Oracle® XML Publisher
Core Components Guide Release 5.6.3
Part No. E05078-01

April 2007

Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide, Release 5.6.3 Part No. E05078-01 Copyright © 2006, 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Primary Author: Leslie Studdard Contributing Author: Tim Dexter, Klaus Fabian, Hiro Inami, Edward Jiang, Incheol Kang, Kazuko Kawahara, Kei Saito, Elise Tung-Loo, Jackie Yeung The Programs (which include both the software and documentation) contain proprietary information; they are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected by copyright, patent, and other intellectual and industrial property laws. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of the Programs, except to the extent required to obtain interoperability with other independently created software or as specified by law, is prohibited. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. If you find any problems in the documentation, please report them to us in writing. This document is not warranted to be error-free. Except as may be expressly permitted in your license agreement for these Programs, no part of these Programs may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose. If the Programs are delivered to the United States Government or anyone licensing or using the Programs on behalf of the United States Government, the following notice is applicable: U.S. GOVERNMENT RIGHTS Programs, software, databases, and related documentation and technical data delivered to U.S. Government customers are "commercial computer software" or "commercial technical data" pursuant to the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency-specific supplemental regulations. As such, use, duplication, disclosure, modification, and adaptation of the Programs, including documentation and technical data, shall be subject to the licensing restrictions set forth in the applicable Oracle license agreement, and, to the extent applicable, the additional rights set forth in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software--Restricted Rights (June 1987). Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. The Programs are not intended for use in any nuclear, aviation, mass transit, medical, or other inherently dangerous applications. It shall be the licensee's responsibility to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy and other measures to ensure the safe use of such applications if the Programs are used for such purposes, and we disclaim liability for any damages caused by such use of the Programs. The Programs may provide links to Web sites and access to content, products, and services from third parties. Oracle is not responsible for the availability of, or any content provided on, third-party Web sites. You bear all risks associated with the use of such content. If you choose to purchase any products or services from a third party, the relationship is directly between you and the third party. Oracle is not responsible for: (a) the quality of third-party products or services; or (b) fulfilling any of the terms of the agreement with the third party, including delivery of products or services and warranty obligations related to purchased products or services. Oracle is not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort that you may incur from dealing with any third party. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contents

Send Us Your Comments Preface 1 Introduction
XML Publisher Overview......................................................................................................... 1-1

2

Creating an RTF Template
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 2-1 Supported Modes................................................................................................................. 2-1 Prerequisites........................................................................................................................ 2-2 Overview................................................................................................................................... 2-2 Using the Business Intelligence Publisher Template Builder for Microsoft Word Add-in ............................................................................................................................................. 2-2 Associating the XML Data to the Template Layout............................................................. 2-3 Designing the Template Layout................................................................................................ 2-7 Adding Markup to the Template Layout.................................................................................. 2-7 Creating Placeholders.......................................................................................................... 2-8 Defining Groups................................................................................................................ 2-12 Defining Headers and Footers................................................................................................ 2-15 Native Support................................................................................................................... 2-15 Images and Charts................................................................................................................... 2-17 Images................................................................................................................................ 2-17 Chart Support.................................................................................................................... 2-19 Drawing, Shape and Clip Art Support................................................................................... 2-30 Supported Native Formatting Features...................................................................................2-41 General Features................................................................................................................ 2-41

iii

Alignment.......................................................................................................................... 2-42 Tables................................................................................................................................. 2-42 Date Fields......................................................................................................................... 2-45 Multicolumn Page Support................................................................................................ 2-45 Background and Watermark Support................................................................................ 2-47 Template Features................................................................................................................... 2-49 Page Breaks........................................................................................................................ 2-49 Initial Page Number........................................................................................................... 2-50 Last Page Only Content .................................................................................................... 2-51 End on Even or End on Odd Page..................................................................................... 2-54 Hyperlinks......................................................................................................................... 2-54 Table of Contents............................................................................................................... 2-57 Generating Bookmarks in PDF Output.............................................................................. 2-57 Check Boxes....................................................................................................................... 2-58 Drop Down Lists................................................................................................................ 2-59 Conditional Formatting........................................................................................................... 2-62 If Statements...................................................................................................................... 2-63 If Statements in Boilerplate Text.................................................................................. 2-63 If-then-Else Statements...................................................................................................... 2-64 Choose Statements............................................................................................................. 2-65 Column Formatting........................................................................................................... 2-66 Row Formatting................................................................................................................. 2-69 Cell Highlighting............................................................................................................... 2-71 Page-Level Calculations.......................................................................................................... 2-73 Displaying Page Totals...................................................................................................... 2-73 Brought Forward/Carried Forward Totals......................................................................... 2-75 Running Totals................................................................................................................... 2-79 Data Handling......................................................................................................................... 2-81 Sorting................................................................................................................................ 2-81 Checking for Nulls............................................................................................................. 2-81 Regrouping the XML Data................................................................................................. 2-82 Using Variables....................................................................................................................... 2-88 Defining Parameters................................................................................................................ 2-89 Setting Properties.................................................................................................................... 2-91 Advanced Report Layouts....................................................................................................... 2-93 Batch Reports..................................................................................................................... 2-93 Cross-Tab Support............................................................................................................. 2-95 Dynamic Data Columns..................................................................................................... 2-98 Number and Date Formatting............................................................................................... 2-102 Calendar and Time Zone Support........................................................................................ 2-116 Using External Fonts............................................................................................................. 2-117

iv

Advanced Barcode Formatting........................................................................................ 2-118 Advanced Design Options.................................................................................................... 2-119 XPath Overview............................................................................................................... 2-119 Namespace Support......................................................................................................... 2-122 Using the Context Commands......................................................................................... 2-123 Using XSL Elements......................................................................................................... 2-125 Using FO Elements.......................................................................................................... 2-128

3

Creating a PDF Template
PDF Template Overview........................................................................................................... 3-1 Supported Modes................................................................................................................. 3-1 Designing the Layout ............................................................................................................... 3-2 Adding Markup to the Template Layout.................................................................................. 3-3 Creating a Placeholder......................................................................................................... 3-4 Defining Groups of Repeating Fields................................................................................... 3-7 Adding Page Numbers and Page Breaks.................................................................................. 3-9 Performing Calculations......................................................................................................... 3-13 Completed PDF Template....................................................................................................... 3-13 Runtime Behavior.................................................................................................................... 3-14 Creating a Template from a Third-Party PDF........................................................................ 3-16

4

Creating an eText Template
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 4-1 Outbound eText Templates...................................................................................................... 4-2 Structure of eText Templates............................................................................................... 4-2 Constructing the Data Tables............................................................................................... 4-6 Command Rows............................................................................................................ 4-6 Structure of the Data Rows.......................................................................................... 4-12 Setup Command Tables..................................................................................................... 4-16 Expressions, Control Structures, and Functions................................................................ 4-27 Identifiers, Operators, and Literals.................................................................................... 4-30

5

XSL, SQL, and XSL-FO Support for RTF Templates
Extended SQL and XSL Functions............................................................................................ 5-1 XSL Equivalents........................................................................................................................ 5-6 Using FO Elements.................................................................................................................... 5-7

6

Adding Template Translations
Translatable Templates............................................................................................................. 6-1

v

7

Setting Runtime Properties
Setting Properties in a Configuration File................................................................................ 7-1 Structure.................................................................................................................................... 7-3 Properties................................................................................................................................... 7-3 List of Properties....................................................................................................................... 7-4 Font Definitions...................................................................................................................... 7-14 Locales..................................................................................................................................... 7-16 Font Fallback Logic................................................................................................................. 7-17 Predefined Fonts...................................................................................................................... 7-18

8

Using the XML Publisher APIs
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 8-1 XML Publisher Core APIs......................................................................................................... 8-1 PDF Form Processing Engine.................................................................................................... 8-2 RTF Processor Engine................................................................................................................ 8-8 FO Processor Engine.................................................................................................................. 8-9 PDF Document Merger........................................................................................................... 8-20 PDF Book Binder Processor.................................................................................................... 8-27 Document Processor Engine................................................................................................... 8-30 Bursting Engine....................................................................................................................... 8-43 XML Publisher Properties....................................................................................................... 8-54 Advanced Barcode Font Formatting Implementation............................................................ 8-58

A

Supported XSL-FO Elements
Supported XSL-FO Elements.................................................................................................... A-1

Index

vi

Send Us Your Comments
Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide, Release 5.6.3
Part No. E05078-01

Oracle welcomes customers' comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of this document. Your feedback is important, and helps us to best meet your needs as a user of our products. For example: • • • • • • Are the implementation steps correct and complete? Did you understand the context of the procedures? Did you find any errors in the information? Does the structure of the information help you with your tasks? Do you need different information or graphics? If so, where, and in what format? Are the examples correct? Do you need more examples?

If you find any errors or have any other suggestions for improvement, then please tell us your name, the name of the company who has licensed our products, the title and part number of the documentation and the chapter, section, and page number (if available). Note: Before sending us your comments, you might like to check that you have the latest version of the document and if any concerns are already addressed. To do this, access the new Applications Release Online Documentation CD available on Oracle MetaLink and www.oracle.com. It contains the most current Documentation Library plus all documents revised or released recently. Send your comments to us using the electronic mail address: appsdoc_us@oracle.com Please give your name, address, electronic mail address, and telephone number (optional). If you need assistance with Oracle software, then please contact your support representative or Oracle Support Services. If you require training or instruction in using Oracle software, then please contact your Oracle local office and inquire about our Oracle University offerings. A list of Oracle offices is available on our Web site at www.oracle.com.

vii

Preface

Intended Audience
Welcome to Release 5.6.3 of the Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide. This book is intended to be a reference for use with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and PeopleSoft Enterprise implementations of Oracle XML Publisher. This guide contains information both for the business user on creating templates and for the implementor on setting configuration properties. XML Publisher is based on the XSL-FO standard. Although it is not necessary, it may be helpful to have an XSL guide to use as companion to this book. See Related Information Sources on page x for more Oracle product information.

