As you move to R12, you may be wondering what will happen to your Oracle Reports.

Here are five commonly asked questions and their answers on the topic of migrating from Oracle Reports to BI Publisher in R12. Is BI Publisher included with Oracle EBS R12? Yes, BI Publisher is installed with R12 with a limited use license which allows you to report on data that exists in Oracles seeded tables. Reporting on custom tables is prohibited with this license so you should address any licensing questions with your Oracle Sales Representative. What will happen to my existing Oracle Reports? In R12, you can continue to use your existing Oracle reports as the concurrent manager will still run reports. However if you would like to transition to BI Publisher, you can change the report output to XML by editing the Concurrent Program definition and changing the output type to XML. BI Publisher can then use the data to format the report. But arent Oracle Reports going away? Its true that Oracle reports are not being actively developed for R12, but they still exist within the application. Oracle continues to support the majority of existing reports and the report developer through the latest version of Oracle. Moving forward however, new reports or modified reports are being pushed over to BI Publisher data template format. How are BI Publisher generated reports different from standard Oracle reports? Standard Oracle Reports are the result of queries and data combined with layouts the formatting is inseparable from the report generation which is why you may have multiple copies of similar but slightly different reports on your system. However, BI Publisher separates the layout from the data model which allows a variety of layouts to be applied to a single data model making BI Publisher faster and more flexible than standard reporting. Is it true that BI Publisher in R12 allows me to deliver reports from Oracle EBS? BI Publisher offers some limited capabilities, but it comes at a cost:

Implementation Duration An unnecessary bottleneck can occur in accessing IT resources when considering the amount of programming, configuration, and testing required Troubleshooting Speed Even after implementation, significant IT resources are required to maintain and troubleshoot day-to-day issues and delivery failures Functionality Native deliverys limited controls lack the ability to conduct basic actions like, confirm the status of a delivery, quickly re-send failed documents, and add multiple attachments to a report

How to Modify Existing Seeded Templates Using XML Publisher

Seeded templates cannot be updated or deleted. The Update and Delete icons for these templates are disabled. If you wish to modify a seeded template, duplicate it, then modify the template file of the duplicated entry. You can then End Date the seeded template if you do not wish it to be available to your users. Copying a Template: Use the Search region to find the template you wish to copy. From the search results table, select the Duplicate icon for the template to launch the Copy Template page. Code Assign a template Code using the product short name and a descriptive ending. (The Code assigned must have the same prefix in the name as the seeded templates code.) Name Enter a user-friendly name for your template. Application Select the reports application from the LOV. Source Template Name (Not updateable) Displays the name of the template you are duplicating. Use the following steps: You must remove any incorrect duplicates of the template/report that you are trying to copy by end dating them on the same day they where created. 1. Go to XML Publisher Responsibility > Templates. 2. Use the search engine to find the template you wish to copy. 3. Click on the link for the copy previously created. 4. Click the Update button and enter an end date into the End Date field. (Use the creation date to completely remove the incorrect copy.) 5. Repeat this for every incorrect copy that may exist. If you have previously end dated the seeded template, remove the end date. 1. Go to XML Publisher Responsibility > Templates. 2. Use the search engine to find the template and change the Active field to "No". 3. Click on the link for the seeded report. 4. Click the Update button and remove the end date. After making your modifications by downloading a copy of the seeded template or creating a new file, create a duplicate of the seeded template. 1. Use the search engine to find the template you wish to copy. The seeded report should now display. 2. Click the "Duplicate" icon next to the seeded report. 3. Change the required Code field from Copy of XXXX to XXXX2. For example, if your seeded templates code was BENSSCNF, then for the duplicate template, one of the possible codes could be BENSSCNF2 (basically any code prefixed with BENSSCNF). Also, note that these codes are non-updateable, so make sure to rename them while duplicating the template itself. 4. Change the required Name field and click the Apply button. 5. Click the Add File button and upload the new or customized replacement file.

6. Click the Update button and change the Default file, if necessary. 7. Alter the copy start date, if necessary. This date will coincide with the date used to end date the seeded template. 8. Go back to Templates and find the seeded report you have duplicated. 9. Click the link for the seeded template and click the Update button. 10. End date the seeded template. 11. Generate the report in the application. The generated report should reflect your duplicate. Delivery channels How does the Oracle XML Publisher Core engine gets invoked? Two step publishing method Submit a concurrent program of which the Output Format is set to XML Submit the XML Report Publisher concurrent request to produce the final output. At submission time, specify the request ID from step 1, choose the desired template and the Output Format (PDF, RTF,). One step publishing method Submit a Concurrent Program with the Output Format is set to XML. At submission time select the desired template and the Output Format (PDF, RTF,). In the background the Output Post Processor (OPP) automatically applies the layout template to the generated XML data file and creates the output file. This method is the most common usage of XML Publisher. All other situations These delivery channels do not use the concurrent managers but they are web or forms based, where the XML Publisher Core APIs are called directly in JAVA code. No concurrent request is involved and only the XML Publisher Core engine is used. Examples of such situations are the following: Pick Slip Dunning Letters Blanket Agreement (Preview and Print) How to Debug XML Publisher Report Log The Concurrent Request ends with Phase Completed and Status Warning which indicates that the Output Post Processor (OPP) failed to generate an output file. In such cases the request log file shows a generic error message indicating the the post-processing action has failed: +- 1) PUBLISH -+ Beginning post-processing of request 3181529 on node PBREUGEL at 11-APR-2008 11:41:30. Post-processing of request 3181529 failed at 11-APR-2008 11:41:31 with the error message: One or more post-processing actions failed. Consult the OPP service log for details. ++ The actual error returned by the XML Publisher Core engine is captured in the OPP log file. There are three possible ways to obtain the OPP log file:

 Directly from the file system based after identifying the corresponding OPP log file name using the following SQL statement: SELECT fcpp.concurrent_request_id req_id, fcp.node_name, fcp.logfile_name FROM fnd_conc_pp_actions fcpp, fnd_concurrent_processes fcp WHERE fcpp.processor_id = fcp.concurrent_process_id AND fcpp.action_type = 6 AND fcpp.concurrent_request_id = &&request_id Via the Forms application: 1. Login to the application as SYSADMIN 2. Responsibility: System Administrator 3. Function: Concurrent > Manager > Administration 4. Select the Output Post Processor 5. Click on the Processes button 6. Select the Concurrent Process which was active during the time that the request ran 7. Click on the Manager Log button to open the Output Post Processor log file Via the Oracle Application Manager (OAM) 1. Login to the application as SYSADMIN 2. Responsibility: System Administration 3. Function: Oracle Applications Manager > Concurrent Managers 4. Select the Output Post Processor Service and click on View Details 5. Click on View Processes 6. Select the Concurrent Process which was active during the time that the request ran 7. Click on the Log button to open the Output Post Processor log file Determine the current version of Oracle XML Publisher on an Oracle E-Business Suite environment. Based upon an output file generated by XML Publisher PDF Output 1. Open the PDF document in Adobe Reader 2. Open the menu File 3. Select Document Properties 4. Click on the tab Description ==> The property named PDF Producer will show e.g. Oracle XML Publisher 5.6.3. RTF Output 1. Open the RTF document in Microsoft Word 2. Open the menu File 3. Select Properties 4. Click on the tab Summary ==> The property named Comments will show .e.g. Generated by Oracle XML Publisher 5.6.3 HTML and Excel output 1. Open the document in Notepad (or any other plain text editor)

==> line 4 or 5 will show e.g. Generated by Oracle XML Publisher 5.6.1 With R12 version is : 5.6.3 How to obtain the OPP debug log files Responsibility : System Administrator Concurrent Manager Administration Select the Output Post Processor Click on the Processes button Select the process that was active during the time frame that your request ran. Select Manager Log.

1.

What is a template Builder?

The Template Builder is an extension to Microsoft Word that simplifies the development of RTF templates. The Template Builder is tightly integrated with Microsoft Word and allows you to perform the following functions: Insert data fields Insert data-driven tables Insert data-driven forms Insert data-driven charts Preview your template with sample XML data Browse and update the content of form fields Extract boilerplate text into an XLIFF translation file and test translations Valid template file types are: eText - Inbound, eText - Outbound, PDF, RTF, XSL-FO, XSL-HTML, XSL-TEXT, and XSLXML. 2. Sub Template into Main Template: Import the subtemplate <?import:file:/// D:\siva\Callsubtempalte\Subtemplatenew.rtf?> In the subtemplate we are calling Headers: <?call@inlines:Tc1?><?with-param:ReportName;string(SIVA REPORT)?> <?end call?> Footers <?call:Tc2?> 3. Translatable (check box) Select this check box if you want this template to be translatable. Only RTF templates are translatable. After the template definition is created, the following fields are not updateable: Application, Code, and Type. Update the template from the View Template page. 4. To handle parameterized layout

If the requirement is to display a different layout based on a user parameter value or a List of Value selection, then the parameter can be passed to RTF layout and conditionally display the layout. On the Report Editor you first need to define a parameter with name DeptName. If this parameter has to be associated with a List of Value (LOV), then create a LOV on the Report Editor page. Next, in the parameter definition select parameter type as Menu and then select the LOV from the selection. In the RTF template define a parameter using syntax - <?param@begin:DeptName?> Now when user selects a department name from the List of Value on the report viewer page, the value gets passed to RTF layer into the DeptName parameter. To display the layout based on this user selection, you can use an IF statement or a CHOOSE statement to evaluate the parameter value and call the associated sub template. Use CHOOSE statement when too many conditional tests are to be done and a default action is expected for rest of the values, for example, for each department here we have a different sub template and if the user parameter has a department name with no associated sub template, then a default sub template can be called in otherwise section. <?choose:?> <?when:$DeptName=Accounting?><?call:tAcc?> <?end when?> <?when:$DeptName=Sales?><?call:tSales?> <?end when?> <?when:$DeptName=Marketing?><?call:tMark?> <?end when?> <?otherwise:?><?call:tDefault?> <end otherwise> <?end choose?> 5. WATERMARK PAGE LAYOUTWATERMARK (Word 2007) Format Background Printed Watermark (Word 2003) 6. TEXT FIELD Developercontrolslegacy toolstext field 7. Add Total Sum in calcualtion in a new row. 8. Adding Page/Brought Forward/Carried Forward Total Placed before the column name PT <?add-page-total:pt;'TRANS_AMOUNT_REMAINING'?> 9. Display Page Total in Footer <xdofo:show-page-total name="pt" format="99G999G999D00"/>

10. Display Brought Forward Total in Header <xdofo:show-brought-forward name="pt" format="99G999G999D00"/> 11. Display Carried Forward Total in Footer <xdofo:show-carry-forward name="pt" format="99G999G999D00"/>
15. BARCODE Select File Properties Custom Tab In the Name field enter: xdo-font.Free 3 of 9.normal.normal notice the name of the font must match the name of the font in the MSWord font drop down In the Value field enter: truetype.c:\windows\fonts 16. SORTING: <?sort:TRANS_AMOUNT;'ascending';data-type='text'?> \FREE3OF9.ttf

17. DIFFERENT LAST PAGE:

To utilize this feature, you must create a section break in your template to ensure the content of the final page is separated from the rest of the report and Insert the following syntax on the final page: <?start@last-page:body?> <?end body?>

18. CHART INSERT CHARTTYPE/GROUPING/DIMENSION/MEASURE Follow the following steps to modify the XSL definition. Double click on the Chart image Click Web tab <Cell> <xsl:value-of select="sum(current-group()/TRANS_AMOUNT)"/> </Cell> Change it to <Cell>

<xsl:value-of select="sum(current-group()//TRANS_AMOUNT)"/> </Cell> Notice the extra / between current-group() and TRANS_AMOUNT.

19. Table of Contents/Bookmarks Type <?CUSTOMER_NAME?> and remove CUSTOMER_NAME text form, this is because the Table of Content function can not handle the text form. Change the font setting for the <?CUSTOMER_NAME?> to be Heading 1. Insert a section break before the first page header so that you will have a blank page as the first page. You can use MS Words section break for this. (Insert->Break->Section Break->Next Page) Move to the inserted first page and place your mouse cursor into the first page. Click Insert from the tool menu and select Reference-> Index and Tables Click Table of Content tab and choose how you want to display your Table of Contents Click OK. Make sure that the table of contents has <?CUSTOMER_NAME?> tag inserted. Bookmark
1. Add the following tag before the table of contents. <?convert-to-bookmark:?> 2. Add the following tag after the table of contents. <?end convert-to-bookmark:?>

20. CROSSTAB Create a new RTF template Load Crosstab_Sample_Data.xml Go to File->Page Setup and choose Landscape as Orientation Select Crosstab from the Template Builder tool bar. (Insert->Crosstab) Drag and Drop Flowsto data area Drag and Drop Bus Grp to Row Header area Drag and Drop Type to Column Header area

Click OK.

21. Bursting What is a bursting file ? Its an XML file which tells bursting engine a) to split the XML File created. b) to deliver the Documents. Advantages of XMLP bursting a. No Additional Coding, just need to create XML bursting File. ( Isn't it exciting , otherwise we would have to write java program to split the XML File and then use XMLP delivery manager API to send emails . b. Process of Creating XML data Definition and Template remains AS IS . 22. BLOB & CLOB

Cant generate xml data for CLOB more than 40 kb in report builder. BLOB Images are supported in XML Publisher 5.6.2 or later. Encode BLOB to CLOB use this following function: CREATE FUNCTION getbase64( p_source BLOB ) RETURN CLOB IS v_result CLOB; BEGIN DBMS_LOB.createtemporary(lob_loc => v_result, CACHE => FALSE, dur => 0); Wf_Mail_Util.EncodeBLOB ( p_source, v_result); RETURN ( v_result ); END getbase64; To show BLOB Images use the following code: <fo:instream-foreign-object content-type=image/jpg><xsl:value-of select=.//IMAGE_/></fo:instream-foreign-object> XML Publisher supports in general right now only JPG, GIF and PNG.