DBA in the Trenches

Having run into a bug in a custom form I thought I'd share the results. Problem: Oracle Applications allows users to work in a number format that is familiar to them, this is not a problem however and rather a smart feature. The problem come is when you want to save this info into the database and let different users view the data. The error arises when storing number values into a DFF attribute of a table which is a character. This means that when a european number (1.000,99) is stored in an attribute it will be stored as you see it. Now when a user viewing the "number" as regular (1,000.99) there will be an error as it is trying to convert the attribute to a number but it is not in a recognised format. Solution: Oracle to the rescue with FND_NUMBER. To store a number into the attribute column use something like this: attribute1 := fnd_number.number_to_canonical(p_number); To read the number from the attribute column use this.: p_number := fnd_number.canonic

After finally getting hold of bursting for BI Publisher I started to play around and with the help of Gareth Roberts I got it up and running sending PDF templates. I would suggest reading his article if you want a quick rundown of how it all work's. One item I would highlight is that when using dataTigger's inside Data Definition's the heading of the XML is case sensitive:  <dataTemplate name="XXXMLEXAMPLE" description="XSL-XML Example" Version="1.0" defaultPackage ="XXOM_AAABBBCCC_INTERFACE_PKG"> Pay special attention when defining the defaultPackage as I was left scratching my head with the defaultPackage was not being picked up. Also the dataTrigger placement is also in the fine print. beforeReport should be placed before the dataStructure and the afterReport trigger should be placed afterwards. Somehow this managed to catch my eye while reading the documentation.   Data Definition Create the data definition