Report Delivery

Overview of Report Delivery

In addition to storing your reports in the repository, you can also deliver the reports to report consumers outside Oracle E-Business Suite. Oracle Report Manager supports the following types of report delivery:

You can deliver reports as HTML or PDF files. If you have enabled OOXML, then you can also deliver reports as Excel files with an .xlsx extension.

To implement report delivery, perform these steps:

  1. If you want to deliver reports through e-mail or FTP, set up the delivery mailers and FTP servers, respectively, for the delivery engine to use. See: Setting Up the Delivery Engine.

    Note: You do not need to perform any additional setup to save reports locally in the application tier.

  2. Define delivery configurations that specify where and how to deliver reports. See: Managing Delivery Configurations.

  3. When you publish a report, select the delivery configuration to use for the report in the publishing parameters. See: Publishing Parameters.

Setting Up the Delivery Engine

Before you can deliver reports through e-mail or FTP, you must set up the delivery mailers and FTP servers, respectively, for the delivery engine to use.

To set up delivery mailers

  1. Choose Report Administration from the top level menu in the Oracle Report Manager pages, then choose the Delivery tab, and choose the Setup Delivery Engine tab in the side navigation.

  2. In the Setup Delivery Engine page, choose the Delivery Mailers tab.

  3. Choose the Add Another Mailer icon.

  4. Enter a display name for the mailer.

  5. Enter the e-mail address that you want to appear in the From field of the message header for e-mails sent through this mailer.

  6. Enter the host name of the SMTP server for the mailer.

  7. Enter the port number to use on the host. The default is port 25.

  8. Enter the user name of the account that the mailer uses to connect to the SMTP server.

  9. Enter the password for the account specified in the User Name parameter. The password value is masked in the display and is stored in encrypted form.

  10. If you want the mailer to connect to the SMTP server through Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), select the SSL Enabled option.

  11. Choose Apply.

  12. To delete a mailer that you no longer want to use, select the mailer and choose Delete. You can only delete mailers that are not used in any delivery configuration.

To set up FTP servers

  1. Choose Report Administration from the top level menu in the Oracle Report Manager pages, then choose the Delivery tab, and choose the Setup Delivery Engine tab in the side navigation.

  2. In the Setup Delivery Engine page, choose the FTP Servers tab.

  3. Choose the Add Another Server icon.

  4. Enter a display name for the server.

  5. Enter the host name for server.

  6. Enter the port number to use on the host. The default is port 21.

  7. Enter the login credentials.

    • For password authentication, enter the user name and password that the delivery engine uses to log in to the FTP server. The default user name is Anonymous.

    • For public key authentication, enter the private key file path and private key password that the delivery engine uses to log in to the FTP server. Specify the private key file path as an absolute path to the client private key file, which must be accessible from all the application tier nodes and concurrent processing nodes in your Oracle E-Business Suite installation.

    The password values are masked in the display and are stored in encrypted form.

  8. Select the protocol to use, either FTP or secure FTP (SFTP).

  9. Select the authentication type, either password or public key.

    Note: You must select SFTP as the protocol to use public key authentication.

  10. Enter the file permission to set for the uploaded reports on the server.

  11. Choose Apply.

  12. To delete a server that you no longer want to use, select the server and choose Delete. You can only delete servers that are not used in any delivery configuration.

Managing Delivery Configurations

Define delivery configurations to specify where and how to deliver your reports. Each delivery configuration must include at least one delivery option. You can optionally define multiple delivery options of different types within the same configuration, to deliver the report by different methods. You can also define multiple delivery options of the same type to deliver the report by the same method but to different locations or with different properties. For example, a configuration could include one delivery option to send the report as a PDF file to several recipients through e-mail, a second delivery option to upload the report as a PDF file on an FTP server, and a third delivery option to upload the report as an HTML file on another FTP server.

You can specify the start date when a delivery configuration becomes active, and optionally also an end date after which the configuration becomes inactive. You can also specify start and end dates for individual delivery options within a configuration. Oracle Report Manager delivers reports only when both the configuration and the option are active.

Some detail properties for delivery options let you include date tokens or document tokens as variables within the property value. These properties include the following:

The date tokens which you can use to indicate the timestamp on the report include the following:

The document tokens you can use include the following:

To view and maintain delivery configurations

  1. Choose Report Administration from the top level menu in the Oracle Report Manager pages, then choose the Delivery tab, and choose the Manage Delivery Configuration tab in the side navigation.

