How to print checks with MICR font

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) is used mainly by the banking industry to ease the
processing and clearance of checks. Some countries have specific requirement to print the check
numbers on the check in MICR font. Multiple steps are involved in the process of printing checks with
MICR font. The steps can be broadly divided under the following heads –

A. Downloading of MICR fonts

B. Uploading MICR font at server level
C. Mapping of MICR font at BIP level
D. Mapping of MICR font at BIP Report level
E. Creation of external role
F. Attaching external role to a new/existing user
G. Mapping of BI Author Role to the external role
H. Customizing template to include MICR font
I. Adding a printer
J. Adding a printer in the Oracle Application
K. Check printing
L. Trouble Shoot guide when locating the actual printout.
M. Reference Links

A. Downloading of MICR font –

Before going to the next steps, customer needs to check whether MICR font exists in the system.
If the MICR font does not exist, customer needs to install the font.

A.1) Follow the below mentioned steps for checking whether MICR font is installed or not

A.1.1) Navigate to control panel and look for ‘Fonts’

A.1.2) Double click on ‘Fonts’
A.1.3) From the list of fonts, search for the font with name ‘GnuMICR’
If the font is installed, the below mentioned steps under A.2 can be skipped. If the font is not
installed, then the font needs to be down loaded and installed.

A.2) Follow the below mentioned steps for downloading MICR fonts

A.2.1) Open the site from http://www.sandeen.net/GnuMICR/ from any browser.

A.2.2) Select download

A.2.3) Select GnuMICR-0.30.zip and download

A.2.4) Save the file locally.

A.2.5) Unzip the file.

A.2.6) Copy the TTF file (GnuMICR.ttf )

A.2.7) Paste the copied file in the Fonts under Control Panel/Fonts
B. Uploading MICR font at server level

The MICR font needs to be uploaded even at server level.

Please follow the below mentioned steps –

B.1) Check the BI domain's WLS setDomainEnv.sh file.

B.2) Find the setting for XDO_FONT_DIR variable. This should be set to a font directory, such as:
.../u01APPLTOP/fusionapps/bi/common/fonts. It should be set to the location in which the
fonts are installed for your environment.

B.3) Copy the ‘MICR____.ttf’ file in to this directory.

C. Mapping of MICR font at BIP level

The new MICR font needs to be mapped at BIP level. Depending on the requirement, the font
needs to be mapped at either the following two levels –

1) Administration level and

2) Report level

The font mapping set administration level will be copied at all report levels. User can do the
mapping at administration level, if the target font is uniform across all the types of reports.

The following steps needs to be followed for mapping MICR fonts at BI Publisher administration
level.

C.1) Login to Oracle BI Publisher with user having BI Admin role attached

C.2) Select Administration

C.3) Select font mappings

C.4) Check whether MICR font is already mapped

Over here the MICR font is not mapped. Since the scenario we are testing relates to RTF
template, select ‘Add Font Mapping’ under RTF Templates heading.

C.5) Enter the ‘GnuMICR’ for Base Font or Book Antiqua & select Target Font as ‘MICR___.TTF’
and select ‘apply’ button
C.6) Select ‘Apply’ button

The MICR font is attached at BIP administration level. If a font is mapped at administration
level, the same is copied at all other Report levels.
D. Mapping of MICR font at BIP Report level

If the requirement is to have a different set of fonts for each report, then user needs to map the
font at BIP Report level. The following steps needs to be followed for mapping at BI Publisher
Report level

D.1) Login to Oracle BI Publisher with user having BI Admin role attached

D.2) Select Catalog

D.3) Navigate to Shared Folder > Custom > Financials > Payments

D.4) Locate the Report in which template is customized and select ‘Edit’. In our scenario, the
Disbursement Payment File Formats.

D.5) Click properties

D.6) Navigate to ‘Font Mapping’ tab

D.7) As we are customizing an RTF file, select ‘Add’ button under the ‘RTF Templates’ heading
D.8) Enter the values as below -

Font Family – GnuMICR or Book Antiqua

Style = normal
Weight = normal
Target Font Type = Truetype
Target font = MICR__.TTF

D.9) Select ‘OK’ button

E. Creation of an external role

Customers with requirement to print check numbers in MICR font, needs to customize a
template.

