There was a requirement from client to
build a report using xml publisher 5.6.3 for getting Purchase order
commitments. The intention is to use excel template to achieve the table formatting
such as auto expansion of height and width for a cel, and adding headers and
company logos are achieved in excel template using Alt-text option. During the
time when report was built and tested the total row count in the outcome of the
report was less than 50,000 records, we never had a thought of going with csv
file because excel is feasible with presenting data in required fashion and
total row count was within the limits of older version of MS excel (.xls
template excel 2003). XML Publisher 5.6.3 which is a embedded version in
e-business suite R12.1.3 only supports excel 2003 version templates to run
reports. After an year, transaction data surged in the system only to affect
the report to end in warning status when ran and output is not viewable as .xls
file only allows 65k rows in a sheet.
As an interim solution to provide report to
user, I had to run the script manually in toad and extract to excel (latest
version). An oracle SR was raised for the issue, they only said they stopped to
support for this version of bi publisher, and no patches are available for this
issue. Although rebuilding the report with csv would fix the issue but user
will lose the presentable way of viewing data, i then built a XSL template to
overcome this product limitation. With XSL template, we will be able to show
all the data with perfect formatting standards as user needs, this solution
comes with an additional step to perform to get the concurrent request output
file.
When the report is submitted, user needs to
give the contacts of recipients who want to receive output file. After the
request is completed normal it sends an notification to user with a link to
open output file, they then have to right click on the link and click save as,
it saves the file to their local machine which then has to be opened with Microsoft
excel. This is required because when user clicks on View Output button in the
SRS window, it opens an xsl gobbledegook in an internet explorer. This way it doesn’t
matter what the record count is, they will get it as they need.
There are options to convert your excel template to xsl template online.
Thanks,
Nithin