TTY Access to Oracle Support Services
Oracle provides dedicated Text Telephone (TTY) access to Oracle Support Services within the United States of America 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For TTY support, call 800.446.2398.

Documentation Accessibility
Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/ .

ix

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation
Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation
This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Structure
1 Introduction 2 Creating an RTF Template 3 Creating a PDF Template 4 Creating an eText Template 5 XSL, SQL, and XSL-FO Support for RTF Templates 6 Adding Template Translations 7 Setting Runtime Properties 8 Using the XML Publisher APIs A Supported XSL-FO Elements

Related Information Sources
Oracle XML Publisher for PeopleSoft Enterprise
This guide describes the features and procedures specific to the PeopleSoft Enterprise implementation of XML Publisher.

Oracle XML Publisher for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
This guide describes the features and procedures specific to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne implementation of XML Publisher.

x

1
Introduction

XML Publisher Overview
Oracle XML Publisher is a template-based publishing solution delivered with the Oracle E-Business Suite, Peoplesoft Enterprise, and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. It provides a flexible and robust approach to report design and publishing by integrating familiar desktop word processing tools with existing data reporting. XML Publisher leverages standard, well-known technologies and tools, so you can rapidly develop and maintain custom report formats. The flexibility is a result of the separation of the presentation of the report from its data structure. The collection of the data can still be handled by existing report tools, but with XML Publisher you can design and control how the report outputs will be presented in separate template files. At runtime, your designed template files are merged with the report data to create a variety of outputs to meet a variety of business needs, including: • Customer-ready PDF documents, such as financial statements, marketing materials, contracts, invoices, and purchase orders utilizing colors, images, font styles, headers and footers, and many other formatting and design options. HTML output for optimum online viewing. Excel output to create a spreadsheet of your report data. "Filled-out" third-party provided PDF documents. You can download a PDF document, such as a government form, to use as a template for your report. At runtime, the data and template produce a "filled-out" form. Flat text files to exchange with business partners for EDI and EFT transmission.

• • •

•

The following graphic displays a few sample documents generated by XML Publisher:

Introduction 1-1

The flexibility is increased further by XML Publisher's ability to extract translatable strings from the report templates, allowing you to add translations to a report, independent of the layout and independent of the data generation. With the approach of separating the data from the layout from the translation, it is possible to make changes in one of these layers without impacting the entire report package.

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Moreover, because XML Publisher's design tools are integrated with well-known desktop applications, the report layouts can be created and modified by your business users, rather than having to rely on your technical staff.

Template and Output Types
XML Publishers supports two basic template types: rich text format (RTF) and portable document file format (PDF).
Note: At runtime, XML Publisher converts RTF templates to XSL-FO.

Therefore XSL-FO is also supported as a template type.

RTF Templates RTF templates can be created in Microsoft Word. Using a combination of native Microsoft Word features and XML Publisher command syntax you can create a report template that is ready to accept XML data from your system. RTF templates can generate the following output types: • • • • • PDF HTML RTF Excel XML

RTF Design Tool

XML Publisher provides a plug-in for Microsoft Word to facilitate the design of RTF templates. The Business Intelligence Publisher Template Builder for Microsoft Word Add-in (formerly the XML Publisher Template Builder for Word) automates many tasks and provides preview capabilities. The desktop installation also includes samples and tutorials to get you started. The following figure shows the Template Builder for Word.

Introduction 1-3

Template Builder for Word

Creating an RTF Template, page 2-1 provides complete instructions for designing RTF templates. eText Templates An eText template is a specialized type of RTF template used expressly for the generation of text output for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions. To achieve the specialized layout, XML Publisher uses tables to define the position, length, and value of fields, as well as data manipulation commands. At runtime XML Publisher constructs the output file according to the setup commands and layout specifications in the tables of the RTF template file. Creating an eText Template, page 4-1 gives complete instructions for designing these table-based templates. PDF Templates PDF templates are designed using Adobe Acrobat. You can use a PDF file from any source, including downloaded predefined forms (such as government forms). Using Acrobat's form fields, map your data source element names to the PDF fields where you want the data to appear.

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PDF templates are less flexible than RTF templates, but are more appropriate for creating form-like reports, such as invoices or purchase orders. See Creating a PDF Template, page 3-1 for detailed instructions.

Translation Support
For RTF templates that you want available in different languages, XML Publisher provides the capability to extract the translatable strings from the template and export them to an industry-standard XLIFF file. The XLIFF file can then be translated in-house or shipped to a localization provider. You create one XLIFF file for each language and territory combination (locale) desired. The translated XLIFF files can then be loaded back to your system and associated with the original template file. At runtime, XML Publisher applies the template and translation appropriate for the user's selected locale. See Adding Template Translations, page 6-1 for more information on translation support and working with XLIFF files.

Configuring the Behavior of XML Publisher
XML Publisher's configuration file is a powerful tool for customizing the processing and output options for your system. Use this file to: • Define a temporary directory to enable processing of large files and to enhance performance (setting this directory is highly recommended). Set security options for output PDFs, such as password protection and printing, copying, and modification permissions. Set options for each output type, such as change tracking for RTF output and viewing properties for HTML output. Define font mapping. Set options for XLIFF extraction, such as translation expansion percentage and minimum and maximum translation lengths.

•

•

• •

See Setting Runtime Properties, page 7-1 for information on setting up the configuration file and the full list of properties.

Using XML Publisher's Application Programming Interface
Developers who wish to create programs or applications that interact with XML Publisher can do so through its application programming interface. For more information see Using the XML Publisher APIs, page 8-1.

Introduction 1-5

Support for SQL, XSL, and XSL-FO
XML Publisher supports all native XSL commands in RTF templates and has extended a set of SQL functions for use with RTF templates. For information on using these commands in your templates, see SQL, XSL, and XSL-FO Support, page 5-1. XML Publisher has not yet implemented the entire XSL-FO specification. For a complete list of the supported elements and attributes, see Supported XSL-FO Elements, page A1.

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2
Creating an RTF Template

Introduction
Rich Text Format (RTF) is a specification used by common word processing applications, such as Microsoft Word. When you save a document, RTF is a file type option that you select. XML Publisher's RTF Template Parser converts documents saved as the RTF file type to XSL-FO. You can therefore create report designs using many of your standard word processing application's design features and XML Publisher will recognize and maintain the design. During design time, you add data fields and other markup to your template using XML Publisher's simplified tags for XSL expressions. These tags associate the XML report data to your report layout. If you are familiar with XSL and prefer not to use the simplified tags, XML Publisher also supports the use of pure XSL elements in the template. In addition to your word processing application's formatting features, XML Publisher supports other advanced reporting features such as conditional formatting, dynamic data columns, running totals, and charts. If you wish to include code directly in your template, you can include any XSL element, many FO elements, and a set of SQL expressions extended by XML Publisher.

Supported Modes
XML Publisher supports two methods for creating RTF templates: • Basic RTF Method Use any word processing application that supports RTF version 1.6 writer (or later) to design a template using XML Publisher's simplified syntax. • Form Field Method

Creating an RTF Template 2-1

Using Microsoft Word's form field feature allows you to place the syntax in hidden form fields, rather than directly into the design of your template. XML Publisher supports Microsoft Word 2000 (or later) with Microsoft Windows version 2000 (or later).
Note: If you use XSL or XSL:FO code rather than the simplified

syntax, you must use the form field method.

This guide describes how to create RTF templates using both methods.

Prerequisites
Before you design your template, you must: • • • Know the business rules that apply to the data from your source report. Generate a sample of your source report in XML. Be familiar with the formatting features of your word processing application.

Overview
Creating an RTF template file for use with XML Publisher consists of the following steps:
1.

Generate sample data from your report. You must have sample data either to reference while designing the report manually, or to load to the BI Publisher Template Builder for Word Add-in..

2.

Load the data to the Template Builder for Word Add-in and use its features to add data fields, tables, charts, and other report items to your template. Alternatively, insert the XML Publisher tags manually into your template, using the guidelines in this chapter.

3.

Upload the template to the appropriate repository to make it available to XML Publisher at runtime.

When you design your template layout, you must understand how to associate the XML input file to the layout. This chapter presents a sample template layout with its input XML file to illustrate how to make the proper associations to add the markup tags to the template.

Using the Business Intelligence Publisher Template Builder for Microsoft Word Add-in
The Template Builder is an extension to Microsoft Word that simplifies the

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development of RTF templates. It automates many of the manual steps that are covered in this chapter. Use it in conjunction with this manual to increase your productivity.
Note: The BI Publisher Template Builder for Word Add-in includes

features to log in to and interact with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Enterprise. These features only work with the Oracle BI Publisher Enterprise or Oracle BI Enterprise Edition implementations. See the Template Builder help for more information.

The Template Builder is tightly integrated with Microsoft Word and allows you to perform the following functions: • • • • • • • Insert data fields Indsert data-driven tables Insert data-driven forms Insert data-driven charts Preview your template with sample XML data Browse and update the content of form fields Extract boilerplate text into an XLIFF translation file and test translations

Manual steps for performing these functions are covered in this chapter. Instructions and tutorials for using the Template Builder are available from the readme and help files delivered with the tool.

Associating the XML Data to the Template Layout
The following is a sample layout for a Payables Invoice Register:

Creating an RTF Template 2-3

Sample Template Layout

Note the following: • The data fields that are defined on the template For example: Supplier, Invoice Number, and Invoice Date • The elements of the template that will repeat when the report is run. For example, all the fields on the template will repeat for each Supplier that is reported. Each row of the invoice table will repeat for each invoice that is reported.

XML Input File
Following is the XML file that will be used as input to the Payables Invoice Register report template:
Note: To simplify the example, the XML output shown below has been

modified from the actual output from the Payables report.

