Tips and Tricks for
Customizing Portal Reports
Portlet Modules
Visit the Quovera
table for more info.
Peter Koletzke
Technical Director &
Principal Instructor
Second Law of Serendipity
If you wish to make an
improved product, you must
already be engaged in
making an inferior one.
2
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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Portal Reports Runtime
App Server
iAS
Database
Browser
Portal
link
Procedure
call URL
Report
package
mod_plsql
Parameter
Form
Reports
Runtime
Run
Report
results
(HTML,
PDF)
Reports
Servlet
Reports
RDF file
cgicmd.dat
Business
Database
Tables
and
views
scottcgi: userid= "scott/tiger@orcl" %*
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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
8
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
Desformat
Create this beforehand
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Creating the Definition – Page 4
Create this beforehand
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Tips for Creating the LOV
Do this before starting the Reports definition wizard
Must be “No”
for reports
This is ignored
for reports. Only
poplists are available
Use this for a “blank” item.
Needs a value. NULL won’t work
for reports (will work for
Portal reports and forms).
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Creating the Definition – Page 5
Interesting idea
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Creating the Definition – Page 6
Finish generates
the report PL/SQL
package.
This is ignored
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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Notice the template
Customize Page
Desformat?
Check the parameters
to display. Click Save
Parameters (this also
saves the values you
place here).
Database
connection
token
stored in
oracle_
home/
reports/
conf/
cgicmd.dat
Be careful of values in
non-displayed
parameters.
LOV
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• Desformat? Click
the New Link
• Where’s my
template?
• How do I get rid
of Builder and
Navigator links?
• How do I remove
the Schedule
tab?
• Can I add a
prompt hint?
• How do I change
the buttons?
• Can I show the
report name?
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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)
Still true as of 10g R2
– 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
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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
Documented
on MetaLink.
– 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
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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
• No Desformat
• Report title
• No Builder
and Navigator
links
• Your template
• Modified
buttons
• No schedule
tab
• Hints on
prompts
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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, then
click Close
– Releases
Edit mode
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Other
Methods –
JavaScript
Self-reducing
poplist
Auto-selected
poplist value. Use
this to default a
parameter value
or to remove a value.
Hide and display
fields dynamically
Use the same embedded
HTML technique for
separator lines.
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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
36
Dynamic Page
Shuttle control.
Same technique used
for multi-select
control.
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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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Law of Probable Dispersal
Whatever it is that hits the
fan will not be evenly
distributed.
—Anonymous
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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 lowlevel 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
42
Designer
Handbook
Developer
Advanced
Forms & Reports
JDeveloper 3
Handbook
ORACLE9i
JDeveloper
Handbook
ORACLE
JDeveloper 10g
Handbook
Also co-authored
with Avrom Roy-Faderman
 Please fill out the evals
 Books co-authored with Dr. Paul Dorsey
 Personal web site:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/
homepages/Peter_Koletzke
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