Oracle BI Publisher 10.1.3.3 has a very interesting feature. It comes along with a small utility that can convert Oracle Reports to BI Publisher reports. I just thought i would blog about the same, since a lot of Oracle Report users are now migrating towards BI Publisher. This utility would come in handy for a lot of people. In fact getting this utility to work is very simple.
Oracle Reports Conversion Assistant: Helps to convert Oracle Reports RDF or XML files into BI Publisher reports and supporting files and logs. This tool will allow the user to directly upload the converted reports to BI Publisher Server.
Now Convert your Oracle Reports into BI Publisher Interactive Layout.
Oracle Reports contains both Data Model (logic) and Layout (presentation) in a single file. In XML Publisher they are stored separately. Therefore migration involves a 2 step process.
Step 1 RDF to XML format report : Oracle Reports 9i (or higher) comes with utility "rwconverter.exe". Use either Reports Designer or "rwconverter.exe" command line to convert RDF into XML format report.
From the Designer :
The following command executes “rwconverter.exe” utility, taking the source report,
XXTEST.rdf and converting it to an RDF-XML format that can be consumed by the
XML Publisher conversion utility.
Note the dtype must be specified as "xmlfile".
\BIN>rwconverter batch=yes source= c:\XXTEST.rdf
dest= c:\XXTEST.xml dtype=xmlfile overwrite=yes
This would create an RDF-XML file, with all the PL/SQL logic and presentation logic.
Step 2.1 Data Model Migration :
XML Publisher 5.6.3 provides a Java API Package "oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser". This package has "DataTemplateGenerator" class that creates a DataTemplate from the XML report file. If report has triggers this will generate '.pks' and '.pkb' file for that trigger which needs to be compiled into the Database
Example
javaw.exe oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser.DataTemplateGenerator c:\XXTEST.xml
Output Files:
PL/SQL Package : XXTESTS.pls
PL/SQL Body : XXTESTB.pls
DataTemplate : XXTEST_template.xml
Step 2.2 Data Model Migration :
XML Publisher 5.6.3 API Package "oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser" has "RTFTemplateGenerator" class to migrate the Oracle Reports layout to an XML Publisher RTF template. Because there is no support for PL/SQL in an RTF Template, the generator writes all Oracle Report format trigger code to the log file. This must later be implemented as XSL code
Example
javaw.exe oracle.apps.xdo.rdfparser.RTFTemplateGenerator c:\XXTEST.xml
Output Files:
RTF Template : C:\XXTEST.rtf
Log File : C:\XXTEST.log
That’s it we are done with the conversion.
Now that we have converted the RDF into XML publisher report, we simply need to use the Data Template and RTF to register with the XML Publisher.
Step 3 : Register a new Data Definition with XML Publisher Responsibility, with XML file generated as part of Step 2.2 as Data Template. Register the RTF template for the DD.
Step 4 : Create a Concurrent Report Program with Report output as XML and executable as "XDODTEXE". XDODTEXE is XML Publisher Data Template Executable Engine, which is a Java Concurrent Program.
