Running Reports in Process Scheduler

At runtime, the Process Scheduler Request page appears after you click the Run button on the run control page. This page includes operator-selectable choices of output type and output format. Output type choices reflect the location values from the report definition. Output format choices reflect the output format values from the report definition.

Because values for output location, output format, and viewer security are associated with each report definition, these values should be passed to the Process Scheduler Request page. These values are passed automatically only when the process definition type is XML Publisher, and the process name is the same as the BIP Report Definition name that it is meant to execute.

BI Publisher reports can be printed to PCL (Printer Command Language) and PS (PostScript) compatible printers. The Process Scheduler Request page allows you to select PCL and PS as output formats when you select printer as output type; however only a PDF version of the report is stored in the Report Manager.

See Embedding PCL Code into Template

You need to create a custom run page that contains the prompts required by your report definition.

Your run control page should be a combination of the PeopleSoft PeopleTools-supplied run control sub-page and the application-specific section for runtime parameters for the data extraction program. It should include report, template name, language, and as of date. Depending upon your application design, these values could be systematically deduced from user preferences, come from program defaults, or come from the operator input selection.

See Running Processes from PeopleSoft Applications.

A process type of XML Publisher is delivered as system data and is available on thePeopleTools > Process Scheduler > Process Definition page. An application process that is defined and assigned the XML Publisher process type, is required to have the same name as the BI Publisher Report that it is intended to execute. The Application Engine program that extracts the data must also have the same name as the process name. Effectively, the BI Publisher report name, Process Scheduler process name, and the Application Engine program name must all be the same. This ensures that entries for output type and format on the runtime Process Scheduler Request page will reflect the definitional metadata under the BI Publisher report definition.

See Defining Process Definitions.

The Process Scheduler processes BI Publisher-based reports. You can define multiple related activities as separate processes. For example, generation of the XML data, the BI Publisher merging of that data with the template and creating the final output, and the subsequent postprocessing to send related emails. Each process appears separately in the Process Monitor. Error messages indicate whether the problem is on the data extraction or the BI Publisher portion of the report request.