Oracle9i Reports Developer Release Notes Release 2 (9.0.2) Part Number A96189-01 |
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April 2002
Part No. A96189-01
This document summarizes the differences between Oracle9i Reports Developer and its documented functionality. For recent updates to these release notes and other Oracle9i Reports Developer documentation, please refer to the Oracle Technology Network (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/).
This section describes general issues and their workarounds for Oracle9i Reports Developer.
For information about migration, please refer to Oracle9i Application Server Migrating from Oracle9iAS Release 1 (1.0.2.2.x) to Release 2 (9.0.2), part number A96157-01.
Some features available in Oracle Reports 6i have been deprecated or removed from Oracle9i Reports Developer.
Following is a list of the deprecated features. Existing reports using these features will continue to run without modification, but these features are no longer documented and their further use is strongly discouraged:
Following is a list of features that have been from Oracle9i Reports Developer:
More detailed information about these deprecated and obsolete features can be found in the Oracle Reports Statement of Direction white paper available from the Oracle Technology Network (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/).
If you are using the Report Block Wizard to insert multiple report blocks that share one or more data columns between them, the generated JSP tags will end up with duplicate IDs. These duplicate tags will cause a JSP compilation failure and the report will not execute. You can work around this issue by manually editing the Web source to make the tag IDs unique.
In Oracle9i Reports Developer, you can subset the TrueType fonts for multi-byte, Unicode, and single byte PDF output. Oracle9i Reports Developer internally converts the TrueType fonts to Adobe's Type 3 format and embeds them within the document.
To view the Type 3 fonts in the Acrobat Reader smoothly, Acrobat 5.0 provides the following workaround:
&<parameter>
For example, the following URL references a parameter called stock_symbol:
http://host.domain.com/vdir/get_stock_quote.jsp?symbol=&<stock_symbol>
If stock_symbol was not inside of the angle brackets, the ampersand would be read as an argument separator and stock_symbol as a report parameter.
The Pluggable Data Source API supports the number, date, and string data types. An individual pluggable data source should appropriately map its types to these three types.
For example, XML schema data types would be mapped to the nearest ones of the three supported types. These types would then be passed to the XML pluggable data source. In the case of the JDBC pluggable data source, if the query tries to retrieve a BLOB column from the database, the pluggable data source driver would give an error, Column type not supported
.
When you create an invalid link between two queries of pluggable data sources, you will receive the following error message:
Fail to fetch Plugin Data Source Java.lang.NumberExpection:G
When you receive this error, you should check the validity of your links (for example, are the data types of the columns compatible).
Within Oracle9iAS Portal, you can choose whether to make a report's parameters visible to users through the Customization page of a report portlet. Click Customize at the bottom of the Manage Component page for the report and click Visible to user for each parameter you want to expose. You can also set the default value of the parameter from this page.
If the parameter you are exposing has a corresponding Oracle9iAS Portal page parameter, the default value from the Manage Component page will be used as the default value in the Customize page for the portlet. If the user leaves the parameter value empty in the Customize page, the portlet inherits the page parameter's value. If the user enters a value for the report portlet's parameter, that value will override the page parameter value.
For more information about Oracle9iAS Portal, refer to the Oracle Technology Network (http://portalcenter.oracle.com).
The SSOCONN and CGI/servlet key parameters are missing from the JSP report Customize page in Oracle9iAS Portal. The work around for this issue is to create additional user parameters for the missing parameters.
Oracle9i Reports Developer does not support https when running reports from within Oracle9iAS Portal. You should not use https for the Reports Server URL Gateway when defining Reports Server Access object Oracle9iAS Portal.
In Oracle9iAS Portal with Netscape Communicator 4.7, if you add a reports portlet to a page, you will get an error message when you try to take another action such as adding another portlet. This problem does not occur in Netscape Communicator 6.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5.
In some cases, Microsoft Internet Explorer ignores the mimetype of a URL's return stream and instead sets the type by looking at the URL. This can be a problem when you are using the distribution feature of Oracle9i Reports Developer because your URL might end with the destination parameter, for example:
...distribute=yes destination=c:\oracle\reports\distribution\mydist.xml
In this scenario, your URL ends with the extension xml and Internet Explorer treats the return stream as XML, when in fact it is HTML. As a result, you will receive a browser error. To work around this issue, you should never use recognized file extensions at the end of a URL. In the example above, you could switch the positions of the distribute and destination parameters in your URL.
