Oracle Reports 6.0 New Features Technical White Paper
Oracle Reports 6.0 New Features PRODUCT SUMMARY In today's fast-moving, competitive business world up to date information is needed for the accurate, expedient decision making requirements of an often geographically distributed workforce. The timely distribution of information must be reliable, cost effective, and accessible to everyone who requires it. Oracle Reports meets the challenge by making it easy to design, publish, and distribute professional, production-quality reports in a variety of formats to meet any business need. Oracle Reports is an enterprise reporting tool used by information systems departments to build reports that dynamically retrieve, format, and distribute information stored in the database. You can quickly create reports in practically any style with Report Builder's easy-to-use wizards and WYSIWYG editing environment. That means your developers are productively producing reports in no time! The application server based deployment environment provides the ability to centralize report execution in a manageable, scaleable architecture that requires no complex install of software on users' PCs. Report data is dynamically displayed in the users' Web browsers, allowing the availability of up to the minute reports from anywhere on your intranet, extranet, or even the Internet. The decision support requirements of today's organizations cover enterprise reporting, ad-hoc query and analysis, and OLAP. Oracle Reports integrates with other decision support tools, Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Express, to provide a low cost solution for delivering fast answers to hard questions through the continuum of decision support needs. HIGH QUALITY WEB PUBLISHING The Web has become the quickest and easiest way to disseminate information within business organizations. Oracle Reports lets you generate report output in virtually any Web format you prefer, HTML, HTML with style sheets (HTMLCSS), and Portable Document Format (PDF). Both PDF and HTMLCSS give you the ability to view and print high quality documents from a Web browser. Because these Web formats are all generated from the same report definition file, users can choose their preferred output format at runtime. Oracle Reports also includes numerous features that enable you to enhance the appearance and usability of your Web output without compromising the appearance of your report in other formats, such as PostScript. Web Wizard Report Builder can generate professional HTML and PDF documents for you from your reports. The Web Wizard enables you to quickly and easily add Web functionality to a report and generate HTML, HTMLCSS, or PDF output. 1
HTML output Without knowing anything about HTML tags, you can easily generate HTML output from your reports in Report Builder. You simply choose the HTML output format at runtime and it will be generated for you. You can also customize your HTML code by using the Report Escapes and Web Settings properties. PDF output Without purchasing a third party product, you can easily generate PDF output from your reports. Oracle Reports has a PDF generator built into it. You simply choose the PDF output format at runtime and it will be generated for you. As with HTML, PDF files have the capability to launch other applications. One key usage of this feature is to drill down from a PDF document to another, dynamically-created document. Style sheet support With cascading style sheets (HTMLCSS), your HTML documents can include the following: any font size or style overlapping objects horizontal and vertical lines and rectangles of any color or width precise object positioning on a page pagination inline image maps This means that the sophisticated formatting in a report is preserved when you format the report as an HTML document. Without style sheet extensions, HTML documents display only basic text formats and imported images. With style sheets, images of highly formatted text can be replaced with text objects of equivalent style, color, and font. Text objects can be positioned to overlay image objects. All text is fully searchable, and fewer images have to be downloaded. You simply choose the HTMLCSS output format at runtime and it will be generated for you. HTML page streaming HTML page streaming enables you to display individual pages of your HTML/HTMLCSS report output in your Web browser, without having to download the entire report. From the first page of the report, you can navigate to any page in the rest of the report. For maximum flexibility, the navigation controls for page streaming are written in JavaScript. You can use the default JavaScript that Oracle Reports provides as is, modify it, or build your own. Bookmarks One of the most useful navigational tools for HTML and PDF output is bookmarks. Bookmarks provide a hyperlinked table of contents for your report that enables users to easily navigate to those parts of the report that pertain to them. An added advantage of defining bookmarks in Report Builder is that they can incorporate data from the database (i.e., column values) as well as static text. 2
The Web Wizard automatically generates bookmarks for you. You can also manually specify them for any layout object in your report. Hyperlinks Hyperlinks enable your users to quickly jump to related information. You can use them to allow users to drill down to more detailed information or to call other, drill-down reports. An added advantage of defining hyperlinks in Report Builder is that they can incorporate data from the database (i.e., column values) as well as static text. You can define hyperlinks and hyperlink targets for any layout object in your report. Images as URLs You can reference image resources as URLs for HTML output, which provides several advantages: Eliminates the creation of separate image files when you format your report for HTML output; you can store all your images in a directory that can be referenced by your report and the HTML output. Allows storage of the URLs in the database for easy manipulation. Allows you to include dynamic and transparent GIFs in your HTML output. You can define boilerplate link file objects, columns, and fields as references to image URLs. The images display when you format your report for HTML output. Chart hyperlinks Chart hyperlinks enable users to click on a chart value in HTML or PDF output to access more detail about that value, or drill down to another report associated with that value. Web preview When building a report for deployment on the Web, you typically want to preview the HTML or PDF output as you are editing the report. Report Builder provides a Web preview feature that immediately shows you what the report will look like in HTML or PDF format. You can choose to preview the current page of the report to reduce formatting time or preview all pages of the report. UNLIMITED DATA FORMATTING Report Builder is a wizard-based tool for creating every kind of report, from the very simple to the extremely complex. Wizards lead you through the major steps of creating a report. The Report Editor provides several different views that simplify the fine-tuning of your report. Oracle Reports supports a wide variety of data-sources and output formats. Report Wizard The Report Wizard makes building reports fast and easy, improving the productivity of your application developers. The Report Wizard leads you through the process of creating a report. It takes you from a blank report to a running report, allowing you to specify data-source, which fields to display, group fields, and any totals you wish. The report is immediately printable. 3
The Report Wizard is also re-entrant. This means you can use the Report Wizard to modify an existing single- or multi-query report. The Report Wizard is tabbed when you use it on an existing report, enabling you to quickly go to any page of the Wizard, make updates, and regenerate the report. Query Builder Query Builder simplifies the creation of queries such that you need not know SQL or data model structures. Because Query Builder is built right into Report Builder, you can visually define the queries for your report without leaving Report Builder. Data Wizard When you want to create a multi-query report, the Data Wizard leads you through the process of creating each individual query. The Data Wizard enables you to easily and quickly define a query, its break groups, and its totals. After you create all of the queries you need, you use the Report Wizard to generate the layout The Data Wizard is also re-entrant. This means you can use the Data Wizard to modify the queries for an existing data model. Live Previewer The Live Previewer is a WYSIWYG editor in which you can preview a report and manipulate the layout at the same time. Within the Live Previewer you can customize reports interactively, meaning that you can see the results immediately as you make each change. You can also use the Web preview feature from the Live Previewer to preview your HTML and PDF output. Integration with Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Express Along with Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Express, Oracle Reports gives you best-of-breed technology to address the full spectrum of enterprise decision support needs: from production reporting and ad hoc querying to advanced analysis. This integrated solution offers superior ease of use and unmatched performance while reducing development and deployment costs. Oracle Discoverer users can perform ad hoc queries to produce workbooks that can be instantly transformed into dynamic Web reports and published to the whole organization. In Report Builder, you can base a report on Express measures and dimensions. The Report Wizard enables you to choose whether to build an Express or SQL query. In the Express Query dialog box, you can choose the database, measures, and dimensions that you want to use in your report. Once your Express query is complete, you can quickly generate and modify the report layout just as you would for any other report. Report Bursting Report bursting enables you to send the right data to the right destination, without having to run the report multiple times. This uses Report Sectioning, and Report Distribution: Report Sectioning Report sectioning effectively enables you to encapsulate multiple reports into one report. As a result, a single run of the report can produce multiple layouts, each distributed to a different target audience, output format, page layout, page size, and orientation. For example, a single report can include an 4
