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How Siebel Business Applications and Oracle BI Publisher Interact

Siebel Business Applications integrate with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (Oracle BI Publisher) for report execution. However, depending on your connection mode, layout templates are merged with XML data differently to render reports in the Siebel user interface.

Figure 4 compares report execution in connected mode with disconnected mode.

Figure 4. Comparison of Report Execution in Connected and Disconnected Mode

Figure 4 illustrates the following:

1. A report generation request is initiated from a Siebel application view, and then routed to one of the following to generate the report:
   • Oracle BI Publisher XDO Engine in disconnected mode
   • Oracle BI Publisher Server in connected mode
2. The RTF Processor converts the RTF layout templates to XSL for input to the BI Publisher-FO Processor.
3. The BI Publisher-FO Processor merges the XSL and the XML data files to produce the following output formats:
   • XML and XSL formats are converted to HTML.
   • XML, XSL-FO, are XLIFF formats are converted to: PDF, HTML, RTF, EXCEL, PPT, and MHTML.

     NOTE:  The PPT and MHTML output file types are available only in connected mode.

Template Builder, a feature of Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Add-in for Microsoft Word, is used to modify and customize layout templates. Template Builder uses form fields to encapsulate XSL instructions for parsing XML data. Form fields are a feature of Microsoft Word and are the building blocks for layout templates in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Add-in for Microsoft Word. You use form fields in template design wherever data is required. Template Builder generates these form fields using the Siebel application and the information specified in the layout template.

Report Execution in Disconnected Mode

The XMLP Report Business Service provides XML files to the Oracle BI Publisher XDO Engine to merge the layout templates with XML data. One of the required inputs for the XDO Engine is an XML file. XML files are generated by way of the EAI Siebel Adapter, using the EAI Java Business Service for connecting a Siebel application to the XDO Engine. The EAI Java Business Service is the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) interface between the XDO Engine and the Siebel application. The XML data file is merged with the layout template, then Oracle BI Publisher exposes the completed report document to the user in the Siebel application after storing the file in the Siebel File System.

Oracle BI Publisher provides the XML file to the engine using the EAI Java Business Service. The XML contains the data that populates the resulting document. The data comes from the results of the internal queries run against various data sources.

Oracle BI Publisher uses XSLT and XPath to extract data from the XML data and incorporates that data into an RTF-formatted layout template during run time. XSL comprises three standards (XSLT, XPath, and XSL- FO) for manipulating XML data. The XMLP Report Server component uses the XDO Engine to convert the RTF templates into XSL format, and then using the BI Publisher-FO Processor, converts the files to the published report formats.

Report Execution in Connected Mode

Oracle BI Publisher uses XSLT and XPath to extract data from the XML data and incorporates that data into an RTF-formatted layout template during run time. The XMLP Adapter Service invokes the PublicReportServiceService Web service to generate reports. The PublicReportServiceService Web service is the interface between the Siebel application and the Oracle BI Publisher Server.