XML Publisher

1
XML Publisher A Real World Experience
Presented by Senthil Thangavelu
2
Agenda

• Introduction
• XML Publisher Concept
• AR Customer Statement
• Development Overview
• Design and Setups
• AP Checks
• Development Overview
• Design and Setups

3
Ask Jeeves

• 7th largest global web property
• Owns ask.com, ajkids.com, bloglines, excite.com,
  iwon.com, myway.com, Evite
• Part of Interactive Corp(IAC) which also own
  TicketMaster, HSN, Match.com, citysearch,
  LendingTree,
• Oracle Apps version 11.5.10

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XML Publisher Concept
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Classic Reporting Tools Issue
Data logic
Layout
Report file
Translation
Less flexibility
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XML Publisher

• Template based publishing solution delivered with
  E-Business Suite
• New approach to report design and publishing
• Report template in MS Word or PDF
• Easy to generate customer ready PDF documents
  like Invoices, Purchase Orders, Financial
  Statements, Checks etc
• Output in PDF, Excel, HTML

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XML Publisher Concept
Separate data / layout / translation
Data Logic
Layout
XML Publisher
Reportoutput
Translation

• More flexibility
• Reduced maintenance

8
AR Customer Statement
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Challenges in seeded statement

• Not customer ready
• Includes all activities
• Not Easily customizable

• Less flexible

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Development overview
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Data Design

• Used Oracle Reports
• Set output (DESFORMAT) to XML
• Used Invoice print view (ar_invoice_header_v,
  ar_invoice_lines_v). See Metalink Note
  Note68149.1 for more details

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Layout Design

• Used Microsoft Word and XML Template builder
• Need XML data for testing
• Preview available in PDF, HTML, EXCEL and RTF
  format

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Setups in Applications

• Register the report as concurrent program with
  output format as XML
• Using XML publisher Administrator responsibility,
  create a data definition. The code must be same
  as concurrent program short name
• Register the template

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Checks
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Introduction

• Historically required 3rd party software for
  formatting
• Expensive in implementation, maintenance and
  complexity
• Design checks in MS Word using XML publisher

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Development Overview
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Major Features

• Check Amount Both as number and words
• Multiple addresses Both payee and payer address
• Banking Information Bank routing number,
  payers account number and check number in
  specific MICR font
• Signature block Secure dynamic images

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Setups in Oracle Applications

• Change output format of check format program to
  XML
• Register the report as Data Definition with XML
  Publisher
• Register the template in template manager

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MICR Printing

• Freeware and commercial MICR fonts are available
• Needs to installed as font in the client machine
  for unit testing
• In the template, make the field type to MICR font

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MICR Printing Server changes

• It can be done in 2 ways
• Configuration file Change configuration file to
  include the font path eg.
• ltfontsgt
• ltfont family"MICR" style"normal"
  weight"normal"gt
  lttruetype path"/usr/fonts/MICR.ttf"/gt
• lt/fontgt
• All inclusive template Add the font path as
  custom property. Property should be prefixed with
  xdo- . This works only with XML Publisher 5.0 or
  later

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Secure signature printing

• Dynamic signature image at run time
• Create dummy image with URL location pointing to
  image location eg. urlSIG_LOC where SIG_LOC is
  signature location in the server
• Conditional logic if different people to sign
  different check based on conditions

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Conclusion

• XML publisher offers customers to design their
  own documents using familiar desktop tools
• Reduces the complexity of the system
• Reduces overall cost of ownership

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A