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 - - - COMPANY A - - 124 10-NOV-03 Standard 031110 10-NOV-03 EUR 122 122 VAT22% 1000.00 1000.00 108763.68 122039

XML files are composed of elements. Each tag set is an element. For example is the invoice date element. "INVOICE_DATE" is the tag name. The data between the tags is the value of the element. For example, the value of INVOICE_DATE is "10-NOV-03". The elements of the XML file have a hierarchical structure. Another way of saying this is that the elements have parent-child relationships. In the XML sample, some elements are contained within the tags of another element. The containing element is the parent and the included elements are its children. Every XML file has only one root element that contains all the other elements. In this example, VENDOR_REPORT is the root element. The elements LIST_G_VENDOR_NAME, ACCTD_SUM_REP, and ENT_SUM_REP are contained between the VENDOR_REPORT tags and are children of VENDOR_REPORT. Each child element can have child elements of its own.

Identifying Placeholders and Groups
Your template content and layout must correspond to the content and hierarchy of the input XML file. Each data field in your template must map to an element in the XML file. Each group of repeating elements in your template must correspond to a parent-child relationship in the XML file. To map the data fields you define placeholders. To designate the repeating elements, you define groups.
Note: XML Publisher supports regrouping of data if your report

requires grouping that does not follow the hierarchy of your incoming

Creating an RTF Template 2-5

XML data. For information on using this feature, see Regrouping the XML Data, page 2-82.

Placeholders
Each data field in your report template must correspond to an element in the XML file. When you mark up your template design, you define placeholders for the XML elements. The placeholder maps the template report field to the XML element. At runtime the placeholder is replaced by the value of the element of the same name in the XML data file. For example, the "Supplier" field from the sample report layout corresponds to the XML element VENDOR_NAME. When you mark up your template, you create a placeholder for VENDOR_NAME in the position of the Supplier field. At runtime, this placeholder will be replaced by the value of the element from the XML file (the value in the sample file is COMPANY A).

Identifying the Groups of Repeating Elements
The sample report lists suppliers and their invoices. There are fields that repeat for each supplier. One of these fields is the supplier's invoices. There are fields that repeat for each invoice. The report therefore consists of two groups of repeating fields: • • Fields that repeat for each supplier Fields that repeat for each invoice

The invoices group is nested inside the suppliers group. This can be represented as follows: Suppliers • • Supplier Name Invoices • • • • • • Invoice Num Invoice Date GL Date Currency Entered Amount Accounted Amount

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• •

Total Entered Amount Total Accounted Amount

Compare this structure to the hierarchy of the XML input file. The fields that belong to the Suppliers group shown above are children of the element G_VENDOR_NAME. The fields that belong to the Invoices group are children of the element G_INVOICE_NUM. By defining a group, you are notifying XML Publisher that for each occurrence of an element (parent), you want the included fields (children) displayed. At runtime, XML Publisher will loop through the occurrences of the element and display the fields each time.

Designing the Template Layout
Use your word processing application's formatting features to create the design. For example: • • • • • • • Select the size, font, and alignment of text Insert bullets and numbering Draw borders around paragraphs Include a watermark Include images (jpg, gif, or png) Use table autoformatting features Insert a header and footer For additional information on inserting headers and footers, see Defining Headers and Footers, page 2-15. For a detailed list of supported formatting features in Microsoft Word, see Supported Native Formatting Features, page 2-41. Additional formatting and reporting features are described at the end of this section.

Adding Markup to the Template Layout
XML Publisher converts the formatting that you apply in your word processing application to XSL-FO. You add markup to create the mapping between your layout and the XML file and to include features that cannot be represented directly in your format. The most basic markup elements are placeholders, to define the XML data elements; and groups, to define the repeating elements.

Creating an RTF Template 2-7

XML Publisher provides tags to add markup to your template.
Note: For the XSL equivalents of the XML Publisher tags, see XSL

Equivalent Syntax, page 5-6.

Creating Placeholders
The placeholder maps the template field to the XML element data field. At runtime the placeholder is replaced by the value of the element of the same name in the XML data file. Enter placeholders in your document using the following syntax:
Note: The placeholder must match the XML element tag name exactly.

It is case sensitive.

There are two ways to insert placeholders in your document:
1.

Basic RTF Method: Insert the placeholder syntax directly into your template document. Form Field Method: (Requires Microsoft Word) Insert the placeholder syntax in Microsoft Word's Text Form Field Options window. This method allows you to maintain the appearance of your template.

2.

Basic RTF Method
Enter the placeholder syntax in your document where you want the XML data value to appear. Enter the element's XML tag name using the syntax: In the example, the template field "Supplier" maps to the XML element VENDOR_NAME. In your document, enter: The entry in the template is shown in the following figure:

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Form Field Method
Use Microsoft Word's Text Form Field Options window to insert the placeholder tags:
1. 2. 3.

Enable the Forms toolbar in your Microsoft Word application. Position your cursor in the place you want to create a placeholder. Select the Text Form Field toolbar icon. This action inserts a form field area in your document. Double-click the form field area to invoke the Text Form Field Options dialog box. (Optional) Enter a description of the field in the Default text field. The entry in this field will populate the placeholder's position on the template. For the example, enter "Supplier 1".

4. 5.

6. 7.

Select the Add Help Text button. In the help text entry field, enter the XML element's tag name using the syntax: You can enter multiple element tag names in the text entry field. In the example, the report field "Supplier" maps to the XML element VENDOR_NAME. In the Form Field Help Text field enter: The following figure shows the Text Form Field Options dialog box and the Form Field Help Text dialog box with the appropriate entries for the Supplier field.
Tip: For longer strings of XML Publisher syntax, use the Help Key

(F1) tab instead of the Status Bar tab. The text entry field on the Help Key (F1) tab allows more characters.

Creating an RTF Template 2-9

8.

Select OK to apply. The Default text is displayed in the form field on your template. The figure below shows the Supplier field from the template with the added form field markup.

Complete the Example
The following table shows the entries made to complete the example. The Template

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Field Name is the display name from the template. The Default Text Entry is the value entered in the Default Text field of the Text Form Field Options dialog box (form field method only). The Placeholder Entry is the XML element tag name entered either in the Form Field Help Text field (form field method) or directly on the template.
Template Field Name Default Text Entry (Form Field Method) 1234566 1-Jan-2004 1-Jan-2004 USD Placeholder Entry (XML Tag Name)

Invoice Num Invoice Date GL Date Curr

Entered Amt Accounted Amt (Total of Entered Amt column) (Total of Accounted Amt column)

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1000.00

The following figure shows the Payables Invoice Register with the completed form field placeholder markup. See the Payables Invoice Register with Completed Basic RTF Markup, page 2-13 for the completed basic RTF markup.

Creating an RTF Template 2-11

Defining Groups
By defining a group, you are notifying XML Publisher that for each occurrence of an element, you want the included fields displayed. At runtime, XML Publisher will loop through the occurrences of the element and display the fields each time. In the example, for each occurrence of G_VENDOR_NAME in the XML file, we want the template to display its child elements VENDOR_NAME (Supplier Name), G_INVOICE_NUM (the Invoices group), Total Entered Amount, and Total Accounted Amount. And, for each occurrence of G_INVOICE_NUM (Invoices group), we want the template to display Invoice Number, Invoice Date, GL Date, Currency, Entered Amount, and Accounted Amount. To designate a group of repeating fields, insert the grouping tags around the elements to repeat. Insert the following tag before the first element: Insert the following tag after the final element:

Grouping scenarios
Note that the group element must be a parent of the repeating elements in the XML input file. • If you insert the grouping tags around text or formatting elements, the text and formatting elements between the group tags will be repeated.

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• •

If you insert the tags around a table, the table will be repeated. If you insert the tags around text in a table cell, the text in the table cell between the tags will be repeated. If you insert the tags around two different table cells, but in the same table row, the single row will be repeated. If you insert the tags around two different table rows, the rows between the tags will be repeated (this does not include the row that contains the "end group" tag).

•

•

Basic RTF Method
Enter the tags in your document to define the beginning and end of the repeating element group. To create the Suppliers group in the example, insert the tag before the Supplier field that you previously created. Insert in the document after the summary row. The following figure shows the Payables Invoice Register with the basic RTF grouping and placeholder markup:

Form Field Method
1.

Insert a form field to designate the beginning of the group. In the help text field enter:

Creating an RTF Template 2-13

 To create the Suppliers group in the example, insert a form field before the Suppliers field that you previously created. In the help text field enter: For the example, enter the Default text "Group: Suppliers" to designate the beginning of the group on the template. The Default text is not required, but can make the template easier to read.
2.

Insert a form field after the final placeholder element in the group. In the help text field enter . For the example, enter the Default text "End: Suppliers" after the summary row to designate the end of the group on the template. The following figure shows the template after the markup to designate the Suppliers group was added.

Complete the Example
The second group in the example is the invoices group. The repeating elements in this group are displayed in the table. For each invoice, the table row should repeat. Create a group within the table to contain these elements.
Note: For each invoice, only the table row should repeat, not the entire

table. Placing the grouping tags at the beginning and end of the table row will repeat only the row. If you place the tags around the table, then for each new invoice the entire table with headings will be

2-14 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

repeated.

To mark up the example, insert the grouping tag in the table cell before the Invoice Num placeholder. Enter the Default text "Group:Invoices" to designate the beginning of the group. Insert the end tag inside the final table cell of the row after the Accounted Amt placeholder. Enter the Default text "End:Invoices" to designate the end of the group. The following figure shows the completed example using the form field method:

Defining Headers and Footers
Native Support
XML Publisher supports the use of the native RTF header and footer feature. To create a header or footer, use the your word processing application's header and footer insertion tools. As an alternative, or if you have multiple headers and footers, you can use start:body and end body tags to distinguish the header and footer regions from the body of your report.

Inserting Placeholders in the Header and Footer
At the time of this writing, Microsoft Word does not support form fields in the header and footer. You must therefore insert the placeholder syntax directly into the template (basic RTF method), or use the start body/end body syntax described in the next section.

