The BIP Puzzle

I've been getting a lot of questions about how many different BIP components there are to create 1 report. This question comes at a good time, seeing that we are ready to discuss working in the Apps. The answer is that you will have 5 BIP components to make up 1 report.
You will have :
1. The Data Source or Data Template (.xml file or .rdf)
2. The Concurrent Program
3. The Data Definition
4. The Template Definition
5. The Template (.rtf or .pdf file)

The Data Source
The data source is an .rdf report or .xml report. For right now we are still going to use the .rdf report to pull all of the data from the database that we need. So, in the concurrent program you will keep it set up to run the executable for your .rdf. You can also write your report in XML language and retrieve data from the database just as the .rdf does, but we will take a look at that later on.

The Concurrent Program
Because we are going to use the .rdf file as our data source, the only change that has to be made to the concurrent program is to change the output format type to XML.







By doing this, the output from your .rdf report will be in XML format. You will no longer see your .rdf layout, but you will see XML tags. This can be a little confusing because it is not the actual XML code that got the data from the database, but the output from your .rdf report. This output is what you should save as .xml and load into the template builder tool in MS Word for use in your template design.

The Data Definition
The data definition is in the Apps under the XML Publisher Administrator responsibility. The data definition is linked to the concurrent program by the concurrent program shortname. You create a new Data Definition by clicking on the 'Create Data Definition' button. You can then enter any name you would like for your report (I like to keep it the same as the concurrent program name). In the Code box, you enter the concurrent program short name. In the Application box, you enter whatever module your report is in (ex. payables). If you wrote your report in XML rather than using the .rdf, this is also where you would attach your .xml file, by clicking on the Data Template - Add File button on the bottom half of the screen.

But again, we'll step through that at a later date. Also, you must create the data definition before you create the template definition.

The Template Definition
The template definition is used to link the data layer (data definition/concurrent program) with the presentation layer (.rtf/.pdf template). You can access the Template Definition screen under the XML Publisher Administrator responsibility, just like you accessed the Data Definition screen. There is also a tab on the top of the data definition screen that you can use if you're already in there.

You can create a new template definition by clicking the create template button. On the template screen you can enter any name you want (again, I would use the concurrent program name or at least the data definition name to keep everything organized). The code is the shortname from the concurrent program and you should find the data definition for report in the LOV. The application would be the same as the application you entered in the data definition. The type would either be .rtf for the template created in MS Word of .pdf if you created one in Adobe.

The Template
The last piece of the puzzle is the template, which we have already discussed. The template is attached through the template definition screen by navigating to the template file upload section ...

You simply browse to your template file and select a language.

And there you have it... the 5 pieces needed to generate your report. Once you have set all of this up, when you run the concurrent program and view the output you should see your template and data merged together.