If you are using one of the default report templates, you cannot combine two report blocks that use different default templates in a single report. All of your report-blocks in any one report must use the same default template.
If you use these features, the JDBC database connections made by Oracle9iAS Reports Services may override the initial NLS_LANG setting. This change may in turn affect the behavior of the running report, such as bidirectional output in PDF. On UNIX platforms, you can workaround this issue by setting the NLS_LANG explicitly in report.sh
.
Table 1 indicates which commands can use the SUPPRESSLAYOUT
keyword.
rwclient | rwrun | rwbuilder | rwconverter | rwservlet | rwcgi | rwserver |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
yes |
no |
The SUPPRESSLAYOUT command line option prevents any paper objects in the report layout from being formatted. The option allows users to control whether the paper layout in a report is executed at runtime. The most common use of this option is to increase the performance of JSP reports. Since a JSP report may have a paper layout and reference objects in it via an <rw:include> tag, Reports formats the paper layout before running the JSP section of the report. To improve the performance of single source JSP reports that store both paper and Web layouts but do not reference paper layout objects, set SUPPRESSLAYOUT=YES on the command line.
Note: If there is an <rw:include> tag, then no output will be created for the tag.
SUPPRESSLAYOUT=[YES|NO]
YES means that the paper layout objects are not formatted when the report is executed. NO means that the paper layout objects will be formatted.
NO
Table 2 indicates which commands can use the UPGRADE_PLSQL
keyword.
rwclient | rwrun | rwbuilder | rwconverter | rwservlet | rwcgi | rwserver |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
no |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
The UPGRADE_PLSQL command line option upgrades any PL/SQL code in the specified report to the latest version required by Reports9i Developer.
UPGRADE_PLSQL=[YES|NO]
YES means that the PL/SQL code will be upgraded automatically if necessary. NO means that the PL/SQL code will not be updated.
YES
Table 3 indicates which commands can use the RECURSIVE_LOAD
keyword.
rwclient | rwrun | rwbuilder | rwconverter | rwservlet | rwcgi | rwserver |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
The RECURSIVE_LOAD keyword is used to determine whether Oracle9i Reports Developer should validate all of the external references of the program units in a report at runtime. If this keyword is set to YES, an invalid external reference will cause the program unit to be automatically recompiled. Setting RECURSIVE_LOAD to NO is useful when running your report against a different database than the one against which its PL/SQL was originally compiled.
RECURSIVE_LOAD=[YES|NO]
YES means that the external references will be validated. NO means that the external references will not be validated.
YES
Table 3 indicates which commands can use the SQLTRACE
keyword.
rwclient | rwrun | rwbuilder | rwconverter | rwservlet | rwcgi | rwserver |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
yes |
no |
The SQLTRACE keyword enables you to perform SQL tracing on your report without having to modify the report definition.
SQLTRACE=[YES|NO]
YES means that SQL tracing will be performed on the report. NO means that SQL tracing will not be performed on the report.
NO
SRW.GET_VALUE is equivalent to the Oracle9i Forms Developer NAME_IN built-in. It permits developers to get the value of a field at runtime indirectly. This method of obtaining a field's value is useful if you are writing business logic in a PL/SQL library but need to obtain report values directly.
Instead of using :field_name, the user can use SRW.GET_VALUE(field_name) to obtain the value of a field. For example:
function func_one return varchar2 is the_fieldname varchar2(20):='ENAME'; begin return(srw.get_value(the_fieldname)); end func_one;
SRW.GET_REPORT_NAME can be used to obtain the file name of the report being executed. For example:
function AfterPForm return boolean is my_var varchar2(80); begin srw.get_report_name(my_var); srw.message(0,'Report Filename = '||my_var); return (TRUE); end;
By default, a new JSP created in Reports Builder contains the following:
<%@ page contentType="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" %>
If you are creating your JSP outside of Reports Builder, you should ensure that it contains similar encoding information.
Currently, some Oracle NLS_CHARSET values have no equivalent IANA character set. The XML saved by Oracle9i Reports Developer for reports with these character sets cannot be opened by some XML viewers, such as Internet Explorer, unless you set REPORTS_NLS_XML_CHARSETS to the following:
WINDOWS-950=BIG5;CSEUCKR=EUC-KR;
In order to run reports that rely on Java classes, you must:
If you open an existing report that contains buttons in Oracle9i Reports Developer, the buttons will be converted into text items. You cannot add new buttons in Oracle9i Reports Developer.
If you open an existing report that contains user parameters and you save it as a JSP, the parameter form is lost. If you create a new JSP with user parameters, the parameter form will appear when you run it in the Reports Builder, but you have to create your own parameter form for runtime.
When you open the RTF output from Oracle9i Reports Developer in Microsoft Word 95 for Japanese, you may encounter anomalies in the output, such as dashes not appearing correctly. These issues are specific to Microsoft Word 95 and do not occur in Microsoft Word 97 for Japanese.
This section describes configuration issues and their workarounds for Oracle9i Reports Developer.
The Reports Builder requires an instance of the Reports Server. Hence, when you install the Reports Builder, the Installer prompts you for some information that it requires to configure the Reports Server, for example the name of your mail server.
Oracle9i Reports Developer uses the environment variable REPORTS_CLASSPATH when looking for Java classes; it does not use the system CLASSPATH variable. As a result, any JavaBeans that you want to use within Oracle9i Reports Developer must be locatable from the REPORTS_CLASSPATH.
REPORTS_CLASSPATH is limited to 511 bytes in length. For Windows systems, REPORTS_CLASSPATH is set in the registry. For Unix systems, it is set from the command prompt or in a shell script.
If you are planning to run reports on an X-terminal or graphical terminal, the DISPLAY variable must be set appropriately. For more information on configuring for X-terminals and graphical terminals, refer to the platform-specific documentation for Oracle9iAS.
REPORTS60_DEFAULT_PIXEL_SIZE is an environment variable that overrides the operating system's default pixel size when rendering a report. Normally, Oracle9i Reports Developer takes its pixel size from the operating system. If you are working with older reports that rely upon a pixel size that is different from that of the operating system (for example, a pixel size of 80), you can use this variable to maintain the same behavior in your older reports.
For Windows, REPORTS60_DEFAULT_PIXEL_SIZE is set in the registry. For Unix, it is set from the command prompt or in a shell script.
The Oracle Reports 6i executables, such as RWCLI, can send job requests to the Oracle9iAS Reports Services through a proxy server, as long as the Reports Server is not secured.
To enable the use of Oracle Source Control Management with Oracle9i Reports Developer, you must set a number of registry variables. Oracle Source Control Management provides a Start menu item that will update the registry variables for you:
Oracle 9i Developer Suite-ORACLE_HOME -> Oracle 9i Software Configuration Manager -> Use as Source Control For Forms/Reports
This menu item runs a file named drsc61.reg. By running this file, you are updating the registry variables required by Oracle9i Reports Developer.
If you are using the source control integration feature in Reports Builder, you should not select the check out after check in option. Doing so will result in the report being placed in Read-only mode. To avoid this problem, you should always perform check ins and checkouts as separate operations.
In the Web Source view of the Report Editor, the following languages may appear garbled: Japanese, Thai, Arabic, and Hebrew. To work around this issue, you can set the font names for Reports Builder in uifont.ali
as follows:
[rwbuilder] .....ja16sjis="MS Gothic" .....ar8mswin1256="Courier New"
This section describes known errors or omissions in the documentation.
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rwgenkey.sh <public_key_file> <private_key_file>
To generate a new Reports Server key on Windows, enter the following command:
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rwgenkey.bat <public_key_file> <private_key_file>
<property name="securityUserid" value="portal_db_username/portal_ password@portal_db_connection" confidential="yes" encrypted="no"/> <property name="portalUserid" value="portal_db_username/portal_ password@portal_db_connection" confidential="yes" encrypted="no"/>
You can monitor and manage your Reports Servers through Oracle Enterprise Manager. The sections that follow describe the Reports Server pages available in Oracle Enterprise Manager.
You will find more information on the Reports Server in Oracle9iAS Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web, included on the Oracle9iAS documentation CD.
This page summarizes the status of the selected Reports Server.
This page provides performance details about the selected Reports Server.
This page provides a detailed look at all jobs currently running on the selected Reports Server and supplies the means of cancelling a currently running job. Click the Previous or Next button to page through the Current Job Queue, or select a range of records to view from the drop-down list.
To cancel a currently running job:
If you wish, you can resubmit a cancelled job from the Failed Job Queue.
Note: The Cancel Job button does not appear on this page when no jobs are currently running.
This page functions very much like Reports Server Queue page. Refer to the Section 5.3, "Reports Server Queue Page" for more information.
This page provides a detailed look at all successfully completed jobs in the Job Queue on the selected Reports Server.
Additionally, it provides a means of viewing a completed job's trace file, displaying job output from cache, or resubmitting a job request.
Click the Previous or Next button to page through the Finished Job Queue, or select a range of records to view from the drop-down list.
To view a job's trace file, the Trace option must have been specified in the Reports Server configuration file or the runtime command line.
To view a job's trace file:
To view a result from cache:
The result opens in a second browser window.
To resubmit a job:
This page provides a window into the selected Reports Server's configuration file (<server_name>.conf). You can edit the configuration file here as well as check its syntax and save your changes. You must restart the server for your changes to take effect.
To edit the selected Reports Server configuration file, make your changes in the display window.
To check your syntax, click the Check Syntax button below the display window. Note that clicking this button does not validate the values you enter for configuration elements. For example, if an element requires that you specify a directory path, syntax checking does not validate the accuracy of your path. It just validates the XML syntax.
To save your changes, click the Save Changes button below the display window.
Note: You can use your browser's "Find in Page" functionality to search the content of the server configuration file. This is particularly useful if you must locate a syntax error in the file.
This page provides a detailed look at all failed jobs in the Job Queue on the selected Reports Server. Additionally, it provides a means of viewing a failed job's trace file or resubmitting a job request.
Note: Failed jobs are jobs that were cancelled by the user or that automatically terminated with error.
Click the Previous or Next button to page through the Failed Job Queue, or select a range of records to view from the drop-down list. To view a job's trace file, the Trace option must have been specified in the Reports Server configuration file or the runtime command line.
To view a job's trace file:
To resubmit a job:
This page provides a view of the trace results of a particular job, rather than all the jobs run on a particular server. This information can be useful in the event you must call for technical support.
This page provides a view of the trace results for the selected Reports Server. Depending on whether jobs results are appended to the existing trace file or replace its content, this file shows the trace results for all jobs run on this server (append) or the last job run on the server (replace).
If this page is empty, it means you did not specify any trace options in the server configuration file (<server_name>.conf) or in the runtime command line.
Trace information is useful in the event you must call for technical support.
This page provides a view of the Reports Server log file. If the server configuration file contains a <log option="x"/> element, then a log file is created and maintained for the selected Reports Server.
If this page is empty, it means you did not specify any log options in the server configuration file (<server_name>.conf).
Logging is maintained for backward compatibility. Current practice is to capture processing information in a trace file.
This section describes how to configure and use the Express Pluggable Data Source with Oracle9i Reports Developer.
To use the Express Pluggable Data Source within Oracle9i Reports Developer, you must connect to a supported Express Server version, which are versions 6.2.x and 6.3.x. When you install Reports9i, SNAPI 9.0.1 is automatically installed to enable connections to these Express Server versions.
Before creating reports using Express data, verify that you have completed all the necessary configuration steps. See the configuration topics in the Help system by searching for "configuring the Express data source."
In the Help topic called "About Configuring the Express Data Source," it mentions that the Express Connection Editor is installed with Reports. This is no longer the case, and you must take the appropriate steps to ensure that you can connect to Express Server, either by using the Express Connection Editor to create connection files or by creating them manually. See the section "Preparing for Express Connections" later in this document.
To create reports of Express data, you must be able to connect to an appropriate Express Server instance. To connect to an instance of Express Server, you use a connection file, which is a simple text file with the XCF extension. Each connection file defines a single connection to Express Server. A file called xconnect.ini
specifies where connection files are located.
You can create connection files manually or you can use a utility called the Express Connection Editor to assist you in creating these files. The following list outlines the ways to create and use connection files, which are explained in detail below.
This document includes samples of three types of connection files in a later section.
For complete information on connecting to Express Server and on the Express Connection Editor, consult the following sources:
If you already have the Express Connection Editor installed, then you can simply use that version to create an XCF with which you can connect to Express Server. You might not have to create any XCF files, if the appropriate ones have already been created. Use the following procedure to use the already installed Express Connection Editor with Oracle9i Reports.
To use an existing Express Connection Editor installation:
ecf901
.
xconnect.ini
file from the installation directory of the Express Connection Editor.
xconnect.ini
from the ecf901 subdirectory in a text editor. Ensure that the ConnectionPath setting points to whatever directory or directories hold the connection files that you plan to use for connecting to Express Server from Oracle9i Reports Developer. Use these files or use the Express Connection Editor to create other connection files.
