TIBCO recently released Visualize.js, a JavaScript framework for embedding reports, visualizations and analytics, as part of TIBCO Jaspersoft 5.6. Visualize.js is a JavaScript API framework used to embed interactive HTML5 JasperReport Server reports and visualizations, bundled with Jaspersoft BI Enterprise and Professional, and as an add-on to Jaspersoft BI Express. It is not supported on JasperReports Server Community Edition or JasperReports Library, nor can it be used as a standalone charting library.
Before Visualize.js was released, there were two ways to embed JasperReports on a web application. The simplest but least flexible option is to use iframes. The second option is to use the REST API which provides the most features and flexibility at the cost of coding all of the visualization aspects. Visualize.js was introduced as a third option to make it easy to embed reports with relatively less coding. It is focused on report presentation, interaction and repository access. Web developers will be able to embed JasperReport visualizations and analytics using JavaScript, JSON and CSS.
Visualize.js allows you to log in with plain text or using an SSO token. It provides an API for searching for resources like folders, reports, data sources, files and queries. Visualize.js gives you an API to display one or multiple reports in a page. The reports will have the usual controls that gives you the ability to sort, filter, paginate, drill down, export or take user input. There is also an API for report events, so you can provide users visual feedback on the status of currently running reports. The look and feel of the reports can be customized using CSS. Visualize.js also provides a CSS diagnostic tool to let you load various CSS libraries and see how they interact with the reports.
To get started, visit the Visualize.js - Getting Started page. Once you have a commercial edition of JasperReports 5.6 Server installed, add the Visualize.js library by including http://{jasperserver}/jasperserver-pro/client/visualize.js. For more information, watch the Visualize.js: An Introduction video and read the JasperReports Server Programming Guide.
