Xml Publisher And Reporting To Excel

Slide 1: XML Publisher and Reporting to Excel Duncan Davies, Jay Jorgensen and Adam Clark Allinity

Slide 2: Who are we? Dunc a n Da vie s - Te c h nic a l Cons ulta nt (Allinity) E ma il: Dunc a n@Allinity.c om Ada m Cla rk - Te c h nic a l Cons ulta nt (Allinity) E ma il: Ada m@Allinity.c om J a y J org e ns e n - E xte rna l Cons ulta nt E ma il: J a y@G loba lWa lka bout.c om

Slide 3: What are we covering today? 1. XML Publisher - Duncan 2. Reporting to Excel Overview - Adam 3. Reporting to Excel Deep-Dive - Jay 4. Questions

Slide 4: What is XML Publisher? “Publisher is the only Reporting Platform for Fusion Apps”

Slide 5: How does it work? Te c h nic a l Ta s k XML Da ta S ourc e XML R e port P ub lis h e r B us ine s s Ta s k Output E ng ine Te mpla te La yout

Slide 6: Step 1 Create an App Engine to supply: 2. XML Sample Data File 3. XSD Schema File

Slide 7: Step 1 Code – Populate Rowset

Slide 8: Step 1 Code – Output Files

Slide 9: Step 2 C re a te a n R TF te m p la te in Word u s in g th e XML S a m p le d a ta file .

Slide 10: Step 3 Within PeopleSoft, create: 2. Data Source Defn 3. Report Defn 4. Process Defn

Slide 11: Step 3 – Data Source Definition

Slide 12: Step 3 – Report Definition

Slide 13: Step 4 Upd a te yo u r Ap p E ng in e to o utp u t fu ll d a ta , th e n run it.

Slide 14: Step 4 Code – Code Changes

Slide 15: Advanced Use • B urs ting • C o nte n t Lib ra ry • Tra n s la tio n s

Slide 16: What’s good? • S in g le To o ls e t • B us in e s s u s e rs d on ’t n e e d a te c h ie to la yo u t a re po rt • Hig h ly F le xib le • E a s ie r u p g ra d e to F us io n • Quic k a nd e a s y

Slide 17: What’s not good? • XML/ L XS kno wle d g e n e e d e d fo r c om p le x re p o rts • E xc e l o utp u t ve ry b a s ic • No u p d a te u ntil 20 0 8 (To o ls 8 .5 0) • Ne e d to u s e R e p o rt Mg r

Slide 18: What other tips can we give? • Ma ke s u re a ll rows e t le ve ls a re fille d in s a m p le d a ta . • R TF s n o t s h o wn in P ro c e s s Mon itor, s o s e t u p R e po rt Ma n a g e r. • Lim it th e s iz e of th e ro ws e t fo r s a m p le da ta . • S ort da ta in C o de

Slide 19: AEXLS Overview

Slide 20: Why? • Client required a reporting solution – Output to Microsoft Excel – Must be a PeopleTools solution

Slide 21: • Output onto Multiple Sheets • Complete control of individual cells – Formatting of individual rows/columns/cells – Formulas • Client specific Branding/Formatting

Slide 22: Options • XMLP • SQRXLS • nVision • XSLT for XMLP

Slide 23: The Solution • Application Package – Kept within PeopleSoft – Standard PeopleSoft APIs – Classes and Methods

Slide 24: Benefits • Rapid development – Standard PeopleCode – Object oriented API – Simply pass a RowSet to the constructor

Slide 25: Example

Slide 26: Summary • Client Requirements • Flexibility • Rapid Development

Slide 27: AEXLS The Internals

Slide 28: What Have We Done • Formatting – text, cell and sheet • Print and Page Settings • Formulas and Functions • Multiple sheets • Named Ranges

Slide 29: 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

Slide 30: Components • Excel/XML • XMLDOC Object • Application Packages

Slide 31: 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

Slide 32: XMLDoc • PeopleSoft’s XML Parser • Provides random access to the xml document – Like a Database • Based on W3C standards Examples • Get a Sheet – Uses XPath Findnode(Workbook\\Worksheet [@Name=“Sheet1”] ) • Get a Cell Findnode(Workbook\\Worksheet • XPath is like a directory [@Name=“Sheet1”]\\Row\\Cell [@Index=“4”]\\Data\\Text() structure

Slide 33: 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

Slide 34: Problems • Namespaces and XMLDoc • Other XMLDoc Issues • Performance

Slide 35: 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)

Slide 36: 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.

Slide 37: Thanks for listening. Does anyone have a Question?