Creating an RTF Template 2-15

Multiple or Complex Headers and Footers
If your template requires multiple headers and footers, create them by using XML Publisher tags to define the body area of your report. You may also want to use this method if your header and footer contain complex objects that you wish to place in form fields. When you define the body area, the elements occurring before the beginning of the body area will compose the header. The elements occurring after the body area will compose the footer. Use the following tags to enclose the body area of your report: Use the tags either directly in the template, or in form fields. The Payables Invoice Register contains a simple header and footer and therefore does not require the start body/end body tags. However, if you wanted to add another header to the template, define the body area as follows:
1.

Insert before the Suppliers group tag: Insert after the Suppliers group closing tag:

2.

The following figure shows the Payables Invoice Register with the start body/end body tags inserted:

Different First Page and Different Odd and Even Page Support
If your report requires a different header and footer on the first page of your report; or, if your report requires different headers and footers for odd and even pages, you can define this behavior using Microsoft Word's Page Setup dialog.
1.

Select Page Setup from the File menu.

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2. 3.

In the Page Setup dialog, select the Layout tab. In the Headers and footers region of the dialog, select the appropriate check box: Different odd and even Different first page

4.

Insert your headers and footers into your template as desired.

At runtime your generated report will exhibit the defined header and footer behavior.

Images and Charts
Images
XML Publisher supports several methods for including images in your published document: Direct Insertion Insert the jpg, gif, bmp, or png image directly in your template. URL Reference URL Reference
1. 2.

Insert a dummy image in your template. In Microsoft Word's Format Picture dialog box select the Web tab. Enter the following syntax in the Alternative text region to reference the image URL: url:{'http://image location'} For example, enter: url:{'http://www.oracle.com/images/ora_log.gif'}

OA Media Directory Reference
Note: This method only applies to Oracle E-Business Suite installations.

1. 2.

Insert a dummy image in your template. In Microsoft Word's Format Picture dialog box select the Web tab. Enter the following syntax in the Alternative text region to reference the OA_MEDIA directory: url:{'${OA_MEDIA}/image name'} For example, enter:

Creating an RTF Template 2-17

url:{'${OA_MEDIA}/ORACLE_LOGO.gif'} Element Reference from XML File
1. 2.

Insert a dummy image in your template. In Microsoft Word's Format Picture dialog box select the Web tab. Enter the following syntax in the Alternative text region to reference the image URL: url:{IMAGE_LOCATION} where IMAGE_LOCATION is an element from your XML file that holds the full URL to the image. You can also build a URL based on multiple elements at runtime. Just use the concat function to build the URL string. For example: url:{concat(SERVER,'/',IMAGE_DIR,'/',IMAGE_FILE)} where SERVER, IMAGE_DIR, and IMAGE_FILE are element names from your XML file that hold the values to construct the URL. This method can also be used with the OA_MEDIA reference as follows: url:{concat('${OA_MEDIA}','/',IMAGE_FILE)}

Rendering an Image Retrieved from BLOB Data
Important: This section applies to Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle

Business Intelligence implementations only.

If your data source is a Data Template and your results XML contains image data that had been stored as a BLOB in the database, use the following syntax in a form field inserted in your template where you want the image to render at runtime:

where image/jpg is the MIME type of the image (other options might be: image/gif and image/png) and IMAGE_ELEMENT is the element name of the BLOB in your XML data. Note that you can specify height and width attributes for the image to set its size in the published report. XML Publisher will scale the image to fit the box size that you define. For example, to set the size of the example above to three inches by four inches, enter the following:

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Specify in pixels as follows: ...

or in centimeters: ...

or as a percentage of the original dimensions: ...

Chart Support
XML Publisher leverages the graph capabilities of Oracle Business Intelligence Beans (BI Beans) to enable you to define charts and graphs in your RTF templates that will be populated with data at runtime. XML Publisher supports all the graph types and component attributes available from the BI Beans graph DTD. The BI Beans graph DTD is fully documented in the following technical note available from the Oracle Technology Network [http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html] (OTN): "DTD for Customizing Graphs in Oracle Reports [http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/reports/htdocs/getstart/whitepapers/grap hdtd/graph_dtd_technote_2.html ]." The following summarizes the steps to add a chart to your template. These steps will be discussed in detail in the example that follows:
1.

Insert a dummy image in your template to define the size and position of your chart. Add the definition for the chart to the Alternative text box of the dummy image. The chart definition requires XSL commands. At runtime XML Publisher calls the BI Beans applications to render the image that is then inserted into the final output document.

2.

3.

Adding a Sample Chart
Following is a piece of XML data showing total sales by company division.

Creating an RTF Template 2-19

 Groceries 3810 2100 Toys 2432 1200 Cars 6753 4100 Hardware 2543 1400 Electronics 5965 3560

This example will show how to insert a chart into your template to display it as a vertical bar chart as shown in the following figure:

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Note the following attributes of this chart: • • • • • • • The style is a vertical bar chart. The chart displays a background grid. The components are colored. Sales totals are shown as Y-axis labels. Divisions are shown as X-axis labels. The chart is titled. The chart displays a legend.

Each of these properties can be customized to suit individual report requirements.
Inserting the Dummy Image

The first step is to add a dummy image to the template in the position you want the chart to appear. The image size will define how big the chart image will be in the final document.

Creating an RTF Template 2-21

Important: You must insert the dummy image as a "Picture" and not

any other kind of object.

The following figure shows an example of a dummy image:

The image can be embedded inside a for-each loop like any other form field if you want the chart to be repeated in the output based on the repeating data. In this example, the chart is defined within the sales year group so that a chart will be generated for each year of data present in the XML file. Right-click the image to open the Format Picture palette and select the Web tab. Use the Alternative text entry box to enter the code to define the chart characteristics and data definition for the chart.
Adding Code to the Alternative Text Box

The following graphic shows an example of the XML Publisher code in the Format Picture Alternative text box:

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The content of the Alternative text represents the chart that will be rendered in the final document. For this chart, the text is as follows: chart: Total Sales $1000s

Creating an RTF Template 2-23

The first element of your chart text must be the chart: element to inform the RTF parser that the following code describes a chart object. Next is the opening tag. Note that the whole of the code resides within the tags of the element. This element has an attribute to define the chart type: graphType. If this attribute is not declared, the default chart is a vertical bar chart. BI Beans supports many different chart types. Several more types are presented in this section. For a complete listing, see the BI Beans graph DTD documentation. The following code section defines the chart type and attributes:

All of these values can be declared or you can substitute values from the XML data at runtime. For example, you can retrieve the chart title from an XML tag by using the following syntax:

where "CHARTTITLE" is the XML tag name that contains the chart title. Note that the tag name is enclosed in curly braces. The next section defines the column and row labels: Total Sales $1000s

The LocalGridData element has two attributes: colCount and rowCount. These define the number of columns and rows that will be shown at runtime. In this example, a count function calculates the number of columns to render: colCount="{count(//division)}" The rowCount has been hard-coded to 1. This value defines the number of sets of data to be charted. In this case it is 1. Next the code defines the row and column labels. These can be declared, or a value from the XML data can be substituted at runtime. The row label will be used in the chart legend (that is, "Total Sales $1000s"). The column labels for this example are derived from the data: Groceries, Toys, Cars, and so on. This is done using a for-each loop:

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This code loops through the group and inserts the value of the element into the tag. At runtime, this will generate the following XML: Groceries Toys Cars Hardware Electronics

The next section defines the actual data values to chart:

Similar to the labels section, the code loops through the data to build the XML that is passed to the BI Beans rendering engine. This will generate the following XML: 3810 2432 6753 2543 5965

Additional Chart Samples
You can also display this data in a pie chart as shown in the following figure:

Creating an RTF Template 2-25

The following is the code added to the template to render this chart at runtime: chart: Horizontal Bar Chart Sample
The following example shows total sales and cost of sales charted in a horizontal bar format. This example also adds the data from the cost of sales element ( ) to the chart:

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The following code defines this chart in the template: chart: Total Sales ('000s) Cost of Sales ('000s)

To accommodate the second set of data, the rowCount attribute for the

Creating an RTF Template 2-27

LocalGridData element is set to 2. Also note the DataValues section defines two sets of data: one for Total Sales and one for Cost of Sales.

Changing the Appearance of Your Chart
There are many attributes available from the BI Beans graph DTD that you can manipulate to change the look and feel of your chart. For example, the previous chart can be changed to remove the grid, place a graduated background, and change the bar colors and fonts as shown in the following figure:

The code to support this is as follows:

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chart: . . .

The colors for the bars are defined in the SeriesItems section. The colors are defined in hexadecimal format as follows:

The following code hides the chart grid:

The MarkerText tag places the data values on the chart bars:

The PlotArea section defines the background. The SFX element establishes the gradient and the borderTransparent attribute hides the plot border:

The Title text tag has also been updated to specify a new font type and size:

Creating an RTF Template 2-29

Drawing, Shape and Clip Art Support
XML Publisher supports Microsoft Word drawing, shape, and clip art features. You can add these objects to your template and they will be rendered in your final PDF output. The following AutoShape categories are supported: • • Lines - straight, arrowed, connectors, curve, free form, and scribble Connectors - straight connectors only are supported. Curved connectors can be achieved by using a curved line and specifying the end styles to the line. Basic Shapes - all shapes are supported. Block arrows - all arrows are supported. Flowchart - all flowchart objects are supported. Stars and Banners - all objects are supported. Callouts - the "line" callouts are not supported. Clip Art - add images to your templates using the Microsoft Clip Art libraries

• • • • • •

Freehand Drawing
Use the freehand drawing tool in Microsoft Word to create drawings in your template to be rendered in the final PDF output.

Hyperlinks
You can add hyperlinks to your shapes. See Hyperlinks, page 2-54.

Layering
You can layer shapes on top of each other and use the transparency setting in Microsoft Word to allows shapes on lower layers to show through. The following graphic shows an example of layered shapes:

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3-D Effects
XML Publisher does not currently support the 3-D option for shapes.

