Integrate with AfterShip Data in JReport Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for AfterShip data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports as if AfterShip were a relational database, allowing you to query AfterShip data using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to AfterShip data as a JDBC data source and create reports based on AfterShip data in JReport Designer.

Connect to AfterShip Data

1. Edit C:\JReport\Designer\bin\setenv.bat to add the location of the JAR file to the ADDCLASSPATH variable:

   ...
   set ADDCLASSPATH=%JAVAHOME%\lib\tools.jar;C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for AfterShip 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.api.jar;
   ...
   

2. Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
3. In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for AfterShip), select JDBC, and click OK.
4. In the Get JDBC Connection Information dialog you will configure your connection to the JDBC driver:
   • Driver: Be sure that the Driver box is checked and fill in the name of the class for the driver:

     cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver

   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:api: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the AfterShip Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Aftership.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for AfterShip (see below).

     AfterShip API Profile Settings

     Obtain your API key from the AfterShip account management panel by navigating to My Account > Settings > API Keys.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the AfterShip JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
     

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Aftership.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

   • User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   

5. In the Add Table dialog, select the tables you wish to include in your report (or in future reports using this data source) and click Add.

   

   Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.

6. In the Catalog Browser, you can create the queries that you will use to populate your reports. You can do this now, or after you create your report. In either case, expand () the data source (CData JDBC Driver for AfterShip), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query.
7. In the Add Table/View/Query dialog, expand () the JDBC URL and Tables and select the table(s) you wish to use in the query and click OK.
8. In the Query Editor dialog, you can select the columns you wish to include or simply click the SQL button and manually input your own query. For example:

   SELECT Slug, Name FROM AllCouriers WHERE Name = 'FedEx'
   

   

   With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add AfterShip data to a new or existing report.

   NOTE: Now that the query is built, you can create a Business View based on the query. With a Business View, you can create Web reports or library components based on the query. For more information on this, refer to the JReport tutorials.

Add AfterShip Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with AfterShip data.

1. Create a new report (File New Page Report) or open the Chart Wizard for an existing report.
2. Select the Query (or create a new one; see above).

3. Assign a Category and Value for the chart from the columns in your Query and click Finish.

4. Click the View tab for your report to see the chart.