Oracle BI Publisher Excel Template Creation - Values of a Field All Appear in One Cell

Question

I am having trouble getting to grips with the basics of creating Excel templates for Oracle BI Publisher.

I am working in disconnected mode. I can load the sample XML data fine and select fields, but my output will have all values of the named field in the one cell. How do I get each value to fill a cell within the column?

Firstly, here is the sample XML data:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'utf-8'?>
<!--Generated by Oracle BI Publisher -Dataengine, datamodel:__891572_Temp1_xdm -->
<DATA_DS>
<G_1>
<EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME>Accruals</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME><EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>300000001811328</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>
</G_1>
<G_1>
<EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME>Accruals sub contractors</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME><EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>300000001811332</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>
</G_1>
<G_1>
<EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME>Basic</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME><EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>300000001803121</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>
</G_1>
<G_1>
<EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME>Data Migration</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME><EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>300000001811336</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>
</G_1>
<G_1>
<EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME>Delivery Drivers</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME><EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>300000001811353</EXPENDITURE_TYPE_ID>
</G_1>
</DATA_DS>

Here is a screenshot of the previewed output. It contains the 5 values within the sample data, but all within one cell.

Here is the XDO metadata:

Version 
ARU-dbdrv   
Extractor Version   
Template Code   
Template Type   TYPE_EXCEL_TEMPLATE
Preprocess XSLT File    
Last Modified Date  
Last Modified By    
    
Data Constraints:   
XDO_?XDOFIELD1? <?EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME?>

If I try to apply grouping on this field, it does place values into separate cells within the one column, but it just applies the first value in the sample data repeatedly as seen below.

Here is the XDO metadata with grouping:

Version     
ARU-dbdrv       
Extractor Version       
Template Code       
Template Type   TYPE_EXCEL_TEMPLATE 
Preprocess XSLT File        
Last Modified Date      
Last Modified By        
        
Data Constraints:       
XDO_?XDOFIELD1? <?EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME?>   
XDO_GROUP_?XDOG1?   <xsl:for-each-group select=".//G_1" group-by="./EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME"> </xsl:for-each-group>

My desired output would look like this:

It feels like there is something real obvious I am missing here, but I just cannot figure it out!

Thanks

Answer 1

After following along with this video tutorial, I was able to spot the error.

When using the Repeating Group tool with only the one cell selected, it would essentially overwrite the initial field data reference.

Here is my field browser before applying the repeating group:

And here it is after:

What's strange is that it kept the first field reference in the XDO_METADATA sheet:

Version     
ARU-dbdrv       
Extractor Version       
Template Code       
Template Type   TYPE_EXCEL_TEMPLATE 
Preprocess XSLT File        
Last Modified Date      
Last Modified By        
        
Data Constraints:       
XDO_?XDOFIELD1? <?EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME?>   
XDO_GROUP_?XDOG1?   <xsl:for-each-group select=".//G_1" group-by="./EXPENDITURE_TYPE_NAME"> </xsl:for-each-group>

May be a bug, or more likely just something I am not understanding! Anyway, by manually adding the repeating group using Name Manager (under Formulas tab), I can apply the grouping to a single column without it overwriting any pre-existing constraints: