i-net Designer is a tool for creating custom reports based on your enterprise data. These reports can then be run using the report engine i-net Clear Reports. Just like i-net Clear Reports, i-net Designer is completely written in the Java language, enabling you to design your reports on any platform - not only Windows!

This page will give you a brief introduction where to start with i-net Designer and which steps are necessary to create reports.

If you are new to i-net Designer we suggest to step through the material in a sequential fashion. The first two steps are important especially if you've just installed i-net Clear Reports or i-net Designer for the first time.

•   How do I set up database connections using the Data Source Manager?
•   How do I create simple reports with and without a database connection?
•   How do I change the i-net Designer Options and the general i-net Clear Reports Options?

If you want to skip reading the help pages and rather learn to use i-net Designer by trial & error we suggest that you at least start with the following basic steps to create your first report:

•   Add the jar file(s) of your JDBC driver(s) to i-net Designer.
  To add the driver jar files, just copy it into the directory: "/lib/driver" in the installation directory of the i-net Designer. If, during installation of i-net Clear Reports, you choose to install i-net software's own database drivers, you will not need to manually add them, they have already been installed. The i-net Designer requires a JDBC driver for every database type you want to connect to.
•   Create a new "Blank Report" to start from scratch or use an report template to start the report wizard.
•   Configure the database that will be used with this report template
  Open the dialog " Report | Database Wizard..." to configure the used database connections and select the connections for this report.
•   Add one or more tables to the report.
  Open the dialog " Report | Database Wizard..." - by default this will happen automatically after a first connection is selected with the Connection Manager. If you have more than one table in the report then add one or more joining links between the tables.
•   Add database field(s) to the report.
  By adding database tables to your report, database fields are created which can be added to your report. Expand the node "Database Fields" in the "Field Browser" and drag one or more of the fields into the report design section. Where you add the field will decide on how often it will be shown. The "Detail" section is displayed once for each record in the report's query. The page header and footer are shown once at the top and bottom of each page of the report. The report header and footer are shown once at the very top and at the very bottom of the report.
•   Click on the "Result" tab to see the preview of your report.

The Step-By-Step Tutorials are designed to support you to achieve the chosen target. The current window of the tutorial contains detailed information for the next step. As long as possible, you are advised to the next component by an optical flashing. If a step was not achieved, it is restarted and a small message shown. If you depart from the given usage, the tutorials is not able to follow you. The whole tutorial can be restarted by pressing the "Restart"-Button.