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20 Creating Advanced Distributions 20-1 20 Creating Advanced Distributions When you wish to define an advanced distribution for your report, you can design the distribution by developing a distribution XML filer. In this file, you can specify the destination and format of output for each section of a report. In one distribution XML file, you can specify many different destinations, including custom pluggable destinations that you design see Section 20.4.9, destype . This chapter provides information on creating a distribution XML file and some example use cases. It includes the following main sections: ■ Distribution Overview ■ What’s New In This Release? ■ Introduction to Distribution XML Files ■ Elements of a Distribution XML File ■ Distribution XML File Examples ■ Using a Distribution XML File at Runtime ■ Limitations with Using Distribution

20.1 Distribution Overview

Although distribution XML files are not required for specifying the distribution of report output, they are useful for complex distributions. For example, there may be times when you want to publish the output of one report in a variety of ways. You might want to send an executive summary of a report to senior management while e-mailing detailed breakdowns to individual managers. In this case, you might produce a single report with two report sections: a portrait-sized summary section and a landscape-sized detail section. You would associate the detail section with a data model group that lists the managers, then alter the destination to burst the report on each instance of the group to send each departments output to its related manager. The distribution XML file simplifies distribution complexity by enabling you to define multiple outputs for a given report in one XML file, then call that file from a command line or URL. Note: An example distribution XML file distribution.xml is shipped with Oracle Reports in the ORACLE_ HOMEreportssamplesdemo directory. You can reuse this file for your own purposes so that you do not have to create one from scratch. 20-2 Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle Reports Services In order to use the same report definition file to burst and distribute to data-driven formats such as XML and DELIMITEDDATA, as well as to layout-driven formats such as PDF and ENHANCEDSPREADSHEET, you must ensure the following requirements are met: ■ The distribution XML file must specify the include element. For example: lt;include src=mainSectiongt; ■ The Repeat On property must be set appropriately for the sections specified in the distribution XML file. ■ The sections specified in the distribution XML file in the report paper layout must not be empty. 20.2 What’s New In This Release? Oracle Reports 11g Release 1 11.1.1 expands bursting and distribution to all output formats, as well as other new features, as described in Table 20–1 a subset of Table 1–1, 11g Functionality vs. 10g Functionality :

20.3 Introduction to Distribution XML Files

This section discusses the use of XML files related to distribution: ■ The distribution.dtd File ■ Using Variables Within Attributes Table 20–1 11g Distribution and Bursting Features vs. 10g Functionality 11g New Features Equivalent 10g Functionality Full support for bursting and distribution to all destinations and output formats, including: ■ all out-of-the-box and pluggable destinations ■ data-driven formats such as XML and DELIMITEDDATA, as well as layout-based formats such as the new ENHANCEDSPREADSHEET format Limited destinations and output formats for bursting and distribution. System parameters in report definition honored for distribution. Distributed output honors the DESTYPE, DESFORMAT, and DESNAME system parameters specified in the report definition. For example, if you define system parameters in the report: DESTYPE=FILE, DESFORMAT=PDF, and DESNAME=tmpa.pdf the report output is generated and distributed using these values without the parameter values needing to be specified in the distribution XML file or on the command line. Additionally, if users change the values of DESTYPE, DESFORMAT, or DESNAME on the Runtime Parameter Form during runtime, or if Oracle Reports sets the value of these system parameter based on a runtime calculation, the parameter values are honored when the report is distributed. Values for system parameters DESTYPE, DESFORMAT, and DESNAME specified in the report definition are not honored for distributed output; to change the default values of these system parameters for distributed reports, they must be specified in the distribution file or on the command line. Security check for distribution destinations. Ability to define security policies for distribution jobs. For example, you can define a security policy that specifies report output may not be burst to ENHANCEDSPREADSHEET format; if the distribution XML file specifies ENHANCEDSPREADSHEET format, the attempt to generate a report to this output format displays an error. No security check performed for destinations specified in the distribution XML file. Other improvements such as tolerance support for burst jobs and improved diagnostics. NA