To add common auto text expressions in header and footer such as “Page X of Y”, “Created on 07/23/2007”, etc. Just use the DynamicReportBuilder like this:

For page counter

drb.addAutoText(AutoText.AUTOTEXT_PAGE_X_OF_Y,
AutoText.POSITION_FOOTER, AutoText.ALIGNMENT_LEFT);

For creation time

drb.addAutoText(AutoText.AUTOTEXT_CREATED_ON,
AutoText.POSITION_FOOTER, AutoText.ALIGNMENT_LEFT,
AutoText.PATTERN_DATE_DATE_TIME);

For custom text

drb.addAutoText("Autotext at top-center",
AutoText.POSITION_HEADER, AutoText.ALIGNMENT_CENTER);

Parameters

All the parameters are constants of the AutoText class.

By the time this how-to was written, the possible autotexts are:

Autotext type

  • Page counter
    • AUTOTEXT_PAGE_X_OF_Y Adds “Page 1 of 4”
    • AUTOTEXT_PAGE_X_SLASH_Y Adds “Page 1/4”
    • AUTOTEXT_PAGE_X Adds “Page 1”
  • Creation time
    • AUTOTEXT_CREATED_ON Adds “Created on <date>” The date will be formatted depending on the pattern parameter (see bellow)
  • Fixed message Adds the message passed in the first parameter

Position

The 2nd parameter is the position, it determines if the autotext will be shown in the header or the footer of the report.

  • POSITION_HEADER
  • POSITION_FOOTER

Alignment

The 3rd parameter is the Alignment, it determines the horizontal alignment (left, right, center).

  • ALIGNMENT_LEFT
  • ALIGNMENT_RIGHT
  • ALIGNMENT_CENTER

Pattern

The 4th parameter is optional, is only useful when using AUTOTEXT_CREATED_ON. It determines how to format the creation date/time

  • PATTERN_DATE_DATE_ONLY Depending on the locale the date will be shown like this: 03/24/2007
  • PATTERN_DATE_TIME_ONLY Depending on the locale the time will be shown like this: 21:43:47
  • PATTERN_DATE_DATE_TIME Depending on the locale the date will be shown like this: 03/24/2007 21:43:47

Note: The Autotext feature uses i18N, so the text can be internationalized changing the report locale like this: drb.addReportLocale(new Locale("es","AR"));

To localize your messages, you have to create a file named “dj-messages_<locale>.properties” where <locale> must be

the desired language-country pair (ie: en_US, es_ES, fr_FR, etc). This file must be in the classpath.

Another possibility is to tell the DJ wich resource bundle to use like this:

drb.addResourceBundle("other_messages");

The key needed for translation are:

autotext.page Page  
autotext.of of  
autotext.created_on Created on_

For an usage example, see the AutotextReportTest class