Using Barcode and Barcode Expression Tags in Report (JRXML) Files

bc:asposebarcode and bc:barCodeAttributesExpression are special tags used in JasperReport files (JRXML) for rendering barcode images in reports with Aspose.BarCode for JasperReports library.

These tags can be used in two ways:

1. Print barcodes based on parameter values, or
2. print barcodes based on field values (using a data source).

This article explains how to use them.

Print Barcodes Based on Parameter Values

The code example below is an example of how bacodes can be rendered based on parameter values.

 <componentElement>

   <reportElement x="0" y="70" width="400" height="150"/>

     <bc:asposebarcode

             xmlns:bc="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/asposebarcode"

                        xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/asposebarcode

							http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/barcode.xsd">

                    <bc:barCodeAttributesExpression>$P{barCodeAttributes1}</bc:barCodeAttributesExpression>

    </bc:asposebarcode>

</componentElement>

$P(barCodeAttributes1) is the text inside the bc:barCodeAttributesExpression tag. It specifies that it expects a parameter whose name is barCodeAttributes1 of the parameter type BarCodeAttributes, defined in the com.aspose.barcode.jr package.

Before using the parameter, degine it. It can be defined in a JRXML file as shown below.

 <parameter name="barCodeAttributes1" class="com.aspose.barcode.jr.BarCodeAttributes"/> 

JRXML files define the report. The sample code below shows how to pass the barCodeAttributes1 parameter from the Java source file.

 Map<String, BarCodeAttributes> parameters = new HashMap<String, BarCodeAttributes>();

parameters.put("barCodeAttributes1", new BarCodeAttributes("123456", "code11"));

In the above Java source file, we created an instance of type Map<key, value>. String type is used as the key and the BarCodeAttributes type is used as the value.

After declaration, we added one element to the map. The key given is “barCodeAttributes1” and its value is of the BarCodeAttributes type. Its constructor takes the codetext and symbology type as arguments. Both input text and the barcode type are passed as string values. Based on the code snippets above, then, this code will create a Code 11 barcode image in the report with the input text “123456”.

Print BarCodes Based on Field Values (Using Data Source)

Below is code snippet from a JRXML file which renders barcode images from a data source. The ID field is used as codetext.

 <componentElement>

    <reportElement x="0" y="4" width="315" height="150"/>

    <bc:asposebarcode

            xmlns:bc="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/asposebarcode"

            xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/asposebarcode

	http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/barcode.xsd">

        <bc:barCodeAttributesExpression>$F{id}</bc:barCodeAttributesExpression>

    </bc:asposebarcode>

</componentElement>

$F(id) means that a field called is “id” is required. The id field’s type should be BarCodeAttributes. Below, the “id” field is defined in the JRXML file.

 <field name="id" class="com.aspose.barcode.jr.BarCodeAttributes"/>  

In the Java source file, pass a data source to the JRXML file. For this example, we use a custom class inherited from JRDataSource. The getFieldValue() method returns an instance of type BarCodeAttributes, which will be used by the tags in JRXML files for rendering barcodes.

For more details about using a data source in JasperReports, please refer to Printing Barcodes in a Report that uses a Data Source.