executive summary for senior management in one section and also a detailed breakdown for individual managers in another section. Report distribution In many cases, you may want to send all or part of a report to numerous destinations, each with different characteristics. Oracle Reports enables you to design a report that can generate multiple output formats and be distributed to multiple destinations from a single run of the report. You can create distribution lists for an entire report and for individual sections of the report. Conditional formatting It is often useful to highlight values or objects in your report based upon whether certain conditions are met. For example, if a value is greater than some number, you might want to change its color or hide it. Report Builder enables you to perform this kind of formatting without writing any code. The Conditional Formatting and Format Exception dialog boxes enable you to quickly and easily specify output formatting for a selected layout object based upon specified conditions. The conditions and formatting are all defined visually. Templates Templates provide a consistent look and feel for all reports by importing all of the template s objects and properties into new report definitions. When you create a report through the Report Wizard, you have the option of basing the report on a template. The characteristics of the template are then applied to the report. Report Builder is shipped with a standard set of templates. The Template Editor provided in Report Builder lets you modify these report templates to suit your own needs and also create your own templates. Delimited output Users often want to take the data from a report and manipulate it in some other application (e.g., a spreadsheet program). Oracle Reports enables you to easily generate delimited output to a file. You can easily import this file into spreadsheet utilities, such as Microsoft Excel. RTF output Users often want to incorporate data from a report in a word processing document. Oracle Reports supports Rich Text Format (RTF) for report output. RTF is a form of encoding text formats that can be read by many different word processing software packages, such as Microsoft Word. You can use the software's editing and graphics features to modify and enhance your report output. Runtime Parameter Form The Runtime Parameter Form lets your users choose the data that pertains to them at runtime. It also enables you to build one report which can display different views of the data as opposed to multiple reports which each display a different view of the data. For deployment on the Web, the Runtime Parameter Form appears as an HTML form in the user's Web browser. 5
Ref cursor queries A ref cursor query enables you to fetch data using a handle to a cursor returned from a PL/SQL procedure. The queries in your report are based upon PL/SQL packages that can reside in the report, the file system, or the database. Using ref cursor queries, you can: more easily administer SQL avoid the use of lexical parameters in your reports share dynamic data-sources with other applications, such as Form Builder increase control and security encapsulate logic within a subprogram Non-Oracle datasources You can use Oracle Reports no matter what database you are using. Oracle Reports supports a wide variety of non-oracle data-sources. Through the Oracle Open Client Adapter (OCA), your application can connect to SQL Server, Sybase System 10, Informix, Ingres, DB2/400, Tandem NonStop SQL, or Microsoft Access. Chart Wizard Reports can be enhanced by having a chart that graphs the data as a visual aid (e.g., a pie or bar chart). You can create and embed charts for your report using the Chart Wizard. The Chart Wizard leads you through the steps to build a chart just as the Report Wizard leads you through the steps to build a report. Cross-Platform Portability Oracle Reports enables developers to develop applications on any one platform and deploy them across multiple platforms with minimal or no code changes. This paradigm is extended to Web deployment as well. Postscript and PCL Support Oracle Reports supports postscript printing where report output looks exactly as presented in the Live Previewer. Reports also has printer driver support for HP-PCL printers for UNIX and other server environments. Character Mode Support The character mode support provided in Oracle Reports provides maximum portability across different computing environments. National Language and UNICODE Support Oracle Reports provides comprehensive National Language Support for single-byte European languages, multi-byte Asian languages, and bi-directional languages for both client/server and the Web. Additionally, Oracle Developer supports Unicode, a global character set which allows multilingual text to be displayed in a single application thus enabling multinational corporations to develop a single multilingual application and deploy it worldwide. 6
