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Oracle BI Publisher—New Tool for Robust Reporting Purposes

BI Publisher – Integration with Peopletool 8.48

What is it?

n Is a reporting tool technology that separates report layout from report data

n Report data can be generated either through query or Peoplecode (Rowset) or XML Doc

n For report layout Oracle has provided a Microsoft Word add-in called ‘Template Builder’. Thus template design can be done in Word

n Application front end has a new menu under Reporting Tools called ‘XML Publisher’ where you can define the report and link the report data to the layout

Additionally there are features like Bursting, Translation, Effective dating that make this tool useful.

Advantages:

n More flexibility

n Reduced Maintenance

n Empower business users to create their own reports

What Oracle Says!!!!

Oracle BI Publisher is a Java-based product within the Oracle Fusion Middleware family. Utilizing a set of familiar desktop tools such as Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word, users can create and maintain their own report formats based on development delivered xml data extracts. XML Publisher will then convert these documents to the XSL-FO format. Users can also obtain third-party provided PDF forms e.g. government tax forms and merge xml data generated from the E-Business Suite to fill the forms with the required data

The integration of Oracle’s BI Publisher to be a smash hit! XML Publisher is a template-based reporting solution that separates the data extraction process from the report layout and allows the reuse of extracted application data into multiple report layouts. And, let me tell you that many of us have been waiting a long time to get this robust, and flexible reporting and analytic tool.

The BI Publisher renders XML data and allows you to use Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat templates. Moreover, it allows you to generate PDF, RTF, Excel, HTML, output formats in many languages, by the use of just one template. This reporting technology is actually a standalone java-based reporting technology.

What does that mean to you? Well it means that if you are not yet using PeopleTools 8.48, you can still download XMLP from Oracle’s website and begin using it today. However, it is seamlessly integrated and natively accessible from PeopleSoft Query as well as any PeopleTools 8.48-based applications that provide XML data.

Now, developers will have a new design tool called Oracle BI Publisher Desktop which includes Template Builder. And they are available on the Oracle Technical Network as a free download.

All in all, Oracle is making huge strides in its quest towards a Service Oriented Architecture and the addition of many useful tools to assist its customers to lower their total cost of ownership.

Posted by,

Ganesh A.M