Microsoft Equation
Use the equation editor to generate equations in your output. The following figure shows an example of an equation:

Organization Chart
Use the organization chart functionality in your templates and the chart will be rendered in the output. The following image shows an example of an organization chart:

WordArt
You can use Microsoft Word's WordArt functionality in your templates. The following graphic shows a WordArt example:

Creating an RTF Template 2-31

Note: Some Microsoft WordArt uses a bitmap operation that currently

cannot be converted to SVG. To use the unsupported WordArt in your template, you can take a screenshot of the WordArt then save it as an image (gif, jpeg, or png) and replace the WordArt with the image.

Data Driven Shape Support
In addition to supporting the static shapes and features in your templates, XML Publisher supports the manipulation of shapes based on incoming data or parameters, as well. The following manipulations are supported: • • • • • • Replicate Move Change size Add text Skew Rotate

These manipulations not only apply to single shapes, but you can use the group feature in Microsoft Word to combine shapes together and manipulate them as a group. Placement of Commands Enter manipulation commands for a shape in the Web tab of the shape's properties dialog as shown in the following example figure:

2-32 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

Replicate a Shape You can replicate a shape based on incoming XML data in the same way you replicate data elements in a for-each loop. To do this, use a for-each@shape command in conjunction with a shape-offset declaration. For example, to replicate a shape down the page, use the following syntax:

where for-each@shape opens the for-each loop for the shape context SHAPE_GROUP is the name of the repeating element from the XML file. For each occurrence of the element SHAPE_GROUP a new shape will be created. shape-offset-y: - is the command to offset the shape along the y-axis. (position()-1)*100) - sets the offset in pixels per occurrence. The XSL position command returns the record counter in the group (that is 1,2,3,4); one is subtracted from that number and the result is multiplied by 100. Therefore for the first occurrence the offset would be 0: (1-1) * 100. The offset for the second occurrence would be 100 pixels: (2-1) *100. And for each subsequent occurrence the offset would be another 100 pixels down the page.

Creating an RTF Template 2-33

Add Text to a Shape You can add text to a shape dynamically either from the incoming XML data or from a parameter value. In the property dialog enter the following syntax:

where SHAPETEXT is the element name in the XML data. At runtime the text will be inserted into the shape. Add Text Along a Path You can add text along a line or curve from incoming XML data or a parameter. After drawing the line, in the property dialog enter:

where SHAPETEXT is the element from the XML data. At runtime the value of the element SHAPETEXT will be inserted above and along the line. Moving a Shape You can move a shape or transpose it along both the x and y-axes based on the XML data. For example to move a shape 200 pixels along the y-axis and 300 along the x-axis, enter the following commands in the property dialog of the shape:

Rotating a Shape To rotate a shape about a specified axis based on the incoming data, use the following command:

where ANGLE is the number of degrees to rotate the shape. If the angle is positive, the rotation is clockwise; if negative, the rotation is counterclockwise. POSITION is the point about which to carry out the rotation, for example, 'left/top' . Valid values are combinations of left, right, or center with center, top, or bottom. The default is left/top. The following figure shows these valid values:

2-34 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

To rotate this rectangle shape about the bottom right corner, enter the following syntax:

You can also specify an x,y coordinate within the shape itself about which to rotate. Skewing a Shape You can skew a shape along its x or y axis using the following commands:

where ANGLE is the number of degrees to skew the shape. If the angle is positive, the skew is to the right. POSITION is the point about which to carry out the rotation, for example, 'left/top' . Valid values are combinations of left, right, or center with center, top, or bottom. See the figure under Rotating a Shape, page 2-34. The default is 'left/top'. For example, to skew a shape by 30 degrees about the bottom right hand corner, enter the following:

Changing the Size of a Shape You can change the size of a shape using the appropriate commands either along a single axis or both axes. To change a shape's size along both axes, use:

where RATIO is the numeric ratio to increase or decrease the size of the shape. Therefore a value of 2 would generate a shape twice the height and width of the

Creating an RTF Template 2-35

original. A value of 0.5 would generate a shape half the size of the original. To change a shape's size along the x or y axis, use:

Changing only the x or y value has the effect of stretching or shrinking the shape along an axis. This can be data driven. Combining Commands You can also combine these commands to carry out multiple transformations on a shape at one time. For example, you can replicate a shape and for each replication, rotate it by some angle and change the size at the same time. The following example shows how to replicate a shape, move it 50 pixels down the page, rotate it by five degrees about the center, stretch it along the x-axis and add the number of the shape as text:

This would generate the output shown in the following figure:

CD Ratings Example This example demonstrates how to set up a template that will generate a star-rating based on data from an incoming XML file. Assume the following incoming XML data:

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 Empire Burlesque Bob Dylan USA Columbia 10.90 1985 4 Hide Your Heart Bonnie Tylor UK CBS Records 9.90 1988 3 Still got the blues Gary More UK Virgin Records 10.20 1990 5 This is US Gary Lee UK Virgin Records 12.20 1990 2

Notice there is a USER_RATING element for each CD. Using this data element and the shape manipulation commands, we can create a visual representation of the ratings so that the reader can compare them at a glance. A template to achieve this is shown in the following figure:

The values for the fields are shown in the following table:

Creating an RTF Template 2-37

Field F TITLE ARTIST E (star shape)

Form Field Entry Web Tab Entry:

The form fields hold the simple element values. The only difference with this template is the value for the star shape. The replication command is placed in the Web tab of the Format AutoShape dialog. In the for-each@shape command we are using a command to create a "for...next loop" construct. We specify 1 as the starting number; the value of USER_RATING as the final number; and 1 as the step value. As the template loops through the CDs, we create an inner loop to repeat a star shape for every USER_RATING value (that is, a value of 4 will generate 4 stars). The output from this template and the XML sample is shown in the following graphic:

Grouped Shape Example This example shows how to combine shapes into a group and have them react to the incoming data both individually and as a group. Assume the following XML data:

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 Americas 1200 850 2000 EMEA 1000 800 1100 APAC 900 1200 1500

You can create a visual representation of this data so that users can very quickly understand the sales data across all regions. Do this by first creating the composite shape in Microsoft Word that you wish to manipulate. The following figure shows a composite shape made up of four components:

The shape consists of three cylinders: red, yellow, and blue. These will represent the data elements software, hardware, and services. The combined object also contains a rectangle that is enabled to receive text from the incoming data. The following commands are entered into the Web tab: Red cylinder: Yellow cylinder: Blue cylinder: The shape-size command is used to stretch or shrink the cylinder based on the values of the elements SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, and SERVICES. The value is divided by 1000 to set the stretch or shrink factor. For example, if the value is 2000, divide that by 1000 to get a factor of 2. The shape will generate as twice its current height. The text-enabled rectangle contains the following command in its Web tab:

Creating an RTF Template 2-39

At runtime the value of the REGION element will appear in the rectangle. All of these shapes were then grouped together and in the Web tab for the grouped object, the following syntax is added:

In this set of commands, the for-each@shape loops over the SALE group. The shape-offset command moves the next shape in the loop to the right by a specific number of pixels. The expression (position()-1) sets the position of the object. The position() function returns a record counter while in the loop, so for the first shape, the offset would be 1-1*100, or 0, which would place the first rendering of the object in the position defined in the template. Subsequent occurrences would be rendered at a 100 pixel offset along the x-axis (to the right). At runtime three sets of shapes will be rendered across the page as shown in the following figure:

To make an even more visually representative report, these shapes can be superimposed onto a world map. Just use the "Order" dialog in Microsoft Word to layer the map behind the grouped shapes. Microsoft Word 2000 Users: After you add the background map and overlay the shape group, use the Grouping dialog to make the entire composition one group. Microsoft Word 2002/3 Users: These versions of Word have an option under Tools > Options, General tab to "Automatically generate drawing canvas when inserting autoshapes". Using this option removes the need to do the final grouping of the map and shapes. We can now generate a visually appealing output for our report as seen in the following figure:

2-40 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

Supported Native Formatting Features
In addition to the features already listed, XML Publisher supports the following features of Microsoft Word.

General Features
• • Large blocks of text Page breaks To insert a page break, insert a Ctrl-Enter keystroke just before the closing tag of a group. For example if you want the template to start a new page for every Supplier in the Payables Invoice Register:
1. 2.

Place the cursor just before the Supplier group's closing tag. Press Ctrl-Enter to insert a page break.

At runtime each Supplier will start on a new page. Using this Microsoft Word native feature will cause a single blank page to print at the end of your report output. To avoid this single blank page, use XML Publisher's page break alias. See Special Features: Page Breaks, page 2-49.

Creating an RTF Template 2-41

•

Page numbering Insert page numbers into your final report by using the page numbering methods of your word processing application. For example, if you are using Microsoft Word:
1. 2.

From the Insert menu, select Page Numbers... Select the Position, Alignment, and Format as desired.

At runtime the page numbers will be displayed as selected. • Hidden text You can format text as "hidden" in Microsoft Word and the hidden text will be maintained in RTF output reports.

Alignment
Use your word processor's alignment features to align text, graphics, objects, and tables.
Note: Bidirectional languages are handled automatically using your

word processing application's left/right alignment controls.

Tables
Supported table features include: • • Nested Tables Cell Alignment You can align any object in your template using your word processing application's alignment tools. This alignment will be reflected in the final report output. • Row spanning and column spanning You can span both columns and rows in your template as follows:
1. 2. 3.

Select the cells you wish to merge. From the Table menu, select Merge Cells. Align the data within the merged cell as you would normally.

At runtime the cells will appear merged. • Table Autoformatting XML Publisher recognizes the table autoformats available in Microsoft Word.

2-42 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

1. 2. 3.

Select the table you wish to format. From the Table menu, select Autoformat. Select the desired table format.

At runtime, the table will be formatted using your selection. • Cell patterns and colors You can highlight cells or rows of a table with a pattern or color.
1. 2. 3. 4.

Select the cell(s) or table. From the Table menu, select Table Properties. From the Table tab, select the Borders and Shading... button. Add borders and shading as desired.

•

Repeating table headers If your data is displayed in a table, and you expect the table to extend across multiple pages, you can define the header rows that you want to repeat at the start of each page.
1. 2.

