Adding Parameters and Lists of Values

Defining a Text Parameter

The Text type parameter provides a text box to prompt the user to enter a text entry to pass as the parameter to the data source. Figure 16-2 shows a text parameter definition.

Figure 16-2 Text Parameter Definition

To define a Text type parameter:

1. Select Text from the Parameter Type list. The lower pane displays the appropriate fields for the selection.

2. Enter the Display Label. The display label is the label that displays to users when they view the report. For example: Department.

3. Enter the Text Field Size as an integer. This field determines the number of characters that the user can enter into the text box. For example: 25.

4. Enable the following Options if required:

   • Text field contains comma-separated values — Select this option to enable the user to enter multiple comma-delimited values for this parameter. The parameter in your data source must be defined to support multiple values.

   • Refresh other parameters on change — Performs a partial page refresh to refresh any other parameters whose values are dependent on the value of this one.

Figure 16-3 shows how the Department parameter displays to the report consumer.

Figure 16-3 Text Type Parameter as Displayed in the Report

Defining a Menu Parameter

A Menu type parameter presents a list of values to the user. You must define the list of values first. See Adding Lists of Values. The Menu type parameter supports the data types of String and Integer only.

The Menu parameter definition includes the options:

Figure 16-4 shows the menu parameter definition.

Figure 16-4 Menu Type Parameter Definition

To define a Menu type parameter:

1. Select Menu from the Parameter Type list. The lower pane displays the appropriate fields. Choose the Data Type (must be String or Integer).

2. Enter the Display Label. The display label is the label that displays to users when they view the report. For example: Department.

3. Enter the Number of Values to Display in List. If the number of values in the list exceeds the entry in this field, the user must click Search to find a value not displayed, as shown in Figure 16-5. This field defaults to 100.

   Figure 16-5 Search Feature Enabled When Number of Values Exceeds Setting

   
   

4. Select the List of Values that you defined for this parameter.

5. Enable the following Options if required:

   • Multiple Selection — Allows the user to select multiple entries from the list. Your data source must be able to support multiple values for the parameter. The display of a menu parameter that supports multiple selection differs. See Figure 16-6 and Figure 16-7.

   • Can select all — Inserts an "All" option in the list. When the user selects "All" from the list of values, you have the option of passing a null value for the parameter or all list values. Choose NULL Value Passed or All Values Passed.

     
     

     Note: Using * passes a null, so you must handle the null in your data source. A method to handle the null would be the standard Oracle NVL command, for example: where customer_id = nvl(:cstid, customer_id) where cstid is a value passed from the LOV and when the user selects All it passes a null value.

     
     

   • Refresh other parameters on change — Performs a partial page refresh to refresh any other parameters whose values are dependent on the value of this one.

Figure 16-6 shows how the Department menu type parameter displays to the report consumer when multiple selection is not enabled.

Figure 16-6 Department Menu Type Parameter with Multiple Selection Disabled

Figure 16-7 shows how the Department menu type parameter displays to the report consumer when multiple selection is enabled.

Figure 16-7 Department Menu Type Parameter with Multiple Selection Enabled

Defining a Date Parameter

The Date type parameter provides a date picker to prompt the user to enter a date to pass as the parameter to the data source. Figure 16-8 shows the date parameter definition.

Figure 16-8 Date Parameter Definition

To define a Date type parameter:

1. Select Date from the Parameter Type list. The lower pane displays the appropriate fields for your selection.

2. Enter the Display Label. The display label is the label that displays to users when they view the report. For example: Hire Date.

3. Enter the Text Field Size as an integer. This field determines the number of characters that the user can enter into the text box for the date entry. For example: 10.

4. Enter the Date Format String. The format must be a Java date format (for example, MM-dd-yyyy).

5. Optionally, enter a Date From and Date To. The dates entered here define the date range that are presented to the user by the date picker. For example if you enter the Date From as 01-01-1990, the date picker does not allow the user to select a date before 01-01-1990. Leave the Date To blank to enable all future dates.

Figure 16-9 shows how the Hire Date parameter displays to the report consumer.

Figure 16-9 Hire Date Parameter

Creating a List from a SQL Query

The data engine expects a (display) name-value pair from the list of values query. In the list of values select statement, the column listed first is used as the display name (what is shown to the user) and the second is used for the value that is passed to the parameter in the data set query by the data engine.

If the query returns only one column, then the same column value is used both as the list of values display name shown to the user and as the value that is passed to the parameter.

To create a list from a SQL query:

1. Select a Data Source from the list.

2. In the lower pane, select Cache Result (recommended) if you want the results of the query cached for the report session.

3. Enter the SQL query or use the Query Builder. See Using the SQL Query Builder for information on the Query Builder utility. Figure 16-11 shows a SQL query type list of values.

Figure 16-11 SQL Query Type List of Values

The SQL query shown in Figure 16-11 selects only the DEPARTMENT_NAME column from the DEPARTMENTS table. In this case the list of values both displays the results of the query in the list and passes the same value to the parameter in the data set. Figure 16-12 shows the list of values display entries and the values passed to the data set. Note that the menu items and the values shown for P_DEPT are the DEPARTMENT_NAME values.

Figure 16-12 Sample Data Showing the Same LOV Display Names and Values

If instead you wanted to pass the DEPARTMENT_ID to the parameter in the data set yet still display the DEPARTMENT_NAME in the list, construct your SQL query as follows:

Select     "DEPARTMENTS"."DEPARTMENT_NAME" as "DEPARTMENT_NAME",
         "DEPARTMENTS"."DEPARTMENT_ID" as "DEPARTMENT_ID"
 from    "DEMO"."DEPARTMENTS" "DEPARTMENTS

Figure 16-13 shows the list of values display entries and the values passed to the data set. Note that the menu lists the DEPARTMENT_NAME while the values shown for P_DEPT are the DEPARTMENT_ID values.

