As per iReport documentation:
That property is really important if you are expecting to render a report where some elements will not be showing up because they are simply "not visible" given your current data.
From the GUI the property is available in the subreport properties section:
In JRXML that translates to the below (showing here the diff:
- <reportElement uuid="392a8fe9-92b9-47cc-a8ad-7dd48bf708d5" x="0" y="0" width="470" height="40"/> + <reportElement uuid="392a8fe9-92b9-47cc-a8ad-7dd48bf708d5" x="0" y="0" width="470" height="40" isRemoveLineWhenBlank="true"/>Building Reports is a task that demands two important skills, the one you commonly find in Data Analysts plus the ones you usually find in Front End Developers.
Building the Dataset from where a report is rendered is a pure Data Analyst task. Building the right look and feel where the last pixel renders exactly how you expect is a pure Front End Developer task.
It is difficult to master those two concerns at the same time, especially when someone will need to say where one concern ends and the other starts (The Architect).
It is as difficult as mastering Risk Management and Scientific Research at the same time.
I am convinced specialization is the answer to the question about increasing productivity. The Industrial Revolution taught us that, but yet being 2013 we still do not get it and hope to have "one-man band" team which grows with that single man hiring people that are just like him. In diversity you have the secret to achieve the best possible outcome of any problem. Run your problem across a multidisciplinary team and it will be resolved hundreds of times faster than running it through hundreds of "one-man band" members of that team you thought was the all-stars team.