Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System: Label Printing Support and Implementation Overview
Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System: Label Printing Support and Implementation Overview
Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System: Label Printing Support and Implementation Overview
February 2011
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Contents
1 Overview
Related Documents .................................................................................................................................. 1-1
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1
Overview
Whether your organization is a retail firm or a manufacturer, you must create your
own labeling and reporting outputs to meet specific business needs within your
warehouse operations.
Oracle Warehouse Management System (RWMS) Release 13.2 supports customizable
printing and reporting requirements using BI Publisher. BI Publisher is a part of
Fusion Middleware Business Intelligence suite of applications for the enterprise.
This white paper describes the technical approach to integrate third party labeling and
printing solutions to BI Publisher printing subsystem of RWMS. In particular, it
explains the use of Zebra Technologies printing solutions and outline how these can be
configured for use within RWMS.
To understand this white paper, you must be familiar with the installation and
operation of RWMS Release 13.2 and its BI Publisher subsystem.
Related Documents
For a detailed information on the implementation and configuration of RWMS, see the
following documents in the RWMS Release 13.2 documentation set:
■ Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System Installation Guide
■ Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System Operations Guide
For more information about products from Zebra Technologies, see the following
documents from Zebra Technologies:
■ ZebraDesigner for XML User Guide
■ ZebraLink Enterprise Connector for Oracle BI Publisher User Guide
■ ZebraDesigner for XML Font and Graphics Downloader User Guide
■ ZebraNet Bridge Enterprise User Guide
■ Zebra Enterprise Connector Solution Flyer
Overview 1-1
Related Documents
RWMS uses Oracle BI Publisher to meet printing and reporting needs of retailers.
Oracle BI Publisher is a reporting and publishing application that enables you to
extract data from multiple data sources, create a template to print the data in a report,
and publish the report in numerous output formats. Oracle BI Publisher also enables
you to schedule reports and deliver the reports to any delivery channel required by
your business.
This chapter includes the following topics:
■ Installing Oracle BI Publisher
■ BI Publisher Report Designer Overview
■ BI Publisher Data Source Types
■ BI Publisher Template Types
■ Printing Sequence Using BI Publisher
Web Service
Supply the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) to BI Publisher and then define
the parameters in BI Publisher to use a web service to return data for your report.
Data Template
The BI Publisher data engine enables you to rapidly generate any kind of XML data
structure against any database in a scalable, efficient manner. The data template is the
method by which you communicate your request for data to BI Publisher's data
engine.
Oracle BI Answers
If you have integrated your BI Publisher installation with Oracle BI Presentation
Services, then you can use the data from an Oracle BI Answers request to create your
report. For more information on this integration, see Oracle Business Intelligence
Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.
Oracle BI Discoverer
If your BI Publisher installation is integrated with Oracle Discoverer, then you can use
the data from an Oracle Discoverer worksheet to create your report. For more
information on this integration, see Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's
and Developer's Guide.
File
Use an existing XML data file stored in a directory that is set up by your administrator.
Multidimensional Query
Construct a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) query against an Online Analytical
Processing (OLAP) database that is set up by your administrator.
eText
These are specialized RTF templates used for creating text output for Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) transactions.
Flash
BI Publisher's support for Flash templates enables you to develop Adobe Flex
templates that can be applied to BI Publisher reports to generate interactive Flash
output documents.
Barcode Template
See Chapter 3, "Using Zebra Technologies Printing Solutions" for more information.
The following tasks can be performed using an XML report:
■ Run and view reports from the BI Publisher reports repository.
■ Schedule reports to run at select intervals and to be delivered through any channel
set up by your administrator.
■ Create an ad hoc analysis of report data using BI Publisher's Analyzer feature.
■ Open and manipulate reports in Microsoft Excel using BI Publisher's Analyzer for
Microsoft Excel.
The Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System barcode printing solution may be
used in conjunction with Zebra Technologies barcode printing software and hardware
offerings.
