Accessing non-Oracle data sources

4-136 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports

4.15.1.1 Running reports in Oracle Portal as an item link

When you install Oracle Portal with a nondefault language setting, some entries required to publish a report as an item link on a portal page are not installed automatically. You must install the language of your choice by using the rwlang.sql script. Thus, you must run rwlang.sql ORACLE_HOMEportaladminplsqlwwd if: ■ You have selected at least one language in addition to the default US at the time of installing Oracle Portal. AND ■ You want to publish a report as an item link in Oracle Portal. To run the script:

1. Change the directory to ORACLE_HOMEportaladminplsqlwwd.

2. Run sqlplus.

3. Log on to Oracle Portal using the portal schema.

4. Run the rwlang.sql script with the following parameters:

rwlang.sql language_list where language_list is the list of languages separated by commas. For example, to install French and Japanese: rwlang.sql f,ja Usage notes ■ There should be no space before or after the comma , because sqlplus treats the language list as two parameters, instead of one parameter separated by a comma ,. ■ The header of the rwlang.sql script contains the complete list of all language abbreviations. Edit the script file using any text editor to find out the various abbreviations.

4.15.2 Accessing non-Oracle data sources

Oracle Reports enables you to access any data source. The pluggable data source PDS architecture replaces Oracle Open Client Adapter OCA and the Open Database Connectivity ODBC drivers, which are no longer supported in Oracle Reports. However, Java Database Connectivity JDBC is one of the pluggable data sources available that can utilize the JDBC-ODBC bridge, allowing access to other data sources. Use the following steps to determine the easiest method for accessing your data source: 1. Does your data source have Java Database Connectivity JDBC? A pluggable data source PDS has already been set up. All you have to do is select JDBC as your data type. Note: By default, a report is defined in the Main section. How To... 4-137 2. Does your data source have ODBC? If so, make sure that you have downloaded the JDBC-ODBC bridge from Sun Microsystems. This lets you use the JDBC connection mentioned in Step 1. If you do not know if there is an ODBC driver for your data source, check the company Web site. For example, Microsoft has a downloadable ODBC driver for Excel. 3. Is the file in XML? Oracle Reports includes an XML PDS. If the DTD file is available, all you have to do is select XML as your data type. If the DTD file is not available, you will have to create one. 4. Is the file comma-delimited? You can use the Text PDS included with Oracle Reports to query the data source. 5. Has someone in your company built a PDS for your data type? If the PDS exists, it will probably be on the Reports Server. Ask your administrator if such a file exists. If the PDS exists, add it to the classpath for your copy of Oracle Reports Builder. If the PDS does not exist, use the API Reference to help you build one. Examples Oracle Reports ships with XML data source sample files. See also The Pluggable Data Sources section of the Oracle Reports online Help, including the topics: ■ About pluggable data sources ■ Adding a pluggable data source ■ Connecting to a pluggable data source ■ Adding online Help to a pluggable data source ■ Pluggable data source interface definition ■ Troubleshooting PDS problems

4.16 Administer Oracle Reports Builder

This section provides procedures for the following tasks that you may perform as you administer Oracle Reports Builder: ■ Setting a database role ■ Converting from one format to another ■ Improving performance using SQL statements ■ Improving performance using WHERE clauses

4.16.1 Setting a database role

Before beginning this procedure, verify that the database administrator has created the role, granted privileges to the role, and granted the role to approved end users. Refer to your Oracle Application Developers Guide for more information. To set a database role for a report: