Introduction to Oracle Report Manager

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Overview
• Accessing Oracle Report Manager
• Report Manager Home Page

Overview

Oracle Report Manager is an online report distribution system that provides a secure and centralized location to produce and manage point-in-time reports.

Oracle Report Manager users can be either report producers or report consumers. Report producers submit, publish, and set security for reports. Report consumers view and approve reports.

Reports can be published and presented to certain responsibilities without additional security or a variety of security models can be applied, allowing only authorized users to view entire reports or parts of reports. In addition, you can use your templates to integrate reports displayed by Report Manager using your organization's individual style.

Oracle Report Manager:

• Provides a centralized report distribution system for point-in-time reports.

• Enables information producers to submit and publish Financial Statement Generator (FSG), Ad Hoc FSG, Variable Format, and Standard reports to a central repository.

• Enables information producers to present reports in the repository to information consumers through menu items on the Oracle E-Business Suite Home page or portal.

• Enables information producers to deliver reports to information consumers outside Oracle E-Business Suite through an FTP server, the local file system of the Oracle E-Business Suite application tier, or e-mail.

• Is accessible by any Oracle E-Business Suite user using a Web browser.

• Offers approval requirement before making reports available for general viewing.

• Permits report availability in a future timeframe.

• Allows you to view spreadsheets or PDF files for further analysis.

• Secures reports by three content security paradigms - User to Value, custom, and flexfield segment - as well as by repository security.

• Provides an archive facility to maintain reports for future reference that no longer need to be displayed to report consumers.

• Enables the publishing of reports that have been submitted as part of request sets or report sets.

• Enables you to upload any type of file and publish it to a central repository. Reports in the repository can then be distributed to the Oracle E-Business Suite home page.

Report Types

There are four types of reports you can access through the Oracle E-Business Suite Home page:

• Single Report: A complete report for a specific time period. For example, your corporate income statement for May 2002.

• Single Report Over Time: A single report produced for different periods. For example, your corporate income statement for the periods April, May, and June 2002.

• Expanded Report: One report displayed in a variety of ways depending upon an expansion value. For example, you can publish your corporate Income Statement for May 2005 based on department. User views of the Income Statement are limited to those departments for which the user has viewing privileges.

  For Financial Statement Generator (FSG) reports, reports are expanded by content sets. Content sets are defined in Oracle E-Business Suite. For example, if a content set for departments is set up, then applying it to a report creates a separate report for each department.

• Expanded Report Over Time: An expanded report available for different time periods.

Office Open XML

Beginning in Release 12.2.5, you can choose to create templates and Financial Statement Generator reports according to the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard, an XML format developed by Microsoft to represent spreadsheets and other types of documents. Using the OOXML format lets you use a higher security setting in Microsoft Excel due to reduced use of macros. This option also minimizes use of desktop resources. See: Set Up Financial Report Template Editor and Financial Statement Generator Reports.

Accessing Oracle Report Manager

The Report Manager Home page provides users quick access to their Oracle Report Manager concurrent requests, as well as links to all report submission and administration features. This page is available from the Report Home menu item in the Oracle Report Manager responsibility, or from a responsibility assigned by the system administrator.

When you access the Report Home menu item, the top level menu in the Oracle Report Manager pages includes the following items, which may appear as icons or tabs with links:

• Dashboard - Displays the Report Manager Home page

• Report Submission - Displays second-level menu tabs for submitting each type of report available through Oracle Report Manager, including Financial, Standard, Variable, Ad Hoc, Report Set, and Request Set, as well as the Manage Files tab

• Repository - Displays the Repository Management page

• Financial Report Template Editor - Displays the Financial Statement Generator Templates page

• Report Administration - Displays second-level menu tabs for the Security Workbench and Delivery; the Delivery tab includes third-level menu tabs in the side navigation for Setup Delivery Engine and Manage Delivery Configuration

The system administrator can also assign Report Manager menu items for individual features to various responsibilities. Following are the available menu items:

• Financial Report Submission

• Financial Report Template Editor

• Repository Management

• Security Workbench

• Standard Report Submission

• Upload File

• Variable Report Submission

• Publish Report Set

• Define Report Set Publishing Options

• Publish Request Set

• Define Request Set Publishing Options

• Ad Hoc FSG Submission

Report access generally varies by responsibility. The following example gives a likely scenario of an implementation of Oracle Report Manager menu items.

Responsibility: General Ledger

• Menu Item: Financial Report Submission

• Menu Item: Financial Report Template Editor

• Menu Item: Publish Report Set

• Menu Item: Define Report Set Publishing Options

• Menu Item: Ad Hoc FSG Submission

Responsibility: Report Manager Administration

• Menu Item: Security Workbench

• Menu Item: Repository Management

• Menu Item: Upload File

• Menu Item: Financial Report Template Editor

Responsibility: Manufacturing Operations

• Menu Item: Standard Report Submission

• Menu Item: Publish Request Set

• Menu Item: Define Request Set Publishing Options

Responsibility: Financial Assets

• Menu Item: Standard Report Submission

• Menu Item: Variable Report Submission

Responsibility: Accounts Payable

• Menu Item: Standard Report Submission

In addition, users access Oracle Report Manager every time they view a report published by it. In this case, the reports being distributed by menu items created by report producers can be placed in any responsibility.

Note that the View Reports page is secured by the FRM_REP_MANAGE_WORKBENCH (Repository Management) function. You must add this function to a responsibility assigned to a user to enable that user to access the page and view reports.

Additionally, the following features are secured by the BNE_ADI_CREATE_DOCUMENT function:

• Viewing report output in Microsoft Excel format

• Drilling down to Oracle General Ledger from links in Financial Statement Generator reports, in any output format

• Using the Financial Report Template Editor

Consequently, you must add the BNE_ADI_CREATE_DOCUMENT function to a responsibility assigned to a user to enable that user to view Microsoft Excel output and to use the drilldown links. You must also add this function along with the Financial Report Template Editor menu item, to enable a user to work with Financial Statement Generator templates.

Report Manager Home Page

The Report Manager Home page provides a single central location from which you can view your Oracle Report Manager concurrent requests, submit reports, and access Oracle Report Manager administration features. You can use this page to monitor your pending and completed Oracle Report Manager requests without having to search for these requests in the standard concurrent processing pages. You can also mark completed requests as favorites for quick access later.

Note: If the ADI: Allow Sysadmin to View All Output profile option is set to Yes and you have the System Administrator responsibility, then the Report Manager Home page displays all Oracle Report Manager concurrent requests. Otherwise, the page displays only the requests that you submitted.

Additionally, this page displays only requests that have not been purged. To determine how long concurrent request information is preserved before purging, consult your system administrator. See: Managing Concurrent Processing Files and Tables, Oracle E-Business Suite Setup Guide.

The home page includes a subtab with links to submit each type of report available through Oracle Report Manager, as well as a subtab with the administration links. These links open in a new browser window or tab, depending on your browser options, so that you can easily return to the home page in the original window.

Note: Your system administrator can use Oracle Application Framework personalization to control which features appear on the Report Manager Home page for each user. In this case, the page includes only the features that your system administrator allows you to access.

1. Navigate to the Report Manager Home page by choosing the Report Home menu item from the Oracle Report Manager responsibility, or a responsibility and navigation path assigned by your system administrator. To return to the Report Manager Home page from other Oracle Report Manager pages, select Dashboard in the top level menu.

   Report Manager Home Page

   

2. The Pending, Completed, and Favorite tiles display the number of concurrent requests in those categories, respectively.

   Select the Pending tile to monitor the progress of your Oracle Report Manager concurrent requests until they are completed. To update the data displayed in this region, choose the Refresh button.

3. Select the Completed tile to review the status of your Oracle Report Manager concurrent requests after they are completed.

   • To view the output for a request, select the Report icon for that request.

   • To view concurrent processing details for a request, if they are available, select the Details icon for that request. From the request page, you can also view the request log file.

   • To mark a request as a favorite, select the request and choose the Add Favorite button.

   • To update the data displayed in this region, choose the Refresh button.

4. Select the Favorite tile for quick access to review the status of completed requests that you have marked as favorites.

   • To view the output for a request, select the Report icon for that request.

   • To view concurrent processing details for a request, if they are available, select the Details icon for that request. From the request page, you can also view the request log file.

   • To remove a request from your list of favorites, select the Delete icon for the request.

   • To remove all requests and clear the list, choose the Remove All button.

   • To update the data displayed in this region, choose the Refresh button.

5. Select the icon for the Report Submission subtab to display the links to submit and publish Oracle Report Manager reports.

   • Financial - See: Submitting Financial Reports through Regular FSG Submission.

   • Financial - Simplified - See: Submitting Financial Reports through Simplified FSG Submission.

   • Standard - See: Submitting Standard and Variable Reports or Files.

   • Variable - See: Submitting Standard and Variable Reports or Files.

   • Ad Hoc - See: Submitting Ad Hoc Financial Reports.

   • Report Set - See: Overview of Publishing Report Sets and Request Sets.

   • Request Set - Publish - See: Overview of Publishing Report Sets and Request Sets.

   • Manage Files - See: Uploading Files.

6. Select the icon for the Administration subtab to display the links to access Oracle Report Manager administration features.

   • Repository Management - See: Overview of Repository Management.

   • Financial Report Template Editor - See: Using the Financial Report Template Editor.

   • Security Workbench - See: Overview of User to Value Security.

   • Setup Delivery Engine - See: Setting Up the Delivery Engine.

   • Manage Delivery Configuration - See: Managing Delivery Configurations.