Customization of template requires modification of an existing template or creating a new

template and uploading of modified template under Business Intelligence Publisher (BIP).
Customization of template can be done by a user with BI Author Role. If a user has BI author
role mapped, customer can skip the steps (B, C and D) and can directly navigate to the step E. If
the customer does not have a user with BI author role, follow the below mentioned steps –

E.1) Login to OIM

E.2) Select ‘Administration’ button on the top right corner

E.3) Select ‘Create Role’

E.4) Enter values for Name and Display Name

E.5) Select ‘Save’ button

Role is created successfully.
 F. Attaching External to a new/existing user

The new role can be assigned to an existing user or a new user. If the user wants to assign the role to an
existing user, the steps up to creation of the new user can be skipped.

F.1) Login to OIM

F.2) Select ‘Create User’

F.3) Enter values for First Name, Last Name, Organization, User Type, Display Name, User Login,
Password and Confirm Password
F.4) Select ‘Save’ button

F.5) New user is successfully created

If the user wants to assign the new role to an existing user, the above steps can be skipped.
Attaching the new role to an existing user or new user will be same from now onwards.

F.6) Search for the existing or new user through ‘Advanced Search – Users’

F.7) Select ‘Roles’ tab

F.8) Select ‘Assign’ tab

F.9) Search for the role created above

F.10) Select the role

F.11) Select ‘Add’ button

The new role is successfully attached to the user.
G. Mapping the BI Author Role to the external role

The BI Author Role now can be attached to the new role. Follow the below mentioned steps for
attaching the BI author role to the new external role created above.

G.1) Login to APM

G.2) Select the application name as ‘obi’

G.3) Select New under Application Roles

G.4) Enter the details

G.5) Select ‘Save’ button

G.6) Select ‘Application Role Hierarchy’ tab

G.7) Select ‘Add’ button

G.8) Search for the ‘BI Author’

G.9) Select the BI Author Role in the search results

G.10) Select ‘Add’ button

G.11) Select ‘External Role Mapping’ tab

G.12) Select ‘Add’ button

G.13) Search for the New External Role created above

G.14) Select the Role

G.15) Select ‘Map Roles

BI Author Role is successfully attached to user and the user can now login to Oracle BI Publisher
for customizing a template.
H. Customizing a BIP template to include MICR font

Multiple steps are involved in customizing a BIP template. The steps can be broadly divided
under the following heads -

H.1) Checking whether Custom Report is available

H.2) Creating a Custom Report

H.3) Customizing a template

H.4) Modifying the default output

H.1) Checking whether Custom Report is available

The template needs to be customized and placed under the custom report. So before
customizing a template, check whether the custom report has been created or not. As
all the payment related templates are stored under ‘Disbursement Payment File
Formats’, look for the same at Shared folders > Custom > Financials > Payments.

H.1.1) Login to Oracle BI Publisher with user having BI Author Role attached

H.1.2) Select Catalog

 H.1.3) Navigate to Shared Folders >> Custom >> Financials

Over here the custom Report is not available under Custom Folder. As the custom
report is not available, it should be created by following the below mentioned steps.

If the Custom report is available, user can skip the ‘Creating a Custom Report’ steps and
directly navigate to customization of template.

H.2 Creating a Custom Report

H.2.1) Login to Oracle BI Publisher with user having BI Admin Role attached

H.2.2) Select Catalog

H.2.3) Navigate to Shared Folders > Financials > Payments

H.2.4) IBY templates have been grouped under different reports. Depending on the
customization requirement, user needs to identify the Report which needs to be copied
to Custom folder. As the current requirement is to modify a check template, user needs
to create a custom report for the ‘Disbursement Payment File Formats’, select the same.

H.2.5) Select’ More’ and click on the ‘Customize’ option from the list.
 H.2.6) Application will automatically create a custom report under the Shared Folders >
Custom > Financials > Payments.

H.2.7) All the BIP templates under the report ‘Shared Folders > Financials > Payments >
Disbursement Payment File Formats’ will be copied to the report ‘Shared Folders >
Custom > Financials > Payments > Disbursement Payment File Formats’

H.3) Customizing a template

After creating custom report, user can start modifying and uploading the templates. Follow the
below mentioned steps for customizing a template.

H.3.1) Login to Oracle BI Publisher using the user with BI Author Role

H.3.2) Select Catalog

H.3.3) Navigate to Shared Folders > Custom > Financials > Payments

H.3.4) Since the object is to customize a check template, select ‘Edit’ option of the
Disbursement Payment File Formats. Application displays all the templates under that
report.
H.3.5) Search for template that needs to be customized. For the demo purpose,
template with code ‘IBYDC_STD1’ is selected.

