Oracle BI Publiser Interview Questions What is BI Publisher? A. It is a reporting tool for generating the reports.

More than tool it i s an engine that can be integrated with systems supporting the business.

Is BI Publisher integrated with Oracle Apps? Yes, it is tightly integrated with Oracle Apps for reporting needs. In 11.5.10 i nstances xml publisher was used, in R12 we can it BI Publisher What is the difference between xml publisher and BI Publisher? Name is the difference, initially it was released on the name of xml publisher( the initial patchset), later on they have added more features and called it Busi ness Intelligence Publisher. In BI by default we have integration with Datadefin itions in R12 instance. Both these names can be used interchangeably What are the various components required for developing a BI publisher report? Data Template, Layout template and the integration with Concurrent Manager. How does the concurrent program submitted by the user knows about the datatempla te or layout template it should be using for generating the output? The concurrent program shortname will be mapped to the code of the Datatemplate. Lay out template is attached to the datatemplate, this forms the mapping between all the three. What is a datatemplate? Datatemplate is an xml structure which contains the queries to be run against th e database so that desired output in xml format is generated, this generated xml output is then applied on to the layout template for the final output What is a layout template? Layout template defines how the user views the output, basically it can be devel oped using Microsoft word document in rft (rich text format) or Adobe pdf format . The data output in xml format (from Data template) will be loaded in layout te mplate at run time and the required final output file is generated. What are the output formats supported by layout template? xls, html, pdf, eText etc are supported based on the business need. Do you need to write multiple layout templates for each output type like html/pd f? No, only layout template will be created, BI Publisher generates desired output format when the request is run What is the default output format of the report? The default output format defined during the layout template creation will be us

ed to generate the output, the same can be modified during the request submissio n and it will overwrite the one defined at layout template Can you have multiple layout templates for a singe data template? Yes, multiple layouts can be defined, user has a choice here to use one among th em at run time during conc request submission

Where do you register data and layout templates? Layout template will be registered under xml publisher administrator responsibil ity>Templates tab. Data template will be registered under xml publisher admininstrator responsibili ty> Data Definitions I want to create a report output in 10 languages, do I have to create 10 layout templates? No, BI Publisher provides the required translation for your templates, based on the number of languages installed in your oracle apps environment requires outpu ts are provided What is the required installation for using BI Pub report? BI Publisher deskop tool has be installed. Using this tool you can preview or te st the report before deploying the same on to the instance. How do you move your layout or data template across instances? xdoloader is the utility that will be used. What is the tool to map required data output and layout templates so that they c an be tested in local machine? Template viewer will be used for the same. Which component is responsible for generating the output in xml format before ap plying it to layout template? DataEngine will take DataTemplate as the input and the output will be generated in xml format which will then be applied on layout template Can BI publisher reports be used in OAF pages? XDO template utility helper java classes are provided for the same. Name some business use cases for BI reports? Bank EFT, customer documents, shipping documents, internal analysis documents or any transactional documents How do you pass parameters to your report? Concurrent program parameters should be passed, ensure that the parameter name/t oken are same as in the conc prog defn and the data template What are the various sections in the data template?

Parameter section Trigger Section Sql stmt section Data Structure section Lexical Section What does lexical section contain? The required lexical clause of Key Flex field or Descriptive FF are created unde r this section What triggers are supported in Data template? Before report and After report are supported Where is the trigger code written? The code is written in the plsql package which is given under defaultpackage f data template.

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what is the file supporting the translation for a layout template? A. xliff is the file that supports the translation, you can modify the same as r equired.