All about XML Publisher (XML Publisher 4.5 Release 11i10 )

Subject:	All about XML Publisher
	Doc ID:	Note:278727.1	Type:	HOWTO
	Last Revision Date:	24-MAR-2006	Status:	MODERATED

 

 

The information in this article applies to:

Oracle Application Object Library - Version: 11.5.1 to 11.5.10
Information in this document applies to any platform.

XML Publisher 4.5 

Release 11i10

 

SCOPE & APPLICATION

The intended audience is Customers, Oracle Consultants, and/or 3rd party partners with Basic System Administration knowledge who are implementing Oracle XML Publisher for the versions less than 11.5.10.

This document contains the installation, usage and issues with XML Publisher 4.5 only. As many more functionalities have been added into this product, the scope is restricted to 4.5 version only.

Summary :

1. What is XML Publisher

2. Why XML Publisher and what are the advantages of XML Publisher?

3. Installation

4. How-To

5. Trouble Shooting

6. Resources

 

Please click here to download the document in PDF format.

 

Introduction :

 

1. What is XML Publisher?

            Oracle XML Publisher (XDO in short) provides end users with a template-based, easy-to-use publishing solution. It is based on standard, well-known technologies and tools so your users can take advantage of it easily. It will free development from maintaining report layouts and allow you to concentrate on what you know best ... data. Your users will then have a set of familiar tools such as Adobe and Microsoft Word/Excel to create and maintain their own report formats based on your data extracts. Users will then be able to send the report outputs to destinations of choice, email, fax, printers and others.

 

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2. Why XML Publisher and what are the advantages of XML Publisher?

    In simple words, for easy generation of reports. The following are the advantages of XML Publisher:

            a. Main advantage is Data separation and Presentation.

            b. Rapid development of Report

            c. Cost reduction

            d. Control over Report Layout and High customization

            e. Different presentation tools.

            f. Output in the format of one’s choice.

 

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3. Installing XML Publisher 4.5

 

Question:  From which version of Applications, can XML Publisher be installed ?

        From 11.5.1 to 11.5.9 (i.e., Any 11i) instance, we can install XML Publisher. But it is evident that they would be brought up to latest stack with the pre-requisites being applied (for example: OA Framework is one of the pre-requisites of XDO. So, you might need to apply all the latest patches of  OA Framework).

 

XML Publisher is included in Release 11.5.10. Please follow these steps for versions less than 11.5.10.

 

1)      Apply the patch 3412795 (AD Splice Patch for XDO).

 

Ensure that the product is spliced correctly or else you will have errors after you apply the patch like you will not be able to see the appropriate responsibility etc

 

2) Apply Core XDO patch 3554612

This patch would give the XML Publisher Core Engine code.

 

3) Apply OA XDO patch 3554613

This patch gives the OA pages for uploading the templates and Data Definitions, XML Publisher Administrator responsibility and XML Report Publisher concurrent program.

 

 4) Apply XDO Documentation patch 3623558

Documentation Patch for XML Publisher 4.5. This is an optional patch.

 

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4. How-to

 

4.1) Ways to Generate XML Data:

n       Generate / Write a valid XML file manually

n       Generate a valid XML file from XML DOM tree using XDK

n       Parse an incoming file as XML file using XDK

n       Generate a valid XML file from a Java String

n       Generate a valid XML file from character-based Oracle datatype (VARCHAR2, CHAR, CLOB and others) through JDBC

n       Generate a valid XML file from binary-based Oracle datatype (BLOB) through JDBC

n       Generate a valid XML file from Oracle XML Query (Java)

n       Generate a valid XML file from DBMS_XMLGEN (PLSQL)

n       Generate a valid XML file from SYS_XMLGEN (SQL)

n       Generate a valid XML file from DBMS_XMLQUERY (PLSQL) 

n       Using Oracle Reports 6i the current release in eBS, there is a white paper on this on our site

 

4.2) How to get the XML Publisher Runner (Desktop Version)?

We are coming up with a licensed version of the runner for customers to use.

 

4.3) How to generate Portrait, Landscape and Landwide reports?

            One of the advantages of XML Publisher is separating the data from presentation. So, create a template with the respective styles and run the concurrent program. That will give the report in the specified style.

 

4.4) Where will be the output file created?

If you are using our concurrent program to generate the PDF, then it will go into the APPL_OUT directory i.e., Concurrent Manager will handle the files.

If you are using APIs, then it is up to you where the output goes.

 

4.5) Is there any way to get debug information?

            Yes!!! Set the AF_LOG_xxx profile options to ‘Yes’ and we get the debug information. This is the OA Framework logging method nothing specific to XDO you can generate lower level XDO logs by following these steps:

 

6) How can we verify the installation of XML Publisher is successful?

            There are two ways to check this:

            1. Check the table FND_PRODUCT_INSTALLATION for the status.

2. We can use FND_INSTALLATION.get_app_info() to get the information. If ‘Status’ is ‘I’, then it is successful else not successful.

 

7) How to know the version of XML Publisher?

    Check the properties of a generated PDF document would give the version of XML Publisher. Currently this is the only way to know the version.

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5. Trouble-Shooting

 

    This section is divided into following 3 sections. Each of the section has the error, cause and the fix to the error.

5.1) Installation issues

5.2) Formatting errors

5.3) Others

 

5.1. Installation Issues:

 

1)

Error: Main Tablespace XDOD not found or Index tablespace XDOF not found while splicing this product.

 

Cause: This is not specific only to XDO but is a general error when any product is being spliced. This is caused when the specific tablespace is not created. I did not test this after OATM is done. This error is caused without OATM. Generally, product specific patches will create the tablespaces and the indexes.

 

Fix: Create the Tablespace and Index. For instructions, please follow the Note: 270131.1

 

2)

Error: ‘XML Publisher Administrator’ Responsibility could not be found.

 

Cause: Core XDO Patch is not applied properly.

 

Fix: Please apply the Core XDO Patch again.

 

3)

Error: After successfully applying all the patches and accessing the XML Pub Admin responsibility causes the following error:

- Unable to execute function (FUNCTION_ID=1010946) or
- Unable to execute function. (RESP_ID=21267/RESP_APPL_ID=603)

 

Cause: This error is not specific to XDO product. This is OA Framework error. This error is caused when the menus get invalidate.

 

Fix: Please follow the Note: 275942.1 for this.

 

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5.2) Formatting Errors

5.2.1)

Error : While launching the XML Publisher Runner, I get the following errors:

 

Invalid Argument error

Could not load file/URL specified: C:/Documents and Settings/ppvj/Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/>>

 

(or) 

 

CouldNotLoadArgumentException[ Could not load file/URL specified: C:/Documents and Settings/ppvj/Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/Content.IE5/6BEN2XMZ/index[1].jnlp]             at com.sun.javaws.Main.main(Unknown Source)

 

(Or)

 

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:/Documents and Settings/ppvj/Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/Content.IE5/6BEN2XMZ/index[1].jnlp (The system cannot find the file specified)     at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)          at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)           at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)    at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)           at com.sun.javaws.Main.main(Unknown Source)

 

Cause: This error occurs when you have not set up the java runtime environment correctly.

 

Fix 1: We have a page to help http://xdo.us.oracle.com/webstart/xdorunner/index.html

 

Fix 2: Other reason could be if javaws.exe is not found on the client machine. Check if this is there and that you can start Java Web Start properly without any error. Java console would help in getting the error.

 

5.2.2)

Error: When generating PDF from RTF containing foreign characters like Arabic or Hebrew using XML Publisher, strange characters like ???? are shown instead of them.

 

Fix: XML Pub 4.5 patch installs a set of variable width fonts. Please copy the files from $FND_TOP/resources to /lib/fonts directory on all web and concurrent nodes. The font files are:

 

ALBANYWT.ttf - "single-byte" characters only

ALBANWTJ.ttf - Unicode font with Japanese Han Ideographs

ALBANWTK.ttf - Unicode font with Korean Han Ideographs

ALBANWTS.ttf - Unicode font with Simplified Chinese Han Ideographs

ALBANWTT.ttf - Unicode font with Traditional Chinese Han Ideographs

 

5.2.3)

Error: When trying to generate a PDF file, following error is generated :

