Development
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Customization
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Data sources
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Layout
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Graphing
Development
General
What
software do I need to develop reports?
You need Oracle
Reports Developer to develop and test your reports. You can license
either of the following products to get Oracle Reports Developer:
- Oracle Developer
Suite 10g Release 2 (10.1.2)
- Oracle Business
Intelligence Tools 10g
Release 2 (10.1.2)
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I
bought Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2, but this does not contain
Oracle Reports. Why, and what are my options now?
Refer to the Oracle
Reports generic FAQ for this question.
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I
am creating my first report. How do I get started?
Follow these Introductory
Reports demonstrations that show you how to create your first report,
how to insert a simple graph, and other basic operations. The Oracle
by Example series has a Section
on Oracle Reports that takes you through the basics of creating
your first report, inserting a graph, using different data sources,
and so on. Additionally, you can refer to Oracle
Reports Building Reports to get an overview of the Reports
Builder concepts, and to see step-by-step instructions on creating different
kinds of reports.
For detailed
instructions on creating professional reports you can enroll in Oracle
University's Instructor Led Training (ILT) courses or e-Classes. Visit
the Oracle University Web site
for more information about Oracle University offerings.
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Where
can I find step-by-step examples of creating different kinds of high
quality reports?
Refer to Oracle
Reports Building Reports to see step-by-step instructions on
creating different kinds of reports, for example, a mailing label report,
a check printing report, a report with dynamic graphics, a barcode report,
and so on. Additionally, this manual will also give you an overview
of the Reports Builder concepts, for example, the report styles, wizards,
JSP Web source, and so on.
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What
does Any Data, Any Format, Anywhere mean?
Oracle Reports
is an enterprise reporting tool that allows your enterprise to publish
any data, in any format, anywhere. Using Oracle Reports, you can get
data from the following data sources:
- Oracle database
- Other databases using a JDBC driver
- Text files
- XML
- Oracle OLAP
- Your custom data source (for example, Web
Services) using Oracle Reports Java API
Once you have created the report, you can get the report output in
the following formats:
- HTML
- HTMLCSS (HTML that gets style information from cascading style sheet
files)
- Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel compatible)
- Rich Text Format (Microsoft Word compatible)
- PDF
- Delimiteddata (text)
- PCL and PostScript formats for printers
- XML
Once you have the output in your desired format(s), you can send it
to one or more of the following destinations:
- Web browser
- File system
- Email recipient(s)
- Printer
- Oracle Portal
- FTP Server
- WebDAV
- Your custom destination (for example, Oracle Database)
using Oracle Reports Java APIs
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Barcode
Are
barcodes supported in Oracle Reports?
There are multiple
ways of generating barcodes with Oracle Reports. An
easy way is to leverage a JavaBean that creates barcode images for a
given string. You can use the Java Importer to create wrapper packages,
if you want to use the bean in your paper layout, or use the regular
useBean functionality of JavaServer Pages to use the bean in
your Web source. See the relevant chapter of Oracle
Reports Building Reports for an example of using a sample JavaBean
to generate barcode in both paper and Web layouts.
Alternatively,
you can use a formula column that generates the barcode string, and
then uses a barcode font to display the correct barcode. The problem
here is that you, as the developer, have to create the correct algorithms
to generate the barcode string (checksums, control characters, and so
on). Oracle Reports also provides the functionality of PDF font embedding
to allow you to embed the specific barcode font directly into the PDF
document so the client does not have to have the barcode font installed
in order to view the document correctly.
Some vendors
like IDAutomation
provide software that can integrate with Oracle Reports to add barcodes
to your reports.
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Customization
Will
there be a way to control property settings in Oracle Reports like we
can do with Oracle Forms? Or more generally, will there be more flexibility?
For example, to dynamically rearrange columns or drop columns at runtime.
The feature called
Runtime Customizations allows you to customize the look and feel
of a report for different audiences. This is done through the use of
XML that stores the layout and data model information for a report,
and gets applied to the report definition at runtime. One report can
be made to look different for different users with colors, format masks,
and columns defined at runtime. In addition, Oracle Reports allows you
to create your complete report definition in XML either using the Reports
Builder or your favorite XML development environment. It is also possible
for your custom application to generate an XML file using Oracle Reports
XML syntax, and then directly execute it in Oracle Reports Services.
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Data sources
How
do I build a report against an Oracle Express cube?
Oracle
Express is available as one of the data sources in Reports Builder.
However, the Express data source is deprecated
in Oracle Reports 10g Release 2 (10.1.2). Oracle
Express customers are advised to migrate to the OLAP option provided
with Oracle Database. Oracle Reports 10g Release 2 (10.1.2)
provides an OLAP data source that can be used to create reports based
on OLAP data.
If you need to
use the Express data source, use the Report Wizard to create a new report
by selecting Express Query as the data source. The wizard guides you
through picking the dimensions and specifying where each dimension fits
in the report style you have chosen. Refer to Oracle Reports online
Help available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) for detailed
information on setting up the connection to your Express Server.
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I
have noticed that when I use the Query Wizard in the Report Builder,
the generated SQL has the word ALL after SELECT. Why is this?
ALL is part of
the SQL syntax. It differentiates a query that does a SELECT DISTINCT
from one that does not. The following are equivalent: SELECT EMPNO FROM
EMP and SELECT ALL EMPNO FROM EMP.
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Can
I use the EXEC_SQL package to base a report on two data sources simultaneously?
The EXEC_SQL package
uses PL/SQL to programmatically fetch a single row of data at a time.
In Oracle Reports, you may have an unlimited number of queries based
on a single Oracle Database connection. You may also have an unlimited
number of PL/SQL connections for a single data fetch. The EXEC_SQL package
should not be used for more than one data source in a report. It could
be used to populate parameters or use the data within a PL/SQL trigger,
such as a Before Report trigger. In order to use different databases
in the same report, you can use the JDBC data source, which allows you
to create a different connection for every JDBC query in your data model.
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Layout
What
are the different Oracle Reports styles I can use?
Reports Builder
uses a frame-based approach to design the paper layout, which gives
you immense flexibility to create virtually any style you want, either
by manually creating your style, or by editing the available
default styles. For
paper layout, Oracle Reports provides the following default styles:
- Tabular
- Group Left
- Group Above
- Matrix
- Matrix with Group
- Form
- Mailing Label
- Form Letter
For the JSP-based Web layout, Oracle Reports provides the following default
styles:
- Tabular
- Group Left
- Group Above
- Matrix
- Matrix with Group
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it easier for me to just use regular JSPs and not bother with Reports
JSPs at all?
You could choose
to use regular JSPs, but then you will miss out on the following:
- Rapid and complex JSP development. The Report Block Wizard quickly
generates both simple and complex JSPs with all the HTML and JSP tags
for you (and you can choose to include the ADA / Section 508 compliant
tags).
- Enterprise Data Modeling. Declarative, wizard-based data modeling
- no code needs to be written.
- Out of the box support for mutiple data sources.
- Unlimited number of queries coming from any data source, and linked
if necessary.
- Result-set reuse. For example, my query is going against a huge
data set and thus takes a while to run, but I just ran it overnight
and all I want to do now is re-sort the figures. Use Oracle Reports'
XML output and XML query type features together to permit result-set
reuse.
- Security. Your data is protected by a username and password, but
what about your application? Use the Oracle Reports security framework
to define who can run the reports, with what parameters,
where they can run it, and when they are allowed
to run it.
- Integrated with Oracle Single Sign-On for both data and application
security.
- Extensible. Use the Java APIs to define your own data source, notification
mechanism, or security.
- Single, open definition for Web layout, paper layout, data modeling
and business logic. Keep the paper layout and Web layout definitions
together in a single JSP for ease of maintenance. Share objects between
layouts - reference a paper object in the Web source.
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How
do I embed graphs in my reports?
Using the Graph
Wizard, you can easily create and embed a graph into your report with
a simple point and click style interface. You can re-enter the wizard
to modify the settings. Since the graph definition is stored in XML
format (the graph definition is part of the report definition), you
can also change this XML manually to customize the look and feel of
the graph. See the Graphing
FAQ for more information and for examples of high quality graphs
you can create in Oracle Reports.
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What
are the plans for supporting Graphics 6i in future releases
of Oracle Reports?
Oracle Graphics
is no longer shipped with Oracle Reports. You cannot embed Graphics
charts into your new reports. See Metalink
Doc ID: 159289.1 for the desupport dates of Oracle6i Reports
and Oracle6i Graphics.
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How To
Can
I use HTML formatting tags inside my paper layout?
Yes.
Oracle Reports 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) introduces formatting
enhancements that allow you to use a defined set of inline HTML formatting
tags to format text style (bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough)
and text attributes (font name, font color, and font size), and generate
formatted text objects in all bitmap output formats (including HTML,
HTMLCSS, Printer, Screen, PDF, RTF, PostScript).
For more information
about this feature, refer to the Oracle Reports online Help
available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). For a sample report
that uses inline HTML tags, refer to the white paper Oracle
Reports Inline HTML Formatting.
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Are
there any special design considerations for getting Oracle Reports output
to Microsoft Excel?
