Primary Note for Oracle Application Express (APEX) Printing Issues (Doc ID 1092593.1)

Last updated on SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

Applies to:

Details

This Note answers the most frequently asked questions about Oracle Application Express (APEX) printing issues. In addition to the Support Notes below, you can find supplementary information here:

Discussion Forum
Certification
Documentation, White Papers and Demos

Documentation and downloads for earlier releases of Application Express (formerly known as HTML DB) can be found here.

Audience

The information contained in this targets product administrators and installers. You can use this information when planning future upgrades and installations.

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Getting Started

The Reports Printing feature is available starting with Application Express 3.0 and above. For versions lower than 3.0, you will need to upgrade your installation. The most current version of Application Express can be found at https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/apex.html. For additional information on upgrading Application Express, see <Note 1088970.1> Primary Note for Oracle Application Express (APEX) Upgrades.

Choose Your Printing Method

There are two choices when implementing Reports Printing / PDF printing:

• Apache FOP using Oracle's OC4J or internal FOP with Rest Data Services
• BI Publisher

Details on the requirements and configuration for the Apache FOP and BI Publisher can be found here.

• Oracle APEX Listener / Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) 2.0 and above. This option is available starting with Application Express 4.2 and higher. See the Creating Custom PDF Reports with Oracle Application Express and the APEX Listener white paper. This print server option is available on the Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service.

FAQ

Is it possible to use the XML Publisher version supplied with Oracle EBusiness Suite (EBS) for PDF printing?
No, this is not possible due to an architectural restriction with XML Publisher. See <Note 980736.1> Can You Use EBS BI Publisher (XML Publisher) for APEX Printing? for additional information.

Does Oracle REST Data Services / OC4J FOP support formats other than PDF for printing?
Only PDF printing is supported with these print servers. If other formats are needed, BI Publisher will be required.

My APEX installation is running in SSL mode, but I am receiving errors when I try and run PDF printing from this installation. What is causing this problem?
The report is failing because SSL has not been configured on the database. When running in APEX, the reports request is actually being issued the SYS.UTL_HTTP.REQUEST command. Since SSL has not been enabled on the database, the request for the report cannot be completed and an error occurs. See <Note 799171.1> Reports Printing Failing When Instance Setting is HTTPS / SSL: for additional information.

How to add a chart to a report?
In order to create a PDF document that contains e.g. a chart and report, you need to create a report query and associate that report query with an RTF based report layout. Report queries can be found under Shared Components. See: Adding Charts

Are there any restrictions related to printing on the Database Cloud Service?
Because of security restrictions on the Cloud, it is not possible to include URL references in a template as described in Creating Custom PDF Reports with Oracle Application Express and the APEX Listener white paper. To address this restriction, images must be encoded and embedded directly in the document. See <Note 1912140.1> - How to Embed an Image in a Custom XSL-FO Report Layout for the APEX Listener / ORDS Print Server Option for more information.

I have selected CSV, XLS, RTF and PDF as download formats for a report using ORDS as the print server. The CSV and PDF options work, but XLS, RTF ?
CSV, HTML and Email options are available out of the box for APEX, which explains why CSV format does download.  In order to download other formats, you have to use a print server. XLS and RTF formats are only available if you are using BI Publisher as a report server, while PDF is available with the Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) print server. This is why the XLS format does not produce a download.

Other References

<Note.748179.1> Troubleshooting Apex PDF Printing

BI Publisher

<Note.454701.1> How to Debug APEX and PDF Printing Integration (BI Publisher) Issues
<Note.430769.1> Installing and Configuring Oracle BI Publisher on Windows

Oracle REST Data Services / XSL-FO

<Note 1911746.1> Creating Custom XSL-FO Report Layouts for the ORDS / APEX Listener 2.0 Print Server
<Note 1912140.1> How to Embed an Image in a Custom XSL-FO Report Layout for the APEX Listener / ORDS Print Server Option
<Note 1912310.1> PDF Printing FAQ for the Oracle Database Cloud Service
<Note 1903644.1> Using RTF Report Layout with ORDS Creates Unreadable PDF and Print URL Errors

Apache FOP

<Note.464733.1> How to Print Reports In Word Format for Report Regions with the Apache FOP
<Note.375685.1> All Columns Do Not Print for Wide Reports from APEX / HTMLDB
<Note.744866.1> Printing Large PDF Reports Results in Various Errors
<Note.745695.1> PDF Printing with ApEx in 11g DB Results in Format Error or ORA-20001
<Note.846587.1> Ora-20001 The Printing Engine Could Not Be Reached Exporting Apex Report
<Note.438629.1 >500 Internal Server Error Servlet error XML data or RTF template is null. When Using Report Printing
<Note.397608.1> Browser Print Screen Function not Rendering All Graphics (Tabs) of Apex Page

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