Publishing Reports to the Web - Downloads - Oracle

17
Using Event-Driven Publishing
Modern business processes often require the blending of automation into the work
environment through the invocation of behind-the-scenes functions and procedures.
Behind-the-scenes tasks can include the automatic production of output such as an
invoice that prints automatically when an order is processed, a Web site that is
automatically updated with current data, or an automatic e-mail with fresh report
output when a transaction is completed.
Automatic output in response to events used to be a fairly complicated effort,
particularly if you wished to produce the same results possible through interactive,
RAD development tools, such as Oracle Reports Developer.
To address the requirement of automatic output, Oracle introduced a scheduling
mechanism in OracleAS Reports Services that enabled the invocation of reports on a
scheduled basis without requiring additional user interaction. But this left one
requirement unresolved: the ability to automatically run a report in response to an
event in the database, such as the insertion of a record or the change of a value.
With the OracleAS Reports Services Event-Driven Publishing API, you can
automatically run a report in response to an event in the database, such as the
insertion of a record or the change of a value. The Event-Driven Publishing API is a
PL/SQL API that allows for the automatic submission of jobs to OracleAS Reports
Services from within the database.
This chapter provides a look at the Event-Driven Publishing API and includes
examples of its use. It includes the following sections:
■ The Event-Driven Publishing API
■ Debugging Applications that Use the Event-Driven Publishing API
■ Invoking a Report From a Database Event
■ Integrating with Oracle Advanced Queuing
17.1 The Event-Driven Publishing API
17.1.1 Elements of the API
The Event-Driven Publishing API is a PL/SQL package that provides the basic
functions required for the development of procedures that respond to events in the
database. Event-driven jobs are submitted using the HTTP protocol. The server assigns
a unique job_ident record to every call, useful for tracking the status of the job.
The API consists of several key elements:
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