Dynamic image does not work in the template builder plug-in (Apex-BI Intgr)

Question

Hi all, I posted this problem in the BI Publisher topic but nobody responded maybe this is because mods thought this is an Apex-BI integration issue.
If I'm in the wrong place, please do warn me.
The documentation says:
Direct Insertion
Insert the jpg, gif, or png image directly in your template.
...This works obviously
URL Reference
1. Insert a dummy image in your template.
2. In Microsoft Word's Format Picture dialog box select the Web tab. Enter the following syntax in the Alternative text region to reference the image URL:
url:{'http://image location'}
For example, enter: url:{'http://www.oracle.com/images/ora_log.gif'}
...This works too when I hardcode an url as url:{'http://www.google.com.tr/images/firefox/mobiledownload.png'}
Element Reference from XML File
1. Insert a dummy image in your template.
2. In Microsoft Word's Format Picture dialog box select the Web tab. Enter the following syntax in the Alternative text region to reference the image URL:
url:{IMAGE_LOCATION}
where IMAGE_LOCATION is an element from your XML file that holds the full URL to the image.
...This, however, does not work.
I use Apex' report query tool and My query is like
select 'http://www.google.com.tr/images/firefox/mobiledownload.png' IMAGE_LOCATION from ... (a single result set for my template)
the xml data is generated with an IMAGE_LOCATION tag. I load it to word template plug-in. The Url successfully displays in the report if I make it a plain-simple field.
But when it's in the image format->web->alt text as url:{IMAGE_LOCATION} no image displayed.
I need to keep this design procedure simple so a simple word user could design a report via using just template builder plug-in. I don't wish to explore the xsl-fo area...yet.
Could you tell me why I can't get this url:{IMAGE_LOCATION} to work?
Regards
PS: My BI version: 10.1.3.4.1

Answer 1

Hi Oeren,
your steps seem basically to be correct. I have a tutorial how to do this here (in german)
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/de/community/apex/tipps/pdf-dyn-images/index.html
when you see the URL corrently as long as you have it as a plain text field, the XML tag and the
referencing seem to be OK.
Here are two thought - the issue might be one of these ...
How did you insert the dummy image into the word document - did you do it via "insert" or
via "link to file". "Link to File" does not work - you must choose the simple "insert".
Another one: Does your BI Server have a connection to the internet - is the proxy server correctly set ..?
Does this help ..?
Regards
-Carsten
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