Getting Started With Oracle Fusion Application Business Intelligence

Getting Started With Oracle Fusion Application Business Intelligence

About Report Customization
Reports extract the data from Business applications and present it in the formats required for the organization. Reports provide the information needed for internal operations and statutory compliance; reports also provide the business documents for communicating with customers. Many product-specific reports are provided with Oracle Fusion Applications; for example, the invoice register, the pick slip report, the payroll summary, the journals report, and the customer credit memo. To meet the specific needs of the enterprise, we may need to customize the reports provided or we may need to create new reports to capture and present different data.
Understanding the BI Publisher reporting architecture will help us to understand the report customization scenarios and tasks. A report in Oracle BI Publisher consists of the following components:
A data model that defines the data source, data structure, and parameters for the report. A data model can be used by multiple reports. Each report has one data model.
One or more layouts to define the presentation, formatting, and visualizations of the data. A report may have multiple layouts of the data model.
A set of properties that specify run-time and formatting options
Optionally, a report may also include:
Translations to provide localized versions of a report

What We Can Customize
In many cases, Oracle BI Publisher reports delivered with Oracle Fusion applications will contain the appropriate data elements, but may not provide the presentation of the data just as required by the business. Oracle BI Publisher enables to customize the layouts for reports leveraging the built in data models. If the reports provided by Oracle Fusion applications do not include the data we require, we can create a new report based on a custom data model.
Note:
Do not edit the predefined report objects. If you change a report and a subsequent patch includes a new version of the report, the patch overwrites any customization. If subsequent patches do not include a new version of the report, the customization are retained. When customizing reports, always make a copy of the original object and edit the copy.
Some common report customization scenarios are shown in the following table.

Customization Use Case	Described in
Edit the layout of a report provided with an application For example: Add your company logo to the Receivables Credit Memo report	"Customizing Layouts"
Add a new layout to a report provided with an application For example: Design a new form letter users can select when they run the Receivables Credit Memo	"Customizing Layouts"
Create a new report based on a data model provided with an application	"Creating Custom Reports"
Edit a data model provided with an application For example: Add a field to a data model	"Editing Existing Data Models"
Create a new data model For example: Define a new query against Oracle Fusion applications tables	"Creating a New Data Model"
Create a new report based on a custom data model	"Creating Custom Reports"

Report Customization Tasks
Depending on how a report is implemented in Oracle Fusion Applications and the type of customization you make you may also have to perform additional tasks to implement your custom report in the system.

If you create a new report and you wish to schedule this report through Oracle Enterprise Scheduler Service, you must create an Oracle Enterprise Scheduler Service job for the report. If you require Oracle Enterprise Scheduler Service to send parameter values to the Oracle BI Publisher report via a parameter view object, you must also create the view object.

If you create a custom layout and you require translations of the layout, you must also provide the translations. Oracle BI Publisher provides a tool for extracting the translation file for some layout types. The translation file can be translated into the required languages then uploaded to the report.

Tools for Customizing Reports
Customize reports either within the Oracle BI Publisher application or using one of the tools or applications.
Tools for Customizing Report Components
Report Data Model -> BI Publisher's data model editor
Report properties -> BI Publisher's report editor

Tools for Customizing Layouts
RTF template -> Microsoft Word with BI Publisher's Template Builder for Word
BI Publisher template (XPT) -> BI Publisher's layout editor
PDF template -> Adobe Acrobat Professional
Excel template -> Microsoft Excel with BI Publisher's Template Builder for Excel
eText Template -> Microsoft Word

Before You Begin Customizing Reports
Familiarize with the Oracle Fusion application architecture that enables customization, as described in Chapter 1, "Customizing and Extending Oracle Fusion Applications.". Also understand the typical workflows for working with runtime customizations, as described in Chapter 2, "Understanding the Customization Development Lifecycle."

In addition, be familiar with the following Oracle BI Publisher-specific requirements:
Ensure that you have proper permissions for editing and creating Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher objects
To create or edit reports and report layouts requires the BIAuthor Role (or a role that includes the BIAuthor Role) as well as write permissions on the objects in the catalog to be edited.
To create or edit data models requires a custom role that includes the BIAuthor Role and the developDataModel permission (oracle.bi.publisher.developDataModel). Note that the ability to create Oracle BI Publisher data models allows the user to write and execute SQL, therefore implementors must consider carefully to whom they grant the developDataModel permission, and on which environments.
To create the custom role for editing data models, follow the guidelines in the "Configuring Roles" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Administrator's Guide.
For more information about setting permissions in the catalog, see the "Managing Objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog" chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (Oracle Fusion Applications Edition).

