Manual install/upgrade of Oracle BI Publisher

Sometimes I have disputes which method of installation is superior:

• automatic install using Oracle Universal Installer
• manual install (step-by-step).

I clearly prefer the manual process because I have more control over it and it makes the upgrade really simple and fast.
Therefore I would like to explain the steps for the manual installation. I’ve done that very often when installing newer versions and builds. I’m impressed that there was never a problem with incompatible reports or templates during upgrades.

Prerequesites

• Installed J2EE server OC4J (Oracle Containers for J2EE)
  Further information can be found under http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/java/oc4j/index.html
• Current version of BI Publisher software
  Can be downloaded from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/xml-publisher/index.html
  For the manual install/upgrade you can download the software independend from the declared operating system.

Steps

1. Extract the downloaded archive into a temporary directory. You only need the directory ../manual which contains all the necessary files for the manual install.

2. Copy the fonts from the directory ../manual/fonts into the font directory of the Java runtime environment (JAVA_HOME/lib/fonts). The Java Runtime environment is defined by the JAVA_HOME setting of the OC4J. For an upgrade you just have to check if there are additonal fonts delivered with the current version of BI Publisher.

3. Copy the file ..manual/oc4j/xmlpserver.ear to the deployment directory of the OC4J (default: OC4J_Home/j2ee/home/applications). There are several options to deploy/redeploy an application into the OC4J.

   • Manual deployment/redeployment using the Oracle Applicartion Server Control (web interface)
   • Auto-Deployment adding following line to the file OC4J_Home/j2ee/home/config/server.xml:

     check-for-updates=”adminClientOnly”
     application-auto-deploy-directory=”../applications_autodeploy”
     deployment-directory=”../application-deployments”
     connector-directory=”../connectors”

     The directory OC4J_Home/j2ee/home/applications_autodeploy has to be created. The name is eligible but has to correspond to the server.xml. Just copy the xmlpserver.ear into this directory and OC4J will detect it when running or after startup. Here you see the clear advantage of the manual install when upgrading BI Publisher. Just copy the new xmlpserver.ear into the deployment directory and that’s (almost) all.

4. During the deployment/redeployment of BI Publisher the central config file OC4J_Home/j2ee/home/applications_autodeploy/xmlpserver/xmlpserver/WEB-INF/xmlp-server-config.xml will be replaced.

   Therefore it is necessary to stop the OC4J and edit the reference to the BI Publisher repository:
   <resource>
   <file path=”C:\XMLP”/>
   </resource>

5. When installing BI Publisher for the first time you have to copy the repository with sample reports and config files from ../manual/XMLP to the referenced location.
   When upgrading I prefer to merge the new delivered repository from ../manual/XMLP into my existing repository by adding new sample reports and check config files for relevant changes.

6. Now it’s time to start OC4J again and check in the login window of BI Publisher that the correct version is installed.

7. If you also develop layout templates with Oracle BI Publisher Desktop don’t forget to install the current version of BI Publisher Desktop which can be found under ../manual/XMLP/Tools. If an old version is already there deinstall it from MS Windows Control Panel.

Now you can decide for yourself if you prefer this (manual) way or the Universal Installer to install Oracle BI Publisher.