From: David Schmoldt
To: Multiple recipients of list ODTUG-DEV2K-L
Subject: RE: Oracle Dev-suite Release 2 "Reports Parameters configurations"
I can verify that using the RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC as a replacement for RUN_REPORT_OBJECT, as described in that white paper, works great.  I highly recommend it.
 
Overall, using the RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC allowed us to transition a lot of 6i Client/Server reports to 10gAS without having to do any re-writes on the reports themselves.  Just minor changes to the calling form. 
 
You basically replace calls to RUN_REPORT_OBJECT with calls to RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC, and the RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC procedure supplied in the white paper takes it from there.  It deals with the hidden HTML parameters, then calls RUN_REPORT_OBJECT internally, and finally displays the report using WEB.SHOW_DOCUMENT.
 
We have a core PL/SQL library that we attach to most of our forms, and we added RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC to that library.
 
Using PARAMFORM=YES, you end up with an auto-generated HTML parameter page that matches the old Reports parameter page very closely .. same boilerplate text, same populated dropdowns, etc.  Fill in the parameters, hit the SUBMIT button, and the parameters are passed on to the report.  No need to change the actual report. 
 
SInce you can no longer do a 6i Preview, we now generate the document as a PDF, instead of the Reports 6i Preview option.  The PDF report is "previewed" in the browser by WEB.SHOW_DOCUMENT.  Once the PDF is displayed in the browser, the user can print to a local printer, or save the PDF file to their local PC, so that was a smooth transition for the user who was used to the 6i Preview mode.
 
Since seeing code is always easier....
 
A sample Forms trigger using the procedure to call a report WITHOUT a parameter form:
 
declare
  rep_id report_object;
  params VARCHAR2(1000);
 
begin
   rep_id := find_report_object('TRINA_PROJ_DETAIL');
            
   params := 'paramform=no';
   params := params || ' in_proj_id=' || :trina_projects.proj_id;
   
   set_report_object_property(rep_id,report_execution_mode,RUNTIME);
   set_report_object_property(rep_id,report_comm_mode,SYNCHRONOUS);
  
   RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC(
        rep_id,
     'rep_GFC27_oracleas1',  -- our reports server
     'PDF',  
     CACHE,
     'H:\apps\prod10\exe\Trina_Proj_Detail.rdf',
     params,
     '/reports/rwservlet');
    
   synchronize;
end;
 
A sample Forms trigger to call a report that will produce a parameter form:
 
declare
  rep_id report_object;
  params VARCHAR2(1000);
 
begin
   rep_id := find_report_object('TRINA_TIMESHEET_HOURS');
             
   params := ' paramform=yes';
  
   set_report_object_property(rep_id,report_other,params);
   set_report_object_property(rep_id,report_execution_mode,RUNTIME);
   set_report_object_property(rep_id,report_comm_mode,SYNCHRONOUS);
 
   RUN_REPORT_OBJECT_PROC(
     rep_id,
     'rep_GFC27_oracleas1',
     'PDF',
     CACHE,
     'H:\apps\prod10\exe\Trina_Timesheet_hours.rdf',
     params,
     '/reports/rwservlet');
   synchronize;
end;