BI Publisher (XML Publisher) Barcode Report Development and Deployment

BI Publisher (XML Publisher) Barcode Report Development and Deployment

Purpose	Display Barcode fields on BI publisher Report
Author	Data Management Team
OS	IBM AIX on Power Systems (64bit)
Business Need	Display Barcode fields on BI publisher Report
EBS	12.0.6

Quick Overview

1.    Oracle Report Development

2.    Upload Report to EBS Application Tier

3.    Create New Executable

4.    Create New Concurrent Program

5.    Add New Concurrent Program to Request Group

6.    Run the New Concurrent Program

7.    Save XML

8.    Create RTF Template

9.    Upload Template

10. Register Barcode Font

11. Test The Report

Oracle Report Development

Attached report is developed with Developer 10g without layout. It has following query...

This report is just for testing purpose and is a mean to give a general understanding and end to end development cycle of BI publisher reports plus barcode printing & Scanning.  Our aim is to get an output in PDF format where DELIVERY_ID should display as barcode and other fields should display as normal text. For barcode printing we need a special font which is “Free 3 of 9”.  Below is the font file and we are not using the extended version of the font which is “Free 3 of 9 Extended”. To install this font simply copy this to fonts under following path or install it C:\Windows\Fonts.

As this is XML publisher report and all cosmetics of the reports (layout, fonts, etc) related setting is done in template so in the template Free 3 of 9 font will be used.

Upload Report to EBS Application Tier

Uploaded the developed report under the following path on application tier

/u03/oracle/EBSTEST/apps/apps_st/appl/ont/12.0.0/reports/US/

As system Administrator Define new executable as shown below

As system Administrator Define new concurrent program as shown below

Please make sure output is xml

Add new created concurrent report to appropriate request group

Find the default request group of a responsibility by following below mentioned steps.

System Administrator>>Security>>Responsibility>>Define

Once The responsibility Form opens then press F11 and put responsibility name regarding which you want to know the Default Request group. In our case responsibility is “Inventory”

Our targeted request group in which we need to add new concurrent program is

“OM Concurrent Programs”

Go to System Administrator>>Security>>Responsibility>>Request

Press F11 and put “OM Concurrent Programs” and again press F11

Below Results should appear

Now click in details section of form where all programs are listed and

Press add Button (Green Plus Sign)

 

 

A new line will be inserted as shown below

Add Newly Added concurrent program to as shown below and click save

Now click in details section of form where all programs are listed and Press F11. Put newly created concurrent program Name and make sure it appears.   

 

Now we are done with initial setup. Switch the responsibility to “Order Management Super User” Test run the newly added report and see its XML output. Output will be XML because till now we did attach and template to it. We will save the output in xml to a file and will use it create the rtf template which will be attached to this concurrent program.

  

Navigate to View>>Requests>>

Press Submit a New Request

 

Put the concurrent program Name as “NMC Transfer Note (Copy)“. Parameter List will appear; Please enter appropriate parameters.

 

Press OK>>Submit>>No>>Find and you will reach to below screen. Status can be running, pending or completed based on performance of the system and report. Click on “View Output” and make sure you can see the XML output.

 

Here is the output  . This output is generated under $APPLCSF/out directory on yout application tier with same name as concurrent request ID with a prefixed letter “o”. Used filezilla and downloaded it as in the next step this xml file will be imported in MS word to create the template.

Make sure you have XML Publisher Add-Ins Installed on your client PC where you want to create the template. You can install it on your desktop or laptop and it’s very small in size and straight forward in Installation. After the installation it will appear under the add-Ins tab as shown below

Browse for the out file containing the xml output which is downloaded earlier from the application node

Make sure xml data is loaded successfully by receiving this message

Please find the below rtf template which will be used to display the contents of XML file in word format. These templates contain named attributes which are also available in XML file and after matching the named tags in XML and template data is picked from the XML output of rdf file.

Important Note (These 4 Steps are only needed if you want to display barcode in your report)

In this report we want to display one filed as barcode and for this special configuration is needed. If you don’t want to display barcode in your report then you don’t need to do below steps and go directly to Create Data Definition step.

Download barcode font (Free 3 of 9) from web and Install it on your PC where you are developing the template (laptop of desktop).

Use this font for the barcode filed in the template and it should display as barcode before uploading the template to EBS.

Define the Free 3 of 9 Fonts in EBS with XML Publisher Administrator Responsibility

Logon to EBS (12.0.6) and navigate to

XML Publisher Administrator >> Administration >>Font Files >>Create Font File

Put font Name and browse to the Font file and Click Apply

This font will be loaded into database and unlike earlier releases there is no need to put on Application node and configure it in xdo.cfg file

Once the Font file is created go the font mapping tab

XML Publisher Administrator >> Administration >>Font Files >> Font Mappings

Click on Create Font Mapping Set and Enter below Information in the fields and click apply

   

Mapping Name	FREE3OF9
Mapping Code	FREE3OF9
Type	FO To PDF

Once the Mapping set is created Click on Create Font Mapping

Enter Following data and Press Apply

Font Family	Free 3 of 9
Style	Normal
Weight	Normal
Language	English
Territory
Font Type	Truetype

Click Continue and In the Font filed select the Font that you defined earlier from list of values. And click Apply. Now this font when used in RTF templates can be translated by oracle into barcode.

Create Data Definition

Navigate to XML Publisher Administrator >>Data Definitions>>Create Data Definition

Data Definition Code should be same as short name of concurrent program which will use this data definition

Our concurrent program Name is XXNMC_NEW_TSFR_NOTE so I kept the Data Definition code and name same as concurrent program name (i.e. XXNMC_NEW_TSFR_NOTE). Click Apply

Upload Template

Navigate to XML Publisher Administrator >>Create Template

 

Enter Template Name and Upload the RTF template file from your local machine and click on apply.

Your template file and concurrent Program should be under same Application for us it is “Order Management”

For the Barcode field In the template make sure you have stars (*) at the beginning and end of the barcode filed so that barcode scanner should be able to read the barcode.

Logon with user with Order Management Super user responsibility and run the report and output should be as shown below

                                                            Best of Luck