H.3.6) Select Edit

H.3.7) Save the RTF file in the local system

H.3.8) As the file needs to be uploaded with the same name, remove the ‘IBYDC_STD1’
under the custom folder
H.3.9) Open the RTF file from the local system

H.3.10) Right Click on the ‘Check Number’ field

H.3.11) Select ‘Font’
H.3.12) Modify the font as ‘GnuMICR’

Note – As mentioned in the bug 13619328, there is some issue in mapping the MICR
font directly in the template (Microsoft Word does corrupt fields that are in MICR font).
Users are suggested to map a different font like ‘Book Antiqua’ at the rtf template level
and then map MICR font as target font for ‘Book Antiqua’ at BIP.
H.3.13) Select ‘OK’ button
H.3.14) Save the RTF file. The template is now modified and ready for upload.

H.3.15) Navigate back to Oracle BI Publisher

H.3.16) Select Add New Layout

H.3.17) Select Upload

 H.3.18) Enter the values for Layout name (give the same name is it was earlier i.e.
IBYDC_STD1)

H.3.19) Browse and select the RTF file modified and saved locally

H.3.20) Select type as RTF Template

H.3.21) Select Locale as ‘English’

H.3.22) Select ‘Upload’ button

The modified template is uploaded successfully and saved and is displayed at the end of
the list.

H.4) Modifying the default output

When a new template is uploaded with type as ‘RTF Template’, the default output format is
getting saved as ‘HTML’. Customer needs to change it manually to ‘PDF’

H.4.1) Select ‘View a list’

H.4.2) Look for the template uploaded. Please note that the new template will be
displayed at the end of the list.

H.4.3) The output Format is created as ‘HTML’, change it as ‘PDF’

 H.4.4) Select ‘Save’

Now the template is ready for usage.

Template has been modified and saved with the existing code. There is no need to do any
additional setup changes. Customer can start using the existing PPP for making payments.

Customers can create different flavors of same template by saving the rtf file with different
name by uploading with different codes. In this case the other setups for processing the
payments, like creating format, payment process profile and payment document should be done
additionally.

Important points to note –

1) Once a custom report is created, the seeded report act as a replica of the custom
report i.e. if a new template is uploaded under the custom report, the same
template will get copied even under the seeded report.

2) So, if a BIP template is removed under the custom report, the same report would be
removed under the seeded report.

3) If you want to get the seeded templates back, you need to rename or delete the
custom report under Shared Folders > Custom > Financials > Payments. Then only
you will be able to see the seeded templates under seeded report.
I. Adding a Printer

Printing is only supported through Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). If BI Publisher is operating in
a Linux environment, then you must set up the Common UNIX Printing Service (CUPS). If BI
Publisher is operating in a Windows environment, then you must set up Windows Print Server
for IPP.

It covers the following two topics –

I.1) Setting up CUPS on Linux

I.2) Setting up Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) on Windows.

Let us go through the steps involved in CUPS-

I.1) Setting up CUPS on Linux

The delivery manager requires Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) to print and fax
documents. This section describes how to set up CUPS for printing and faxing on RedHat Linux.

The following figure shows the integration between BI Publisher and CUPS

Integration of BI Publisher and CUPS

The following procedures describe how to add a printer or fax to CUPS and how
to test your setup
I.1.1) Prerequisites

I.1.1.1) RedHat Advanced Server 3.0 or later

I.1.1.2) Fax Modem connected to the Linux box
I.1.1.3) Development Tools for the RedHat Advanced Server installed
I.1.1.4) CUPS (Installed by default when installing RedHat AS 3.0 or later)

I.1.2) Setting up a printer on CUPS

The RedHat Advanced Server provides a configuration wizard to help you set up your
printers

I.1.2.1) To use the RedHat Printer Configuration Wizard to set up a printer

I.1.2.1.1) Run "redhat-config-printer"

While logged on as the root user, open a terminal and execute "redhat-config-
printer". This invokes the Printer configuration window.

I.1.2.1.2) Select the New tab to launch the Add a new print queue wizard.

I.1.2.1.3) Follow the wizard prompts to define the printer details:

 Enter a queue name.

 Select the queue type.

Select "Networked_JetDirect" to set up a network printer. For this selection, you

must also enter the following:

 Printer — Enter a hostname or IP address.

 Port — Enter a port.

If the printer driver is installed in Microsoft Windows, then the Printer and Port
information is available from the Properties dialog for the printer (Settings >
Printers and Faxes > (select printer) > File > Properties).

