BI Publisher is an attractive replacement option for Oracle Reports if your enterprise is looking to stay within the Oracle technology stack.
Our goal is to provide you with the best possible support as you explore your enterprise reporting strategy. That’s why we’ve collected some of the most frequently asked questions from our customers, webinar attendees, and around the web.
When does Oracle Reports Premier Support end?
For Oracle Reports, Premier Support will end in 2025. Read our in-depth article about how the Oracle support dates affect your business.
Can pivot tables be created in BI Publisher?
Yes, in addition to many other formats, pivot tables or crosstabs are also supported in BI Publisher.
Are there tools for migrating from Oracle Reports to BI Publisher?
Yes. PITSS has a tool-assisted process that allows us to migrate your Oracle Reports code to technologies like BI Publisher. This process ensures high level of automation during migration and reduces the total cost of the migration process by up to 70%, even with the most complex reports.
Is there a way to completely migrate Oracle Reports to BI Publisher?
Yes, Oracle Reports can be completely migrated to BI Publisher. Especially with a large number of reports, tool assistance is extremely useful as all reports can be analyzed and migrated simultaneously, with only a small number of manual fine-tuning steps.
Is there a roadmap for migrating Oracle Reports?
The PITSS Oracle Reports migration process starts with a Quick Check Analysis. Then, our experts clean up, reduce the complexity of reports and migrate using to BI Publisher or other technologies, depending on your business needs and reporting requirements.
Where are the BI Publisher artifacts stored?
The BI server stores the artifacts in the FileSystem on the server. When installing Oracle BI Suite that includes BI Publisher, the artifacts are stored in the BI Catalog, the B repository in the database.
Can Oracle Reports files be reused?
Oracle Reports themselves can not be consumed by the BI Publisher. However, our tool-assisted process identifies and extracts the important data from your reports, ensuring that the final BI Publisher product matches your business needs.
How can we connect Oracle BI Publisher to Oracle Forms?
There are no restrictions on the functionality of BI Publisher and a set destination when called from within Forms, even if Forms is opened via Java WebStart. If the output is to be displayed via WEB.SHOW_DOCUMENT, the behavior of the WEB package takes effect under Forms. If Forms is not running in the browser, the default browser opens.
How does BI Publisher integrate with Oracle Forms, ADF, or APEX?
Forms, ADF, and APEX use a webservice approach to integration. In fact, Oracle Forms now has standardized integrations. APEX also has an integration with BI Publisher. For Oracle ADF, however, there is no standard integration.
Does BI Publisher have the ability to connect to multiple databases at the same time so that a report can extract data from multiple databases?
Yes, you can connect to different data sources in a report and combine that data.
How are the reports available?
We recommend an approach of development, testing, then usage. Yes, this is the best approach for an accurate software development environment.
Is it possible for BI Publisher to send a report directly to a specific printer without opening it on the screen?
Yes, you can define a PrinterQueue on the BI server and specify it directly as the destination for the output.
Do you need to make adjustments for BI Publisher to call reports from Forms?
Yes – but that is also covered with our PITSS.CON tools. We identify all calls in your code, even if they are dynamic, switch the call, and change the parameter transfer.
Are there any additional costs when using BI Publisher with APEX?
If you’re an Oracle Reports customer, you can use Oracle BI Publisher with a valid support agreement.
Are there additional costs for using BI Publisher outside of Forms?
No – you just have to have a valid Oracle support license. Otherwise, apart from the migration itself (unless fully internally implemented as well) there are no additional costs.
Can BI Publisher handle multilingual reports?
Yes. To be brief, BI Publisher uses XLIFF technology to handle multilingual reports. To do this, it extracts all text components and merges them later in the engine.
Can BI Publisher be used to send invoices to customers by email?
Yes, BI Publisher allows email distribution with their bursting option, This allows you to divide a report result into several documents and send them by email.
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