Understand how the patching process for catalog objects impacts customizations
If a patch includes an update to a catalog object that was delivered with an Oracle Fusion application (for example, the Payables Invoice Register report) the patch will overwrite any customizations applied to the original report. To avoid overwriting a customization, do not customize a predefined Oracle Fusion application object in place; create a copy of the object and customize the copy.

Understand how permissions are set for and inherited by catalog objects
For a user to view a report, the user's role must have read permissions on every object referenced by a report. Permissions can be inherited from the folder in which the object resides.
For ease of maintenance, Oracle recommends that you place customized reports within the same folder as the original; or, if creating a new report that you place it within the same folder as other reports for the same job role.
If you choose to create new folders, bear in mind the catalog security permissions required (see the "Managing Objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog" chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (Oracle Fusion Applications Edition)).

Be aware of any application-specific guidelines for customizing reports
See application-specific documentation in the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications.

Be aware of property settings that determine how the report can be run and viewed
Some reports are configured to run only through an external application or through the Oracle Enterprise Scheduler. While customizing a report, you may want to configure it temporarily for viewing online to facilitate testing. See Task: Review Report Settings for Online Viewing for information about these settings.

Know how to navigate to Oracle BI Presentation Catalog objects
Navigate to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog as follows:
On the Navigator, under Tools, click Reports and Analytics. In the Reports and Analytics pane, click Browse Catalog.

Alternatively, log in to Oracle Business Intelligence directly (example: http://host:port/analytics/saw.dll).
Oracle Fusion Applications reporting objects are organized by product family in the catalog typically as follows:
   Top Level: Shared Folders
    Product Family Folder (example: Financials)
       Product folder (example: Payables)
       --Report group folders (example: Invoices)
       -- Reports
       -- Data Model folder
      

Read More

Top 10 Backup and Recovery Best Practices

Top 10 Backup and Recovery Best Practices
Assuming that you are doing the Backup and Recovery basics
- Running in Archivelog mode
- Multiplexing the controlfile
- Taking regular backups
- Periodically doing a complete restore to test your procedures.
- Restore and recovery validate will not uncover nologging issues. Consider turning on force-logging if they need all transactions to be recovered, and not face nologging problems ( ALTER DATABASE FORCE LOGGING; )

1. Turn on block checking.
The aim is to detect, very early the presence of corrupt blocks in the database. This has a slight performance overhead, but will allow Oracle to detect early corruption caused by underlying disk, storage system, or I/O system problems.

SQL> alter system set db_block_checking = true scope=both;

2. Turn on Block Change Tracking tracking when using RMAN incremental backups (10g and higher)
The Change Tracking File contains information that allows the RMAN incremental backup process to avoid reading data that has not been modified since the last backup. When Block Change Tracking is not used, all blocks must be read to determine if they have been modified since the last backup.

SQL> alter database enable block change tracking using file '/u01/oradata/ora1/change_tracking.f';

3. Duplex redo log groups and members and have more than one archive log destination.
If an archivelog is corrupted or lost, by having multiple copies in multiple locations, the other logs will still be available and could be used.
If an online log is deleted or becomes corrupt, you will have another member that can be used to recover if required.

SQL> alter system set log_archive_dest_2='location=/new/location/archive2' scope=both;
SQL> alter database add logfile member '/new/location/redo21.log' to group 1;

4. When backing up the database with RMAN use the CHECK LOGICAL option.
This will cause RMAN to check for logical corruption within a block, in addition to the normal checksum verification. This is the best way to ensure that you will get a good backup.

RMAN> backup check logical database plus archivelog delete input;

5. Test your backups.
This will do everything except actually restore the database. This is the best method to determine if your backup is good and usable before being in a situation where it is critical and issues exist.
If using RMAN this can be done with:

RMAN> restore validate database;

6. When using RMAN have each datafile in a single backup piece
When doing a partial restore RMAN must read through the entire piece to get the datafile/archivelog requested. The smaller the backup piece the quicker the restore can complete. This is especially relevent with tape backups of large databases or where the restore is only on individual / few files.
However, very small values for filesperset will also cause larger numbers of backup pieces to be created, which can reduce backup performance and increase processing time for maintenance operations. So those factors must be weighed against the desired restore performance.

