Question: Some of my company consultants created multiple jasper reports (using iReports) which will be filled up programmatically using a Custom JRDataSource.

The problem is that I need to know which Elements are present in the report so that I can invoke the corresponding WebServices, so my question is: *How can I programmatically, in Java, read the report so that I can identify every Element that needs to be filled up?*

The reports can't be made all programmatically because there will be constant changes to their layout, and we can't be updating our software every time one of this changes occurs.

Answer: 
Depends on what you actually want to do, if your intent is to check the contents of the "folder" and "subfolders" before and after the sort operation, I will suggest you use the command prompt to generate the list of contents in a text file. you can use the dir command for this like so:

```
DIR /S /B "Path\To\Folder" > "Path\to\text\File.txt"

```
You can't take a snapshot of something that isn't drawn on the screen. You need to open the folder, take the snapshot and close the folder.