1. Converting Oracle Reports to
BI Publisher
RMOUG Training Days
February 24, 2010
Jennifer McNeill
Unify/CipherSoft
2. Agenda
Challenges of Reporting within the Enterprise
Benefits of Utilizing BI-Publisher
Step by Step Approach to Converting Oracle
Reports
Integrating Oracle Forms 10g with BI Publisher
Technical Issues
Creating the Project Plan
Best Practices
Lessons Learned
Q&A
3. Challenges of Reporting in an
Enterprise Environment
High Fidelity Reports
Partner Reports
Financial Statements
Government forms
Marketing materials
Contracts
Checks, Labels
XML
EFT / EDI
Multiple destinations
4. Challenges of Reporting in an
Enterprise Environment
Multiple reporting solutions
Highly-skilled engineers required to
maintain servers and report formats
◦ Costly
◦ Time consuming
◦ Complex systems
◦ Expensive maintenance
◦ Labor intensive
5. Benefits of BI-Publisher
Simplifies Report Maintenance
◦ Separate query, layout, and translation
Report output provided is:
◦ Flexible
◦ Reduces maintenance
◦ Business users create layouts with familiar
desktop tools
Rapid Development
Extract Data Once, Publish Many Docs
6. BI Publisher Benefits - Hot-
Pluggable
Pure Java application – Use any J2EE application server
Rich set of Java APIs for custom application development
Web Services for SOA development
Any data source: JDBC and Web services XML data sources
Standard W3C XSL-FO stylesheets
Output formats in PDF, PS, RTF, HTML…
Delivery Support for:
◦ Internet Printing Protocol, CUPS
◦ Internet Fax Protocol
◦ SMTP email protocol
◦ WebDAV, FTP, SFTP
7. First Conversion Steps
During the conversion process, the source reports must
eventually be in Oracle Reports XML format
Oracle Reports XML format is supported in Oracle
Reports 9i and above
If your source reports are not in Oracle Reports XML
format, the conversion utility will do this conversion
automatically
Requires 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
8. What will the Converter do?
Use rwconverter from
Data
Oracle Reports to go
Template
from RDF to RDF XML
RDF XML file will be
Oracle Reports converted to BIP
RDF XML PL/SQL objects
Data
◦ Data Template
◦ Supporting pl/sql
Layout
RTF
◦ RTF template
Templates Enabled for batch
mode processing
9. Running the Conversion
Utility
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
10. Running the Conversion Utility
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.
11. Running the Conversion
Utility
Command Line Usage:
◦ java ... BIPBatchConversion [-debug] -source
SourceDirectory -target
◦ TargetDirectory [-oraclehome
OracleHomePath]
12. Output Files Created
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)
13. Running the Conversion Utility
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.pls
l <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 raxinvraxinvS.pls
SQL> @C:BIPublisher_reports raxinvraxinvB.pls
14. 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:oraclebixmlpXMLP
For 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
15. Conversion Issues
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.
16. Running the Conversion Utility
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
17. Standalone Reports Conversion
RDF Converter extracts
9i+ rwconverter
9i+ RDF
layout and data
XML information
Enabled for batch
mode processing
Generates BIP report
RTF objects
RDF2RTF
Templates
Converter Data
◦ Data Template
◦ Supporting pl/sql
PL/SQL
Layout
◦ RTF template
Data These can be loaded
Template
to the BIP server
18. What will the converter not do?
Simple wire frame layout will be created, users need to
address:
◦ Sanity Check – does the template work
◦ Fonts
◦ Shading
◦ Borders
Format 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
19. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
Creating a client for the Web
Services with Oracle JDeveloper
21. Integrating Oracle Forms with BI Publisher
Use BIP_WebService as Project
Name
When choosing another name pay
attention in the document. There are
several code pieces using this project
name
22. Integrating Oracle Forms with BI Publisher
Select 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)
23. Integrating Oracle Forms with BI Publisher
When 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.
24. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
In the Edit J2SE Definition Window go to the left
pane and select the node Project.
25. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
By pressing the button New a window Create J2SE opens where you can
reference the necessary J2SE
Press the button Browse and select the file java.exe from the directory
jdkjrebin 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
26. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
After saved the project, right-click the project, choose New and
select the Item Web Services Proxy in the Category Business Tier
– Web Services
27. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
Choose 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.
28. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
Accept the following two screens and than
set your wished Package Name (here
bip_webservice.proxy).
29. Integrating Oracle Forms with Bi Publisher
Accept again the two following screens. Check that in the Finish
screen the method runReport is available in the service endpoint.
31. Challenges of a Conversion
Project
Limited Resources
Lack of knowledge within staff
Lack of understanding of future direction
Need to “hang on” to previous
environment
Understanding of Business Requirements
Integration with present and future
environment
32. Challenges of a Conversion
Project
Utilization of new technology in the most
efficient manner
Project planning for present and future
Utilization of Testing Resources
33. Thank you for attending!
Jennifer McNeill
Unify/CipherSoft
Office: 403.256.5699 ext 228
Cell: 916-865-6049
www.ciphersoftinc.com