RMAN> backup database filesperset 1 plus archivelog delete input;

7. Maintain your RMAN catalog/controlfile
Choose your retention policy carefully. Make sure that it complements your tape subsystem retention policy, requirements for backup recovery strategy. If not using a catalog, ensure that your CONTROL_FILE_RECORD_KEEP_TIME parameter matches your retention policy.

SQL> alter system set control_file_record_keep_time=21 scope=both;

This will keep 21 days of backup records in the control file.

Run regular catalog maintenance.
REASON: Delete obsolete will remove backups that are outside your retention policy.
If obsolete backups are not deleted, the catalog will continue to grow until performance
becomes an issue.

RMAN> delete obsolete;

REASON: crosschecking will check that the catalog/controlfile matches the physical backups.
If a backup is missing, it will set the piece to 'EXPIRED' so when a restore is started,
that it will not be eligible, and an earlier backup will be used. To remove the expired
backups from the catalog/controlfile use the delete expired command.

RMAN> crosscheck backup;
RMAN> delete expired backup;

8. Prepare for loss of controlfiles.
This will ensure that you always have an up to date controlfile available that has been taken at the end of the current backup, rather then during the backup itself.

RMAN> configure controlfile autobackup on;

keep your backup logs
REASON: The backup log contains parameters for your tape access, locations on controlfile backups
that can be utilised if complete loss occurs.

9. Test your recovery
REASON: During a recovery situation this will let you know how the recovery will go without
actually doing it, and can avoid having to restore source datafiles again.

SQL> recover database test;

10. In RMAN backups do not specify 'delete all input' when backing up archivelogs
REASON: Delete all input' will backup from one destination then delete both copies of the archivelog where as 'delete input' will backup from one location and then delete what has been backed up. The next backup will back up those from location 2 as well as new logs from location 1, then delete all that are backed up. This means that you will have the archivelogs since the last backup available on disk in location 2 (as well as backed up once) and two copies backup up prior to the previous backup.

Read More

User Experience while using Java Web Start in Oracle E-Business Suite

User Experience while using Java Web Start in Oracle E-Business Suite

Java Web Start launches E-Business Suite Java-based functionality as Java Web Start applications instead of as applets. Java Web Start is part of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
Until now, E-Business Suite's Java-based content required a browser that supports Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) plug-ins.
Some browsers are phasing out NPAPI plug-in support.  Some browsers were released without NPAPI plug-in support.  This prevents the Java plug-in from working.
With the release of Java Web Start, E-Business Suite 12.1 and 12.2 users can launch Java-based content (e.g. Oracle Forms) from browsers that do not support Java plug-ins via NPAPI.  Java Web Start in EBS works with:
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Microsoft Edge
Firefox Rapid Release (32-bit and 64-bit)
Firefox Extended Support Release (32-bit and 64-bit)
Google Chrome

Technology architecture change
Java Web Start changes the way that Java runs on end-users' computers but this technical change is generally invisible to end-users.
Java Web Start applications are launched from browsers using the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP).

Apply Patches for EBS Environment Document ID: 2188898.1 (Using Java Web Start with Oracle E-Business Suite)

Set Java web start launcher as default program for .jnlp file.

If default file try is not set. You will not see below forms launcher.

Supported Browsers:-

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer supports both Java Web Start and the Java Plug-in for launching the Forms application and regular Java applets as part of Oracle E-Business Suite.

Default behavior:-

Launching Java content with Java Web Start should provide a comparable user experience to that seen with the Java Plug-in. The frmservlet.jnlp is downloaded to the web browser's cache directory and automatically removed from that location by the Java Web Start Launcher.

There are no specific browser configuration steps required.

Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR)

Firefox ESR 60.x supports only Java Web Start for launching the Forms application and regular Java applets as part of Oracle E-Business Suite. Firefox ESR 60.x is supported on both Windows and macOS platforms.

Default behavior:-

By default, Firefox requires the user to choose the appropriate action on what to do with the JNLP file that is downloaded when launching, for example, the Forms application using Java Web Start. 

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.

2. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite.

3. Choose a responsibility (for example, System Administrator).

4. Click on an Oracle Forms-based menu item (such as Security → User → Define) to initiate the download of the frmservlet.jnlp file.

5. Firefox displays the following message: "What should Firefox do with this file?", as shown in the following image:

 

6. Choose the first option "Open with" and in the corresponding drop-down list, select 'Java(TM) Web Start Launcher (default)."

7. Select the checkbox "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" in order to associate the JNLP file extension with the Java Web Start Launcher executable on the client PC.

8. Click OK.

By doing this once, launching Java content with Java Web Start provides a comparable user experience to that seen with the Java Plug-in. Future instances of the Forms application or a Java applet will now launch using Java Web Start.

Each new frmservlet.jnlp (Windows) or frmservlet-n (macOS) file is saved into the default download location as defined in Firefox. The Java Web Start Launcher will automatically remove this file from that location.

Note (Windows only): If the user had inadvertently chosen "Save As" and saves the JNLP file to the desktop, then the user will need to manually launch it from the desktop.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome has not supported the Java Plug-in since release 45. Therefore, the Forms application and regular Java applets as part of the Oracle E-Business Suite can only run with Java Web Start.

Default behavior:-

The following describes a common use case of launching the Forms application with Java Web Start using Google Chrome. The same concept applies to regular Java applets.

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite.

3. Choose a responsibility (for example, System Administrator).

4. Click on an Oracle Forms-based menu item (such as Security → User → Define) to initiate the download of the frmservlet.jnlp file.

5. Google Chrome displays the following message: "This type of file can harm your computer. Do you want to keep frmservlet.jnlp anyway?"

 

6. Click Keep to save the frmservlet.jnlp file.

7. Click the frmservlet.jnlp file in the download bar to execute it.

 

8. The Forms application is now started with Java Web Start.

Note: The warning message in step 5 is expected due to restrictions enforced by Google Chrome.

A new frmservlet.jnlp file is downloaded each time the Forms application or a regular Java applet is launched. The file is saved in the default download location as defined in Google Chrome. Upon executing frmservlet.jnlp, the Java Web Start launcher will automatically remove this file.

Behavior when having a specific location for each download preference set

Google Chrome has the option to present a Save As dialog window for every file downloaded. This feature is described on the Chrome Help page Download a file on Chrome. More specifically, the section "Change download locations" covers the "Ask where to save each file before downloading" user preference.

The following describes a common use case of launching the Forms application with Java Web Start using Google Chrome when the "Ask where to save each file before downloading" preference is enabled.

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite.

3. Choose a responsibility (such as System Administrator).

4. Click on an Oracle Forms based menu item (for example, Security → User → Define) to initiate the download of frmservlet.jnlp.

5. Google Chrome displays a Save As dialog window, asking where to save the frmservlet.jnlp.

6. Click frmservlet.jnlp in the download bar to execute it:

 

7. The Forms application is started with Java Web Start.

Microsoft Edge

The Forms application and regular Java applets as part of Oracle E-Business Suite can run only with Java Web Start when using the Microsoft Edge web browser. It has never supported NPAPI-based extensions such as the Java Plug-in.

Default behavior:-

The following describes a common use case of launching the Forms application with Java Web Start using Edge. The same concept applies to regular Java applets.

1. Open the Edge web browser.

2. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite.

3. Choose a responsibility (such as System Administrator).

4. Click on an Oracle Forms based menu item (for example, Security → User → Define) to initiate the download of frmservlet.jnlp.

5. A new browser tab opens and the downloaded frmservlet.jnlp is saved in the Downloads folder as shown in the following image:

 

6. Click Open to execute the file frmservlet.jnlp.

7. The Forms application is started with Java Web Start.

The Java Web Start launcher automatically removes the downloaded frmservlet.jnlp file from the browser's download folder.

The extra blank browser tab in step 5 remains open even after opening the Forms application. This is the expected behavior as a result of web browser limitations. At any point in time, it is safe to close this browser tab that opened when downloading the frmservlet.jnlp file.

Apple Safari

When using the Safari web browser on macOS, Oracle E-Business Suite always uses the Java Plug-in instead of Java Web Start for launching the Forms application and Java applets. It automatically falls back to the Java Plug-in, even if the environment (at the site level) is configured for Java Web Start.

