Since it's introduction, Oracle APEX has evolved from a basic toolkit for small applications to an enterprise-ready platform for applications of almost any size. However, one area has been at almost a standstill since its inception: printing. This session will discuss how to integrate PL/PDF - a 3rd party PL/SQL-based printing solution - with Oracle APEX, so that you can provide your end users with beautiful PDF reports in almost no time. It will use real-world examples and discuss now only basic reports, but also charts, templates and bar codes.

1. High Quality Printing with
APEX & PL/PDF
Scott Spendolini
Executive Director, Enkitec
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2. WELCOME
2

3. About the Presenter
 Scott Spendolini
 scott.spendolini@enkitec.com
 @sspendol
 Ex-Oracle Employee of 10 years
 Senior Product Manager for Oracle APEX
from 2002 through 2005
 Founded Sumner Technologies
in October 2005
 Co-Founded Sumneva in January 2010
 Joined Enkitec in June 2012
 Oracle Ace Director
 Co-Author, Pro Oracle Application Express
 Author, Secure APEX Development Best
Practices
 “Scott” on OTN Forums
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4. About Enkitec
 Oracle Platinum Partner
 Established in 2004
 Headquartered in Dallas, TX
 Locations throughout the US & EMEA
 Specialties include
 Exadata Implementations
 Development Services
 PL/SQL / Java / APEX
 DBA/Data Warehouse/RAC
 Business Intelligence
4

5. Agenda
 Overview
 Installation
 APEX Integration
 Common APIs
 Extras
 Summary
5

6. OVERVIEW
6

7. APEX & Printing
 APEX is over 10 years old
 Initial code was started on 4-AUG-1999
 As much as it has advanced over the years, there
is still no de-facto,“go to” printing solution
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8. Poll
 What printing technology do you use in
conjunction with APEX?
 “Printer Friendly” Mode
 Apache FOP
 Crystal Reports
 Jasper Reports
 Oracle BI Publisher
 PL/PDF
 File > Print
 Other
8

9. Options
Add’l
Name Ease of Use Power Cost
Server
Printer Friendly
★★★★★ Free
Mode
Apache FOP ★★★★★ ★★ ✔ Free
Jasper Reports ★★★★ ★★★★ ✔ $$
Crystal Reports ★★★★ ★★★★ ✔ $$$
Oracle BI
★★★★ ★★★★★ ✔ $$$$$
Publisher
PL/PDF ★★★ ★★★★ $
9

10. What is PL/PDF?
 Third party product designed by Oranext
 http://plpdf.com
 Provides a set of PL/SQL based APIs that can
generate PDF files from the Oracle database
 Easy to securely integrate with APEX
 Can be called from a Page or Application Process
10

11. PL/PDF Features
 Robust reporting engine
 Charts
 Bar, Line & Pie
 Barcode Printing
 Use Existing PDF files as Templates
 TrueType Font Embedding
 Encrypted PDF Documents
 Native Support for PNG & JPEG images
 Other types supported via Oracle InterMedia
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12. Licensing
 Licensed per instance of Oracle
 $600 per instance
 Can download a trial for free
 5 Page Maximum
 Watermark Appears on all pages
 No additional hardware is required
 PL/PDF installs into the same database as APEX
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13. The BLOB!
 Result of PL/PDF is nothing more than an Oracle
BLOB
 Thus, you can do anything with PL/PDF output
that you can with an Oracle BLOB:
 E-Mail it as an attachment
 Download it to a browser
 Store it in a table
 Index it with Oracle Text
 Schedule a procedure to
generate and e-mail PDF files
13

14. Simple Example
plpdf.init;
plpdf.NewPage;
plpdf.SetPrintFont('Arial',NULL,12);
plpdf.PrintCell(50,10,'Hello World');
plpdf.SendDoc(l_blob);
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15. Complex Example
 eSERT Evaluation Summary Report
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16. Layout & Control
 All layout is handled via API calls
 There is no GUI tool to design a PL/PDF report
 Seems limiting, and can be at times
 Template feature allows you to use any tool to create the
structure of a document and use PL/PDF APIs only to
populate the data
 Also, there are APIs that minimize the amount of code
required when creating reports
16

17. Sweet Spots
 PL/PDF is the best solution when:
 The core report definition does not change often
 End Users do not need to create one-off reports
 You have an abundance of PL/SQL resources and little
money
17

18. INSTALLATION
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19. Installation Options
 PL/PDF comes with a Windows-based installer
 Can use to install on any target OS
 Need to be able to connect to the target database via
SQL*Net
 Alternatively, you can run the scripts manually via
command prompt
 In either case, installation should take about 5-10
minutes
19

20. Where to Put It
 Since PL/PDF is a set of PL/SQL objects, you’ll
need to select a schema to put it in
 Typically use PLPDF, but can name the schema anything
 Best to use its own schema and then create
grants & synonyms to access from other schemas
 You’ll need to do this manually
 Start with just PLPDF & PLPDF_TYPE; synonyms for other
objects can be added as needed
20

21. APEX INTEGRATION
21

22. APEX Integration
 Once installed and the corresponding grants are
created to your parse as schema, there is
NOTHING ADDITIONAL TO CONFIGURE in order to
integrate PL/PDF with APEX
 PL/PDF - like APEX - is PL/SQL
 Thus, as long as your parse-as schema can access the
PL/PDF objects, that’s all you’ll need
 Seriously.
 There’s nothing else to configure.
 Try it. You’ll see.
22

23. APEX Integration
 PL/PDF must be called as part of the Page
Rendering process in APEX
 And it must occur before anything else
 Best Practice:
 Create an On Load PL/SQL Process that calls PL/PDF
 Set the Condition to Request = Expression 1
 Add a button/link to that page which sets the Request to
trigger the PL/PDF call
23

24. APEX INTEGRATION
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
24

25. COMMON APIS
25

26. Common APIs
 PL/PDF is nothing more than a set of PL/SQL APIs
 Like any other API set, there’s a learning curve
 Most APIs have default values on most
parameters
 Thus you only need to pass values to those you wish to set
 Use param => value notation for best results
 Refer to the documentation for full details
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27. LAYOUT & CONTROL
27

28. init
 Called once to initialize PL/PDF
 Parameters:
 p_orientation
 p_unit
 p_format
28

29. newPage
 Creates a new page
 Called anytime a new page is needed
 PL/PDF will automatically create a new page when
needed if data overflows the current page
 Parameters:
 p_orientation
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30. setPrintFont
 Sets the font family and style used for text
 Parameters:
 p_family
 p_style
 p_size
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31. printCell
 Prints a line of text on the page
 Parameters:
• p_w • p_align
• p_h • p_fill
• p_txt • p_link
• p_border • p_clipping
• p_ln
31

32. sendDoc
 Returns the PDF document to a BLOB variable
 Parameters:
 p_blob
32

33. BASIC REPORT
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
33

34. lineBreak
 Places the cursor on the next line
 Parameters:
 p_h
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35. LINE BREAK
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
35

36. setCurrentXY
 Sets the position of the cursor
 Parameters:
 p_x
 p_y
 Similar:
 setCurrentX
 setCurrentY
36

37. SET CURSOR POSITION
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
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38. setColor4Text
 Sets the font color used for text
 Parameters:
 p_r
 p_g
 p_b
 Alternatively:
 p_color
38

39. setColor4Filling
 Sets the background color used for text
 Parameters:
 p_r
 p_g
 p_b
 Alternatively:
 p_color
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40. API for the API
 In some cases, you may want to create your own
API to simplify the number of PL/PDF API calls
required
 For example, a single API can consolidate the
following three PL/PDF APIs:
 setPrintFont
 setColor4Text
 setColor4Filling
40

41. set_font API
PROCEDURE set_font
(
p_family IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT 'Arial',
p_size IN NUMBER DEFAULT 10,
p_style IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
p_r IN NUMBER DEFAULT 0,
p_g IN NUMBER DEFAULT 0,
p_b IN NUMBER DEFAULT 0,
p_r_bkg IN NUMBER DEFAULT 255,
p_g_bkg IN NUMBER DEFAULT 255,
p_b_bkg IN NUMBER DEFAULT 255
)
IS Called without parameters, the font will
be set to Arial 10 normal (black on white)
BEGIN
41

42. set_font API
plpdf.SetPrintFont(
p_family => p_family,
p_style => p_style,
p_size => p_size);
plpdf.SetColor4Text(
p_r => p_r,
p_g => p_g,
p_b => p_b);
plpdf.SetColor4Filling(
p_r => p_r_bkg,
p_g => p_g_bkg,
p_b => p_b_bkg);
END;
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43. Download File API
 You can also create a single procedure to handle
file downloads
 Pass in the BLOB and filename
 All PL/PDF reports can call this procedure
 In fact, it is recommended that PL/PDF reports
be based on a package
 Reusability
 Security
43

44. SET_FONT &
DOWNLOAD_FILE API
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
44

45. setHeaderProcName
 Sets which procedure to call to produce the page
header
 Parameters:
 p_proc_name
 p_height
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46. setFooterProcName
 Sets which procedure to call to produce the page
footer
 Parameters:
 p_proc_name
 p_height
46

47. Note on Privileges
 The procedure named in the header and footer
calls must be able to be called by the schema in
which PL/PDF is installed
 Not a problem is PL/PDF is installed in the same schema
as your PL/SQL
 You can not pass parameters to this procedure
directly, but can do so via SYSCONTEXT
47

48. PAGE HEADER & FOOTER
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
48

49. REPORTS
49

50. Printing a Report
 Whether you’re printing a report that is 1 or 100
pages, there are better, more specific APIs for
that
 QUERY_PRINT
 Pass a SQL Statement, get a report
 ROW_PRINT
 Allows you to loop through a SQL statement or Dynamic SQL and have
more control over the resulting report
50

51. query_print
 Designed to enable developers to quickly take a
SQL statement and generate a PDF document
from it
 Limited formatting options and control
 Eight different variations are available: QUERY_PRINT_01
through QUERY_PRINT_08
51

52. query_print
 Technically a one-off API not included in the
PL/PDF Distribution
 Can be downloaded from PL/PDF’s site
 For Developers > Examples > PLPDF-SDK > Complex
Examples > Query Print
52

53. query_print
 Parameters:
procedure query_print_01(
p_query varchar2,
p_height number,
p_header_fill number default 0
);
procedure query_print_09(
p_query varchar2,
p_height number,
p_cellwidth number,
p_numbercells number,
p_datecells number,
p_maxcells number default 0,
p_header_fill number default 0
);
53

54. QUERY_PRINT
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
54

55. row_print
 ROW_PRINT allows for a lot more flexibility than
QUERY_PRINT
 Typically called from inside a loop
 FOR X IN (SELECT * FROM ...)
 DBMS_SQL
 Four different variations are available:
ROW_PRINT through ROW_PRINT4
55

56. row_print
 Sample Parameters
 p_data
 p_width
 p_align
 p_style
 p_maxline
 p_links
 p_h
 p_fill
 p_min_height
 p_clipping
56

57. ROW_PRINT
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
57

58. Table of Contents
 PL/PDF allows you to automatically crete a Table
of Contents
 You can add “bookmarks” throughout your application that
link back to the main table of contents
 Fully automated; no need to calculate anything
58

59. TABLE OF CONTENTS
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
59

60. EXTRAS
60

61. Extras
 In addition to its core APIs, PL/PDF offers a
number of extra features
 Templates
 Charts
 Bar, Line & Pie
 Bar Codes
 Encryption
 OpenOffice Forms
 TrueType Font Support
61

62. Templates
 PL/PDF allows you to include a PDF template as a
background for any page
 No need to use PL/PDF to create the structure of a
document; focus on filling in the data
 Any PDF document can be used
 Easy to create PDF documents from Word, Acrobat, etc.
62

63. Templates
63

64. TEMPLATES
D E M O N S T R A T I O N
64

65. Charts
 Support for three types of charts
 Line
 Bar
 Pie
65

66. Charts
sumnevaSERT
Settings Summary 28 out of 37 possible points 75.68%
Session Duration
0% Authentication Scheme: 1
0 out of 2 possible points
Security
60%
6 out of 10 possible points
Application Settings
84.62%
11 out of 13 possible points Session Duration: 2 Security: 4
Authentication Scheme
91.67%
11 out of 12 possible points
Application Settings: 2
Exceptions Awaiting Approval
No Data Found
Stale Exceptions
No Data Found
66

67. Barcodes
 Support for a number of types of barcodes:
Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB
8543 8543 8543 8543
$36.99 $36.99 $36.99 $36.99
101262640 101262640 101262640 101262640
Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB
8543 8543 8543 8543
$36.99 $36.99 $36.99 $36.99
101262640 101262640 101262640 101262640
Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB
8543 8543 8543 8543
$36.99 $36.99 $36.99 $36.99
101262640 101262640 101262640 101262640
Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB Feline Adult 20/22LB
8543 8543 8543 8543
$36.99 $36.99 $36.99 $36.99
101262640 101262640 101262640 101262640
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68. Other Features
 Ability to encrypt PDF files
 Support for OpenOffice PDF Forms
 LZW compression
 TrueType Font Support
68

69. SUMMARY
69

70. Summary
 PL/PDF provides a robust, cost effective
solution for producing high quality PDF
documents from any APEX application
 Not always the right tool for every job; but in many cases,
it works quite well
 Low cost and zero footprint means that it should at least
be seriously considered
70

71. Download
 This and all other Enkitec presentations can be
downloaded for free from:
http://enkitec.com/presentations
71

72. http://www.enkitec.com
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