Converting Oracle Reports toConverting Oracle Reports to BI PublisherBI Publisher

RMOUG Training DaysFebruary 24, 2010

Jennifer McNeillUnify/CipherSoft

Challenges of Reporting within the EnterpriseBenefits of Utilizing BI-PublisherStep by Step Approach to Converting Oracle ReportsIntegrating Oracle Forms 10g with BI PublisherTechnical Issues Creating the Project PlanBest PracticesLessons Learned Q&A

AgendaAgenda

High Fidelity ReportsPartner ReportsFinancial StatementsGovernment formsMarketing materialsContractsChecks, LabelsXMLEFT / EDIMultiple destinations

Challenges of Reporting in an Challenges of Reporting in an Enterprise EnvironmentEnterprise Environment

Multiple reporting solutionsHighly-skilled engineers required to maintain servers and report formats◦

Costly◦

Time consuming◦

Complex systems◦

Expensive maintenance◦

Labor intensive

Challenges of Reporting in an Challenges of Reporting in an Enterprise EnvironmentEnterprise Environment

Simplifies Report Maintenance◦

Separate query, layout, and translation

Report output provided is:◦

Flexible◦

Reduces maintenance◦

Business users create layouts with familiar desktop tools

Rapid DevelopmentExtract Data Once, Publish Many Docs

Benefits of BIBenefits of BI--PublisherPublisher

Pure Java application – Use any J2EE application serverRich set of Java APIs for custom application developmentWeb Services for SOA developmentAny data source: JDBC and Web services XML data sourcesStandard W3C XSL-FO stylesheetsOutput formats in PDF, PS, RTF, HTML…Delivery Support for:◦

Internet Printing Protocol, CUPS◦

Internet Fax Protocol ◦

SMTP email protocol◦

WebDAV, FTP, SFTP

BI Publisher Benefits BI Publisher Benefits --

HotHot-- PluggablePluggable

During the conversion process, the source reports must eventually be in Oracle Reports XML formatOracle Reports XML format is supported in Oracle Reports 9i and aboveIf your source reports are not in Oracle Reports XML format, the conversion utility will do this conversion automaticallyRequires Oracle Reports Designer 9i or later on the same machine where you will do the conversion so that Oracle BI Publisher conversion utility can call the rwconverter executable to get the reports into Oracle Reports XML format

First Conversion StepsFirst Conversion Steps

Use rwconverter from Oracle Reports to go from RDF to RDF XMLRDF XML file will be converted to BIP objectsData◦

Data Template◦

Supporting pl/sqlLayout◦

RTF templateEnabled for batch mode processing

What will the Converter do?What will the Converter do?

Oracle ReportsRDF XML

Data Template

RTFTemplates

PL/SQL

Ensure the following jar files are in your classpath:◦

l Collections.zip -◦

l xmlparserv2-904.jar -◦

l xdocore.jar◦

l aolj.jar

The conversion utility requires JDK version 1.1.8 or later

Running the Conversion Running the Conversion UtilityUtility

BIPBatchConversion is the utility to migrate reports from Oracle Reports to BI Publisher.It takes the following parameters:l -source — (required) Source directory for Oracle Reports files. All reports must be in the same format - either RDF or XML.l -target — (required) Target directory to create Oracle BI Publisher report objects. This includes the Oracle BI Publisher Report file (.xdo), the layout template file (.rtf), the PL/SQL package, and log file.l -oraclehome — (optional) If your reports are in Oracle Reports XML format do not specify this parameter. If your reports are not in Oracle Reports XML format, specify the Oracle home path where Oracle Report Designer (9i or later version) is installed. BIPBatchMigration assumes that rwconverter is contained in the bin directory beneath the Oracle home path.BIPBatchConversion requires rwconverter from Oracle Reports to convert the report from RDF format to XML format.l -debug — (optional) To run the utility in debug mode and write debug statements to the log file.

Running the Conversion UtilityRunning the Conversion Utility

Command Line Usage:◦

java ... BIPBatchConversion [-debug] -source SourceDirectory -target◦

TargetDirectory [-oraclehome OracleHomePath]

Running the Conversion Running the Conversion UtilityUtility

The conversion utility will generate the following output files for each report:◦

l Report definition file that includes the Data Model (for example: REPORT.xdo)

◦

(Note: This file is not needed for E-Business Suite users; see the following note under DataTemplate.) l DataTemplate (for example:

REPORT_template.xml) (Note: this is not required for Oracle BI Publisher Enterprise users because the data template is embedded

in REPORT.xdo.)

◦

l Default PL/SQL package specification (for example: REPORTS.pls)◦

l Default PL/SQL package body (for example: REPORTB.pls)◦

l RTF Layout Template (for example: REPORT.rtf)◦

l Log file (for example: REPORT.log)

Output Files CreatedOutput Files Created

Upload PL/SQL Package to the Database◦

Many converted Oracle Reports will generate a PL/SQL package specification file and a PL/SQL package body file as follows:

l <report_name>S.plsl <report_name>B.pls

◦

Run the PL/SQL package files against your Oracle Database as follows. This will create the PL/SQL package specification and body.

