8 Using BI Publisher for Custom Reports

The ability to utilize Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BI Publisher) for custom reports is available as part of your Merchandising suite service subscription and is the only option available for creating custom reports against the live production database. Other reporting tools can be used, but must be based on other data sources, such as the replicated data in the data access schema (DAS).

Accessing BI Publisher

In a SaaS implementation, you will access BI Publisher using a URL like this, where the hostname is replaced with that which is relevant for your implementation:

https://<hostname>/xmlpserver/servlet/home

In order to create reports, you will need to ensure you have the correct privileges assigned to your user ID. Validate your access by clicking on the username in the upper right corner, then select My Account. In the My Account popup click the My Groups tab. You should see the following groups listed:

• BI Consumer

• BI Service Administrator

• BI Content Author

Instructions for configuring these groups can be found here, if you don't have these configured for your user ID:

https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/12211/biee/BIESC/GUID-7204D273-79EE-4A1A-BFCD-CF4C137328FE.htm#BIESC671

Creating a BI Publisher Report

BI Publisher supports creating a number of different types of reports, including reports with charts, table-based report, and so on. For details on how to create reports in BI Publisher, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher, especially Chapter 2 on creating and editing reports.

As you build your reports consider the input parameters that are available based on where the report will be displayed. Details on the available parameters for dashboards and contextual reports for each of the Merchandising solutions are available in the appendix.

Note: Custom reports in a user's My Folder will not be backed up by Oracle, but could be manually backed up by the user. Otherwise, all custom reports should be saved in the Shared Guest folder in order to ensure that they are included in the backup/restoration processes.

Displaying a BI Publisher Report

Once you have created your report you'll need to identify the URL for the report. The basic URL structure will be:

  http://<hostname>/xmlpserver/<ReportDirectory>/<ReportName>.xdo

• hostname - will be the hostname for your Merchandising solutions

• xmlpserver - this is a static string

• ReportDirectory - folder path to the report

• ReportName.xdo - the filename you gave the report; if the name has spaces, then use a + between words

You may also specify some BI Publisher formatting parameters for your report. The full list can be found in chapter 2 (Creating and Editing Reports) of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher in the section titled Specifying Parameters in the URL. But, some key ones you may consider to give your reports a similar look and feel to the Merchandising reports are:

• _xmode - it's recommended that you set this to 4, which hides the BI Publisher specific banners and parameters - especially for contextual reports

• _xpt - this should be set to 1 so that the report doesn't launch a new window

Here's an example of the basic URL with some parameters specified, including the order number parameter, which is an input for this report:

https://merchbi/xmlpserver/~demouser/Custom/ORDER_CFAS.xdo?_xmode=4&_xf=html&_xpt=1&OrderNo=<Order>

Configuration in Merchandising

Use this URL to configure the report into an existing dashboard or contextual pane as described in the "Dashboards and Reports" section.

Configuring Report Delivery to SFTP

BI Publisher supports the delivery of a generated report to an SFTP directory. This is particularly used for larger outputs that aren't easily delivered through e-mail. In the Merchandising Cloud Suite this can be configured to deliver reports to your Inbound SFTP host directory by following the instructions below:

1. Connect to the SFTP host and create a folder to where reports will be delivered. For example, name the folder "Merch Reports".

2. Log into the BI Publisher XMPL Server as an Administrator user.

3. Navigate to the Administration area and select FTP under the Delivery header.

4. Click the Add Server button.

5. Complete the following details in the Add Server page:

   1. Server Name - Provide a name for the server that you want to appear when selecting a delivery method for reports.

   2. Host - Enter the SFTP host URL provided in your cloud service introduction e-mail. Refer to the Merchandising Administration Guide, Chapter 2 for more information on the SFTP directory configuration.

   3. Port - Enter number 2222.

   4. Check the following check boxes:

      Use Secure FTP

      Create files with Part extension when copy is in process

   5. Authentication Type - Select the value Password.

   6. Username - Enter your SFTP username.

   7. Password - Enter your SFTP password.

   8. Access Control - Select the BI Service Administrator role.

6. Click Test Connection. You will receive a confirmation if the connection is successful. If you do not receive a positive confirmation, review the entries from the previous step.

7. Once you have a successful connection, click Apply to add the server. This will make it available as a report delivery option when scheduling reports and selectable using the name provided in Step 5.a above.