Using Digital Signature in PDF Reports

Before a user can use digital signatures on PDF reports in BI Publisher for PeopleSoft, the following prerequisites must be completed:

• Obtain a digital ID from a public certificate authority or from a private/internal certificate authority (if for internal use only).

• Store the digital ID inside a PFX file.

• Upload the PFX file and its related password to the PeopleSoft keystore.

The following limitations are applicable when using digital signatures on PDF reports in BI Publisher for PeopleSoft:

• Only a single digital ID can be used to sign a PDF document.

• Digital signature is enabled at the report level. Therefore, multiple templates assigned to the same report share the digital signature properties.

To apply a digital signature to a report:

1. Access the Report Definition page. (Reporting Tools > BI Publisher > Report Definition and click the Properties tab.)

   A user must have the XMLP Report Developer role to access the PDF Digital Signature property group.

   See Defining Global Properties for a description of the properties associated with the PDF Digital Signature property group.

2. Enable a digital certificate for the report.

3. Specify the position to place the digital signature on the report. You can specify the position of the digital signature by entering values for the properties related to location.

   • If your report is based on a PDF template, you can designate a field in which the digital signature should be placed.

     For information on designating a field in a PDF template for a digital signature, see Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher, “Creating PDF Templates,” Adding or Designating a Field for a Digital Signature.”

     Note: If you use a pre-existing field in the PDF template to hold the digital signature, the PDF template should be able to handle updatable fields. In this case, the PeopleTools psxp_pdf_optimized property is set to False for the report.

     For details of the psxp_pdf_optimized property, see Defining Global Properties and for information on updatable fields in PDF template, see Creating Submittable PDF Reports.

   • If you set the location of digital signature by entering values for the coordinates/width/height properties, the signature appears on the last page of the report and the coordinates will be calculated from the lower right corner of the report page.

4. Optionally, specify the name of PeopleSoft application class that will obtain the digital certificate ID necessary for retrieving the PFX file and it’s password from the keystore.

   The optional application class must implement the IPT_PDFSIGNATURE_INT:IPDFSignature interface class, and the application class should be used for mapping specific report(s) to the correct signer’s digital certificate. For details of the IPT_PDFSIGNATURE_INT:IPDFSignature interface class, see Understanding the IPDFSignature Interface Class.

   Note: If the signer of a report should be set dynamically at report run-time, you must specify a PeopleSoft application class based on the IPT_PDFSIGNATURE_INT:IPDFSignature interface class. For example, a report may require different signers based on the report data. If the signer of a report is known at report design time, you must specify the digital ID of the report signer in the psxp_signature_digitalID property.

   The digital signature functionality is tightly connected to the security functionality for external PFX certificates. For more information on security functionality, see Using the External Digital Certificates Page and Understanding Applying Digital Signatures to PDF Report Output.

5. Specify a set of key fields used for mapping digital signature ID based on report field values.

At runtime, digital signature for bursted reports will either be attached individually for each report or a single signature for all bursted reports based on the definition in the application class.