Select the row(s) you wish to repeat on each page. From the Table menu, select Heading Rows Repeat.

•

Prevent rows from breaking across pages. If you want to ensure that data within a row of a table is kept together on a page, you can set this as an option using Microsoft Word's Table Properties.
1. 2. 3.

Select the row(s) that you want to ensure do not break across a page. From the Table menu, select Table Properties. From the Row tab, deselect the check box "Allow row to break across pages".

•

Fixed-width columns To set the widths of your table columns:
1. 2. 3.

Select a column and then select Table >Table Properties. In the Table Properties dialog, select the Column tab. Enable the Preferred width checkbox and then enter the width as a Percent or

Creating an RTF Template 2-43

in Inches.
4.

Select the Next Column button to set the width of the next column.

Note that the total width of the columns must add up to the total width of the table. The following figure shows the Table Properties dialog:

•

Text truncation By default, if the text within a table cell will not fit within the cell, the text will be wrapped. To truncate the text instead, use the table properties dialog.
1. 2.

Place your cursor in the cell in which you want the text truncated. Right-click your mouse and select Table Properties... from the menu, or navigate to Table >Table Properties... From the Table Properties dialog, select the Cell tab, then select Options... Deselect the Wrap Text check box. The following figure shows the Cell Options dialog.

3. 4.

2-44 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

An example of truncation is shown in the following graphic:

Date Fields
Insert dates using the date feature of your word processing application. Note that this date will correspond to the publishing date, not the request run date.

Multicolumn Page Support
XML Publisher supports Microsoft Word's Columns function to enable you to publish your output in multiple columns on a page. Select Format >Columns to display the Columns dialog box to define the number of

Creating an RTF Template 2-45

columns for your template. The following graphic shows the Columns dialog:

Multicolumn Page Example: Labels To generate address labels in a two-column format:
1. 2.

Divide your page into two columns using the Columns command. Define the repeatable group in the first column. Note that you define the repeatable group only in the first column, as shown in the following figure:

Tip: To prevent the address block from breaking across pages or

columns, embed the label block inside a single-celled table. Then specify in the Table Properties that the row should not break across pages. See Prevent rows from breaking across pages, page 2-43.

2-46 Oracle XML Publisher Core Components Guide

This template will produce the following multicolumn output:

Background and Watermark Support
XML Publisher supports the "Background" feature in Microsoft Word. You can specify a single, graduated color or an image background for your template to be displayed in the PDF output. Note that this feature is supported for PDF output only. To add a background to your template, use the Format > Background menu option. Add a Background Using Microsoft Word 2000 From the Background pop up menu, you can: • • Select a single color background from the color palette Select Fill Effects to open the Fill Effects dialog. The Fill Effects dialog is shown in the following figure:

Creating an RTF Template 2-47

From this dialog select one of the following supported options: • • • • Gradient - this can be either one or two colors Texture - choose one of the textures provided, or load your own Pattern - select a pattern and background/foreground colors Picture - load a picture to use as a background image

Add a Text or Image Watermark Using Microsoft Word 2002 or later These versions of Microsoft Word allow you to add either a text or image watermark. Use the Format > Background > Printed Watermark dialog to select either: • Picture Watermark - load an image and define how it should be scaled on the document Text Watermark - use the predefined text options or enter your own, then specify the font, size and how the text should be rendered. The following figure shows the Printed Watermark dialog completed to display a text watermark:

•

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Template Features
Page Breaks
To create a page break after the occurrence of a specific element use the "split-by-page-break" alias. This will cause the report output to insert a hard page break between every instance of a specific element. To insert a page break between each occurrence of a group, insert the "split-by-page-break" form field within the group immediately before the tag that closes the group. In the Help Text of this form field enter the syntax: Example For the following XML, assume you want to create a page break for each new supplier:

Creating an RTF Template 2-49

 My Supplier 10001-1 1-Jan-2005 100 10001-2 10-Jan-2005 200 My Second Supplier 10001-1 11-Jan-2005 150 …

In the template sample shown in the following figure, the field called PageBreak contains the split-by-page-break syntax:

Place the PageBreak field with the syntax immediately before the field. The PageBreak field sits inside the end of the SUPPLIER loop. This will ensure a page break is inserted before the occurrence of each new supplier. This method avoids the ejection of an extra page at the end of the group when using the native Microsoft Word page break after the group.

Initial Page Number
Some reports require that the initial page number be set at a specified number. For example, monthly reports may be required to continue numbering from month to month. XML Publisher allows you to set the page number in the template to support this requirement. Use the following syntax in your template to set the initial page number:

where pagenumber is the XML element or parameter that holds the numeric value. Example 1 - Set page number from XML data element If your XML data contains an element to carry the initial page number, for example:

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 200 ....

Enter the following in your template:

Your initial page number will be the value of the PAGESTART element, which in this case is 200. Example 2 - Set page number by passing a parameter value If you define a parameter called PAGESTART, you can pass the initial value by calling the parameter. Enter the following in your template:

Note: You must first declare the parameter in your template. See

Defining Parameters in Your Template, page 2-89.

Last Page Only Content
XML Publisher supports the Microsoft Word functionality to specify a different page layout for the first page, odd pages, and even pages. To implement these options, simply select Page Setup from the File menu, then select the Layout tab. XML Publisher will recognize the settings you make in this dialog. However, Microsoft Word does not provide settings for a different last page only. This is useful for documents such as checks, invoices, or purchase orders on which you may want the content such as the check or the summary in a specific place only on the last page. XML Publisher provides this ability. To utilize this feature, you must:
1.

Create a section break in your template to ensure the content of the final page is separated from the rest of the report. Insert the following syntax on the final page:

2.

Any content on the page that occurs above or below these two tags will appear only on the last page of the report. Also, note that because this command explicitly specifies the content of the final page, any desired headers or footers previously defined for the report must be reinserted on the last page. Example This example uses the last page only feature for a report that generates an invoice listing with a summary to appear at the bottom of the last page.

Creating an RTF Template 2-51

Assume the following XML: Nuts and Bolts Limited 1 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94065 Standard 981110 10-NOV-04 EUR 122 122 VAT22% Standard 100000 28-MAY-04 FIM 122 20.33 VAT22% ... ... 61435 58264.68 EU22%

The report should show each VENDOR and their INVOICE data with a SUMMARY section that appears only on the last page, placed at the bottom of the page. The template for this is shown in the following figure:

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Template Page One

Insert a Microsoft Word section break (type: next page) on the first page of the template. For the final page, insert new line characters to position the summary table at the bottom of the page. The summary table is shown in the following figure:
Last Page Only Layout

In this example: • • • The F and E components contain the for-each grouping statements. The grayed report fields are placeholders for the XML elements. The "Last Page Placeholder" field contains the syntax: to declare the last page layout. Any content above or below this statement will appear on the last page only. The content above the statement is regarded as the header and the content below the statement is regarded as the footer.

Creating an RTF Template 2-53

If your reports contains headers and footers that you want to carry over onto the last page, you must reinsert them on the last page. For more information about headers and footers see Defining Headers and Footers, page 2-15. You must insert a section break (type: next page) into the document to specify the last page layout. This example is available in the samples folder of the Oracle BI Publisher Template Builder for Word installation. It is important to note that if the report is only one page in length, the first page layout will be used. If your report requires that a single page report should default to the last page layout (such as in a check printing implementation) then you can use the following alternate syntax for the "Last Page Placeholder" on the last page: Substituting this syntax will result in the last page layout for reports that are only one page long.

End on Even or End on Odd Page
If your report has different odd and even page layouts, you may want to force your report to end specifically on an odd or even page. For example, you may include the terms and conditions of a purchase order in the footer of your report using the different odd/even footer functionality (see Different First Page and Different Odd and Even Page Support, page 2-16) and you want to ensure that the terms and conditions are printed on the final page. Or, you may have binding requirements to have your report end on an even page, without specific layout. To end on an even page with layout: Insert the following syntax in a form field in your template:

To end on an odd page layout:

If you do not have layout requirements for the final page, but would like a blank page ejected to force the page count to the preferred odd or even, use the following syntax:

or

Hyperlinks
XML Publisher supports several different types of hyperlinks. The hyperlinks can be fixed or dynamic and can link to either internal or external destinations. Hyperlinks can also be added to shapes.

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•

To insert static hyperlinks to either text or a shape, use your word processing application's insert hyperlink feature:
1. 2.

Select the text or shape. Use the right-mouse menu to select Hyperlink; or, select Hyperlink from the Insert menu. Enter the URL using any of the methods provided on the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

3.

The following screenshot shows the insertion of a static hyperlink using Microsoft Word's Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

•

If your input XML data includes an element that contains a hyperlink or part of one, you can create dynamic hyperlinks at runtime. In the Type the file or Web page name field of the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, enter the following syntax: {URL_LINK} where URL_LINK is the incoming data element name. If you have a fixed URL that you want to add elements from your XML data file to construct the URL, enter the following syntax: http://www.oracle.com?product={PRODUCT_NAME} where PRODUCT_NAME is the incoming data element name. In both these cases, at runtime the dynamic URL will be constructed.

Creating an RTF Template 2-55

The following figure shows the insertion of a dynamic hyperlink using Microsoft Word's Insert Hyperlink dialog box. The data element SUPPLIER_URL from the incoming XML file will contain the hyperlink that will be inserted into the report at runtime.

•

You can also pass parameters at runtime to construct a dynamic URL. Enter the parameter and element names surrounded by braces to build up the URL as follows:
{$SERVER_URL}{REPORT}/cstid={CUSTOMER_ID}

where SERVER_URL and REPORT are parameters passed to the template at runtime (note the $ sign) and CUSTOMER_ID is an XML data element. This link may render as: http://myserver.domain:8888/CustomerReport/cstid=1234 Inserting Internal Links Insert internal links into your template using Microsoft Word's Bookmark feature.
1. 2. 3. 4.

Position your cursor in the desired destination in your document. Select Insert >Bookmark... In the Bookmark dialog, enter a name for this bookmark, and select Add. Select the text or shape in your document that you want to link back to the

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Bookmark target.
5.

