Installing JasperWho?
JasperWho? is a standard Laravel application. The setup is intentionally slim — pull the repository, install dependencies, configure the environment, migrate the database. A standard installation is up and running in under 30 minutes.
What You Don't Need
Before listing what is required, it is worth being explicit about what is not:
- No Java — the render engine is pure PHP. No JVM, no Java runtime, no Java SQL drivers.
- No Node.js / npm / Vite — the frontend assets are pre-built and bundled with the repository.
- No Jaspersoft Server — JasperWho? is entirely self-contained.
- No Docker — optional for the database only, not required for the application itself.
System Requirements
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| PHP >= 8.2 | Required extensions: ctype, curl, fileinfo, filter, hash, mbstring, openssl, pcntl, pdo, pdo_sqlite, posix, session, simplexml, tokenizer. For report database connections, additionally: pdo_mysql (MySQL / MariaDB), pdo_pgsql (PostgreSQL). SQL Server is listed separately below. |
| Composer | PHP dependency manager — getcomposer.org |
| MySQL or MariaDB | JasperWho?'s own application database. A Docker container works fine if no local instance is available. |
| poppler-utils | Provides pdftoppm, used for generating report thumbnails. Install via apt install poppler-utils. |
| Supervisor | Keeps the Laravel queue worker running for background jobs (thumbnail generation, purge tasks). |
| Apache2 or nginx | Optional reverse proxy. Not required for local or development setups. |
| php-sqlsrv / pdo_sqlsrv | Only required when connecting to Microsoft SQL Server as a report data source. Not needed otherwise. |
Bundled Dependencies
The following components are bundled with JasperWho? — no separate installation required:
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| JasperPHP | Pure PHP render engine — parses .jrxml and generates PDFs via TCPDF. Installed automatically by Composer. |
| Log Viewer | In-browser Laravel log viewer for monitoring application logs. |
| Scribe | Generates the interactive API documentation from source annotations. |
| Material Design Icons | Icon set used throughout the frontend. |
| Ace Editor | In-browser code editor for writing SQL queries. |
| Logo & Color Concept | Visual identity by sinister-labs. |
| Jaspersoft Studio 6.21.5 | Desktop IDE for designing .jrxml report templates. Installed separately on the designer's machine — not on the server. Download here. |
Managed Hosting
If you prefer not to manage infrastructure yourself, JasperWho? can be hosted and operated for you. Instances run exclusively in Germany on Hetzner hardware — reliable, fast, and GDPR-compliant by location.
Cloud-hosted JasperWho? works well for most use cases. Depending on your network connection to the hosting location, render requests may see slightly higher latency compared to a locally deployed instance — typically not noticeable, but worth considering for high-frequency, latency-sensitive workloads like real-time label printing on the shop floor.
For managed hosting enquiries, get in touch directly.