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 :-)

ETEXT Templates for Check Printing - Part 2

As explained in my last post, many standalone check print solutions integrated with Oracle E-business suite require only a fixed position text file of check data.

The third party software takes care of the layout and presentation of the document.

In order to fulfil this requirement, we have to:

1)- Define the structure of the fixed position Check file required by the third party software.
2)- Understand the XML file created for Payment Disbursements.
3)- Build an ETEXT template according to the structure defined in point 1 and based upon the XML file from point 2.
4)- Set up Oracle Payments to use our custom ETEXT template for Check printing.

OK - let’s look at each of these points:

1)- Define the structure of the Check file required by the third party software:

Before I start to build my template or write any code, I like to map the required file structure completely i.e. define what records appear on each line, their relative positions, length and any padding that is required.
Note: You may need to liaise with your third party vendor or check their documentation to complete this exercise!

I recommend creating a table with at least the following information:

- Line Num: the line number in the text file
- Field Name: the name of the attribute in the file
- Position From: the position number where the attribute value starts on the line
- Field Length: the length of the attribute
- Padding character: any padding character if the attribute length is less than the field length
- XML File Source: the source tag value from the Payments Disbursement XML file
- Default Value: the default value of the field

For example, take the following extract from a fixed position check file:

NCKEVIN WOODROW 01-JUN-20081872 1000,000.00

12 HOLLYWOOD BLVD LOS ANGELES

CALIFORNIA 90210

The structure of this file is:

Line Num	Field Name	Position From	Field Length	Padding Char
1	New Cheque Indicator	1	2	none
1	Payee Name	3	50	' '
1	Payment Date(DD-MON-YYYY)	53	11	none
1	Check Number	64	20	' '
1	Check Amount(####,###.00)	84	11	' '
2	Address Line 1	1	50	' '
2	Address Line 2	51	50	' '
3	Address Line 3	1	50	' '

......and so on


Trust me - if you take time to complete this exercise, building the ETEXT template will be very simple!!


2)- Understand the XML file created for Payment Disbursements:

The BI Publisher data template for Payment Disbursements is:
- Name: Oracle Payments Funds Disbursement Payment Instruction Extract 1.0
- Code: IBY_FD_INSTRUCTION_1_0


In previous blog post, I outlined the structure of the XML file created and how to add custom fields to the XML file produced:

http://kwoodrow.blogspot.com/2008/06/part-2-adding-new-fields-to-r12-payment.html

This file is also well documented in Appendix K of the Oracle Payments Implementation Guide (Part Num: B28872-03).

OK - Here is my table from Point 1 updated with the data source from the XML file:

Line Num  Field Name                 XML Data Source (XPATH syntax)
--------  -------------------------  ------------------------------
1         New Cheque Indicator     
1         Payee Name                 OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/Payee/Name
1         Payment Date(DD-MON-YYYY)  OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/PaymentDate
1         Check Number               OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/PaymentNumber/CheckNumber
1         Check Amount(####,###.00)  OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/PaymentAmount

2         Address Line 1             OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/Payee/Address/AddressLine1
2         Address Line 2             OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/Payee/Address/AddressLine2

3         Address Line 3             OutboundPaymentInstruction/OutboundPayment/Payee/Address/AddressLine3

Now we know the exact structure and data source of the text file required building the ETEXT template will take no time!

I'll cover that tomorrow.

ETEXT Templates for Check Printing - Part 1

There has been a few questions on the BI Publisher OTN forums recently around creating cheque (check) print files in ASCII format:
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=637081&tstart=0

This is because many 3rd party cheque printing solutions (e.g. Bottomline / Paybase) only require an ASCII file of cheque data. The 3rd party software then takes care of the layout of the cheque, signatures and security markings etc.

Unfortunately for us, the Oracle Payments team have only delivered BIP cheque printing templates in RTF format.

If you try and set the output type to TEXT for these, the resulting file will be full of pesky control characters and other such symbols.

Trust me, however hard you try... your standalone check printer is going to spit this file out!

Don't panic!!! There is a solution - ETEXT templates.

ETEXT templates were originally developed for creating fixed position or delimited format Text files for EFT and EDI transmission.

However, their uses should NOT be limited to EFT and EDI.

WHENEVER you need to generate a fixed or delimited text file from an XML Publisher data source, think 'ETEXT'.

You define the structure, format and logic of your TEXT file in RTF format (i.e. using Microsoft Word) and when this is applied against your XML data file, the appropriate TEXT file is produced.

In my next post, I'll take you through the steps to build an ETEXT template for cheque printing.

Before that, take a look at my previous posting on adding new fields to the R12 Funds Disbursment XML file:
http://kwoodrow.blogspot.com/2008/06/part-2-adding-new-fields-to-r12-payment.html

It is important to understand the 4 level structure of the Payments XML document in order to correctly build the ETEXT file.