Displaying Formatted HTML Data in BI Publisher Reports

Starting from PeopleTools 8.52, BI Publisher reports were fully capable of displaying formatted HTML data (RTE) via the use of a special XSL transformation stylesheet that was applied to the RTE field at runtime. This XSL stylesheet was provided via the delivered sub-template HTML_SUB that needed to be imported into the RTF template in order to successfully transform the HTML formatted data into its XSL-FO equivalent expected by the BI Publisher core engine. That method is now being deprecated, and starting from PeopleTools 8.54, is being replaced with the native Rich Text handling support built into the current version of the Oracle BI Publisher core engine.

The steps to move from the previous method to the new built-in RTE handling method in 8.54 are as follows:

For XML file data sources:

  1. If you are using XMLDoc or File Layout to create the XML file, wrap the RTE field data in a CDATA block.

  2. Remove the PeopleCode substitution logic that was added for unescaping and restoring the XHTML tags previously.

    The PeopleCode substitution logic is no longer required because the CDATA section preserves the original formatting tags.

  3. Modify the RTF template to remove the sub-template import statement: 

    <?import:psxmlp://HTML_SUB?>

  4. Replace the <xsl:apply-templates select="field_name"/> syntax with <?html2fo:field_name?> in the form field for each RTE field.

For Query/Connected Query data sources:

  1. Open the report definition and click the Properties tab.

  2. Select the PeopleTools Settings property group.

  3. In the psxp_nocdatafields property, remove all RTE enabled field names specified here. This property should be set to a blank value.

    The new method relies on the RTE field being enclosed in a CDATA section. If any field(s) are specified in this property value, the CDATA section for these field(s) will be removed at runtime.

  4. Complete steps 3 and 4 listed in the For XML file data sources section.