Overview

This chapter demonstrates how to build a simple Flex template, but Adobe Flex allows you to build far more complex interactive reports for your users.

The animation, "wiring" together and formatting of layout objects can be achieved with Flex. You can also summarize and create calculated fields on the incoming data. Reference the Flex documentation for these more advanced features.

Note:

Adobe Flex is an open-source technology for building interactive cross-platform applications. Flex applications can be delivered using Adobe Flash Player.

BI Publisher's integration with Flex enables you to build Flex templates, test them on your desktop, and deploy them to the BI Publisher server to generate Flash output. Users are then able to run the reports from the BI Publisher user interface or schedule them for delivery to report consumers.

This chapter describes how to set up a Flex template with a BI Publisher "flat" data source (that is, there is no hierarchy in the XML data) and how to include simpler objects such as tables and charts. For more information about interactivity, connectivity between components and more advanced topics, refer to Adobe's Flex documentation.

Prerequisites for Building and Viewing Flash Templates

You must perform the following tasks before using Flash templates.

Following are the prerequisites for building and viewing Flash templates:

  • For viewing output:

    • To view the report output from the Flash Template, you must have Adobe Flash Player 9 installed on your computer. If viewing reports over the BI Publisher user interface, the Web browser must also support the Adobe Flash Player 9 plug-in.

  • For building templates:

    • The FlexBuilder IDE from Adobe

      Oracle BI Publisher is currently certified with version 2.0.1. The tool can be downloaded and purchased from the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/.

      Note that the charting functionality requires an additional license fee.

    • A report data model set up in BI Publisher that generates flat XML. For information on setting up the data model, see the Data Modeling Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

Required Configuration Settings for Viewing PDF Output

Tightened security settings in the latest versions of Adobe Reader (9.3) disable multimedia content like Flash by default.

Because of this change, when accessing PDF report output that contains embedded Flash objects, users might get an error message such as "Some features are disabled to avoid potential security risks."

To enable Flash content in PDF output by modifying the Flash configuration settings:

  1. In Adobe Acrobat, on the Edit menu, click Preferences.
  2. In the Preferences dialog, from the Categories list, click Multimedia Trust (legacy).
  3. Select Display Permissions for: Other Documents.
  4. Select Permissions for Adobe Flash Player is set to Prompt.
  5. Set Change permission for selected multimedia player toto Always, then select all three check boxes below and click OK.