BI Publisher Embedded vs. Interactive

Pinky2010

Member
My understanding is that BI Publisher comes in two packaging for JDE customers. One is Embedded within JDE and the other is Standalone (also called Interactive, I guess). My questions are -
1.) Is there any difference in features (template building) between the two from end users perspective? In what circumstances would one be preferred over other?
2.) Talking about Embedded BI Publisher - Does is get installed along with JDE (in our case - on AS/400) or can it be installed on the Windows machine where the web server is, just like the Standalone version? I know it may sound stupid, but just want to be sure.

We are planning for an upgrade from Xe to E9.1.

Our current configuration is B7333sp22 with DB2 on AS/400. We are planning to move to E9.1 which will continue to be on AS/400 along with DB2. We are considering WebSphere vs. WebLogic to run on a separate Windows 2008 server. We are getting the Embedded version of it and want to make sure that this is what we want and how and where will it sit alongside the other software.
 
The non-embedded BI Publisher version is BI Publisher Enterprise.

1) In both cases, you take XML output, either from your UBE, or some kind of XML output from the system, and use the Microsoft Word plug-in to work on the template, same plug-in for either version. BI Publisher Enterprise is installed as an Application Server instance, much like JDE is installed on WebSphere or WebLogic.

BI Publisher Enterprise thus has its own web site, where users can upload their templates, and have them run from the web Application Server, instead of where the other UBEs are run. The BI Publisher Enterprise reports can even be scheduled within BI Publisher Enterprise's own scheduling module. BI Publisher Enterprise is not limited to just JDE EnterpriseOne. It can be used to run reports from other data sources, like JDE World, Oracle, or any database you can connect via JDBC.

2) The embedded BI Publisher is installed as a set of JDE applications that you use to associate a UBE and version with the proper template you create with the Word plug-in (P95600, P95620, etc.). Then when you run the UBE in the future, there is a separate row exit for BI Publisher output, in the same area, but below the row exit you would normally use to "View PDF".

Hopefully, with the answer to #1, you can see where BI Publisher Enterprise is the one that is installed on a separate machine.
 
having worked with both I'd thought I'd chip in with my views.

The Enterprise version sits ouside JDE and interrogates the database. To create the query you need to use SQL and you can get some very good results with very little knowlwdge of SQL and template design. Its great for reports that show transactional data like Sales but not so good for Financial reporting.

The embedded BIP intercepts the output form the UBE and instead of creating a PDF it creates a file of XML that is then put through a template like Enterpirse version. As such you can do a lot of work in the UBE before putting the outout in the template. One word of warning though sometimes the XML produced is not standard and you have to adjust the UBE to get it to work. For instance you can't use page headers or footers (found that in the manual) and if the UBE does it produces garbage XML.

Both are useful tools and though the Enterprise version is more useful as you don't need to modify UBE's but you need to know SQL and so can not give it to users (as out consultants said we could!).

Ian Sewell
Finance SUpport Analyst
16 Years working in JDE and now too experienced for a decent job
frown.gif
 
Thanks Ian! Can you throw some light on the performance of reports created through one vs. the other. I would believe that the Enterprise BIP reports would return with results much faster than it would take an Embedded BIP report since those talk to the Db directly through SQL.

Btw what hit me on your response was your signature!! Do many of us see our future in that?
 
Pinky,

Really you can not compare the two as they are doing different things. The Enterprise run SQL's quite quickly but I imagine that is dependant on the server you run it on and you can get quick results. Oh yes one thing I forgot to mention was that since you are iterrogating the database direct you need to know JDE at the database level i.e. what field means and how they are used. Another reason you can not give it to users.

The embedded is taking a UBE and formatting the data. Whcih is great if you have the UBE and it doe not need fixing but if you want to build from scratch you will need a programmer to create a UBE.

Over all I would say that the Enterprise you can use as your reporting tool as long as you have people that know JDE file structures and can learn/know SQL (I learnt enough to compare the inventory to GL by item and so create a daily integirty report) and a bit of XSL to format the templates.

The embedded allows you take basic UBE's and create nice output for them hoping the XML created is good.

Regards the Sig: it was just my reaction to being in a dead end contract and being turned down for a decent job as they said I "Had too much experience". You spend years being turned down as I did not have enough in the relevent areas and now I have too much overall.
 
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