RDF2BIP

CONVERSION

ORACLE REPORTS
To BI PUBLISHER REPORTS
CONVERSION PROCESS
Reference:

C00xx

Version:

0.1

Date:

19th Jun 2014

SPAN Infotech (India) Pvt. Ltd.

A-40 A, Landmark Plaza, F3 Tower, 7th Floor,
Quark City New Building, Industrial Area, Phase VIII Extension,
Industrial Focal Point
S.A.S Nagar, Mohali-160071,Punjab,India
Phone: +91 172-667 5063

URL: www.spansystems.com

Document Control
1.1

Change Record

Date

Author

Version

22-072014

Sandeep Kaur

1.0

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Distribution

Name

Organisation

CONTENTS
1.1
1.2

CHANGE RECORD...........................................................................................................................1
DISTRIBUTION................................................................................................................................ 1

1.

PURPOSE...................................................................................................................3

2.

PREREQUISITES.........................................................................................................3
2.1
2.2

3.

.JAR FILES..................................................................................................................................... 3
ORACLE DEVELOPER SUITE 10G....................................................................................................... 3

PROCESS...................................................................................................................3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9

PLACE JAR FILES INSIDE A FOLDER.................................................................................................... 3

CONVERT RDF REPORT TO XML.......................................................................................................4
CREATE DATA TEMPLATE FROM ORACLE REPORT..................................................................................5
CREATE RTF TEMPLATE FROM ORACLE REPORT...................................................................................6
COMPILE PL/SQL PACKAGE IN DATABASE...........................................................................................7
CREATE CONCURRENT PROGRAM & ASSIGN TO RESPONSIBILITY..............................................................7
CREATE DATA DEFINITION................................................................................................................8
CREATE DATA TEMPLATE............................................................................................................... 10
RUN THE CONCURRENT PROGRAM...................................................................................................12

4.

CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................13

5.

OPEN POINTS...........................................................................................................13

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1

PURPOSE

With release of Oracle R12 and Fusion applications, Oracle BI Publisher is taking over the
Oracle reports due its wide range of new and flexible features. Thus, many organizations may
require to convert their existing Oracle Reports into BI Publisher reports along with
migration from Oracle 11i to Oracle R12 application. This document describes the process
for converting Oracle reports into BI Publisher reports; and registering the BI Publisher
reports into XML Publisher responsibility in Oracle EBS.
2.

PREREQUISITES

2.1
.jar Files
Following JAR files are required to carry out the conversion process:

Aolj.jar
Collections.jar
Versioninfo.jar
Xdocore.jar (or xdo-core.jar)
Xdoparser.jar
Xdoparserv2.jar
j5472959_xdo.zip

Source: These .jar files are available after installation of BI Publisher Server. (I got these
from BI Publisher 11.1.1.7.1 Trial Edition under folder: C:\Program Files\Oracle\BI
Publisher
Trial
Edition\bip\server\domains\bipdomain\servers\bipserver\tmp\_WL_user\xmlpserver\7t
re7g\war\WEB-INF\lib)
The j5472959_xdo.zip can be found under patch p5472959_11i_WINNT downloadable
from Metalink.
2.2

Oracle Developer Suite 10g

This suite includes rwconverter utility which is used to convert .rdf files into .xml files. It
is feature of reports builder tool.
3.

PROCESS

3.1

Place JAR files inside a folder

Keep the jar files and the patch zip file inside a folder on any drive, and set CLASSPATH for
these files.
Create a new environment variable CLASSPATH and give path for each jar file in the value
field.

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Also, correct java path should be set under PATH environment variable.
3.2

Convert RDF report to XML

Create two folders: SourceFiles and TargetFiles. Place RDF report in SourceFiles folder.
Run the following command to convert a RDF file into XML file and place it into destination
folder.
rwconverter
batch=yes
source=D:\BIPConversion\SourceFiles\Po_Info.rdf
dest=D:\BIPConversion\TargetFiles\Po_Info.xml dtype=xmlfile overwrite=yes

(I used the GUI version from folder where developer suite has been installed C:\DevSuiteHome_1\BIN\rwconverter).
Po_Info.xml got generated in TargetFiles folder.

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3.3

Create Data Template from Oracle Report

Now, create Data Template from Oracle Report using the DataTemplateGenerator class
available inside the patch downloaded from Metalink.
Use below command by giving name of the xml generated in above step:
"C:\Program
Files
(x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe"
-verbose
-cp
D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\aolj.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\xdoparser.jar;D:\BIPC
onversion\JarFiles\collections.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\j5472959_xdo.zip;D:\BIP
Conversion\JarFiles\versioninfo.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\xmlparserv2.jar
oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser.DataTemplateGenerator
D:\BIPConversion\TargetFiles\Po_Info.xml

(There was problem in CLASSPATH variable, so needed to give full path for each jar file in
the command)
The DataTemplateGenerator process completed succefully.

