Tips and Tricks for Customizing Portal Reports Portlet Modules

Peter KoletzkeTechnical Director & Principal Instructor

Visit the Quovera table for more info.

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If you wish to make an improved product, you

must already be engaged in making an inferior one.

Second Law of Serendipity

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Survey

• Oracle Portal work– Portal reports?– Dynamic pages?– Portal forms?– Calling Oracle Developer

forms (FMBs)?– Calling Oracle Developer

reports (RDF)?– Calling J2EE apps?

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Agenda

• Reports Portlet overview

• Creating the definition - annotated

• Tips, gotchas, workarounds

• Alternatives to Reports Portlet

Note: Sample code files available in the presentation zip file on the Quovera and

NoCOUG website.

Releases: 9i (9.0.2),

10g R1 (9.0.4),10g R2 (10.1.2)

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Portal Reports Portlet Basics• Call RDF files from a Portal link

– “Report Definition File Access” • The Portal name

– Validates security of user– Presents a parameter form

• Text fields• LOVs (poplists)

• Report definition created in Portal development screens– Generates PL/SQL package to display

parameter form and to call Reports Server

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BusinessDatabase

Portal Reports RuntimeiAS

Database

mod_plsql

Browser

ReportsServlet

Portal link Report

package

Procedure call URL

Parameter Form

Reports RDF file

cgicmd.datscottcgi: userid= "scott/tiger@orcl" %*

ReportsRuntime

Run

Report results (HTML, PDF)

Tables and

views

App Server

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Creating the Definition• Create custom template first

– Use your logos and design elements– This is not used at runtime by default

• Also create LOVs in Portal– Use them on the report Parameters page

• Two methods for creating the definition– Copy an existing report definition

• Use the Manage tab of the Manage page• Parameter values are not copied

– Reset the values on the Customize page

– Create one from scratch • Screens follow

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Agenda

• Reports Portlet overview

• Creating the definition - annotated

• Tips, gotchas, workarounds

• Alternatives to Reports Portlet

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Creating a Definition• Find Reports Definition portlet

– In Builder (Reports Security) or in the Portlet list

• Click Create Reports Definition File Access

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Creating the Definition – Page 1

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Creating the Definition – Page 2

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Creating the Definition – Page 3

Create this beforehand

Desformat

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Creating the Definition – Page 4

Create this beforehand

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Tips for Creating the LOV

This is ignoredfor reports. Only

poplists are available

Must be “No”for reports

Use this for a “blank” item. Needs a value. NULL won’t

work for reports (will work for Portal reports and forms).

Do this before starting the Reports definition wizard

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Creating the Definition – Page 5

Interesting idea

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Creating the Definition – Page 6

This is ignored

Finish generatesthe report PL/SQL

package.

Note: Every time you save a report definition, Portal

rewrites the PL/SQL package.

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Creating a Link – Page 1 • Click Add Item in a page group page

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Creating a Link – Page 2

At Runtime

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Agenda

• Reports Portlet overview

• Creating the definition - annotated

• Tips, gotchas, workarounds

• Alternatives to Reports Portlet

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Visit the Customize Page

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Check the parameters to

display. Click Save Parameters (this also saves the values you

place here).

Be careful of values in non-displayed

parameters.

LOV

Database connection

token stored inoracle_ home/

reports/ conf/

cgicmd.dat

Desformat?

Customize PageNotice the template

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Click the New Link

• Where’s my template?

• How do I get rid of Builder and Navigator links?

• Can I show the report name?

• How do I remove the Schedule tab?

• Can I add a prompt hint?

• How do I change the buttons?

• Desformat?

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Builder

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Navigator

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As a Review: The Customize Page

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Layout Gotchas• Layout is very basic

– Fields are laid out in a single column– Fields can only be text items or pulldown lists (poplists)– No popup LOV windows or shuttle controls– Field prompts are very basic

• The template you define will not be used at runtime (only on the Customize page)– Oracle template used (Oracle logos and copyright)– Builder and Navigator links displayed

• Users can see development areas

• No declarative way to change the button labels that a user sees– Portlet defaults are Apply, OK, Cancel– Huh?

