18.2 Report Request Methods

There are a number of request methods available to you for running your report requests. These include:

• The rwclient command line

  The rwclient command line (rwclient.sh on UNIX) is available for running report requests from a command line in a non-Web architecture. It references an executable file that parses and transfers the command line to the specified Reports Server. It can use command line options similar to those used with the Reports Runtime component file, rwrun (rwrun.sh on UNIX).

  On Windows, a typical rwclient command line request looks like this:

  rwclient report=my_report.rdf userid=username/password@my_db server=server_name destype=cache desformat=html
  

  On UNIX, the same command would look like this:

  rwclient.sh report=my_report.rdf userid=username/password@my_db server=server_name destype=cache desformat=html
  

  See Appendix A, "Command-Line Keywords" for more information about command line options.

• A URL

  To run a report from a browser, use the URL syntax. Oracle Reports Servlet (rwservlet) converts the URL syntax into an rwclient command line request that is processed by Oracle Reports Services. You can give your users the URL syntax needed to make the report request from their browser, or you can add the URL syntax to a Web site as a hyperlink. The remainder of this chapter discusses this method in more detail.

• Through Oracle Portal

  The Oracle Portal component enables you to add a link to a report in an Oracle Portal page or portlet, or to output report results directly into a portlet. Each report link points to a packaged procedure that contains information about the report request. Oracle Reports Services system administrators use Oracle Portal wizards to create the packaged procedure making it more convenient and secure to publish the report through the Web. Authorized users accessing the Oracle Portal page group simply click the link to run the report. System administrators can run the report directly from the wizard. See the Oracle Portal online Help for more information.

  Refer to Section 18.4, "Publishing a Report in Oracle Portal" for more information about how to publish your report as a portlet.

• A packaged procedure

  SRW.RUN_REPORT is a built-in procedure that runs a Reports Runtime command. When you specify SRW.RUN_REPORT, set the SERVER option to the Reports Server name to cause the SRW.RUN_REPORT command to behave as though you executed a rwclient command.

  For more information, see Chapter 21, "Using Event-Driven Publishing". For a description of SRW.RUN_REPORT, refer to the Oracle Reports online Help.

• A Web service

  You can expose Oracle Reports Services as a Web service and then call it from any Web service aware environment (for example, a Java application).

  For more information, see Chapter 19, "Using the Oracle Reports Web Service".