  2. Search for the delivery configurations you want to view. The search criteria are:

    • Configuration Name - Enter the name of the configuration you want to view. You can use the percent sign (%) as a wildcard.

    • Active - Select Yes to view configurations that are currently active, or No to view configurations that are inactive.

  3. To view details for a configuration, select the configuration name link.

    You can choose Update in the View Delivery Configuration page to update the configuration.

  4. To update a configuration from the Delivery Configuration page, choose the update icon for that configuration.

  5. To delete a configuration, choose the delete icon for that configuration.

  6. To create a new configuration, choose Create Configuration.

To create or update a delivery configuration

  1. Navigate to the Delivery Configuration creation page or to the Update Delivery Configuration page. These pages are identical, except that the fields in the Update Delivery Configuration page are populated with previously defined information for the selected configuration.

  2. Enter a display name for the delivery configuration.

  3. Select a start date when the configuration becomes active.

  4. Optionally select an end date after which the configuration will become inactive.

  5. Define one or more delivery options.

    • Choose Add Delivery Option.

    • Enter a display name for the delivery option.

    • Select the delivery option type.

      • FTP - Upload reports to an FTP server.

      • File System - Save reports to the local file system of the Oracle E-Business Suite application tier.

      • SMTP - Send reports to Oracle E-Business Suite users through e-mail.

    • Select a start date when the delivery option becomes active.

    • Optionally select an end date after which the delivery option will become inactive.

    • Choose the icon in the Details column to define the delivery option details according to the selected type.

    • For an FTP delivery option, enter the following details:

      • Remote File Name - Enter the file name to use to upload the report. You can use date tokens and document tokens as variables within the file name. The default file name is %DOCUMENT_USER_NAME_%DOCUMENT_TIMEFRAME.

      • Output Type - Select PDF, HTML, or EXCEL as the output format for the report.

      • Remote Directory - Enter the path and directory name on the FTP server where you want to upload the report.

      • FTP Server - Select the FTP server where you want to upload the report.

    • For a file system delivery option, enter the following details:

      • File Name - Enter the file name to use to save the report. You can use date tokens and document tokens as variables within the file name. The default file name is %DOCUMENT_USER_NAME_%DOCUMENT_TIMEFRAME.

      • Output Type - Select PDF, HTML, or EXCEL as the output format for the report.

      • Location - Enter the path and directory name on the local file system of the Oracle E-Business Suite application tier where you want to save the report. You must enter the complete path; do not use environment variables to represent directories.

    • For an SMTP delivery option, enter the following details:

      • Subject - Enter the subject line for the e-mail. You can use date tokens and document tokens as variables within the subject.

      • Mailer - Select the delivery mailer to use to send the e-mail.

      • Output Type - Select PDF, HTML, or EXCEL as the output format for the report. The report is included as an attachment to the e-mail.

      • Mail Body - Enter the body text for the e-mail. You can use date tokens and document tokens as variables within the body.

      Next, choose Add Recipients. In the Add Mail Recipients page, select the Oracle E-Business Suite user who should receive the e-mail, and select the responsibility through which that user has access to the report content. To add another recipient, choose Add Another Row. To delete a recipient, select the recipient and choose Delete. When you finish defining recipients, choose Apply. The e-mail address for each recipient to whom the e-mail will be sent appears as a property named To.

      You can also choose Add Property in the SMTP details to specify an optional property. The optional properties you can add are;

      • Character Set - Select the character set to use for the e-mail. The default character set if you do not specify this property is UTF-8.

      • Content Type - Enter the content type for the e-mail. The default content type if you do not specify this property is text/html, which lets you use HTML tags within the mail body. Oracle Report Manager also supports the content type text/plain.

      • Encoding - Enter the encoding to use for the e-mail. The default encoding if you do not specify this property is base64.

    To delete a recipient or an optional property, select the recipient or property and choose Delete.

    Note: You cannot delete the required properties: Subject, Mailer, Output Type, and Mail Body.

  6. To delete a delivery option, choose the delete icon for that delivery option.

  7. When you finish defining delivery options, choose Apply.