Read More

Creating Reports in Oracle E-Business Suite Using XML Publisher

Creating Reports in Oracle E-Business Suite Using XML Publisher

XML Publisher, which is also called Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BI Publisher), is a template-based reporting tool that leverages standard technologies for data extraction and display. Business users can build the layout and rules for the report themselves by using common desktop tools. Development engineers can concentrate on extracting data in the most efficient manner. Deployment time is faster. Also, business users with minimal training can design templates and reports based on the data sources provided by engineers, thus greatly reducing the cost of ownership.

In the following example, we will see how to create a layout template for the Receivables Customer Balance Letter (ARXCOBLX). We create a letter that shows the outstanding balance for a customer. 

This letter contains a table of all unpaid or partially paid invoices. We will then deploy the template to the Template Manager, run the report, and generate an output. 

This covers: 

• Data: We use a predefined Oracle Reports report from the Receivables, Vision Operations (USA) application. This report is used as a data model for your report and generates data in XML format. We use this XML file to create your layout template.

• Layout Templates: We will create a layout template for this report by using the BI Publisher Template Builder, an Add-in for Microsoft Word. BI Publisher Template Builder is one of the components that is installed with the BI Publisher Desktop. 

• Template Manager: We will deploy our layout template by using the Template Manager in E-Business Suite. We can deploy multiple templates for the same report, run the report in E-Business Suite with any one of the layout templates, and then view the output. 

• Delivery: We can generate the report output in E-Business Suite with our template and deliver it via multiple delivery channels based on the choice of the end user or the recipient by e-mail. we will cover this in the next tutorial.

Prerequisites:

1. The E-Business Suite 11.5.10 instance or higher. Example is based on the E-Business Suite R12 instance.

Using following responsibilities: 

- XML Publisher Administrator 

- System Administrator 

- Receivables, Vision Operations (USA) 

2. Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4. and Microsoft .Net 2.0 on your Windows PC

3. Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2003 on your Windows PC

Install Oracle XML Publisher Desktop/BI Publisher Desktop

We can use XML Publisher Desktop / Template Builder 5.6.3 or any later versions. BI Publisher Desktop can be download from here. 

1. Download the BI Publisher Desktop by clicking the BI Publisher Desktop Version.exe for Windows link on the page link given above. Download and save anywhere (for example, in C:\temp). After the download is complete, install BI Publisher Desktop. Open File Explorer and navigate to the download directory (for example, C:\temp). Double-click BIPublisherDesktop.exe to start the installation process. A set of installation wizard pages guide you through the installation process.

 2. Select English, and then click Next. 

3. On the InstallShield Wizard screen, click Next. 

 

 4. Enter the location where you want to install BI Publisher Desktop and click Next.  

The installation proceeds:

5. When the installation is complete, click Finish. 

 

6. After BI Publisher Desktop is installed, open Microsoft Word. Note a menu item named Oracle BI Publisher on the menu bar and a new toolbar. 

Set the Oracle Reports Report Output to XML

The first task is to set the Oracle Reports report to generate XML output. You do this as the System Administrator in the definition of the Concurrent Program for the Oracle Reports report.

1. Log in to your E-Business Suite instance.

  

2. Open the System Administrator responsibility. 

 

3. Click the Define link from Concurrent: Program.

 

4. The Concurrent: Programs window appears. Select View > Query By Example > Enter from the Applications menu. Note that the color of the fields change to blue. You can also press [F11] to enter the query mode. 

5. In the Short Name field, enter ARXCOBLX. ARXCOBLX is the short name for the report. You should always use this name to reference the report. Change the Output Format field to XML by using the drop-down list. 

 

6. Run the query through Concurrent Programs. Select View > Query By Example > Run from the Applications menu to run the query. Alternatively, you can press [CTRL] + [F11] to run the query. 

7. After the query is executed, note that the rest of the fields get filled up automatically. Save the results by clicking the Save icon from the Applications menu.

 

Use Concurrent Manager to Create a Sample XML File

To generate a sample XML data file for the Customer Open Balance Letter, you need to submit a request through Concurrent Manager to run the report and create the output in XML format.

1. Go to the E-Businee Suite's Home page and change the responsibility to Receivables, Vision Operations (USA). Click Receivables, Vision Operations (USA) in the left navigation bar. 