Tip: Use semicolons to separate multiple directory specifications for ConnectionPath, if you want to store connection files in multiple locations.
If you do not already have the Express Connection Editor installed, then you can download the necessary files. Use the following procedure to download the file and install the Express Connection Editor.
To download a file and install the Express Connection Editor:
Important: Ensure that you install the Express Connection Editor in the same Oracle home directory into which Oracle9i Reports Developer is installed.
Once the Express Connection Editor is installed, you can use it to create connection files.
If you do not already have the Express Connection Editor installed, then you can use the Express Connection Editor that is supplied with the Express Client products. You can obtain a CD for the Express Client products or download a file that contains them. Use the following procedure to install just the Express Connection Editor.
To install just the Express Connection Editor:
Once the Express Connection Editor is installed, you can use it to create connection files.
If you do not already have the Express Connection Editor installed and you do not want to install it, then you can create XCF files manually using a text editor. You must also create the xconnect.ini
file, which specifies the location of the XCF files.
To create an XCF file manually:
ecf901
.
/olap/ecf901
subdirectory in the Oracle home directory for Oracle9i Reports Developer.
xconnect.ini
file by creating an empty document in a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad.
ORACLE_HOME
:
[General] ConnectionPath=d:\ORACLE_HOME\olap\ecf901;
Tip: Use semicolons to separate multiple directory specifications for ConnectionPath, if you want to store connection files in multiple locations.
xconnect.ini
. Ensure that you save the file into the /olap/ecf901
subdirectory in the Oracle home directory for Oracle9i Reports Developer.
The following table briefly describes the main settings in any XCF file. The next table describes the settings that apply only to connections through Oracle Express Relational Access Manager. All these settings are described in more detail in the Help system for the Express Connection Editor and in the Oracle Express Database Administration Guide.
The following list describes the values for the ServerLogin setting. For this setting, you enter the authentication type for this connection:
The following table briefly describes the Oracle Express Relational Access Manager settings in a connection file, which appear after the main settings that are described in the previous table.
This section provides samples of three types of connection files. You can use these samples as the basis for creating connection files manually.
Sample for connecting without using authentication
The following text shows a sample XCF file for connecting to Express Server without using authentication.
[Express] ConnectionType=0 ServerDescription=expservername ExpSrv6.3.0.2 without authentication ServerVersion=1 ServerType=1 ServerLogin=0 ServerString=expservername
Sample for connecting with using authentication
The following text shows a sample XCF file for connecting to Express Server using authentication.
[Express] ConnectionType=0 ServerDescription= expservername ExpSrv6.3.0.2 with authentication ServerVersion=1 ServerType=1 ServerLogin=-1 ServerString=expservername
Sample for connecting with Oracle Express Relational Access Manager
The following text shows a sample XCF file for connecting through Oracle Express Relational Access Manager (RAM).
[Express] ConnectionType=1 ServerDescription=expservername ExpSrv6.3.0 with RAM ServerVersion=1 ServerType=1 ServerLogin=-1 ServerString= expservername [Relational Access Manager] ConnectionType=0 MasterDB=d:\RAM\dram.db PromptForExpressID=0 ServerScript=d:\RAM\ram.rdc PersonalConfig=0
options.snapi.FetchAlloc=<size>
where <size> is a value greater that 2M (or 2000K, or 2,000,000), as shown in the following example:
options.snapi.FetchAlloc=10M
See the "Specifying a buffer size for Express data" topic in the online help system for complete information on this option.
ORA-20004: Failed to attach to an Express database.
This error indicates that there is an access problem with the Express database. When the Authentication type is set to "None" and Oracle8 and Express Server are on the same machine, the SNAPI connection uses the user of the process that is establishing the connection. In this configuration, it is the user that started the Oracle8 database. Refer to the Oracle Express Server Installation and Configuration Guide for Solaris for information on accessing Express databases.
If your environment does not permit these settings to match, then you should add the options.data.XPCharSet
line to the xrpdsprefs.ora
file and specify the language/character set for the data in the Express database. The format of this setting matches that of the NLS_LANG setting and a sample setting is shown here:
options.data.XPCharSet=JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS
See the Help system for more information on the xrpdsprefs.ora
file.
Oracle is a registered trademark, and Oracle9i and PL/SQL are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2002 Oracle Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
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