RepoTool provides state-of-the-art, Internet-ready reporting solution for Power Users, who need a standalone, easy-to-use visual report layout and generation tool, as well as, Java Developers, who need to embed reporting capability in their Java/Internet applications. Designed for the Internet Computing paradigm, RepoTool provides the flexibility and versatility to enable high value-added reporting functions in today's applications.

RepoTool allows users to design, preview and print their reports. The RepoTool is written purely in Java to provide cross-platform functionality and runs on any Java 1.1 (or higher) enabled platform. The graphical user interface (GUI) is built on Swings, a GUI toolkit from Sun, presenting a friendly and consistent look and feel.

Creating a report can be as simple as dragging and dropping report elements in the designer and manipulating them through a GUI. RepoTool provides standard report elements like bounded text field, image field, label field, rectangle and line. Each report element has a rich set of properties for users to define the look-and-feel of their report, which are easily accessible through the property viewer panel.

All end-user accessible files in RepoTool such as data source schema and report templates are stored in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. The user is freed from proprietary file formats that are hard to understand and are only readable on one particular platform. All cut-and-paste of report elements are passed in XML, allowing the user to copy a report element in the designer, paste it in an editor, edit some fields and paste back to the designer with the new report element reflecting the change.

RepoTool comes with a runtime engine for previewing and printing reports in Java applications. Its goal is to provide a simple yet powerful set of Application Programming Interfaces (API) to allow users to integrate reporting in to their application. The core set of API is kept to a minimum and less steps are required to code the report functionality. This allows developers to focus on their core development rather than having their time wasted in developing the report functionality.

The data source describes the data structure and location of data such as data fields, drivers to extract information, etc. RepoTool separates the data source information from the report formatting information. This allows the data source to be managed centrally. Developers can design their report and define data sources on their computer and when they need to share the data source, it is necessary only to centralize the data source information on a server and distribute only the report template for others to view, print or edit through the design. RepoTool's Data Source Manager provides a powerful GUI tool to edit and view the data source information built into the tool is a Datasource Wizard Builder which guides the user in creating their data source information.