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Deployment
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Configuration
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How To
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Java and JSP
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Management
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On the Web
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Output
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Security
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Reports Server Features
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Troubleshooting
Deployment
Configuration
On
what basis does the Reports Server increase and decrease the number
of engines? Should I manually shutdown and start engines?
The Reports Server
is a single process that dynamically manages a set of Reports runtime
engines. During initialization,
the Reports Server starts the number of engines
that you specify in the initEngine
attribute. Each Reports runtime engine is responsible for executing
a single report at any given time, and resides in-memory to execute
additional report requests over a period of time. When needed, Reports
Server starts new engines to service multiple concurrent requests. The
maximum number of engines that can run simultaneously at any time is
dictated by the maxEngine attribute.
To conserve application
server resources, excess or idle Reports runtime engines remove themselves
from memory for one of the following reasons:
- When an engine
is idle for a user-defined period of minutes (specified
using maxidle
attribute), an engine will remove itself from the process, and free
up any associated resources.
- When an engine
has run its user-defined maximum number of jobs (specified
using englife
attribute),
the Reports engine will die gracefully to be replaced by another engine.
Since
the Reports Server manages the runtime engines dynamically, you do not
need to shut down and start engines manually. However, you do need to
specify engine configuration attributes, using which the Reports Server
will make sure that an optimum number of engines is running at any time.
It
is recommended that you set the maximum number of engines (maxEngine
attribute) to a value between 2 and 4 times the number of CPUs
in the host machine. The engine attributes can
be specified in the Reports Server configuration file located in ORACLE_HOME/reports/conf/<servername>.conf.
You can either directly edit this file, or use the Web-based
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g
Application Server Control to
edit it.
For more information,
refer to the chapter on Tuning Oracle Reports in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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Does
the Reports Server command line client (rwclient) require SQL*Net on
the client? What about Oracle Forms?
It
is not necessary to install SQL*Net to use the Oracle Reports command
line client (rwclient). By default, it communicates with the Reports
Server using CORBA. If needed, you can force rwclient to use SQL*Net
to communicate with Reports Server by using the command line keyword
USEJVM. Refer to Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web
for more information on this command line keyword.
Oracle Forms too does
not need a SQL*Net installation to communicate with the Reports Server.
However, if you need to use SQL*Net as the communication layer between
Oracle Forms and the Reports Server, you need to make SQL*Net available
to Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports. Refer to Oracle Forms documentation
available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) for more information.
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Is
there a limit to the size of the cgicmd.dat
file?
Oracle Reports
imposes no limits on the size of the file.
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How
can I verify that my HTTP service is up and running?
Refer to Oracle
HTTP Server Administrator's Guide available on the Oracle Technology
Network (OTN).
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How
can I verify that my Reports Servlet is set up properly and running?
Open the Reports
Servlet help page:
http://<Hostname>:<port>/reports/rwservlet
If you see the help page, it means the Reports
servlet is set up properly and running.
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What
Web and J2EE application servers can be used with the Reports Server?
Oracle Reports
Services is part of Oracle Application Server. However, it is based
on standard technology (J2EE based technology), and can therefore be
used with any application server that supports J2EE. If you want to
use Oracle Reports with any J2EE application server other than Oracle
Application Server, you need to use Oracle
Reports J2EE Thin Client. Note that the J2EE Thin Client is supported
only via OTN Discussion Forums. Also note that the J2EE Thin Client
is provided as a sample for standalone OracleAS Containers for J2EE
(OC4J). If you need to deploy it on any other J2EE application server,
you may need to modify the sample to make it suitable for deployment
on the other application servers.
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Since
Oracle Reports JSPs are based on standard J2EE technology, I can deploy
them on any J2EE application server. Does that mean I don't need to
buy Oracle Application Server?
Since Oracle Reports
JSPs are based on standard J2EE technology, they can be deployed on
any J2EE application server. However, the data that the JSP displays
is fetched by Oracle Reports Services. For this reason, it is necessary
to buy and run Oracle Application Server to display the JSP based Web
reports. Refer to the Oracle
Reports J2EE Thin Client for the architecture
involved in such a scenario.
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Is
any particular email server recommended with use of the Reports Server?
Oracle Reports
can send email to any SMTP-compliant email server. However, using Oracle
Reports Java API, you can create your own plug-in destination that sends
email to email servers that are not SMTP-compliant. Refer to Oracle
Reports Software Development Kit (SDK) for more details.
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How
do I configure fonts for use with Oracle Reports?
