The typical use case for a web application is to have a browser client access the JReport Server machine using HTTP protocol. This is a common Client-Server configuration, but there is another one to consider.
It is possible to have a Java program that runs on the desktop or other platform that accesses the remote JReport Server just as a browser does.
JReport Server provides a library of Java classes specifically for this case. It is called the Client API.
A Java program written to use the Client API makes a series of method calls that set parameters for controlling a report request based upon interaction with the user in the desktop environment. Finally the program makes a method call to send the request to run the report and get back the result to view. This Client API generates URLs to servlets and JSP pages in the servlet container and transmits the URL using HTTP protocol, expecting a result back following HTTP response protocol. There are both GUI and non-GUI versions of the Client API.
See Java API for an application to view example code.
In order to allow JReport Desktop Viewer to be easily embedded into your GUI based Java applications, JReport provides a Java bean - JReport Desktop Viewer Bean. It can send a request from a client workstation in order to run and view reports on JReport Server.
Briefly, JReport Desktop Viewer Bean enables you to:
See Illustrative examples of using the Desktop Viewer Bean for example code.