Generating Enhanced spreadsheet output Distributing a report to multiple destinations

4-38 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports Limitations ■ When generating a report to delimited output, only data as defined by the report Data Model, no layout information, displays in Microsoft Excel. To generate report output that preserves the layout information in Excel, see Section 2.8.13, About Enhanced Spreadsheet output . ■ Report distribution does not support Delimited output format. You cannot specify DELIMITED as an output format in a distribution XML file or in the Distribution dialog box. ■ Report bursting does not support Delimited or DelimitedData output format. See also Section 2.8.12, About delimited output Section 4.9.7.1, Specifying date and time format masks Section 4.9.7.2, Specifying number format masks

4.7.11 Generating Enhanced spreadsheet output

To generate Enhanced spreadsheet output: ■ On the command line, run the report using rwrun or Reports Server clients rwclient, rwservlet, with DESFORMAT=ENHANCEDSPREADSHEET. For example, to use rwservlet to generate Microsoft Excel output from the paper layout of your report, enter a command that includes the following: http:hostname:portreportsrwservlet?report=report_name +server=server_name+userid=db_connect_string+destype=file +desformat=enhancedspreadsheet+desname=C:\temp\myexcel_output.htm See also Section 2.8.13, About Enhanced Spreadsheet output Chapter 29, Building a Report for Enhanced Spreadsheet Output

4.7.12 Distributing a report to multiple destinations

To distribute a report, you first define the distribution, then enable the distribution. You can define the distribution for a report in any of the following ways: ■ Use XML, as described in the chapter Creating Advanced Distributions in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle Reports Services manual. Notes: ■ Microsoft Office 200020022003 supports Hypertext Markup Language HTML as a native file format. Enhanced Spreadsheet output relies on producing HTML output, which can be understood by Excel as a file with valid Excel format. ■ For reliable formatting, enclose the whole layout area in a frame. This prevents the possibility of parallel objects displaying in different vertical positions, one below the other. How To... 4-39 ■ In the Distribution dialog box, define a distribution list for the entire report or any report section. For an example of using section-level distribution, see Chapter 37, Bursting and Distributing a Report . This chapter covers defining distribution of a single section to multiple destinations, using the Repeat On property and distribution XML file. ■ On the command line, include the DESTINATION keyword to specify a DST file or XML file. ■ To enable the distribution of a report, you can do either of the following: ■ Choose File Distribute in Oracle Reports Builder. ■ Specify DISTRIBUTE=YES on the command line. You can also trace the report distribution to verify a successful distribution, as described in Section 4.14.19, Tracing report distribution . Usage notes ■ 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. ■ In some cases, Microsoft Internet Explorer ignores the mimetype of a URLs return stream and instead sets the type by looking at the URL. This can be a problem when you are defining the distribution for a report because your URL might end with the DESTINATION keyword. For example: ...DISTRIBUTE=yes DESTINATION=c:\oracle\reports\distribution\mydist.xml In this scenario, the URL ends with the extension xml and Internet Explorer treats the return stream as XML, when in fact it is HTML. As a result, you will receive a browser error. To work around this issue, you should never use recognized file extensions at the end of a URL. In the preceding example, you could switch the positions of the DISTRIBUTE and DESTINATION keywords in your URL. Note: To display the Distribution dialog box: In the report or section Property Inspector, under the Report node, click the Distribution property value field. Note: The DST file method is supported for backward compatibility; the preferred and recommended method of distributing reports is with XML or the Distribution dialog box. 4-40 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports See also Section 2.8.3, About report distribution Section 2.1.2, About report sectioning and sections Chapter Creating Advanced Distributions in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle Reports Services manual.

4.7.13 Deploying a report