Refer to the fonts
chapter in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web
for information on managing fonts with Oracle Reports.
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How
do I configure Oracle Forms for use with Oracle Reports?
Refer to the white
paper Integrating
Oracle Reports Services 10g in Oracle Forms Services 10g available
on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).
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How
do I configure Oracle Workflow for use with Oracle Reports?
Refer to the white
paper Integrating
Oracle Workflow with Oracle Reports available on the Oracle
Technology Network (OTN).
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How
do I configure printers for use with Oracle Reports?
Refer to the chapters
on printing and cross-platform deployment available in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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How To
Is
there a visual user interface where end users can schedule reports?
There are two
ways to schedule your reports from a user interface:
- Oracle Reports is tightly integrated with Oracle Portal. You can
register and publish the reports in Oracle Portal, and the relevant
Portal page can be used by the end users to submit report requests.
The report portlet displays a Customize link to the end user, which
contains a Schedule tab. On clicking this tab the end user gets a
user interface that can be used to specify the scheduling requirements.
- You can write
a custom HTML interface, prompting the user to enter all the necessary
scheduling data. This HTML interface then needs to submit the selected
parameters to the Reports Server.
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How
can I generate Microsoft Excel output with Oracle Reports?
Beginning with 10g
Release 2 (10.1.2), Oracle Reports introduces a new output format (DESFORMAT=SPREADSHEET),
which allows you to generate output from paper layout reports to HTML
files that can be directly opened with Microsoft Excel 2000. This output
format preserves the rich layout formatting such as colors, fonts, conditional
formatting, graphs, and images.
Additionally,
you can generate report output in Microsoft Excel in the following ways:
- Generate
a report to delimiteddata output format, and open in it Microsoft
Excel. This method is recommended when you need to get the data in
Excel output, but do not need rich formatting.
- Deploy a
JSP report with Microsoft
Excel-specific tags under OC4J, to display it in Excel inside your
Web browser. This method is recommended when you wish to generate
Excel output using JSP-based Web reports, or if you need to generate
Excel's native graphs and formulas using HTML tags.
See the Oracle
Reports online Help for detailed information each of these
methods of generating Microsoft Excel output.
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Is
it possible for the command line client to kick off a job and then log
off, still having the report execute on the Reports Server?
Yes. Use the command
line keyword BACKGROUND=YES. This runs the report asynchronously. The
client sends the call to the Reports Server, then continues with other
processes without waiting for the report job to complete. If the client
process is killed, the job is canceled.
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Can
I run a report based on the occurrence of an event in the database (for
example, insertion of data in a table)?
Yes. Oracle Reports
provides a PL/SQL API that allows you to submit jobs from the database.
This API is called event-driven publishing API. See the Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web
for more information and sample code.
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Java and JSP
Can
I call Java classes from within the report?
Yes. Oracle Reports
provides a function called Java Importer, using which you can automatically
generate PL/SQL packages and procedures to access Java classes and then
program with the generated PL/SQL in your reports. The PL/SQL generated
by the Java Importer is robust, offering support for the original Java
class constructors, methods, and fields. Refer to the Oracle
Reports online Help for more information.
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Can
I run a JSP report using rwservlet?
Yes, but you will
only have access to the paper layout. If you want to view the Web layout
output, you have to run the JSP on a J2EE application server, such as
Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J).
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In
paper reports, I use the hyperlink property to call another report and
to pass the parameters. How do I do this in the JSP Web source?
In a JSP Web report, you
need to build the hyperlink yourself. Here is sample code that creates
a hyperlink in the JSP Web source. The hyperlink calls another report
and passes the department number dynamically:
<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://machine:port/reports/Myreport.jsp?p_1=<rw:field
id="Deptno123" src="DEPTNO" />">
<rw:field id="Deptno456" src="DEPTNO" nullValue=" ">
F_DEPTNO </rw:field>
</a>
</td>
</tr> In
the above code, notice how the field DEPTNO is referenced in the HREF
tag. At runtime, this reference is resolved to the actual department
number, and sent as a parameter to the report that is called.
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How
do I specify the number / date format for a field in the JSP Web source?
In the JSP Web
source, find the <rw:field> tag for the field, and add the format
mask as shown in the following example:
<rw:field id="hiredate" src="HIREDATE"
formatMask="DD-MON-YYYY"/>
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How
can I use a format trigger in a JSP?