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/sql/Blob

            at oracle.sql.SQLUtil.makeDatum(SQLUtil.java:682)

            at oracle.jdbc.driver.ScrollableResultSet.getCachedDatumValueAt(ScrollableResultSet.java:2636)

            at oracle.jdbc.driver.ScrollableResultSet.getOracleObject(ScrollableResultSet.java:659)

            at oracle.jdbc.driver.ScrollableResultSet.getBLOB(ScrollableResultSet.java:1619)

            at oracle.apps.xdo.oa.schema.server.TemplateInputStream.initStream(TemplateInputStream.java:223)

            at oracle.apps.xdo.oa.schema.server.XdoLobsInputStream.<init>(XdoLobsInputStream.java:62)

            at oracle.apps.xdo.oa.schema.server.TemplateInputStream.<init>(TemplateInputStream.java:85)

     &o.oa.schema.server.TemplateHelper.getTemplateFile(TemplateHelper.java:511)

            at oracle.apps.xdo.oa.schema.server.TemplateHelper.processTemplate(TemplateHelper.java:986)

            at oracle.apps.xdo.oa.cp.JCP4XMLPublisher.runProgram(JCP4XMLPublisher.java:352)

         atcp.request.Run.main(Run.java:125)

 

Cause : Blob.class is not available in the classpath.sure that JDK/lib directory or src.jar in JDK directory is listed in CLASSPATH and AF_CLASSPATH.

 

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5.3) Others :

 

5.3.1) Can we use XML Publisher for other applications running on a Oracle database or only with the eBusiness Suite?

Currently we are supporting only those Customers who use API for eBusiness Suite. However, there are plans to support for other products like iAS and Database in future.

 

5.3.2) To receive the output, we have to submit report in two steps:

Run report to receive XML output and then run XML Report publisher with request ID from previous run to receive the PDF output. How to avoid this?

 

We cannot currently do it from the Concurrent Manager interface using the XML Report Publisher program. In next releases of XDO, development is planning to release an integrated version of the request submission form, probably shortly after the release of 11i10. This will mean a single step for users for report submission through SRS.

 

5.3.3) Do we have any limit on the size of the XML Files or Template files and if not any size exceptions, will there be any performance impact?

            No, we don’t have any size limit on the XML files or the template files. But for the performance, there would be performance impact because the data has to be merged for each record. This purely depends on the how much size the data is.

 

5.3.4) How do we print PDF reports after generating from XML Publisher?

1. From local printer when PDF Viewer is spawned or document opened in client system using Acrobat Reader.

2. Print from Applications directly. This requires PASTA to be setup. Please follow PASTA 3.2 guide for setting this.

 

5.3.5)  Is BiDi languages supported in 4.5? If so, when Arabic PDF Template is created, headers will be from right-to-left, will the contents be right-to-left as well?

Yes for both.

 

5.3.6) From which version is the XML Publisher certified?

11.5.1 onwards you can apply XML Publisher. However, applying XDO patches will bring you to approximately 11.5.7 baseline.

 

5.3.7) Do we need separate licensing for XML Publisher?

No!! XML Publisher is a part of Applications Techstack. So, need of separate licensing.

 

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6. Resources

 

XML:

www.xml.org

www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

           

XSLFO:

http://www.w3schools.com/xslfo/default.asp

www.xslfo.info

 

XSL:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl/

 

IPP / IFP:

http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/ipp-charter.html

 

XLIFF:

http://www.i18ngurus.com/docs/996845895.html

http://www.sdl.com/products-home/products/products-ref-center/products-ref-center-white-papers/products-ref-center-white-papers-xliff.htm

 

To install XML Publisher into an 11.5.9 instance the following are the patches (in the order applied on our internal instance):

• 3242200 AD POST H CONSOLIDATED PATCH 12/01
• 3412795 ADSPLICE PATCH FOR XDO
• 3110802 INTEROPERABILITY VIEWS DEFINITION FOR CONTINGENT WORKERS
• 3125496 ADD IN ALL ODFS REQUIRED FOR NEW TABLE UPGRADES FOR HR/TCA MERGE
• 2690553 FNDSCAUS:MODIFICATIONS REQUIRED FOR CONTINGENT WORKERS
• 2563148 AOL/FNDLOAD ROLLUP PATCH E
• 3325651 ccm node only (PASTA printing patch).
• 3554613 ORACLE XML PUBLISHER OA RELEASE 4.5.0