 Select the printer model.

I.1.2.1.6) If the printer supports PostScript, then select the following:

 Manufacturer: "Generic"
 Model: "PostScript Printer"
o Review your selections and select Apply to create your new print queue.

I.1.2.1.1) The new queue is displayed in the Printer configuration window.

 I.1.2.2) To test printer on CUPS

I.1.2.2.1) Launch a browser on RedHat and enter the following URL:

http://localhost:631

I.1.2.2.1) Select the Printers tab. The printer that you just created is listed.
To use the Windows browser to access this page, see Section H.1.3, "Making
CUPS Accessible from Other Machines."

I.1.2.2.3) Select Print Test Page to test your printer setup.

If the test page does not print, try the following actions:
Repeat the configuration steps.
Verify that the printer type and model selections are correct.
On the CUPS Administration page, verify that the following printer Basic Server
Settings are selected:
Show printers shared by other systems
Allow printing from the Internet
Allow remote administration
On the CUPS Printers page, verify that the printer displays the "published" state.
For example:
ColorLaser
Description: HP Color LaserJet 4700
Location: Fairborn
Printer Driver: HP Color LaserJet 4700 Postscript (recommended)
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, published
Decide URI: socket://address:9100

I.1.3) Making CUPS accessible from other Machines

By default, CUPS does not allow access from other it can be configured to allow access.network
machines. However,

To make CUPS accessible from other machines:

I.1.3.1) Open a CUPS configuration file using the following command:

Open /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

I.1.3.2) Add a "Listen" instruction.

  Scroll to the bottom of the configuration file where the other Listen instructions
are declared.
 Copy "Listen 127.0.0.1:631" and paste it above or below the original.
 Replace "127.0.0.1" with the Linux server's IP address.

I.1.3.3) Configure each printer.

 In the configuration file, locate: <Location /printers/your_printer_queue>

 Comment the instruction "Deny From All". Example: # Deny From All
 Change "Allow from 127.0.0.1" to "Allow from All"
 Repeat for all printer or fax queues that you want to make accessible.

I.1.3.4) Save the configuration file and restart CUPS.

 Use the following command to stop CUPS: /etc/rc.d/init.d/cups stop

 Use the following command to start CUPS: /etc/rc.d/init.d/cups start

I.1.3.4) Test the accessibility from other machines.

Launch a browser from another machine and enter one of the following URLs to ensure
that the CUPS web page can be accessed:

 http://linux_server_name:631
 http://linux_ip_address:631

I.2) Setting up Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) on Windows.

To set up IPP printers:

I.2.1) Install Internet Information Services (IIS).

 Open the Control Panel. Select Add or Remove Programs, then Add/Remove
Windows Components.
 Select the option for Internet Information Services (IIS) from the list of available
Windows Components.
 With IIS highlighted, select Details. Ensure that World Wide Web Service is
selected in the Internet Information Services (IIS) dialog.
 With World Wide Web Service highlighted, select Details. Ensure that Printers
virtual directory is selected in the World Wide Web Service dialog.

I.2.2) Restart Windows XP.

I.2.3) Share the printers:

 From the Start menu, select Settings, then Printers and Faxes.
 Right-click the printer icon and select Sharing.
  In the printer Properties dialog, select Share this printer and assign a Share
name (for example: myprinter1).

Note: The Share name must not contain spaces.

I.2.4) Configure the Windows Firewall to open a port to the XMLP Server:

 From the Start menu, select Settings, then Control Panel.

 From the Control Panel, select Windows Firewall.
 From the Windows Firewall dialog, select the Exceptions tab.
 Create an entry in the list of Programs and Services as follows:
 Select Add Port.
 Enter the Name: for example, Web

Enter the Port number: for example, 80

Select TCP.

Description of "A-2 Edit a Port Dialog"

 To allow access from a specific IP address only:

 Select your entry, then select Edit.
 From the Edit a Program dialog, select Change Scope.
 Choose Custom list, and enter the IP address of the XMLP Server.

Note that if you use the HTTP proxy server in BI Publisher Server, then you must
enter the IP address of the proxy server.

I.2.5) Change the virtual directory security setting.

  From the Control Panel, select Administrative Tools, then Internet Information
Service.
 Navigate the Internet Information Service directory hierarchy as follows:
Internet Information Services > [your server name] > Web Sites > Default Web
Site > Printers. Right-click Printers and choose Properties.
 From the Printers Properties dialog, select the Directory Security tab.
 In the Anonymous access and authentication control region, select Edit.
 In the Authentication Methods dialog, select the Anonymous access check box.