First, create
the format trigger. For example, to turn the text red for sal when it
is between 1500 and 2500, you would create the following format trigger
in the Reports Builder:
function
redsal return boolean is begin if :sal between 1500 and 2500 then srw.set_text_color('red');
else srw.set_text_color('black'); end if; return true; END; Next,
in the JSP Web source, find the <rw:field> tag for the field,
and add the function as shown in the example below:
<rw:field
id="sal" src="SAL" formatTrigger="redsal"/>
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What
is the format of the URL for running a JSP?
http://hostname:port/ContextRoot/reportname.jsp?server=...&userid=...
Note: ContextRoot
is the context root of the application that includes your JSP. The context
root is specified by the deployer at the time of deploying the application.
For more information on deploying and running a JSP Web report, refer
to the chapter on Running Report Requests in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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Management
How
do I access the Reports Server Queue, that is, how do I trace past jobs?
You have three
options. The first option (recommended option) is to use the Web-based
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g
Application Server Control to view the Reports Server job queue.
The second option is to access
the Reports Server job queue on the Web via the following URL:
http://hostname:port/reports/rwservlet/showjobs?server=...
With
this URL you can view the Reports Server job queue in HTML format. To
get the same data returned to you in XML format, specify statusformat=xml
in the above URL. The third option is to use the event-driven
publishing API that automatically pushes the content of the Reports
Server job queue into a database table. For more information,
refer to Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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On the Web
How
does Oracle Reports publish information on the Web?
Oracle Reports
can dynamically display information in a Web browser in two ways. You
can render your page-based paper layout using the following industry-standard
formats: Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF 1.4), HTML (4.01), HTML
with Cascading Style Sheets (HTML 4.01), XML (XML 1.1), Microsoft Excel-compatible
spreadsheet, or Microsoft Word-compatible Rich Text Format.
Another option
is to create a true Web page using the JSP-based Web source of your
report. The advantage of using a JSP is that you can inject dynamic
Reports content into an existing Web page. In this mode, reports no
longer owns the Web page, and you can use any HTML page (for example
the HTML page that your Web designer provides you). Therefore, the result
will fit exactly in the look and feel of your Web site.
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What
do I need in order to dynamically display my reports on the Web?
Reports are executed
in a 3-tier environment with the Oracle Aplication Server (containing
Oracle Reports Server and OC4J) running in the middle tier. The
end users can dynamically run reports or retrieve previously run reports
by simply entering a URL in a Web browser. Since the output is
displayed in the Web browser, the end user does not need to install
any software.
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What
Web browser versions does Oracle Reports work with?
Oracle
Reports 10g
Release 2 (10.1.2) works with
all the browsers supported by Oracle Application Server 10g
Release 2 (10.1.2). Refer
to Metalink for the list of
browsers supported by Oracle Application Server 10g Release
2 (10.1.2). For PDF output, the
Adobe Acrobat plug-in for the browser should be used. This plug-in is
available for any browser that supports
plug-ins.
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If
a user runs a long paginated report over the Web, is there a way to
view one page at a time and provide navigation links to different pages?
Yes. Use the command
line keywords PAGESTREAM=YES, and DESFORMAT=HTML or HTMLCSS when calling
the report on the Web. With the PAGESTREAM keyword set to yes, the report
output is written to multiple files instead of one file. The first page
is then sent back to the user's browser along with a menu bar, which
facilitates navigating to the first/last page, next/previous page, or
to a specific page number.
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Output
Where
can I store report output once a report is executed?
The output of
a report job can be stored in many different ways. The destination of
the output is determined by the DESTYPE parameter. Oracle Reports supports
a variety of destinations. You can store the output as a file in the
file system, send the output to an email recipient, send it to a printer,
push it to Oracle Portal, to an FTP Server, or a WebDAV-enabled Web
site. Additionally. using the pluggable destination API, you can create
your own mechanisms for storing report output. For
example, you could create a destination that pushes the output
directly into Oracle iFS, or one that sends the output to a database.
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What
is Report Bursting and Distribution?
Report
Bursting is the ability for report output to be split into multiple
files based on a logical grouping, so that each file can be sent by
the Reports Server to a different destination. For example, in a single
report execution you can generate output for all departments, and use
report bursting to split the output into multiple files (one per department).
After bursting the
output into multiple files, you can use another feature of Oracle Reports
called distribution to send each department's output to only the relevant
manager. In this way, the Oracle Reports features of bursting and distribution,
when used together, allow you to send only the relevant information
to the relevant recipient. It is also possible to use the distribution
feature separately to send a single report output to mutiple destinations.
Refer to Oracle
Reports Building Reports and Application
Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web for more
information.
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I
develop on Microsoft Windows and deploy on UNIX / Linux. Why does the
output look different in development and deployment platforms?
Since any enterprise
reporting tool is bound to use some platform-specific functionality
like the system fonts or printer fonts, there exists a possibility that
the look-and-feel of the report changes when the report is ported from
one platform to another; for example, from the development platform
(commonly Windows) to the deployment platform (commonly a UNIX-based
platform). For detailed information on how to avoid and troubleshoot
such issues, refer to the cross-platform porting chapter in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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Security
How
is the Oracle Reports environment secured?
Oracle Reports
is tightly integrated with Oracle Portal and Oracle Identity Management
to provide a comprehensive security
architecture. To secure the reports, Reports Servers, and other
resources such as printers, you need to register these resources with
Oracle Portal. This allows you to assign permissions to users or groups
for these resources. The users and groups information is stored in Oracle
Identity Management. Once the user requests a report, the Reports Services
works with Oracle Identity Management
(Oracle Single Sign-On and Oracle Internet Directory) to authenticate
users and with Oracle Portal to ensure the user has privileges to execute
the selected report.
Oracle
Portal exposes an easy to use interface where the administrators can
perform all security related operations - create users and groups, register
reports and other resources, and assign privileges.
For more information, refer to the chapter on Securing Oracle Reports
Services in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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I
do not plan to use Oracle Portal. How can I secure my Oracle Reports
environment?
When you license
Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition, you get a license to Oracle
Reports as well as Oracle Portal. If you do not want to use Oracle Portal
to build your corporate portal, you can still install and configure
Oracle Portal so that it can be used by your Oracle Reports administrators
to specify access control information. This access control information
makes sure that only authorized users can run reports.
If you would not
like to install and configure Oracle Portal while installing Oracle
Application Server, you cannot use the built-in security architecture
of Oracle Reports and you will need to plug in your custom security
architecture using Oracle Reports Java API. Refer to Oracle
Reports SDK for more information on Oracle Reports Java API.
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How
do I ensure that users log in before they run a report and view the
output?
If you have secured
your report definition files or Reports Servers by registering them
with Oracle Portal, the users will be forced to log in before they can
run the report. Once the user is logged in using the single sign-on
credentials, the user is not asked to provide the username and password
again in the same browser session.
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How
can I disable Oracle Single Sign-On (SSO) with Oracle Reports Services
?
To take advantage
of Oracle Single Sign-On, the SINGLESIGNON parameter in the rwservlet
configuration file (rwservlet.properties)
is set to YES, which indicates that you will use Oracle Single Sign-On
to authenticate users. You may change this parameter to NO, if you choose
not to use Oracle Single Sign-On. If you choose NO, the Reports Server
authenticates users itself instead of routing requests via Oracle Single
Sign-On. Note that Oracle Reports Services is configured for Oracle
Single Sign-On out of the box. Oracle considers this to be the normal
security deployment model and you should only turn it off if you plan
to run in a completely custom security configuration.
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Reports Server Features
What
are the load balancing, clustering, and failover features of the Reports
Server?
Reports Server clustering is deprecated in Oracle Reports 10g
Release 2 (10.1.2). As a result, it is not recommended to use Reports
Server clustering. Instead, it is reccommended that you follow Oracle
Application Server High Availability Guide and Oracle Application
Server Enterprise Deployment Guide for configuring Oracle Reports
for high availability.
The Reports Server
clustering feature will be removed from the product in a release after
10g Release 2 (10.1.2).
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Can
scheduled reports be emailed to a group of users without having to identify
each user individually?
Yes. You need
to get the email recipient addresses in the report's data model. For
example, each department manager's email address can be inserted in
a database table. You can then use the bursting and distribution feature
to send each department's report to the appropriate manager. Alternatively,
if you need to send the complete report to a group of users without
bursting, you can create a distribution list in your email server, and
use this distribution list name as the DESNAME.
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Can
I change the subject line when emailing a report?
Email
functionality has been enhanced in Oracle Reports to allow users to
set several email properties, including subject, with both static or
dynamic (that is, data driven) values, setting the CC and BCC fields,
setting the importance level, and so on. Refer
to the Command Line Keywords section of Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web
for more information.
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Troubleshooting
Where
can I find information on troubleshooting Oracle Reports issues?
Refer to the new
troubleshooting appendix in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web
that describes common problems that you might encounter when deploying
your reports using OracleAS Reports Services and explains how to solve
them.
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