i-net Clear Reports creates finished reports from a template using data from an external data source, such as a database. The following types of data sources can be used:

With JDBC drivers data from many different sources, such as MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, XML files and so on can be used. Currently there exist over 200 different public JDBC drivers.

JDBC drivers for the following databases are bundled with i-net Clear Reports:

• MS SQL Server (i-net Sprinta)
• MySQL (MySQL Connector/J)
• Oracle Database (i-net Sero)
• PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL JDBC Driver)
• SmallSQL Database (SmallSQL)
• Sybase (i-net Syto)
• CSV file (i-net Fositex)

The JDBC-ODBC Bridge can be used to access a wide range of ODBC drivers. If a native JDBC driver is available then it is generally preferred to use the JDBC driver.

In an Application Server or Servlet Engine a JNDI Data Source can be configured.

If the report engine is used in a custom Java program, then the data for the report can be set using the API at runtime.

A BeanDataSource is a data source for i-net Clear Reports using Java Beans instead of SQL queries.

This means that at runtime a list of Java Beans can be returned as data source for a report. This can be used by application servers if the bean object already exists and a separate SQL query would reduce performance. It is also a way to provide the data for i-net Clear Reports if SQL queries aren't used at all. In this case a BeanDataSource can use simple JavaBeans to set the data for a report.

If i-net Clear Reports is used from scripting languages, data can be provided from there as well. For example ADO is an option if ASP is being used.

A special case is a report without data. It can be used to create forms. These forms can be customized via runtime parameters.