Getting Started with BIP

I’m sure the first thing you are asking yourself is “What is BI Publisher?”. Well…. BI Publisher is a template based publishing tool that is bundled up in the Oracle EBS (there is also a stand-alone version if you do not have the EBS). BI Publisher uses desktop word processing tools for your presentation file and merges it with the EBS data. The basic idea behind this publishing tool, is to separate the presentation and data layers.

EBS holds the collection of data ->You create the presentation template ->
EBS merges the two together at runtime

The first thing that you need to do to get started with BIP is to install the desktop plug-in for MS Word. You can also develop templates in Adobe Acrobat Professional, but I have found that MS Word is the way to go. The MS Word plug-in is called Template Builder and is available on Metalink through Patch 5887917 “Oracle XML Publisher Desktop 5.6.3”

Installing the XML Publisher Desktop Plug-in for Word

After you follow the on screen installation prompts, you will see a new menu in MS Word called “Oracle BI Publisher”. You will also want to add the Template Builder Toolbar by navigating to
View > Toolbars>Template Builder. You will then see it appear with your other toolbars

From this toolbar you will load your sample XML file to add fields to the template and preview your output.

I’ll let you poke around a little.