Use the right-mouse menu to select Hyperlink; or select Hyperlink from the Insert menu. On the Insert Hyperlink dialog, select Bookmark. Choose the bookmark you created from the list.

6. 7.

At runtime, the link will be maintained in your generated report.

Table of Contents
XML Publisher supports the table of contents generation feature of the RTF specification. Follow your word processing application's procedures for inserting a table of contents. XML Publisher also provides the ability to create dynamic section headings in your document from the XML data. You can then incorporate these into a table of contents. To create dynamic headings:
1.

Enter a placeholder for the heading in the body of the document, and format it as a "Heading", using your word processing application's style feature. You cannot use form fields for this functionality. For example, you want your report to display a heading for each company reported. The XML data element tag name is . In your template, enter where you want the heading to appear. Now format the text as a Heading.

2.

Create a table of contents using your word processing application's table of contents feature.

At runtime the TOC placeholders and heading text will be substituted.

Generating Bookmarks in PDF Output
If you have defined a table of contents in your RTF template, you can use your table of contents definition to generate links in the Bookmarks tab in the navigation pane of your output PDF. The bookmarks can be either static or dynamically generated. For information on creating the table of contents, see Table of Contents, page 2-57. • To create links for a static table of contents: Enter the syntax: directly above your table of contents and

Creating an RTF Template 2-57

 directly below the table of contents. • To create links for a dynamic table of contents: Enter the syntax: directly above the table of contents and directly below the table of contents.

Check Boxes
You can include a check box in your template that you can define to display as checked or unchecked based on a value from the incoming data. To define a check box in your template:
1.

Position the cursor in your template where you want the check box to display, and select the Check Box Form Field from the Forms tool bar (shown in the following figure).

2. 3. 4.

Right-click the field to open the Check Box Form Field Options dialog. Specify the Default value as either Checked or Not Checked. In the Form Field Help Text dialog, enter the criteria for how the box should behave. This must be a boolean expression (that is, one that returns a true or false result). For example, suppose your XML data contains an element called . You want the check box to appear checked if the value of is greater than 10,000. Enter the following in the help text field:

This is displayed in the following figure:

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Note that you do not have to construct an "if" statement. The expression is treated as an "if" statement. See the next section for a sample template using a check box.

Drop Down Lists
XML Publisher allows you to use the drop-down form field to create a cross-reference in your template from your XML data to some other value that you define in the drop-down form field. For example, suppose you have the following XML:

Creating an RTF Template 2-59

 Chad 7360000 5 China 1265530000 1 Chile 14677000 3 . . .

Notice that each entry has a entry, which is a numeric value to represent the continent. Using the drop-down form field, you can create an index in your template that will cross-reference the value to the actual continent name. You can then display the name in your published report. To create the index for the continent example:
1.

Position the cursor in your template where you want the value from the drop-down list to display, and select the Drop-Down Form Field from the Forms tool bar (shown in the following figure).

2. 3.

Right-click the field to display the Drop-Down Form Field Options dialog. Add each value to the Drop-down item field and the click Add to add it to the Items in drop-down list group. The values will be indexed starting from one for the first, and so on. For example, the list of continents will be stored as follows:
Index 1 2 Value Asia North America

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Index 3 4 5 6

Value South America Europe Africa Australia

4.

Now use the Help Text box to enter the XML element name that will hold the index for the drop-down field values. For this example, enter

The following figure shows the Drop-Down Form Field Options dialogs for this example:

Using the check box and drop-down list features, you can create a report to display population data with check boxes to demonstrate figures that reach a certain limit. An example is shown in the following figure:

Creating an RTF Template 2-61

The template to create this report is shown in the next figure:

where the fields have the following values:
Field FE China 1,000,000 (check box) Form Field Entry Description Begins the country repeating group. Placeholder for the name element. Placeholder for the population element. Establishes the condition for the check box. If the value for the population element is greater than 1,000,000, the check box will display as checked. The drop-down form field for the continentIndex element. See the preceding description for its contents. At runtime, the value of the XML element is replaced with the value it is cross-referenced to in the drop-down form field. Ends the country group.

Asia

EFE

Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting occurs when a formatting element appears only when a certain condition is met. XML Publisher supports the usage of simple "if" statements, as well as more complex "choose" expressions. The conditional formatting that you specify can be XSL or XSL:FO code, or you can specify actual RTF objects such as a table or data. For example, you can specify that if reported numbers reach a certain threshold, they will display shaded in red. Or, you

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can use this feature to hide table columns or rows depending on the incoming XML data.

If Statements
Use an if statement to define a simple condition; for example, if a data field is a specific value.
1.

Insert the following syntax to designate the beginning of the conditional area.

2.

Insert the following syntax at the end of the conditional area: .

For example, to set up the Payables Invoice Register to display invoices only when the Supplier name is "Company A", insert the syntax before the Supplier field on the template. Enter the tag after the invoices table. This example is displayed in the figure below. Note that you can insert the syntax in form fields, or directly into the template.

If Statements in Boilerplate Text
Assume you want to incorporate an "if" statement into the following free-form text: The program was (not) successful. You only want the "not" to display if the value of an XML tag called equals "N". To achieve this requirement, you must use the XML Publisher context command to

Creating an RTF Template 2-63

place the if statement into the inline sequence rather than into the block (the default placement).
Note: For more information on context commands, see Using Context

Commands, page 2-123.

For example, if you construct the code as follows:
The program was not successful.

The following undesirable result will occur:
The program was not successful.

because XML Publisher applies the instructions to the block by default. To specify that the if statement should be inserted into the inline sequence, enter the following:
The program was not successful.

This construction will result in the following display:
The program was successful.

If SUCCESS does not equal 'N'; or
The program was not successful.

If SUCCESS equals 'N'.

If-then-Else Statements
XML Publisher supports the common programming construct "if-then-else". This is extremely useful when you need to test a condition and conditionally show a result. For example:
IF X=0 THEN Y=2 ELSE Y=3 END IF

You can also nest these statements as follows:
IF X=0 THEN Y=2 ELSE IF X=1 THEN Y=10 ELSE Y=100 END IF

Use the following syntax to construct an if-then-else statement in your RTF template:

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For example, the following statement tests the AMOUNT element value. If the value is greater than 1000, show the word "Higher"; if it is less than 1000, show the word "Lower"; if it is equal to 1000, show "Equal":

Choose Statements
Use the choose, when, and otherwise elements to express multiple conditional tests. If certain conditions are met in the incoming XML data then specific sections of the template will be rendered. This is a very powerful feature of the RTF template. In regular XSL programming, if a condition is met in the choose command then further XSL code is executed. In the template, however, you can actually use visual widgets in the conditional flow (in the following example, a table). Use the following syntax for these elements:

"Choose" Conditional Formatting Example
This example shows a choose expression in which the display of a row of data depends on the value of the fields EXEMPT_FLAG and POSTED_FLAG. When the EXEMPT_FLAG equals "^", the row of data will render light gray. When POSTED_FLAG equals "*" the row of data will render shaded dark gray. Otherwise, the row of data will render with no shading. In the following figure, the form field default text is displayed. The form field help text entries are shown in the table following the example.

Creating an RTF Template 2-65

Default Text Entry in Example Form Field

Column Formatting
You can conditionally show and hide columns of data in your document output. The following example demonstrates how to set up a table so that a column is only displayed based on the value of an element attribute. This example will show a report of a price list, represented by the following XML:

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 Plasma TV 10 4000 DVD Player 3 300 VCR 20 200 Receiver 22 350

can be marked 'PRIVATE'

- >

Notice the type attribute associated with the items element. In this XML it is marked as "PUBLIC" meaning the list is a public list rather than a "PRIVATE" list. For the "public" version of the list we do not want to show the quantity column in the output, but we want to develop only one template for both versions based on the list type. The following figure is a simple template that will conditionally show or hide the quantity column:

The following table shows the entries made in the template for the example:
Default Text grp:Item Form Field Entry Description Holds the opening for-each loop for the item element. The placeholder for the name element from the XML file.

Plasma TV

Creating an RTF Template 2-67

Default Text IF

Form Field Entry

Description The opening of the if statement to test for the attribute value "PRIVATE". Note that this syntax uses an XPath expression to navigate back to the "items" level of the XML to test the attribute. For more information about using XPath in your templates, see XPath Overview, page 2-119. Boilerplate heading Ends the if statement. The placeholder for the quantity element surrounded by the "if" statement. The placeholder for the price element. Closing tag of the for-each loop.

Quantity end-if 20

N/A

1,000.00

end grp

The conditional column syntax is the "if" statement syntax with the addition of the @column clause. It is the @column clause that instructs XML Publisher to hide or show the column based on the outcome of the if statement. If you did not include the @column the data would not display in your report as a result of the if statement, but the column still would because you had drawn it in your template.
Note: The @column clause is an example of a context command. For

more information, see Using Context Commands, page 2-123.

The example will render the output shown in the following figure:

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If the same XML data contained the type attribute set to "PRIVATE" the following output would be rendered from the same template:

Row Formatting
XML Publisher allows you to specify formatting conditions as the row-level of a table. Examples of row-level formatting are: • • • Highlighting a row when the data meets a certain threshold. Alternating background colors of rows to ease readability of reports. Showing only rows that meet a specific condition.

Conditionally Displaying a Row To display only rows that meet a certain condition, insert the tags at the beginning and end of the row, within the for-each tags for the group. This is demonstrated in the following sample template.

Note the following fields from the sample figure:
Default Text Entry for-each SALE Form Field Help Text Description Opens the for-each loop to repeat the data belonging to the SALE group. If statement to display the row only if the element SALES has a value greater than 5000. Data field Data field

if big

INDUSTRY YEAR

Creating an RTF Template 2-69

Default Text Entry MONTH SALES end if end SALE

Form Field Help Text

Description Data field Closes the if statement. Closes the SALE loop.

