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16
Customizing Reports with XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is designed to improve the functionality of the
Web by providing a method to promote detailed information identification. It is
actually a metalanguage (a language used for describing other languages) and can be
used to design customized markup languages for different type of documents.
XML documents are composed of both markup and content:
■ Elements are the building blocks of XML. An element instance is a structure that
contains tags (a main tag and appropriate nested tags), attributes, and the
element’s content nested between the tags.
■ Tags are used to define the element and the content within it.
■ Attributes provide extra information for each tag.
XML customizations enable you to modify reports at runtime without changing the
original report. With the addition of the CUSTOMIZE command to your runtime
command line, you can call a customization file to add to or change a report's layout
or data model. One XML customization file can perform all of these tasks or any
combination of them. You can even use XML to build a report data model for inclusion
in a custom JSP-based report.
By creating and applying different XML customizations, you can alter the report
output on a per user or per user group basis. You can use the same report to generate
different output depending upon the audience.
When you apply an XML customization to a report, you have the option of saving the
combined definition to a file. As a result, you can use XML customizations to make
batch updates to existing reports. You can quickly update a large number of reports
without having to open each file in Reports Builder.
OracleAS Reports Services extends the possible types of Oracle Reports XML
customizations by enabling you to create an entire reports data model in XML. This
includes the creation of multiple data sources, linking between data sources, and
group hierarchies within each data source. Data model support via Oracle Reports
XML customization means that any data model that can be created with Reports
Builder can now be created by specifying XML. Additionally, all properties that can be
set against data model objects can now be set using XML.
This chapter discusses the ways you can use XML to customize reports on the fly and
to build data models. It includes the following sections:
■ Customization Overview
■ Creating XML Customizations
■ Creating XML Data Models
Customizing Reports with XML 16-1