E-Business Suite

Hi All

I have used Oracle Reports for a few years, and am far from being an expert on them but I wonder how the tool compares to BI Publisher and if there is a good source of information on how I can achieve certain bits of functionality from Reports in BI. It maybe that the functionality I have been used to has now moved to another technology stack/ area i.e. database, other - referred to by BI. Appreciate any info from those using BI in earnest and who moved there from reports.

For example, in Oracle Reports I can call a PL/SQL package/ procedure or function at different stages of the running report. For example I could insert data into a temporary reporting table and carry out various activities on that data. I may wish to do this at run-time and only for the life of the report. How can I do this with BI or should I be re-looking at how/ where this is done?

Some reports can be quite complicated, for example a cash management report which attempts to present a complete picture of the reconciliation of a bank account and explain issues including those which may have been introduced in error by users; and for accounts that are many years old with many 1000's of transactions. With some accounts users may even go back a few years and make a change if an error was identified and they wish to correct at source as they are not archiving CM. In such cases in the past I would use PL/SQL to carry out a lot of the' investigation' which is then presented by the report. The report itself triggered the calling of the relevant PL/SQL.

A few mates who work in Apps have said to me you don't need to use reports really as BI Pub will do these things. I have looked at BI Pub a bit but maybe not enough. Having to use Word to do some layouts seems to me as quirky as reports could be for complicated reports where you have to zoom in a lot to ensure your layout is spot on, so not sure how MS word would be to do this.

Apologies in advance for ignorance shown on BI Pub but really appreciate any feedback. In the past I have side-stepped what was XML Pub at times as I could not see how it would allow me to do certain things but with the increased use of BI Pub I am keen to see in what context it should be used.

Cheers Cel