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.