available for download on Monday November 10th from the Jinfonet website.