• Desformat prompt cannot be defined

Still true as of 10g R2

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Changing The DESFORMAT Prompt

• Prompt is stored in internal Portal table– WWNLS_STRINGS$– Protected by a policy (you can’t update it)

• Technique to make the change– Identify the subscriber ID and ID– Run a procedure that disables policies,

updates the table, and enables policies

• Sample: – desformat_prompt.sql

• Global to all reports

Documentedon MetaLink.

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New Prompt

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For Other Changes, Modify the Reports Definition Package Code

• Back up the package code first– If you edit the report definition later, you will need to

reapply the modifications

• Changing code in various procedures– show_tabpage and show_parms_internal– Samples in report_package_edits.txt

• Also, adding buttons to the template– Sample in industrial_template_buttons.txt

• Set the access method (item or parent) before starting– This changes the package code

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New Parameter Form• Report title

• Modified buttons

• No schedule tab

• Hints on prompts

• No Builder and Navigator links

• Your template

• No Desformat

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Validating Parameters

• Validation Trigger page 6 does not do anything

• Post-generation change– In the report database package body, find the

show procedure– After calls to validity_check(), add a validation

block that adds error messages– You need to do your own date format checking– Sample in validity_check.sql

• If you edit and save a change to the report definition, this is overwritten

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Tip: Releasing Edit Mode• Click Edit from the Manage page

• Click Back– Report definition is now in Edit mode– No one else

can edit it– To fix, click

Edit, thenclick Close

– ReleasesEdit mode

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Other Methods – JavaScript Self-reducing

poplist

Auto-selected poplist value. Usethis to default aparameter value

or to remove a value.

Use the same embedded HTML technique for

separator lines.

Hide and displayfields dynamically

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JavaScript Code Required

• onLoad() function on the BODY tag in the template– JavaScript added to report package code– Default poplist selection– Disable or hide items

• Poplist selection changes the display– Self-reducing poplists (country/state-province) –

add code to report package– Hide fields and display fields based on

poplist value

• Sample in magic_providers.html

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Limiting the Query Based on User

• Database user for Reports connection defined by the cgicmd.dat servlet key

• To associate a user with the session, get the Portal user – wwctx_api.get_user

• Pass the user as a Reports parameter• Add that parameter to the query

– Or set the user name into a context and read the context in a database VPD policy function

• Sample for setting the parameter in validity_check.sql

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Agenda

• Reports Portlet overview

• Creating the definition - annotated

• Tips, gotchas, workarounds

• Alternatives to Reports Portlet

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Dynamic Page

Shuttle control.Same technique used for multi-

selectcontrol.

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Code Required• Portal dynamic page – not Reports portlet

– Calls a package that builds the page a line at a time• Layout capabilities are unlimited

– Multi-column– Any stylesheet style– Unlimited JavaScript capabilities

• All code is up to you– Code it in HTML first– Run WebAlchemy for starting code

• http://www.users.bigpond.com/ahobbs/

• Samples– demo_shuttle.html – demo_dyn_form.txt

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UIX Form• UIX parameter form calling reports server

– View object for parameter fields

• The trick is working out the URL– Examine the URL from other working reports

• SSO will protect the content– Report package not needed for that

• Create Struts action to interpret the Run button click– Retrieve elements from binding to get

parameter values– Build up the URL with parameter values– Sample URL in sample_url.txt

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HTML DB

• Hot new kid on the block

• You can develop reports with it– PL/SQL based as is Portal reports

• Same for forms

• Can call Reports RDF files– No native feature yet– Apparently documented on OTN

• Anyone done this?

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Whatever it is that hits the fan will not be evenly

distributed.

—Anonymous

Law of Probable Dispersal

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Summary• The Portal Reports Portlet works but its

user interface is very basic• If you use it, you need to apply

workarounds to the portlet bugs• Some customizations require some low-

level code modifications– Keep backups of the packages– Don’t tell Oracle Support

• Consider dynamic pages instead– Or UIX pages or Portal forms or

HTML DB

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Books co-authored with Dr. Paul Dorsey Personal web site:

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Also co-authoredwith Avrom Roy-Faderman

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