Oracle Reports 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) introduces a new output format
DESFORMAT=SPREADSHEET. Using this output format it is very easy to get
the output of your paper reports in Excel. However, there are certain
inherent differences between Microsoft Excel output and any other paper-based
output format like PDF. Due to this reason, you may need special considerations
in designing your report especially for Excel output, or if you want
your paper and your Excel output to look exactly alike. Some of these
special considerations are:
- Do not define
any objects in the page margin. Since spreadsheet-based applications
like Microsoft Excel do not have a page concept, and hence
no page margin, the objects created in the report margin
area are ignored in spreadsheet output.
- The color palette
available in Microsoft Excel does not match the color palette of Reports
Builder. As a result, if you use a color that is not exactly represented
in the Excel color palette, Excel will do a closest match
to replace it with one of the colors available in its color palette.
However, in some cases this close match may be not as close
as you would like it to be, and thus may bring in an unwanted change
in the look-and-feel of the report. So you should use those colors
that are available in Microsoft Excel’s color palette. Alternatively,
you can manually match the color palettes used in Reports Builder
and in Microsoft Excel. To do this, you need to define the colors
available in Microsoft Excel’s color palette inside Reports
Builder, and then stick to only those colors in your report. Refer
to the Oracle Reports online Help for more information on
color palettes.
- Do not leave
any space between two adjacent objects. Any space (even a few pixels)
between two adjacent objects will result in an empty cell / column
in Excel output.
- Make sure that
the widths of all objects are vertically consistent. If the objects
are not exactly aligned vertically, that is, have inconsistent widths,
it is likely to result in insertion of unwanted cells / columns in
Excel.
- Make sure that
the vertical elasticity of the frames / repeating frames is not "fixed"
unless you are sure you have allocated enough space to accommodate
all the records. If you set the Vertical Elasticity property of a
frame to Fixed, the output in Excel will show only as many records
as could appear on the first page of the paper output. Since Excel
does not have a page concept, it is not able to "overflow"
the remaining rows to the next "page".
- Make sure that
you an all-enclosing outer frame in your report layout, which contains
all other layout objects as its children.
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I
am developing on Microsoft Windows and plan to deploy on UNIX / Linux.
Does this influence my report design?
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). Due to this reason, it is important to design the report
keeping in mind the differences between the development and deployment
platforms. For more information on these differences and the step-by-step
instructions to port reports from the development to the deployment
platform, refer to the cross-platform porting chapter in Oracle
Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web.
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I
am printing statements on a double-sided stationery capable printer.
To ensure that each new statement starts on a new physical piece of
paper, I need to add a blank page if the previous statement had an odd
number of pages. How can I do this?
Place an invisible
boilerplate line before the repeating frame that contains your data.
For this line, set the Page Break Before property to yes, and anchor
the line to the repeating frame. Then write a format trigger that prints
the boilerplate object (and thus the page break) only if it is an odd
page number.
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Can
I create a simple JSP to reference the paper layout I already have in
my report?
Yes, you can use the <rw:include>
tag in the Web source to reference existing paper layout. Follow these
steps
- Create a paper
layout.
- From the paper
design, click on the Web source.
- Put your cursor
between the opening <body>
and closing </body>
tags.
- Type <rw:include
id="abc" src="frameName" />
where abc
is any unique name and frameName
is the name of the highest level frame in your paper layout. You can
find this name by going into the Object Navigator and looking under
Laper Layout > Main Section > Body. Refer to the Oracle Reports
online Help available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) for
more information on Reports JSP tags including <rw:include>.
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Integration
How
do I integrate Oracle Reports into my application?
If your application
is Web- or J2EE-based, either embed the URL to call your Web-deployed
reports within your application or use Oracle Reports Web Services.
If you are using Oracle Forms, use the built-in RUN_REPORT_OBJECT procedure
to communicate with the Reports Server. In order to integrate reports
into your application on the database level, you can use the event-based
reporting API to submit jobs to Oracle Reports Services from the database
by calling this PL/SQL-API.
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How
does Oracle Reports integrate with Oracle Discoverer?
Oracle Discoverer
is seamlessly integrated with Oracle Reports. Oracle Reports is one
of the export options to which a workbook may be exported in Discoverer.
Simply create or open your workbook in Discoverer, and select File >
Export To > Reports XML. This creates the report definition in XML
format, which can be opened and modified in the Reports Builder, if
necessary, and then published using the Reports Server.
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Java and XML
What
is the extent of support for Java and XML in Oracle Reports?
See Oracle
Reports 10g (10.1.2) FAQ for the details of Java and XML
support in Oracle Reports.
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