I.2.6) Open a browser in a remote machine and enter the following URL: http://<your server
name>/printers

You see the list of shared printers.

J. Adding a printer in the Oracle Application

After adding the printer the following steps need to be followed for adding the printer
in the Oracle Application.

J.1) Login to BI Publisher with an admin user

J.2) Select Administration (on the top right corner)

J.3) Select ‘CUPS Server’ under ‘Delivery’ sub heading

J.3.1) Select Cups Server tab

J.4) Click on ‘Refresh All Servers’ button to make sure printers defined on the above
CUPS server are showing properly

J.5) Identify your printer and copy the value under the URI column. For the
documentation purposes, let us take the HYDCAMPUS-P3-5_PRN01 and copy its URI
ipp://rws66421fwks.us.oracle.com:631/printers/HYDCAMPUS-P3-5-PRN01 and select
‘Printer’ tab
J.7) Select ‘Add Server’ button

J.8) Enter some identifiable name for the printer (Server Name filed)

J.9) Enter the URI copied above in the URI field -

ipp://rws66421fwks.us.oracle.com:631/printers/HYDCAMPUS-P3-5-PRN01
J.10) Select ‘Apply’ button.

J.11) The printer is successfully added

J.12) Login to application and navigate to any printer screen and check for the new
printer.

J.13) By default the new printer will be in unshared state

J.14) In order share the printer, open Google Chrome browser and paste the following link
http://rws66421fwks.us.oracle.com:631/printers/

J.15) The list of printers will be displayed. Select the printer

J.16) Select ‘Modify Printer’ option from the dropdown list

J.17) The following screen will be displayed.

J.18) Select ‘Continue’ button

J.19) Select the check box ‘Share This Printer’

J.20) Select ‘Continue’ button

J.21) Select ‘Modify Printer’ button

J.22) Printer is now shared and ready to use.

K. Check printing

Follow the below mentioned steps for to verify whether the printed check is displaying the MICR
font or not.

K.1) Create aninvoice.

K.2) Create PPR for a printed PF

K.3) Select the printer created above while submitting for printing (or include the default printer
at the PPP)

K.4) Check the print out for the MICR font

L. Trouble shooting

If there’s any issues with printer/payment output, here are some guidelines for trouble
shooting.

L.1) Go to the Format Payment File log and search for Printer or BI Admin or CUPS Printers Setup

L.2) The above error means there’s an issue with Printer setup in BI. Check the setup in BI with
BI Admin privileges and seek help from IBY Dev.

L.3) Another sample of error from Format Payment File log that’s complaining the Printer Setup
in BI/CUPS:

L.4) Here’s how to check the setup in BI Admin for HQ407 & HQ 435 Printers, login –
finuser1/Welcome1:
L.5) For Printer HQ407-

L.6) For Printer HQ435 –

L.7) Another sample from the Format Payment File log where it shows successfully but still not
able to find copy from printer:

L.8) Then check the status in http://rws66421fwks.us.oracle.com:631/printers/ using Google

Chrome browser
L.8.1) If the above errors are showing, then seek help from Procurement Dev
whom needs to install the correct drivers and re-start the drivers.

L.8.2) If the following is shown, then it means it was successfully printed:

M. Reference links –

For more information on setting up CUPS and Windows IPP, see Appendix A,
"Setting Up Print Servers."

Embedding PCL Commands for Check Printing

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e22254/create_rtf_tmpl.htm#BIPRD3329

http://fmwdocs.us.oracle.com/doclibs/fmw/E15295_01/bi.1111/e13881/T421739T481157.htm
#T481215 -- how to use external fonts.

Google link for GnuMICR download - http://www.sandeen.net/GnuMICR/download/

XXPGA_AP_CHECK.rtf in My Documents folder has the GnuMICR-0.30 updated for CheckNum,

BankAcctNum & SortCode in the bottom of the file.

BIP Design for Rel7 Support for Customization Documentation -

http://review.us.oracle.com/review2/Review.html#reviewId=158290

Draft Review:

http://review.us.oracle.com/review2/Review.html;jsessionid=RSF8RTTH7nHwFGpPtJRZ91vdppb
7b2t4hPzB2J9Y8g7vLvDvYNc8!1515534918#reviewId=167956;documentId=470531;fragment=C
HDDEEJI