SQL> @C:\BIPublisher_reports\ raxinv\raxinvS.plsSQL> @C:\BIPublisher_reports\ raxinv\raxinvB.pls

Running the Conversion Utility Running the Conversion Utility

Putting Converted Reports into the Oracle BI Publisher Repository◦

Make your reports visible in the Oracle BI Publisher repository is a two-step process:

1. Copy the report folders into the repository.2. Refresh the repository metadata.

◦

If you have a file-based repository, copy the report folder structure to the file system.

Example, suppose your repository path was set to:◦

C:\oracle\bi\xmlp\XMLPFor the report in the previous example, simply copy the report directory and all its files to the desired folder structure in the existing report repository

Running the Conversion UtilityRunning the Conversion Utility

Occasionally when converting a more complex Oracle Reports report, the Data Template or PL/SQL may contain minor errors and require manual correction.The conversion utility will move all formula columns to the select clause of the SQL query in the data model. In most cases this will not cause a problem. However, if any of the arguments to the formula is a summary column, this will not work because the summary column will not be calculated at the time the query is executed.To correct this problem you will need to remove this formula from the select clause and implement the formula as XSL in your layout template. Most of these formulas are used either for simple addition or summation or currency conversion, formatting, and rounding.

Conversion IssuesConversion Issues

RTF Layout Template File◦

The majority of Oracle Reports reports use simple 'if' formatting logic that is automatically converted to equivalent XSL-FO and inserted into form fields in the RTF layout template.

◦

There is no support for PL/SQL in RTF layout templates.◦

The conversion utility does not convert any PL/SQL format trigger logic present in the report. Instead the conversion utility writes all the format trigger code to a log file. You will need to implement any corresponding PL/SQL logic as XSL code.

◦

To aid in this process, the resulting RTF template will contain form fields that hold the format trigger names that are called;

these fields will be highlighted in red. You can then refer to the log to find the actual PL/SQL code used in the original Oracle Report. You will need to rewrite these PL/SQL triggers as XSL-FO

Running the Conversion UtilityRunning the Conversion Utility

Converter extracts layout and data informationEnabled for batch mode processingGenerates BIP report objectsData◦

Data Template◦

Supporting pl/sqlLayout◦

RTF templateThese can be loaded to the BIP server

Standalone Reports ConversionStandalone Reports ConversionRDF

9i+ RDFXML

9i+ rwconverter

RDF2RTFConverter

RTFTemplates

PL/SQL

Data Template

Simple wire frame layout will be created, users need to address:◦

Sanity Check –

does the template work ◦

Fonts◦

Shading◦

BordersFormat triggers on report objects will not be converted from plsql to xsl-fo◦

Observations have noted that the majority of format triggers are of the ‘if’

type i.e. if x=y then zzzzzz◦

These can be very simply converted to Publisher’s XSL format

What will the converter not do?What will the converter not do?

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherCreating a client for the Web

Services with Oracle JDeveloper

Integrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with BI Publisher

Select No Template as Application Template

Integrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherUse BIP_WebService as Project

Name

When choosing another name pay attention in the document. There are

several code pieces using this project name

Integrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherSelect the created Project BIP_WebService.jpr in the

Navigator and choose the Project Properties with a right click. Select the Compiler node and set the Source and

Target dropdown lists to 1.4. (That’s because of the used JRE of Forms 10.1.2)

Integrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with BI PublisherWhen working with Oracle Forms you have to replace the version of JDK

which is used in the project.Select the Libraries node in the Project Properties and press the button to

Change the J2SE version.

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIn the Edit J2SE Definition Window go to the left

pane and select the node Project.

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherBy pressing the button New a window Create J2SE opens where you can

reference the necessary J2SEPress the button Browse and select the file java.exe from the directory

\jdk\jre\bin in the Oracle Home of your Developer Suite.

If you submit your selection with OK you will see that several jar- Files were added to the classpath. In the window Project Properties

the version of J2SE should now be set to 1.4.2_14

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherAfter saved the project, right-click the project, choose New and

select the Item Web Services Proxy in the Category Business Tier – Web Services

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherChoose as your WSDL Document URL the appropriate URL of your BI Publisher

Server:http://<machine>:<port>/<yourappname>/services/PublicReportService?wsdl (Default for <yourappname> is xmlpserver)

If you run into problems when generating the WSDL from the above URL you could manually create a WSDL file and use it with the second option Mapping File.

A complete definition of the WSDL can be found in the documentation at:http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12844_01/doc/bip.1013/e10416/bip_webservice_101331.htm#BA

BHEHEJ. Just copy the text in a file and add it to the content of your project.

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher

Accept the following two screens and than set your wished Package Name (here

bip_webservice.proxy).

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherAccept again the two following screens. Check that in the Finish screen the method runReport is available in the service endpoint.

Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherIntegrating Oracle Forms with Bi PublisherFinally you’ve created the proxy stub.

Limited ResourcesLack of knowledge within staffLack of understanding of future directionNeed to “hang on” to previous environmentUnderstanding of Business RequirementsIntegration with present and future environment

Challenges of a Conversion Challenges of a Conversion ProjectProject

Utilization of new technology in the most efficient mannerProject planning for present and futureUtilization of Testing Resources

Challenges of a Conversion Challenges of a Conversion ProjectProject

Jennifer McNeillUnify/CipherSoft

Office: 403.256.5699 ext 228Cell: 916-865-6049www.ciphersoftinc.com

Thank you for attending!Thank you for attending!