Mail Support Oracle Reports supports the Microsoft Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) on Windows platforms. This allows developers or end users to email reports via the MAPI interface from mail-compliant clients. Bit-mapped reports are sent as email attachments in encapsulated PostScript, PDF, HTML, HTML CSS, or RTF formats while character-mode reports are sent as ASCII text attachments. SERVER-BASED REPORTING Using application servers to run reports for your end users can greatly reduce your deployment and maintenance costs and the total cost of ownership. Management and maintenance overhead is reduced because the software is installed centrally on an application server and only a Web browser is required on the user's PC. Server-based reporting also enables dynamic Web reporting, where users launch report requests and receive report output in their Web browsers. Reports Multi-tier Server The Reports Multi-tier Server (hereafter the Reports Server) enables you to run reports on a remote application server. It handles client requests to run reports by entering all requests into a job queue. When one of the server's runtime engines becomes available, the next job in the queue is dispatched to run. As the number of jobs in the queue increases, the server can start more runtime engines until it reaches the maximum limit specified when the server process was started. Similarly, idle engines are shut down after having been idle for longer than a specified period of time. To further balance the job load, you can configure Reports Servers in clusters on many different machines. You can send job requests to the Reports Server from: a Web browser using standard URL syntax (when used with the Reports Web Cartridge or Reports Web CGI). Note that you can also view the output in the Web browser. a Form Builder form. Note that you can also view the output in the form. the Reports ActiveX control, Reports Queue Manager, or client command line executable. The Reports Server also enables you to: Send report output to file, printer, or cache. View and manage the report queue in the Reports Queue Manager on Windows and the Reports Queue Viewer on UNIX. Schedule reports using the Reports ActiveX control, Reports Queue Manager, or client command line executable. Take advantage of clustering Take advantage of cached report output and duplicate job detection. Reports Server ActiveX control The Reports Server ActiveX control seamlessly integrates the launching of a report into your applications. The Reports Server ActiveX control can be embedded in any ActiveX container. The ActiveX control can run a report via a call to the Reports Background Engine, or synchronous or asynchronous call to the Reports Server. 7
Reports Server Load Management The Reports Server load management capability conserves system resources by dynamically managing the number of report engines according to the number of incoming requests. The Reports Server handles client requests by entering all requests into a job queue. When one of the server's runtime engines becomes available, the next job in the queue is dispatched to run. As the number of jobs in the queue increases, the server can start more runtime engines until it reaches a maximum limit specified by the system administrator when the Reports Server process was initiated. Similarly, the Reports Server will automatically shutdown runtime engines after they have been idle for longer than a specified period of time. Reports Server clustering Significant performance and scalability gains can be obtained by spreading jobs across several machines. Reports Servers can be configured in a cluster with master-slave relationships. As a result, you can run reports on as many machines as you like to balance the job load and improve performance. Reports Server cache and duplicate job detection By using its cache and detecting duplicate jobs, the Reports Server greatly reduces network traffic and the amount of time it takes to return output to your end users. When you run a report to the Reports Server, the output is stored in the Reports Server cache. For each report request sent to the Reports Server, the user can specify a time tolerance for cached output. The cached output can be reused for subsequent, duplicate report requests if it meets the time tolerance requirements of the new requests. Reports CGI The Reports Web CGI provides a connection between any CGI-aware Web Server and the Reports Server. This connection enables a Web client to run reports and see the report output in the client Web browser. When the client submits a URL, the Web Server runs the Reports Web CGI, which submits the report request to the specified Reports Server. Reports Web Cartridge The Reports Web Cartridge provides an easy connection between the Oracle Application Server and the Reports Server. This connection enables a Web client to run reports on the Reports Server and see the report output on the client Web browser. The Reports Web Cartridge is an alternative to the Reports Web CGI and has the same functionality, but it also has native integration with the Oracle Application Server. 8
Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: +1.650.506.7000 Fax +1.650.506.7200 http://www.oracle.com Technical White Paper Author: Paul Narth Copyright Oracle Corporation 1998 All Rights Reserved This document is provided for informational purposes only, and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors herein to Oracle Corporation. Oracle Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this document. Oracle is a registered trademark. All other company and product names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. 9