Using the ZebraLink Enterprise Connector (ZEC), RWMS BI Publisher component
forwards report requests to Zebra label and LAN/Shared barcode printers that
support ZPL. The ZebraLink Enterprise Connector has the ability to parse and
interpret the XML passed to it by BI Publisher. Label formats supporting various
applications can be loaded into the Zebra Enterprise Connector's ZPL repository,
facilitating XML printing from Oracle BI Publisher.
The ZebraLink Enterprise Connector Printing Solution enhances the convenience and
accuracy of barcode and radio frequency identification label printing. Other tools from
Zebra Technologies may also be used to monitor and manage label directories and the
delivery of data to respective Zebra barcode and RFID printers.
This chapter includes the following topics:
■ ZebraLink Enterprise Connector (ZEC)
■ Configuring ZEC for Use with RWMS
■ Configuring Printers in RWMS
■ Configuring Reports and Labels in BI Publisher
■ Implementing Labels in Zebra Designer
■ Example Label Configurations
■ Label Configuration Summary
Pre-requisites
Following are the pre-requisites before installing ZEC:
■ RWMS database and application components are correctly installed and
configured (as described in the Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System
Installation Guide for Release 13.2).
■ The BI Publisher database schema and web application components are installed
within a WebLogic 10.3.3 container (as described in the Oracle Retail Warehouse
Management System Installation Guide for Release 13.2).
– container_format - This SCP has 2 valid options. When set to Default it makes
the barcode on the label type code 39. When set to UCC128 it makes the
barcode a UCC128 barcode.
– default_language - This SCP is used to specify the language that the labels are
translated to. It must match one of the values in the supported_language table.
2. Use the Data Template to customize the xml to the form expected by ZPL label
template (ZPL template is the template for the label that is created in Zebra
Designer)
the required labels to the XML tag as variable fields in the Zebra label design tool. The
following steps outline this approach:
■ The XML Tags must match the variable fields on the label. For example,
<ORGANIZATION> in the XML report is represented as $$ORGANIZATION$$
in the label design.
■ Follow the instructions in the ZebraLink Enterprise Connector for Oracle BI Publisher
User Guide to construct your label design.
After constructing the label format, you must define label rules in the ZEC to print
these labels. Modify the ReportsInfo.ini file in the \zebra_ec\bin directory where the
Enterprise Connector is installed. See the ZebraLink Enterprise Connector for Oracle BI
Publisher User Guide for more information.
When modifying or creating a new ZPL template, the dynamic variable names must
match the element names in the XML data. For example, variable $$RETURN_ID$$ in
the template must match <RETURN_ID> in the xml data. See the ZebraLink Enterprise
Connector for Oracle BI Publisher User Guide for more information.
The ReportInfo.ini configuration file in ZEC must be configured for the ZPL templates.
This file is used to associate an XML root node to a ZPL template. This informs ZEC
which ZPL template to apply for which XML root node. It also indicates the repeat
node in the XML stream.
The repeat node is a repeating node in the XML stream that indicates ZEC the number
of labels to print. An XSL might also be specified here to transform the incoming XML
stream before applying the ZPL template. See ZebraLink Enterprise Connector for Oracle
BI Publisher User Guide for configuration details.
</SHIPPING>
The following table summarizes the mapping for the returns label:
Note: All retail labels are derived from Generic SSCC label with
some variations.
Following are some requirements to print to a Zebra Printer from Oracle BI Publisher:
■ The ZebraLink Enterprise Connector must be installed and running.
■ A printer must be installed and configured.
■ RWMS must be configured with Oracle BI Publisher.
■ A Zebra Printer Language (ZPL) template appropriate to the Oracle XML report
must be created and uploaded to the ZebraLink Enterprise Connector (ZEC)
zplrepository directory.
■ The ReportInfo.ini file must be configured appropriately.
See the ZebraLink Enterprise Connector for Oracle BI Publisher User Guide for more
information.
When configuring printers, make sure that they are set up as RAW and the printers
have a logical name.
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