Friday 20 June 2008

ETEXT Templates for Check Printing - Part 3

In the first 2 blogs in this series, we completed:

Point 1)- Define the fixed position Check file required by the third party software AND
Point 2)- Map our required text file against the standard Oracle Payments Disbursement XML file.

OK - let's get to the meat of the solution.... building the actual ETEXT template.

Point 3)- Build an ETEXT template according to the structure defined in point 1 and based upon the XML file from point 2.


ETEXT templates are used to generate Fixed or delimited text files from BI Publisher.

All commands are created within a RTF document( i.e. MS Word).

ETEXT templates start with global commands and then have line commands for each line required in the file and field commands for each individual field within the line i.e. to produce our 3 line text file from Part 2:



NCKEVIN WOODROW                                     01-JUN-20081872                1000,000.00
12 HOLLYWOOD BLVD                                 LOS ANGELES
CALIFORNIA                                        90210



The ETEXT template structure is:


- GLOBAL FILE COMMANDS
--- NEW LINE COMMANDS
------ FIELDS WITHIN LINE COMMANDS
--- NEW LINE COMMANDS
------ FIELDS WITHIN LINE COMMANDS
--- NEW LINE COMMANDS
------ FIELDS WITHIN LINE COMMANDS


GLOBAL FILE COMMANDS:
These are the commands and parameters that affect the whole text file being produced. This includes:
- TEMPLATE TYPE: the type of text file being created i.e. Fixed or delimited
- OUTPUT CHARACTER SET: the appropriate character set
- NEW RECORD CHARACTER: the character used to mark the end of a line and the start of a new line i.e. carriage return

NEW LINE COMMANDS:
These commands affect the line as it written to the text file i.e.
- LEVEL: the corresponding parent tag or level within the XML file.
- DISPLAY CONDITION: any conditions that must be met before the line is written
- NEW RECORD: the addition of a new line marker to the file


FIELDS WITHIN LINE COMMANDS: These commands add each individual field to the current line. They include: - POSITION: the starting position of the field on the line(for Fixed position files) - LENGTH: the length of the field - PAD: any required padding of the field - DATA: the source of the field i.e. a default value or an element fromthe XML file

For greater explanation, check out Chapter 4 of the BIP User Guide.

OK - that's the talk finished!!!

Here is an example ETEXT template and Payments XML file to build the 3 line text file specified in Point 1 in Part 2 of this blog series:



XML Sample

ETEXT Template

Use the 'Template Viewer' supplied with Oracle BI Publisher desktop to test them for yourself.
OK, I admit that it is a simple example - but I hope that it is just enough to get you started with your own template!!!
  As always, let me know :-)

12 comments:

Mikem said...

Great blog as usual Kevin
Will you please cover how to pad with blank lines so the text file entries end up on the correct position on the stationary?
e.g. There are 25 lines available on the stationary for invoices but only 5 invoices to be paid on this payment - what steps should be taken to insert 20 blank lines after the 5 invoice lines?
I'm also having difficulty in downloading your samples.
Mike

Anonymous said...

Sir, The samples won't download from upload.com?

Mikem said...

Thanks for moving the rtf and XML downloads - I was finally able to download them but only with Firefox!
You say "Use the 'Template Viewer' supplied... " I've tried all the output formats in the desktop - and all I see is a version of the template itself. I there a means to get the actual Etext output in the viewer?
Mike

Kevin Woodrow said...

Hi Mike -
You need to add addtional Extend tags to the Payments Disbursment file for each required blank line. The XML generated should look like:


OutboundPayment
Extend
Blank_Line /Blank_Line
/Extend
Extend>
Blank_Line /Blank_Line
/Extend
Extend
Blank_Line /Blank_Line
/Extend
/OutboundPayment

Then, in your eText template, under the 'OutboundPayment' level, create a new record.
Set the level to'Extend'
Position = 1
Length = 1
Data = Blank_Line
Then, add an end level record.

I've sent you a sample etext template and extract file.

Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have faced errors while downloading templates. How can i get them.

Anonymous said...

Great information you sent. Really it helps

Mikem said...

Hi Kevin
Your blank line instructions work perfectly in the template viewer but when implemented in EBS, the system is very neatly removing all the blank lines!

Any clues how to force their output?

Thanks

Mike

Ashok Reddy Singam said...

hi Kevin,

1)How to add pagebreak if there are multiple checks

2)If there are multiple checks,then all check data is coming once and then all invoice lines for all checks are coming.
how can we get check and invoice lines together.

Thanks,
ashok

Anonymous said...

Great blog entry examples worked
great.

If an etext file is created. How do we call a command line based third party program that will process the created file.

In Rel 11 a printer driver has been setup via concurrent program that calls the third party executable on the command line passing in the report print file. as an enviroment variable. Instead of LP (copy command) the third party program is used How do we mimic this process in R12 thru Oracle payments?

தங்ஸ் said...

Nice article! I am able to generated the csv output. But, when i use the bursting program to put the csv file in specific directories,i have few pbms

1. If the field has "ABC,DGG", bursting removes the double quotes
2. For empty columns, conc output shows extra commas(345,,,,). But, bursting program removes all empty column commans

Any help would be appreciated..Please.

Anonymous said...

I am actually facing the reverse problem, I am getting some blank lines at the end of the data. How do I rectify?

And there is another issue, I am not able to save this using the Export command, when I do that, the new records don't start on a new line, it continues with the previos record, and so the whole formatting is disturbed. It displays perfectly using View though. Anything I am missing here?

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Thank you very much for putting up this wonderful site!

I can not open XML and ETEXT template - I'm getting "the file has been deleted" error. Do you have these templates anywhere else?

please dorp me a mail at areyderman@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Alex