XML Publisher and Reporting to Excel
Duncan Davies, Jay Jorgensen and Adam ClarkAllinity
Who are we?
Duncan Davies - Technical Consultant (Allinity)Email: [email protected]
Adam Clark - Technical Consultant (Allinity)Email: [email protected]
Jay Jorgensen - External ConsultantEmail: [email protected]
What are we covering today?
1. XML Publisher - Duncan
2. Reporting to Excel Overview - Adam
3. Reporting to Excel Deep-Dive - Jay
4. Questions
What is XML Publisher?
“Publisher is the only Reporting Platform for Fusion Apps”
XMLPublisherEngine
How does it work?
XML Data Source
Technical Task
TemplateLayout
Business TaskReportOutput
Step 1
Create an App Engine to supply:
1. XML Sample Data File
2. XSD Schema File
Step 1 Code – Populate Rowset
Step 1 Code – Output Files
Step 2
Create an RTF template in Word using the XML Sample data file.
Step 3
Within PeopleSoft, create:
1. Data Source Defn
2. Report Defn
3. Process Defn
Step 3 – Data Source Definition
Step 3 – Report Definition
Step 4
Update your App Engine to output full data, then run it.
Step 4 Code – Code Changes
Advanced Use
• Bursting
• Content Library
• Translations
What’s good?• Single Toolset
• Business users don’t need a techie to layout a report
• Highly Flexible
• Easier upgrade to Fusion
• Quick and easy
What’s not good?• XML/XSL knowledge needed for complex reports
• Excel output very basic
• No update until 2008 (Tools 8.50)
• Need to useReport Mgr
What other tips can we give?
• Make sure all rowset levels are filled in sample data.
• RTFs not shown in Process Monitor, so set up Report Manager.
• Limit the size of the
rowset for sample data.
• Sort data in Code
AEXLSOverview
Why?
• Client required a reporting solution
– Output to Microsoft Excel
– Must be a PeopleTools solution
• Output onto Multiple Sheets
• Complete control of individual cells
– Formatting of individual rows/columns/cells
– Formulas
• Client specific Branding/Formatting
Options
• XMLP
• SQRXLS
• nVision
• XSLT for XMLP
The Solution
• Application Package
– Kept within PeopleSoft
– Standard PeopleSoft APIs
– Classes and Methods
Benefits
• Rapid development
– Standard PeopleCode
– Object oriented API
– Simply pass a RowSet to the constructor
Example
Summary
• Client Requirements
• Flexibility
• Rapid Development
AEXLSThe Internals
What Have We Done
• Formatting – text, cell and sheet
• Print and Page Settings
• Formulas and Functions
• Multiple sheets
• Named Ranges
What Can be Done
• Short answer – everything but Macro’s and Passwords
• For Example– Pivot Tables– Charts– Hyperlinks (drill-down like nVision)– Data Functions – filters, sorting etc– Smart Tags and Comments
Components
• Excel/XML
• XMLDOC Object
• Application Packages
Excel/XML• Need to learn XML
• Simple Cascade - Worksheet/Column/ Row/Cell
• Styles used like CSS
• Namespaces and Schemas
• MS Schema’s of some use
XMLDoc• PeopleSoft’s XML Parser
• Provides random access to the xml document – Like a Database
• Based on W3C standards – Uses XPath
• XPath is like a directory structure
Examples• Get a Sheet
Findnode(Workbook\Worksheet
[@Name=“Sheet1”] )• Get a Cell
Findnode(Workbook\Worksheet
[@Name=“Sheet1”]\Row\Cell
[@Index=“4”]\Data\Text()
App Packages• Object Oriented
Approach – Classes
• Makes things more complex but so much faster/easier to maintain.
• Model your classes on the excel objects – sheets, cells etc
• Quicker debugging
Problems
• Namespaces and XMLDoc
• Other XMLDoc Issues
• Performance
Tips• Plan your object model first
• Remove namespaces and add them in by string manipulation after XMLDoc is finished
• Consider generating large chunks of data by other methods (e.g. SQL)
• Leverage PeopleSoft Metadata (e.g. Field labels, translate and prompts)
• Apply a template (like the report class)
Finish
• Time estimates– 2 man months for the Excel generator
– 1 man month for the template overlay
– Much of this is learning curve
• Time is easily recouped in developing reports etc that use it.
Thanks for listening.
Does anyone have a Question?
