Getting Started with XML Publisher

This chapter provides an overview of XML Publisher and discusses XML Publisher phases.

XML Publisher Overview

Oracle has developed a standalone Java-based reporting technology called XML Publisher (XMLP) that streamlines report and form generation. A primary feature of Oracle's XML Publisher product is the separation of the data extraction process from the report layout. XML Publisher provides the ability to design and create report layout templates with the more common desktop applications of Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat, and renders XML data based on those templates. With a single template, it can generate reports in many formats (PDF, RTF, Excel, HTML, and so on) in many languages. This approach to reporting can dramatically reduce report maintenance, enabling power business users to adjust report templates without involvement of IT resources.

The following diagram illustrates the concept of XML Publisher.

XML Publisher concept

Select features of Oracle's XML Publisher product have been integrated into and enhanced for use with PeopleTools. PeopleSoft Query as well as any PeopleTools based applications providing XML data are available to XML Publisher as a data source. XML Publisher for PeopleSoft Enterprise provides an environment for managing templates, data sources, reports, translations, and content components. It also offers an electronic bursting capability to produce reports according to a user-defined criteria and the reports can be secured using an application’s security join table. A set of PeopleCode XML Publisher classes for runtime report generation is also provided.

There are two aspects of this integration:

Design time during which a report developer or power user registers a report definition and associates a data source with a template.
Runtime when the definitional information and final xml data is passed to the core formatting engine to produce report output.

XML Publisher Phases

XML Publisher implementation can be divided into the following phases:

Set up XML Publisher.
Create and register data sources.
Create and upload report templates.
Define XML Publisher reports.
Run, locate and view XML Publisher reports.

Set Up XML Publisher

To prepare your system for using XML Publisher, perform the following steps:

Step	Reference
1. Define XML Publisher settings.	See Defining XML Publisher Global Engine Settings.
2. Set up XML Publisher permission list security.	See Assigning XMLP Permissions to Users.
3. Set up Report Manager.	See Using Report Manager.
4. Define report categories, including Report Definition Editor security.	See Setting Up Report Categories.
5. Download design plug-ins to facilitate the offline template design activities.	See Working with Template Design Helpers.

Create and Register Data Sources

To create and register data sources, perform the following steps:

Step	Reference
1. Identify or create the source of your report data. Data sources can be PS Query, Rowset PeopleCode object, XMLDoc object, or XML files.	See Creating and Running Simple Queries, Creating Data Sources.
2. Register schema and sample data files for XML Publisher data sources. For PS Query you can automatically generate schema file and sample data.	See Registering Data Sources.

Step

Reference

1. Identify or create the source of your report data.

Data sources can be PS Query, Rowset PeopleCode object, XMLDoc object, or XML files.

See Creating and Running Simple Queries, Creating Data Sources.

2. Register schema and sample data files for XML Publisher data sources.

For PS Query you can automatically generate schema file and sample data.

See Registering Data Sources.

Create and Upload Report Templates

To create and upload templates, perform the following steps:

Step	Reference
1. Create and upload schema and sample data.	See Creating Data Sources.
2. Download schema and sample data from the appropriate data source to facilitate template design.	See Defining Reports.
3. Use either Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat to develop and maintain custom report formats.	See Selecting Report Template Type.
4. (Optional) Create and maintain reusable sub-template definitions.	See Using the Content Library to Maintain Sub-templates.
5. (Optional) Register translation XLIFF files for report templates and Content Library sub-templates.	See Maintaining Template Translations.

Define XML Publisher Reports

To create and maintain report definitions, perform the following step:

Step	Reference
1. Define reports by associating data sources with layout template files.	See Defining Reports.

Run, Locate and View XML Publisher Reports

XML Publisher reports can be run online or in batch through the Process Scheduler. For query-based reports, pages are available for running the reports both online and in batch. To run XML Publisher reports, perform the following steps:

Step	Reference
1. Schedule Query-based XML Publisher reports.	See Scheduling Reports in Query Report Scheduler.
2. Schedule other XML Publisher reports. Note. You will need to create an application engine program using XMLP PeopleCode APIs.	See Running Report Using PeopleCode.
3. View Query-based XML Publisher reports online real-time.	See Running Reports in Query Report Viewer.
4. View other XML Publisher reports online real-time.	See Running Report Using PeopleCode.
5. Locate XML Publisher reports using enhanced search criteria.	See Searching the XML Publisher Report Repository, Search Operator Values.
6. View XML Publisher reports in the Report Manager.	See Viewing Reports.