XML Publisher

Has anyone implemented XML Publisher and seen the benefits, if any? Can XML Publisher replace the standard print software/servers such as Optio or CreateForms?
We are on an AS400 (595), 8.12/8.96.1.2, intel web servers.

We have implemented this at a client recently. Using MS Word, you can create a template to format UBE PDF output in the same way that Optio, Create!Form, and the like can.

The only thing we haven't tried yet is to insert programming. Also, you'll have to rely on something else if you want to implement functionality like Create!Stream or Create!Archive.

The biggest limitation we've seen so far is the memory usage. Since it's a kernel process that does its thing while the client is waiting, you'll have to increase the value of your JDENETTimout in your INI files (both Enterprise JDE.INI and JAS.INI). We increased ours to about 10 minutes. There is also a known issue for very large output files (a few dozen MB), but ours are only a few hundred KB, so they're OK.

hi kenneth

that was very interesting reading. I heard at the Quest asia forum in Sg that tools 8.97 due Nov 07 (this month) is coming out with a bursting engine that should address distribution using email. Fax however would still need purchase of a fax server. Any ideas about this? How much of CreateStream can the bursting engine replace? We are also looking to replace CreateForms with XMLPublisher in 2008. Dont yet know how completely it can be replaced though.

What is the known issue with large files? since our files are generated with chinese fonts under the current Createform limitations they tend to swell up to MBs. Invoice prints are also very large so really interested in this known issue.

Also you said you had to change JDENETTimout to 10 mins. Does this have any impact on the server resources? In other words, do we have to bump up our hardware to consider XMLpublisher?

Your experience will be greatly appreciated

Best regards
shrek

I'm afraid I know nothing about the new XML Publisher capabilities in the upcoming 8.97. Sorry.

When we first implemented XML Publisher, we noticed that some files would error out without having been processed. After going round and round with Oracle Tech Support, I finally noticed that it consistently errored on the larger files, somewhere after 100 KB. What it really was, was the timeout value on the JAS server and Enterprise server. This was set at 90,000 milliseconds, or 1.5 minutes. The file would take longer than 1.5 minutes to process, and the JAS server got tired of waiting. The file was actually still processing, but had nothing still waiting for it to return. After increasing the timeout, the have been able to process all their check runs, and so far all of them have been under 500 KB in size. The only effect I noticed was that the JDENET_K kernel for the XML Publisher used about 100-150 MB of RAM, as opposed to the 30-50 MB of RAM normally taken by a kernel.

While researching the issue though, there were mentions in the Knowledge Garden of known bugs in the XML Publisher for .XML files that were much larger than ours, 20 MB to 50 MB in size.

In my opinion XML publisher is not ready yet. It can't print the documents automatically; you have to go to WSJ, select the record and submit it manually to be printed. It can be a huge waste of time if you have hundred documents.
I heard that it is going to be fixed in 8.97. We'll see.

Alex