Transform your Standard Reports GO the XML Way!

Presenters

Neida E. Castaneda & Josephine L. Abel

City of West Palm Beach

City of West Palm Beach- Profile

Established in 1894, we are a local government operating under a Strong
Mayor System

1,700 employees serve approximately 82,000 residents along the Atlantic

Intracoastal Waterway

Ranks #4 by Milken Index which measures cities with thriving economy 2005 Digital Cities Survey Winner The City successfully implemented/upgraded Oracle Financials/HR/Payroll
- August 1999, 10.7 first time implementation - August 2002, 11.5.5 upgrade - October 2004, 11.5.9 upgrade Visit us @ www.wpb.org

Presenters
Neida E. Castaneda - Senior Systems Analyst, OCP
- 8 years of Oracle experience - Lead HR/Payroll Technical and End user support - Oracle Apps implementation team member (10.7, 11.5.5 and 11.5.9)

Josephine L. Abel - Database Administrator, OCP

- 12 years of Oracle experience, 5 in Development, 7 in e-Business Suite - Oracle Apps implementation team member (10.7, 11.5.5 and 11.5.9) - Technical support for e-Business suite

Agenda

What is XML Publisher? XML Publisher Benefits Report Transformation - Process Overview XML Publisher Template Builder Going the XML Way! Tips and Tricks Technical Requirements & Challenges XML Publisher Latest Releases Resources Q&A

What is XML Publisher?

It is a template-based publishing solution bundled with e-Business suite XML is the acronym for eXtensible Markup Language Designed to structure, store and send information The collection of data continues to be handled by e-Business Suite, but users
design and control report outputs using template files

XML Publisher - Benefits

Eliminate 3rd party software Reduce support cost Maximize technical resources Generate jazzy and feature rich reports Use graphs, charts, fonts, and colors Allow different report layouts using same data source Publish reports for online viewing

HR & Payroll

Invoices & Dunning Letters

Financial Reports

Report Transformation
Process Overview

Design
Create layout form and markup elements

Integrate
Setup Data Definition and Template Definition

Runtime
Submit report and XML Publisher concurrent request

Design - Layout
Determine the report or form layout such as fonts, colors, graphs and charts Create layouts using Acrobat Writer for PDF templates or MS Word for
RTF templates

Graphics Fonts Form Letter Table Colors

Design - Markup
Set the concurrent program to generate XML output Run report

Change output format to XML

Design - Markup
XML datasource

Repeating Group

Fields

Design - Markup
Define markup elements to map XML datasource to the layout Markup elements can be defined using Basic RTF or Form Field Method

Group Placeholders

Page Break End of Group

Integrate Data Definition

Register report as a Data Definition Use XML Publisher Administrator responsibility Navigation Path: Home Data Definitions

Integrate Data Definition

Data Definition Code MUST MATCH the concurrent program Short Name

Data Definition Code = Short Name

Integrate Template Definition

Register and upload template file Use XML Publisher Administrator responsibility Navigation Path: Home Templates

Integrate Template Definition

Associate template to Data Definition

Data Definition

Upload Template File

The first template uploaded is the default template A single report can be associated to multiple templates

Runtime
Run the concurrent program

Run the XML Publisher Concurrent Request

Not required if patch 3435480 is applied

Report Transformation - Process Overview

Process Process Overview Overview
Layout Layout

Design Design

Markup Markup Data DataDefinition Definition

Integrate Integrate

Template TemplateDefinition Definition Run RunReport Report

Runtime Runtime

Run RunXML XMLPublisher Publisher

XML Publisher Template Builder

What is Template Builder? An add-on to MS Word Simplify RTF templates development

To install Template Builder for MS Word apply 4561835 Oracle XML Publisher Desktop Patch 5.5.0 client patch

XML Publisher Template Builder

Data Menu Load XML Data

Allows users to select a sample XML file containing fields that can be inserted into the template as a data source. The data source defines the XML format that will be merged with the RTF template
Insert Menu Field

Allows users to select fields from the data source and insert them into the template
Insert Menu Table/Form

Allows users to insert tables or forms into the template

Preview Menu

Allows users to preview the RTF template with sample XML data. The available output formats are PDF, HTML, RTF and EXCEL
Tools Menu Field Browser

Allows multiple fields to be changed/updated efficiently

Going the XML Way!

How To - Design
About the report HR Employee Details report (hreebarg.rdf) is a custom standard report, used by HR to generate service awards, eligibility lists and letters Run HR Employee Details Report

X re

L M

How To - Design
Layout Use MS Word to design the layout Place logo, headers/footers, title, static text, etc

Logo

Header

How To - Design
Markup Set output format = XML Use System Administrator responsibility Navigation Path: Concurrent Program Define

Set output format to XML

How To - Design
Run HR Employee Details Report to generate XML output

Navigation Path: View Output Tools Copy File

How To - Design
Output displays in a browser Save XML output file as hr_emp_detail.xml

How To - Design
Load the XML output (hr_emp_detail.xml) Data Load XML Data

How To - Design
After data is loaded successfully Use Insert Table/Form to add table and fields

How To - Design
To Preview template Use Preview PDF

How To - Design
Use Insert Field to add more fields

How To - Design
To Preview template Use Preview PDF

How To - Design
Use Tools Field Browser View/Modify XML commands in the form fields

How To - Design
Pre and Post XML Output

e r P

L M -X L M

Po

X t s

How To - Design
Additional Template Features IF-THEN-ELSE Display a message depending on a field value Conditional formatting of fields

CHOOSE Display a graphic depending on a field value Group Count Count total number of employees Graphs

How To - Design
Display a message depending on years of service

Use IF-THEN-ELSE
<?xdofx:if YR > 15 then 15+' elsif YR >= 10 and YR < 15 then 10-15' else 1-9 end if?>

How To - Design

Yrs of Service

Conditional Message

How To - Design
Change color attribute for years of service

<?if:YR>=15?><xsl:attribute xdofo:ctx="block name="color">red</xsl:attribute><?end if?> <?if:YR>=10 and YR<15?><xsl:attribute xdofo:ctx="block" name="color">green</xsl:attribute><?end if?> <?if:YR< 10?><xsl:attribute xdofo:ctx="block" name="color">blue</xsl:attribute><?end if?>

How To - Design
Display when employee has 15+ years of service Use CHOOSE

<?choose:?> <?when:YR >= 15?> <?end when?><?end choose?>

How To - Design
Display the total count of employees Use COUNT

How To - Design
Represent Number of Employees vs. Years of Service graphically

Use Insert Chart

Chart Type Group by Years of Service Count Number of Employees

How To - Design
Sample Template

How To - Design
The possibilities are endless

How To - Integrate
Navigation Path: XML Publisher Administrator responsibility Home Data Definition

NOTE: Data Definition Code MUST MATCH the concurrent program Short Name

How To - Integrate
Navigation Path: XML Publisher Administrator responsibility Home Templates

Data Definition

Template type = RTF

Upload RTF template Specify Language

How To - Integrate
Template Duplicate Functionality
Query template definition

Click on Duplicate button

Enter Code & Name for new template definition

How To - Integrate
Upload the new template file

Change template file

Click on Update button

Upload hr_emp_detail_graph.rtf

How To - Runtime
Run HR Employee Details Report

How To - Runtime
Default template can be changed using Concurrent Program definition page Navigation Path: System Administration responsibility Concurrent Programs

Transformation Steps - Summary

Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks

The Form Field Help Text is limited to 138 characters. To overcome limitation, use the Help Key tab or add more form fields to the template.

Tips and Tricks

Handling NULLs - Suppress or not to Suppress?
Suppress Nulls No additional coding required E.g. Letters and Labels

Do Not Suppress Nulls Insert blank space E.g. Preprinted forms

Tips and Tricks

XML output does not extract parameter names and their values. As a workaround, create formula columns to return parameter values.

Formula Column (Report Builder)

Tips and Tricks

Headers and footers do not allow placeholders.

