Checkbox in BIP

Since BI Publisher is integrated with MS Office, you can use some features of Word to add extra functionality into your reports. This topic will handle about the usage of checkboxes in your RTF-template. An example below..

We will create an checkbox which status is dependent on a value in the xml. First, we have to create a SQL-query to get our value. Next step is to design a template to add our new functionality and as finishing touch, we upload it to BI Publisher and test it out.

SQL-query:

SELECT 1 as checkbox_ind FROM dual

XML-file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <ROWSET> <ROW> <CHECKBOX_IND>1</CHECKBOX_IND> </ROW> </ROWSET>

RTF-template:
To add an form element into our template, we have to do first some steps to get our element.

Open MS Word 2007 and go to ‘Word Options’ under the Office-logo. There appears a new window where you can set the option for a developer tab.


Check box ‘Show Developer tab in the Ribbon’. Click ‘OK’ and you will see a new tab into your Word-page.


Follow next step to insert a new form element, in our case a checkbox:


The selected form element appears on your page. We are almost there, we have to add the BI Publisher functionality to get our checkbox work.

Select your checkbox and right click on the icon. You see now the properties of this element. You can set the default value of the checkbox. Choose ‘Add Help Text’ and specify your condition on this element.


Extra information about condition: <?CHECKBOX_IND=1?>
This consists of two element. First element, CHECKBOX_IND, is xml-tag in your xml-file. Second value is the comparising value that has to be met when returning true. If everything is done, click in both dialog boxes on ‘OK’.

At this moment, we have to prepare BI Publisher to understand our checkbox functionality. We have to add a new font. Log in to BI Publisher and go to ‘Admin’ tab.


Choose ‘Font Mappings’ by ‘Runtime Configuration’. Then ‘Add Font Mapping’.


Properties for this font:


Note: If ‘Arial Unicode MS’ –font is not available on the server. You have first to upload this into directory ../jdk/jre/lib/fonts. Restart your OC4J! Now you can select your font-type.

Last step before we upload our template is configure our reports to use this font. Go back to Admin tab and choose ‘Runtime Configuration’ -> Properties. Edit following setting under RTF-template.


Characters used for checkbox: Arial Unicode MS;9746;9744.

Note: Value 9746 stands for checked checkbox and value 9744 stands for unchecked checkbox.

All configuration is done, the final step is to upload our template into BI Publisher and run our report. You see that your checkbox is checked or unchecked dependent on your value of xml-tag ‘CHECKBOX_IND’.

Additional:
If you use the xml-tag <?CHECKBOX_IND=1?> in your template, it would return the value true or false. This can also be used if needed.

Practical examples: