How to debug jasper reports?

debugging, ireport, jasper-reports

Solution

You can use the `log4j.properties` to get some additional information from iReport. The below steps were provided to me by Jasper support to help me see what SQL was being generated by a report with several sub reports and dynamic SQL being passed between them.

Create a `log4j.properties` file (place it under `ireport/etc`), with the contents as follows:

#############################################
log4j.appender.fileout=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.fileout.File=C:/tmp/iReport.log
log4j.appender.fileout.MaxFileSize=1024KB
log4j.appender.fileout.MaxBackupIndex=1
log4j.appender.fileout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.fileout.layout.conversionPattern=%d{ABSOLUTE} %5p
%c{1},%t:%L - %m%n
log4j.rootLogger=warn, fileout
log4j.logger.net.sf.jasperreports.engine.query=debug
#############################################

With the above, the output log will be in the `iReport.log` in the `c:/tmp` folder.

Edit `ireport/etc/ireportpro.conf` and add the following contents in the `default_options` parameter:

-J-Dlog4j.configuration=file:/E:/Server/Server451/ireport/etc/log4j.properties

So it becomes:

default_options="-J-Xms24m -J-Xmx512m

-J-Dorg.netbeans.ProxyClassLoader.level=1000 -J-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-J-Dlog4j.configuration=file:/E:/Server/Server451/ireport/etc/log4j.properties"

Please pay attention to the above directory, you will need to adjust it to your own specific directory of iReport installation.

Restart iReport and execute reports, the generated SQL will then be output in `iReport.log`.

Problem

Original source