Reporting frameworks for the open source Java world

Jasper Reports and BIRT are amongst the most popular open source reporting framework for the java world. Jasper had been here for quite some time, while BIRT is relatively new with less third party tool support then Jasper. However at first use BIRT looks very easy to use and nicely designed then its counter part. BIRT is restricted for the eclipse users(Developed and maintained by eclipse.org), but I am pretty sure that quite a few stand alone BIRT reporting tools might already be under development. The basic BIRT plugin is capable of addressing most of your reporting needs. If you compare BIRT vs JASPER side by side, both of them have almost the same features, though the "BI" part of BIRT reads "Business Intelligence" which means BIRT will be doing more then reporting (if not now, may be in future).

Like any other open source software, both these tools are poorly documented. I found it easy to get around with BIRT then with JASPER. Jasper api's give you great flexibility with your programming tasks. Amongst the well known jasper tools, I tried Ireports(standalone), the eclipse plugin and open report. None of them are up to the mark or as good compared to the BIRT eclipse plugin. A good source of documentation for jasper is available in form of a downloadable pdf(JRUltimateGuide.2.2.pdf), only after you some $45's! Just an fyi, most of the explanation in this pdf actually point to the examples folder of the downloadable jasper api source-docs.

BIRT architecture is much cleaner and easy to get around, compared to Jasper. You can import existing style sheets, custom HTML code, XPATH, and most important of all, no intermediate file generation(like compiled file crap!).

Quick links:
If you are working with Jasper, here are your quick links:
@Jasper Home
@ireports, standalone tool to create jrxml files
@eclipse plugin, if you are lost in the eclipse world
@open reports. This tool is more talks and less work.
@quick how to
@api docs

If you are working with BIRT:
@BIRT Home
@BIRT tutorials
@Birt world blog, very informative
@eclipse documentation
@BIRT features
@How to POJO as data source?

Happy Reporting!