Invoking a Report from a Database Event

21-10 Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle Reports Services Using plist, we extract the information from the payload object. As mentioned before, our object holds a parameter list. It is stored in the attribute PARAMS inside the object. The extracted parameter list is then handed over to SRW.RUN_REPORT for submitting the job. If you want to avoid the need for invoking this dequeuing procedure by hand, you can run it as a job inside the database. 22 Customizing Reports with XML 22-1 22 Customizing Reports with XML Extensible Markup Language XML is designed to improve the functionality of the Web by providing a method to promote detailed information identification. It is actually a metalanguage a language used for describing other languages and can be used to design customized markup languages for different type of documents. XML documents are composed of both markup and content: ■ Elements are the building blocks of XML. An element instance is a structure that contains tags a main tag and appropriate nested tags, attributes, and the elements content nested between the tags. ■ Tags are used to define the element and the content within it. ■ Attributes provide extra information for each tag. XML customizations enable you to modify reports at runtime without changing the original report. With the addition of the CUSTOMIZE keyword to your runtime command line, you can call a customization file to add to or change a reports layout or data model. One XML customization file can perform all of these tasks or any combination of them. You can even use XML to build a report data model for inclusion in a custom JSP-based report. By creating and applying different XML customizations, you can alter the report output on a per user or per user group basis. You can use the same report to generate different output depending upon the audience. When you apply an XML customization to a report, you have the option of saving the combined definition to a file. As a result, you can use XML customizations to make batch updates to existing reports. You can quickly update a large number of reports without having to open each file in Oracle Reports Builder. Oracle Reports Services extends the possible types of Oracle Reports XML customizations by enabling you to create an entire reports data model in XML. This includes the creation of multiple data sources, linking between data sources, and group hierarchies within each data source. Data model support through Oracle Reports XML customization means that any data model that can be created with Oracle Reports Builder can now be created by specifying XML. Additionally, all properties that can be set against data model objects can now be set using XML. This chapter discusses the ways you can use XML to customize reports on the fly and to build data models. It includes the following sections: ■ Customization Overview ■ Creating XML Customizations ■ Creating XML Data Models