Figure 16-13 LOV Display Names and Values

Creating a List from a Fixed Data Set

To create a list from a fixed data set:

1. In the lower pane, click the Create new List of Values icon to add a Label and Value pair. The label is displayed to the user in the list. The value is passed to the data engine.

2. Repeat for each label-value pair required.

Figure 16-14 shows fixed data type list of values.

Figure 16-14 Fixed Data Type List of Values

Prerequisites for Using Flexfields

When defining a list of values, E-Business Suite customers see a list Type called "Flexfield". To enable the flexfield type list of values, BI Publisher must be configured to use E-Business Suite Security. The flexfield must already be defined in the E-Business Suite.

For information about flexfields in the E-Business Suite, see Oracle E-Business Suite Flexfields Guide. For information about setting up E-Business Suite security for BI Publisher, see "Integrating with Oracle E-Business Suite" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

Adding a Flexfield Parameter and List of Values

To add a flexfield parameter complete the following tasks. Each task is described in detail in the subsequent sections:

1. Add the flexfield list of values (LOV). The flexfield type list of values retrieves the flexfield metadata definition to present the appropriate values for each segment in the flexfield list of values selection dialog.

2. Add a parameter and associate it with the flexfield LOV by selecting your flexfield list of values as the source menu for the parameter.

3. Add the Flexfield component to the data model. Use the flexfield parameter to pass values to the Flexfield defined in the Data Model.

4. Reference the Flexfield in your SQL query using the &flexfield_name syntax. At runtime the &flexfield_name reference is replaced with the lexical code constructed based on the values in the Flexfield component definition.

Adding the Menu Parameter for the Flexfield List of Values

Define the parameter to display the flexfield list of values and capture the values selected by the user. The Flexfield type parameter definition includes an additional field called Range to support range flexfields. A range flexfield supports low and high values for each key segment rather than just single values.

To define the parameter for the flexfield list of value:

1. On the Data Model components pane, click Parameters and then click Create new Parameter.

2. Select Menu from the Parameter Type list. Choose the Data Type (must be String or Integer).

3. Enter a Default Value for the flexfield parameter. The default value can also be customized in the report definition.

4. Enter the Row Placement. The row placement determines where this parameter appears in the report viewer. Row placement can also be customized in the report definition

5. Enter the Display Label. The display label is the label that displays to users when they view the report. For example: Account From. The display label can also be customized in the report definition.

6. Select the List of Values that you defined for this parameter. When you select a list of values that is the Flexfield type, an additional field labeled Range displays. To pass a range of flexfield segment values see Passing a Range of Values.

7. The following options are disabled for flexfield parameters: Number of Values to Display in List, Multiple Selection, Can select all, and Refresh other parameters on change.

Figure 16-18 shows a parameter definition for the flexfield list of values.

Figure 16-18 Defining the Parameter for the Flexfield List of Values

Referencing the Flexfield in the SQL Query

Finally, create the SQL query against the E-Business Suite database. Use the lexical syntax in the query as described in Adding Key Flexfields. In Figure 16-20 &Acct_Flex is the Flexfield lexical called in the where condition of the SQL query.

Figure 16-20 Flexfield Lexical in SQL Query

Passing a Range of Values

To define the parameters for the flexfield lists of values when you want to pass a range of values you create two menu parameters that both reference the same flexfield LOV. At runtime users choose a high value from the list of values and a low value from the same list of values. These two values are then passed as operands to the flexfield component of the data model.

1. Create one flexfield LOV as described in Adding the Flexfield List of Values.

2. Create the high range parameter following the steps in Adding the Menu Parameter for the Flexfield List of Values. For the Range field, select High to designate this parameter as the high value.

3. Create the low range parameter following the steps in Adding the Menu Parameter for the Flexfield List of Values. For the Range field, select Low to designate this parameter as the low value. Both parameters reference the flexfield list of values that you created in Step 1. Figure 16-21 shows creating the parameters to define the range.

   Figure 16-21 Defining the Range Parameters

   
   

4. Create the Flexfield in the data model, as described in Using the Flexfield Parameter to Pass Values to a Flexfield Defined in the Data Model.

   In the lower region of the page, enter the details for the type of flexfield you selected. Enter the parameter prefixed with a colon for example, :P_Acct_List.

   In Figure 16-19 the Flexfield component is defined as a "Where" Type. The parameters :P_FLEX_LOW and :P_FLEX_HIGH are entered in the Operand1 and Operand2 fields. At runtime, values selected by the user for the parameters P_FLEX_LOW and P_FLEX_HIGH will be used to create the where clause.

   Figure 16-22 Example Flexfield Component Using Flexfield Parameters

   
   

When the report associated with this data model is displayed in the report viewer, the report consumer sees the two flexfield parameters as shown in Figure 16-23.

Figure 16-23 Flexfield Range Parameters Displayed in the Report Viewer

When the report consumer clicks either the high or low flexfield indicator (...), a dialog launches enabling input of both the high and low values as shown in Figure 16-24.

Figure 16-24 Flexfield Range Parameter Dialog

The display characteristics in the report viewer of the range flexfield parameter resemble closely the presentation of range flexfields in the E-Business Suite.