Following files got generated in the TargetFiles folder:

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This process completed with three files as outcome:

3.4

Data template (Po_Info_Template.xml)

Pl/Sql Package Specification (Po_InfoS)
Pl/Sql Package body (Po_InfoB)
Create RTF Template from Oracle Report

Use below command to generate the RTF template and log file for the Oracle report:
"C:\Program
Files
(x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe"
-verbose
-cp
D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\aolj.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\xdoparser.jar;D:\BIPC
onversion\JarFiles\collections.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\j5472959_xdo.zip;D:\BIP
Conversion\JarFiles\versioninfo.jar;D:\BIPConversion\JarFiles\xmlparserv2.jar
oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser.RTFTemplateGenerator
D:\BIPConversion\TargetFiles\Po_Info.xml

The RTFTemplateGenerator class process successfully:

Following files got generated under TargetFiles folder:

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This process completed with following files as output:

RTF template (Po_Info.xml)

Log file (Po_Info.txt)

3.5

Compile PL/SQL Package in Database

After this, compile the package specification and package body on database of the OEBS
suite.
Before compilation, you must manually check the package code for any formatting
errors. It is very common that there are formatting issues in the code generated. For
example, a function name generated with spaces in between words; assignment operator
missing colon, etc.
Need to manually solve these minor errors.
3.6
Create Concurrent Program & Assign to Responsibility
Create a concurrent program in Oracle applications to run the BI publisher
report generated in above steps.
Navigation: System AdministratorConcurrentProgram
Define a new concurrent program with executable XDODTEXE and output
format as XML. XDODTEXE is XML Publisher Data Template Executable
Engine, which is a Java Concurrent Program.

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Then assign this concurrent program to any responsibility from which you want to run it.
Here, it is assigned to Purchasing responsibility with assignment group as All Reports.
Note down the short name for the concurrent program, will be used to create data
definition.
Follow below steps to assign the program to a responsibility:
Navigation: System AdministratorSecurityResponsibilityRequest
Search for All Reports request group. Go to Requests block and click on any Program
name; then click new and search for the concurrent program name (RDF2BIP Conversion
Test Po Info) from the LOV. Press tab and save the record.
Now this concurrent program is accessible from requests in purchasing responsibility.

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3.7

Create Data Definition

Now, need to create data definition and data template for running the BI Publisher
concurrent program.
Navigation: XML Publisher ResponsibilityData Definition

Click on Create Data Definition button, a new screen will appear.

Give a name (Po Info Data Definition).
Select responsibility (Purchasing) same as selected for the concurrent program.
Give short name of the concurrent program (RDF2BIPPOINFO) in the Code
field.
Click apply.

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3.8

Then go the Files section on the same page and click on Add File button
against the Data Template field. A new screen will appear.
Browse for the data definition file (Po_Info_Template.xml) in TargetFiles folder.
Click apply.

The Files section show that data definition file has been uploaded.

Create Data Template

Now create data template for the BI publisher report.

Navigation: XML Publisher ResponsibilityData Template

Click on Create Template button.

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Give name for the template (Po Info Test)

Select application (Purchasing)
Give code i.e. conc program short name (RDF2BIPPOINFO)
Select data definition from the search button (Po Info Data Definition)
The type is RTF by default.
Select default Output Type (PDF) from list given which will decide output format
for the concurrent program.

Go to Template File block and upload the RTF file (Po_Info.rtf) from TargetFiles
folder.

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Select language (English)

Click apply. Template Po Info Test has been created successfully.

The concurrent program will use this template and data definition to get the output from
database using the Pl/Sql package complied earlier. The linkage between concurrent
program and data definition is through the program short name given as code here.
3.9
Run the Concurrent Program
Navigation: PurchasingRequestSubmit New RequestSingle Request

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Now run the concurrent program to see output for the BI Publisher report
generated through above process. Query the program name here and submit
with default parameters (no parameter).

Go to request and see the report completed successfully without any errors.

Click on view output to see the output in PDF format as below:

4. Conclusion

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We used Oracle BI Publisher utility to carry out a simple conversion process
for converting the Oracle Report into BI Publisher Report using some .jar files
and java classes to create necessary files for the report to run.
We used a very simple customized .rdf report for carrying out the conversion
process. The report consisted a simple select clause and count function to
display the row count. We took the RDF report and run various command to
generate necessary files for registering the report in XML Publisher
responsibility and got the output in PDF format.
5. Open Points
It was a very simple RDF report here with no complex logic. It got converted
successfully. But this process needed to be tested for complex Oracle reports
which may cause some issues while doing conversion process.

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