Calling a package in Data template

Question

Hi All ,
I am using Data template for XML generation and want to call a PL/SQL package.I have gone through some of the threads on the topic.
I have some doubts in this regard :
1)Can we have procedures inside package or its just the functions that can be called.
2)Does the package gets executed every time we generate the report.(It got executed for me just once).
3)The parameters defined in the data tamplte can be passed to the PAckage as well?
4) Is this supported on BIP 10.1.3.2 or XML publisher 5.6.2?
Thanks!!

Answer 1

Thanks for your detailed answer!!
I am trying to call a package just to understand how it works .This package just inserts a row in "suppliers" table.I ma calling this package through 'beforeReprot' trigger and querying the table after that.
I have written a package "test_pack" :
create or replace
package test_pack as
function test_insert_fun return boolean;
end test_pack;
create or replace
package body test_pack as
function test_insert_fun return boolean is
begin
insert into suppliers values (1,'p1','p2');
return (TRUE);
end;
end test_pack;
Data Template :
<dataTemplate name="test" dataSourceRef="demo" defaultpackage="test_pack">
     <dataQuery>
          <sqlStatement name="Q1">
               <![CDATA[SELECT * from suppliers]]>
          </sqlStatement>
     </dataQuery>
     <dataTrigger name="beforeReport" source="test_pack.test_insert_fun()"/>
</dataTemplate>
However after this , when I try to view data , I amnot seeing any output.When i go nad check the suppliers table in db, i dont see any values.
I believe this package should be executed everytime i view the data.
Please advice!!