This is an unofficial fork of DataVision, which I originally wrote but no longer lead or support. I like having my own copy and playing with it. For example, I've updated the Java to work under Java 1.5+. Jim Menard, jim@jimmenard.com Introduction ============ DataVision is an Open Source reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports. Reports can be designed using a drag-and-drop GUI. They may be run, viewed, and printed from the application or exported as HTML, XML, PDF, LaTeX2e, DocBook, or tab- or comma-delimited text files. The output files produced by LaTeX2e and DocBook can in turn be used to produce PDF, text, HTML, PostScript, and more. DataVision is written in Java and runs almost anywhere. It can generate reports from databases or text data files. Any database with an available JDBC driver should work: Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Informix, hsqldb, Microsoft Access, and more. Columns read from text files can be separated by any character. Report descriptions are stored as XML files. This means you can not only use the DataVision GUI but you may also edit reports using your favorite text editor. DataVision was developed by Jim Menard (jim@jimmenard.com). The project's leader is now Frank W. Zammetti (fzlists@omnytex.com). The latest version of DataVision can be found on the DataVision Web page at http://datavision.sourceforge.net. New releases are also announced on Freshmeat (http://freshmeat.net) and on the DataVision mailing list (http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=33343). Documentation ============= For quick-and-dirty installation instructions, see the file INSTALL. For complete documentation, see the docs directory. The User's Manual starts at docs/DataVision/DataVision.html and the FAQ starts at docs/faq/faq.html. Copying ======= For licensing information, see the file COPYING. DataVision uses the JCalendar widget developed by Kai Toedter (kai@toedter.com), icons developed by Sun, JRuby (http://jruby.sourceforge.net), and the Bean Scripting Framework. For their respective copyright notices see the file COPYING. Miscellaneous Last-Minute Notes =============================== For the most up-to-date notes, see the DataVision Web page. There's one more thing that's not yet documented, but you may want to play with: the stuff in jimm/datavision/testdata. There you will find code to create example databases. The PostgreSQL and mySQL directories work. The Oracle directory might work, but I'm not sure. You will have to be logged in as a user that's allowed to create new databases.