Conditionally Highlighting a Row This example demonstrates how to set a background color on every other row. The template to create this effect is shown in the following figure:

The following table shows values of the form fields in the template:
Default Text Entry for-each SALE Form Field Help Text Description Defines the opening of the for-each loop for the SALE group. For each alternate row, the background color attribute is set to gray for the row.

format;

lightgray

INDUSTRY YEAR MONTH SALES end SALE

Data field Data field Data field Data field Closes the SALE for-each loop.

In the preceding example, note the "format;" field. It contains an if statement with a "row" context (@row). This sets the context of the if statement to apply to the current row. If the condition is true, then the for the background color of the row will be set to light gray. This will result in the following output:

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Note: For more information about context commands, see Using

Context Commands, page 2-123.

Cell Highlighting
The following example demonstrates how to conditionally highlight a cell based on a value in the XML file. For this example we will use the following XML: 1-100-3333 100 300 1-101-3533 220 30 1-130-3343 240 1100 1-153-3033 3000 300

The template lists the accounts and their credit and debit values. In the final report we want to highlight in red any cell whose value is greater than 1000. The template for this is shown in the following figure:

The field definitions for the template are shown in the following table:

Creating an RTF Template 2-71

Default Text Entry FE:Account

Form Field Entry

Description Opens the for each-loop for the element account. The placeholder for the number element from the XML file. This field holds the code to highlight the cell red if the debit amount is greater than 1000. The placeholder for the debit element. This field holds the code to highlight the cell red if the credit amount is greater than 1000. The placeholder for the credit element. Closes the for-each loop.

1-232-4444

CH1

red

100.00

CH2

red

100.00

EFE

The code to highlight the debit column as shown in the table is: red

The "if" statement is testing if the debit value is greater than 1000. If it is, then the next lines are invoked. Notice that the example embeds native XSL code inside the "if" statement. The "attribute" element allows you to modify properties in the XSL. The xdofo:ctx component is an XML Publisher feature that allows you to adjust XSL attributes at any level in the template. In this case, the background color attribute is changed to red. To change the color attribute, you can use either the standard HTML names (for example, red, white, green) or you can use the hexadecimal color definition (for example, #FFFFF). The output from this template is displayed in the following figure:

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Page-Level Calculations
Displaying Page Totals
XML Publisher allows you to display calculated page totals in your report. Because the page is not created until publishing time, the totaling function must be executed by the formatting engine.
Note: Page totaling is performed in the PDF-formatting layer. Therefore

this feature is not available for other outputs types: HTML, RTF, Excel.

Note: Note that this page totaling function will only work if your

source XML has raw numeric values. The numbers must not be preformatted.

Because the page total field does not exist in the XML input data, you must define a variable to hold the value. When you define the variable, you associate it with the element from the XML file that is to be totaled for the page. Once you define total fields, you can also perform additional functions on the data in those fields. To declare the variable that is to hold your page total, insert the following syntax immediately following the placeholder for the element that is to be totaled:

where TotalFieldName is the name you assign to your total (to reference later) and 'element' is the XML element field to be totaled. You can add this syntax to as many fields as you want to total. Then when you want to display the total field, enter the following syntax:

where TotalFieldName is the name you assigned to give the page total field above and Oracle-number-format is the format you wish to use to for the display, using the Oracle format mask (for example: C9G999D00). For the list of Oracle format mask

Creating an RTF Template 2-73

symbols, see Using the Oracle Format Mask, page 2-111. The following example shows how to set up page total fields in a template to display total credits and debits that have displayed on the page, and then calculate the net of the two fields. This example uses the following XML: 100 90 110 80 …

The following figure shows the table to insert in the template to hold the values:

The following table shows the form field entries made in the template for the example table:
Default Text Entry FE Form Field Help Text Entry Description This field defines the opening "for-each" loop for the transaction group. This field is the placeholder for the debit element from the XML file. Because we want to total this field by page, the page total declaration syntax is added. The field defined to hold the total for the debit element is dt. This field is the placeholder for the credit element from the XML file. Because we want to total this field by page, the page total declaration syntax is added. The field defined to hold the total for the credit element is ct.

100.00

90.00

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Default Text Entry Net

Form Field Help Text Entry

Description Creates a net page total by subtracting the credit values from the debit values. Closes the for-each loop.

EFE

Note that on the field defined as "net" we are actually carrying out a calculation on the values of the credit and debit elements. Now that you have declared the page total fields, you can insert a field in your template where you want the page totals to appear. Reference the calculated fields using the names you supplied (in the example, ct and dt). The syntax to display the page totals is as follows: For example, to display the debit page total, enter the following: Therefore to complete the example, place the following at the bottom of the template page, or in the footer: Page Total Debit: Page Total Credit: Page Total Balance: The output for this report is shown in the following graphic:

Brought Forward/Carried Forward Totals
Many reports require that a page total be maintained throughout the report output and be displayed at the beginning and end of each page. These totals are known as "brought

Creating an RTF Template 2-75

forward/carried forward" totals.
Note: The totaling for the brought forward and carried forward fields is

performed in the PDF-formatting layer. Therefore this feature is not available for other outputs types: HTML, RTF, Excel.

An example is displayed in the following figure:

At the end of the first page, the page total for the Amount element is displayed as the Carried Forward total. At the top of the second page, this value is displayed as the Brought Forward total from the previous page. At the bottom of the second page, the brought forward value plus the total for that page is calculated and displayed as the new Carried Forward value, and this continues throughout the report. This functionality is an extension of the Page Totals, page 2-73 feature. The following example walks through the syntax and setup required to display the brought forward and carried forward totals in your published report. Assume you have the following XML: 10001-1 1-Jan-2005 100 10001-2 10-Jan-2005 200 10001-1 11-Jan-2005 150 . . .

The following sample template creates the invoice table and declares a placeholder that will hold your page total:

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The fields in the template have the following values:
Field Init PTs Form Field Help Text Entry Description Declares "InvAmt" as the placeholder that will hold the page total. Begins the INVOICE group. Placeholder for the Invoice Number tag. Placeholder for the Invoice Date tag. Placeholder for the Invoice Amount tag. Assigns the "InvAmt" page total object to the INVAMT element in the data. Closes the INVOICE group. Closes the "InvAmt" page total.

FE 10001-1 1-Jan-2005 100.00 InvAmt

EFE End PTs

To display the brought forward total at the top of each page (except the first), use the following syntax: Brought Forward:

The following table describes the elements comprising the brought forward syntax:

Creating an RTF Template 2-77

Code Element inline-total

Description and Usage This element has two properties:

• •

name - name of the variable you declared for the field. display-condition - sets the display condition. This is an optional property that takes one of the following values:

• • • • •

first - the contents appear only on the first page last - the contents appear only on the last page exceptfirst - contents appear on all pages except first exceptlast - contents appear on all pages except last everytime - (default) contents appear on every page

In this example, display-condition is set to "exceptfirst" to prevent the value from appearing on the first page where the value would be zero. Brought Forward:

This string is optional and will display as the field name on the report. Shows the value on the page. It has the following two properties:

show-brought-forward

•

name - the name of the field to show. In this case, "InvAmt". This property is mandatory. format - the Oracle number format to apply to the value at runtime. This property is optional, but if you want to supply a format mask, you must use the Oracle format mask. For more information, see Using the Oracle Format Mask, page 2-111 .

•

Insert the brought forward object at the top of the template where you want the brought forward total to display. If you place it in the body of the template, you can insert the syntax in a form field. If you want the brought forward total to display in the header, you must insert the full code string into the header because Microsoft Word does not support form fields in the header or footer regions. However, you can alternatively use the start body/end body syntax which allows you to define what the body area of the report will be. XML Publisher will recognize any content above the defined body area as header content, and any content below as the footer. This allows you to use form fields. See Multiple or

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Complex Headers and Footers, page 2-16 for details. Place the carried forward object at the bottom of your template where you want the total to display. The carried forward object for our example is as follows: Carried Forward:

Note the following differences with the brought-forward object: • The display-condition is set to exceptlast so that the carried forward total will display on every page except the last page. The display string is "Carried Forward". The show-carry-forward element is used to show the carried forward value. It has the same properties as brought-carried-forward, described above.

• •

You are not limited to a single value in your template, you can create multiple brought forward/carried forward objects in your template pointing to various numeric elements in your data.

Running Totals
Example The variable functionality (see Using Variables, page 2-88) can be used to add a running total to your invoice listing report. This example assumes the following XML structure: 10001-1 1-Jan-2005 100 10001-2 10-Jan-2005 200 10001-1 11-Jan-2005 150

Using this XML, we want to create the report that contains running totals as shown in the following figure:

Creating an RTF Template 2-79

To create the Running Total field, define a variable to track the total and initialize it to 0. The template is shown in the following figure:

The values for the form fields in the template are shown in the following table:
Form Field RtotalVar Syntax xdoxslt:get_variable($_XDOC TX, 'RTotalVar')?> EFE Ends the INVOICE group. Description Declares the "RTotalVar" variable and initializes it to 0. Starts the Invoice group. Invoice Number tag Invoice Date tag Sets the value of RTotalVar to the current value plus the new Invoice Amount. Retrieves the RTotalVar value for display.

FE 10001-1 1-Jan-2005 100.00

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Data Handling
Sorting
You can sort a group by any element within the group. Insert the following syntax within the group tags: For example, to sort the Payables Invoice Register (shown at the beginning of this chapter) by Supplier (VENDOR_NAME), enter the following after the tag: To sort a group by multiple fields, just insert the sort syntax after the primary sort field. To sort by Supplier and then by Invoice Number, enter the following

Checking for Nulls
Within your XML data there are three possible scenarios for the value of an element: • • • The element is present in the XML data, and it has a value The element is present in the XML data, but it does not have a value The element is not present in the XML data, and therefore there is no value

In your report layout, you may want to specify a different behavior depending on the presence of the element and its value. The following examples show how to check for each of these conditions using an "if" statement. The syntax can also be used in other conditional formatting constructs. • To define behavior when the element is present and the value is not null, use the following: desired behavior • To define behavior when the element is present, but is null, use the following: