Creating the Data Definition

When you create the data definition, you register the source of the data that will be merged with your template layout to create your published report. When you register your template layout file (in the next section), you must assign it a data definition that already exists in the Template Manager. This associates the two at runtime. Multiple templates can use the same data definition.

To navigate to the Create Data Definition page:

Select the Data Definitions tab, then select the Create Data Definition button.

Name Enter a user-friendly name for your data definition.
Code If you are using the Oracle Applications concurrent manager to generate your report, the data definition Code must match the concurrent program short name of the report program (for example, RAXCUS for the Customer Listing Summary). This enables the concurrent manager to locate the templates available for the report concurrent program when you submit the request.
Application Select the report's application from the LOV.
Start Date Enter the date from which the data definition will be active.
End Date You cannot delete data definitions from the Template Manager. To make the data definition inactive, enter an end date.

Select Apply to create the Data Definition. You can add the following to complete your Data Definition:

XML Schema You must supply XML Schema if both of the following conditions are applicable:

  • This data definition will be assigned to a PDF template.

  • The PDF template will require field mapping.


A PDF template requires mapping if the template form field names (placeholders) do not match the data element tag names of the XML file.

Note: The W3C XML Schema Recommendation defines a standardized language for specifying the structure, content, and certain semantics of a set of XML documents. An XML schema can be considered metadata that describes a class of XML documents. The XML Schema recommendation is described at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/

For more information, see Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide 10g.

Data Template If you are using an XML Publisher data template to generate the data for this data definition, use the Add File button to upload your data template. For information on creating data templates, see Data Templates .
Preview Data To use the report Preview feature of the Template Manager, upload a sample XML file from the data source. The Preview feature is available from the View Template page and also at runtime from the Oracle Applications request submission interface.
Edit Configuration Select this button to add configuration instructions specific to this Data Definition. Configurations defined at this level will take precedence over site-level configurations, but will be overriden by template-level configurations. For more information, see Setting Configuration Properties.

After the data definition is created, all the fields are updateable except Application and Code.