   

2. Scroll down and click Run link from Control : Requests to open the request submission form.

3. The Submit a New Request dialog box appears. Select the Single Request option and click OK.

4. In the Submit Request dialog box, click the ellipses (...) next to the Name field.

 

5. The Reports search dialog box appears. Enter customer% and click Find. 

 

6. Select Customer Open Balance Letter from the list and click OK. 

 7. Click on the Parameters field to enter other values for the report, a Parameters dialog box comes up. In the As of date field enter: 01-Jan-2006.  

8. To enter the customer name, scroll to the right and click the ellipses (...) next to the Customer Name From field. In the Longlist dialog box, enter a% and click OK. 

9. Select A. C. Networks from the list and click OK. 

 

10. Note that A. C. Networks is entered in both the Customer Name From and Customer Name To fields. Click OK.

11. To submit the request, click Submit.

 

12. From the Applications menu, select View > Requests.

13. In the Find Requests window, select the All My Requests option and click Find. 

14. In the Requests window, search for your Job ID and check the status of the job. If the job is completed, click the View Output button. 

15. View the report in a browser. Because no template is associated with the report and you have requested an XML output, the report is an XML file. Save the XML file as customer.xml in your local drive.

 
 

Create an RTF Template

BI Publisher supports several types of templates. RTF templates are the most common and provide a wide range of output formats. We can use the BI Publisher Template Builder, which is an Add-in to Microsoft Word, to build an RTF template.We can use an existing RTF template file named Balance Letter Start.rtf. Download the starting template from here and save the RTF file in C:\temp. 

Load XML Data in a Word Template

Open a layout template and load the XML data. 

To load the XML data, perform the following steps: 

1. Open the file named Balance Letter Start.rtf in Microsoft Word. This is a predefined template. In this template, the header, footer, Oracle logo, and page numbering in the header is added. It also has a text in the footer. These are done using the Microsoft Word features. Any image can be inserted by using the Insert > Picture > From File from the Microsoft Word menu.

2. Select Data > Load XML Data from the BI Publisher menu.

3. In the Please select XML data dialog box, select the customer.xml file and click Open.

 

4. When the "Data loaded successfully" message appears, click OK.

 

Insert Form Fields

To insert form fields in the customer letter, perform the following steps: 

  

1. Select <INSERT ADDRESS HERE> and select Insert > Field from the BI Publisher menu.

 

  

2. Select Customer Name from the Field dialog box and click Insert.

3. Place the cursor in the line below Customer Name and select Address Line 1. Click Insert. Similarly, insert Address Line 3, Address Line 4, City, State, and Country. Close the Field dialog box.

 

4. Select <INSERT DATE HERE>. Select Insert > Field from the BI Publisher menu. Select C As of Date Display and click Insert.

5. Similarly, change the other fields as follows:

<INSERT CURRENCY CODE HERE> as TRX CURRENCY CODE

<AMOUNT> as C_INV_OPEN_BALANCE

6. Click File>Save from Microsoft Word menu to save the template. Click Preview>PDF from BI Publisher menu to view the report in PDF.

Create a Table

In this letter, you create a table of all unpaid or partially paid invoices. To create the table, perform the following steps:

1. Select the text <INSERT TABLE OF INVOICES HERE> in the layout template. Select Insert > Table Wizard from the BI Publisher menu.

2. In the Table Wizard window, select the Table option and click Next.

 

3. For Grouping Field, select the last item with List of Invoices from the drop-down list. Click Next.

 4. Select the fields shown in the image below and move them to the right column. Click Next.

5. In the Group By window, click Next. There is no group for the data in the letter. 

6. In the Sort By window, select Transaction Date from the drop-down list. Let the sort be Ascending order, which is the default. Click Finish.

7. Your template should appear similar to the image below. Use the Microsoft Word features to modify the look and feel, and adjust the columns of the template.

8. Use the Microsoft Word features to change the column headings as shown.

9. Enter a new row at the end of the table to display the total for Amount Due. Place the cursor inside the last row and from the menu, select Table > Insert > Rows Below. Enter Total for the Amount column in the new row.

10. Add the total of Amount Due for the customer in the last column. Click anywhere in the empty cell to the right of the Total cell. Select Insert > Field. 

11. In the Field window, select Trans Amount Remaining and sum from the Calculation drop-down list. Click Insert, and then click Close.

12. Table should appear similar to the image below:

13. For better reading, change the data type and format for the date and amount fields. Select and double_click the C_AS_OF_DATE_DISPLAY field. The Text Form Field Options window appears. Change Type to Date. Change the date format as shown below.

14. Similarly change the format for the Transaction Date column.

15. Select and double-click TRANS_AMOUNT. Select the Number format $#,##0.00 and edit it as shown below. Enter $999 in the Default number field. Click OK. Similarly, change the format for Trans Amount Remaining and sum Trans Amount Remaining.

 16. Select TRX_NUMBER and click the Center align icon on the Microsoft Word toolbar. Similarly, center-align the Date field and right-align all the amount fields.

17. Save the template as Balance Letter - Template.rtf and preview in PDF format. Select Preview > PDF from the BI Publisher menu. The preview report displays with the sample data.

We can add other Microsoft Word features to the template. 

Create a Data Definition for the Report

To publish report, we must register the data source that would be merged with the template. When we register our layout template file (in the next section), we must assign to it a data definition that exists in the Template Manager. This associates the two at run time. Note that multiple templates can use the same data definition.

To create a data definition, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to E-Business Suite and click XML Publisher Administrator to change to the XML Publisher Administrator responsibility. 

2. Click the Data Definitions link (Data Definition tab for XML Publisher). Click the Create Data Definition button to create a new data definition. 

3. Under Create Data Definition, fill the form as shown below. It is critical that we use the correct short name of the Concurrent Program - ARXCOBLX to correctly link this data definition to the underlying Concurrent Program and Oracle Reports report. For the Name field, we can use whatever we like. In this example, we use "Customer Balance Data Definition." 

Click Apply.

  

4. We should see a confirmation message. Now we have successfully created the data definition for the Customer Balance Letter.

Use the Template Manager to Upload the Template

1. On the Template tabbed page for XML Publisher, click Create Template.

   

2. Enter the template name as Customer Balance Letter - Template. Select Application name as Receivables using the Lookup icon. Enter code as ARXCOBLX.

3. Click the Lookup icon next to the Data Definition field, enter cust%, and then click Go. Select the Customer Balance Data definition option from the list and click Select.

4. Select the template type as RTF from the Type drop-down list.

5. Now we will upload the template that created in Microsoft Word. To select the template file we created, scroll down to the Template File section. For File, browse and open the file called Balance Letter - Template.rtf.

6. Select the Language as English.

7. Template form should look like below. Click Apply. We should get a message that your template has been created successfully.

  

Run the Report with the Template

1. Change to the Receivables, Vision Operations (USA) responsibility from the E-Business Suite Application Home page. Click Run link from Control : Requests.

 

  

2. The Submit a New Request window appears. Select the Single Request option and click OK.

3. In the Submit Request window, click the ellipses (...). 

4. The Reports search window appears. Enter customer% in the Find field and click Find. 

5. Select Customer Open Balance Letter from the list and click OK.

  

6. Click on the Parameters dialog box, where you will enter other values for the report. In the As of date field enter 01-Jan-2006. 

7. To enter the customer name, scroll right and click the ellipses (...). In the Longlist dialog box, enter a% and click OK.

8. Select A. C. Networks from the list and click OK. 

9. Note that A. C. Networks is automattically entered in both the Customer Name From and Customer Name To fields. Click OK.

10. Note that in the Layout field, the layout template file is listed. Click the Options button to see the other options that you can set after the report is completed. 

11. The Upon Completion.. window appears. In this window, you can specify what actions can be taken after the job is executed. You can notify one or more people about the report. You can send the report to be printed. For the purpose of this tutorial, you do not print it. Click OK.

12. We return to the Submit Request window. Click Submit to execute the request.

13. Note the Request ID that is displayed in the the Decision dialog box and click NO.

 14. From the Applications menu, select View > Requests.

 15. In the Find Requests window, select the All My Requests option and click Find. 

 16. In the Requests window, search for Job ID and check the status. If the job is completed, click the View Output button. 

17.. Click the View Output button to view the report in a browser. Note that the report is displayed with the layout in the template. We can also associate other templates with the same data definition.

Read More