Use BASIC RTF method to insert fields in the headers and footers

Tips and Tricks

Use MS Word Table Property to repeat heading across pages

Missing header on Page 2

Tips and Tricks

Use MS Word Table Property to prevent rows from breaking across pages

Row breaking across pages

Tips and Tricks

To utilize date format functionality, the date from the XML data source must be in canonical format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+HH:MM
Optional

dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy

Tips and Tricks

Use Diagnostic button to view XML output Navigation Path: Standard Request Submission Diagnostics Button View XML

Technical Requirements & Challenges

Patches
Client side patch (Platform = Microsoft Windows(32-bit) Client)

4561835 Oracle XML Publisher Desktop Patch 5.5.0

Server side patches (Sun SPARC 32-bit)

3412795 XML Publisher: Patch ADSPLICE patch for XDO 3263588 Patch 11i.XDO.H 3822219 XDO/Oracle XML Publisher OA ROLLUP patch 5.0.0 3435480 Publishing Concurrent Requests with XML 3854951 FSG XML Publisher Functionality for R11i 4073717 FND images pre-req for OA Framework 4206181 XDO/Oracle XML Publisher OA ROLLUP patch 5.5.0 4515143 XML Publisher Users Guide Online Help Release 5.5

Setups
Set properties in the xdo.cfg under $JRE_TOP/lib
The configuration file is primarily used for setting: Temporary directory (Highly recommended for processing large files) General and security properties for PDF files generated by XML Publisher Font locations and substitutions

Copy the font files

From $FND_TOP/resource to the /lib/fonts directory (under OA_JRE_TOP & JRE_TOP) on all Web and concurrent nodes. When using MICR font, remember to copy fonts on server

Assign the XML Publisher Administrator responsibility to users

Challenges & Solutions

JAVA lang out of memory errors To improve performance add the following lines to the xdo.cfg on your concurrent manager node: <properties> <!-- System level properties --> <property name="system-temp-dir">/tmp</property> <property name="xslt-scalable">true</property> The directory pointed to by system-temp-dir should be large enough to hold your largest output files. Timeout Warnings The concurrent manager has timed out waiting for the Output Post-processor to finish this request set profile Concurrent:OPP Response Timeout to allow more time to process large reports Unable to find the published output for this request Output Post Processor (OPP) patch has not been applied, or report is non-SRS request run the XML Publisher request to generate the output

XML Publisher Latest Releases

XML Publisher 5.6

Server side patches
4561451 XDO/ORACLE XML PUBLISHER OA ROLLUP PATCH 5.6.0 4743521 XDO 5.6.0 ADMIN PAGE UPDATE 4734820 ONLINE HELP PATCH FOR XML PUBLISHER RELEASE 5.6

New Features Administration User Interface

Configuration properties can be set via the Administration interface, previously done in the xdo.cfg file. Behavior of XML Publisher can be configured at the site, data definition, and template level.

XML Publisher 5.6

Upload Font Files and Create Font Mappings
Upload fonts through the Administration interface to make them available at runtime

RTF Template Enhancements Graphics Support Drawing/Shape support Background and Watermark support Conditional Formatting Fixed-row enumeration
Specify a fixed number of rows for a table regardless of the amount of data coming into the template at runtime Currency formatting Numeric values can now be formatted according to their associated currency code

XML Publisher 5.6.1

Server side patches 4905678 XDO/ORACLE XML PUBLISHER OA ROLLUP PATCH 5.6.1 RTF Template Enhancements

Hyperlink support for shapes Bookmark Support

Users can click the image in the document and link to an internal or external destination Generate the bookmark links that display in the PDF navigation pane

Truncate Table Data

Ability to truncate data in a table cell that is too big for the cell Define different headers and footers for odd and even pages in report output

Odd and even header and footer support

Resources
Topic Doc# About Oracle XML Publisher Release 5.5 316447.1 Using the Output Post Processor (OPP) in Oracle Applications 291792.1 Concurrent Processing Publishing Concurrent Requests with XML Publisher 295409.1 XML Publisher and Concurrent Manager Integration 276691.1 Check Printing Using XML Publisher 312353.1 Concurrent Request Fails due to Timeout of the Post Processing 352518.1 Action Unable to view output in a single request run (CONC-PP FAILED NO 308203.1 OPP error) Presentations, Technical Information and Demos on XML Publisher http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/applications/publishing/index.html

Q&A
E-mail Addresses:

ncastaneda@wpb.org jabel@wpb.org