How to use barcodes in iReport 3.1.x

If we want to show barcodes in iReport we first need to create a jarfile that contains the class that renders images from barcodes:

• First download jasperReports on http://www.jasperforge.org and install this.
• Download Apache Ant from http://ant.apache.org and install this. Make sure to add the ant\lib folder to your PATH environment variable.
• Open a console and go to your jasperReports/demo/barbeque folder.
• Set the ant library to the lib folder by doing: @ant -lib lib@
• Compile the barbecue report by doing: @ant compile@
• Now create a jar file by doing: @jar cfv bbqRenderer.jar -C build\classes net@

To show barcodes in iReport we need to add the barbecue library and the newly created class to the classpath:

• Open iReport.
• Go to “Tools/Options” and select the “Classpath”-tab.
• Click “Add JAR”.
• Browse to the location where you saved “barbecue-1.0.6b.jar” (version number might differ) and open it:
• Click “OK” to close the “Options” dialog.
• Also Add the newly created bbqRenderer.jar in the same way. Now we want to show a barcode on a report:
• Open the “BarbecueReport.jrxml” (or create a new report).
• A barcode is actually an image that is renderd by the library, so to add a barcode to the report we have drag an image from the “Report Elements” to the report.
• Press “Cancel” if iReport asks for a path to the image file.
• Select the newly added image.
• In the “Image Properties” set the “Expression Class” to: @net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRRenderable@
• To display a barcode for “0123456789”, set the “Image Expression” to: @new net.sf.jasperreports.renderers.BarbecueRenderer(BarcodeFactory.createCode128B("1234567890"))@
• Go to the “Preview” view, the barcode(s) should be visible:
• For Different types of barcodes, use a different method from the BarcodeFactory, for example @BarcodeFactory.createPDF417(“x”)@, for the entire list see: http://barbecue.sourceforge.net/apidocs/net/sourceforge/barbecue/class-use/Barcode.html