Invoking scheduled/bursted reports via HTTP... documentation?

Question

Hi all - I am looking for documentation regarding the HTTP "API" for BI Publisher Scheduler. There is an HTTP interface for which I can find no documentation. For instance by POSTing a URL such as http://<site>:<port>/xmlpserver/servlet/scheduler?ujobname=DirectDeliveryReport.xdo&d_printerd_p_gname0=direct&show_conf_page=true&d_method0=d_printer0&job_locale=en_US&save_output=off
...you can "schedule" a job for immediate execution and output to a printer.
This is the method of execution for Oracle SIM 13 and is vaguely described in the SIM 13 Implementation Guide but not apparently in the BIP docs. I am wondering:
a) what is the API for this web interface? What are the parameters?
b) can this interface be used for bursting reports? If so it would seem to be a much easier way to schedule burst reports when an external scheduling system is required. More straightforward, like a shell script for Oracle Reports, rather than having to write a Java app to call BIP twice, first to get the XML data, second to burst/deliver that data.

Answer 1

Hi Tim -
By 'run now' mode via HTTP, are you referring to a direct call to the XDO or a one-time run via the scheduler servlet? I am not looking to set up a repeating schedule via HTTP, simply to kick off a one-time job with an output destination of email or printer. I cannot find any documentation for the one-time scheduled execution through the scheduler via HTTP. I have searched all the 10.1.3.3.3 docs, the blog, and the message boards for some of those parameters being defined in the SIM URL and there's no mention of them.
SIM may use some internal logic to construct the URL, but by looking at the SIM, Apache, and BIP log I can see what it's doing. It's a series of GETs and POSTs via HTTP. Using this same logic, I have constructed some PL/SQL (http_utl package) to call BIP in the same fashion from a trigger and it works fine. The HTTP interface that SIM is using certainly seems to be fully-fledged; it seems to have parameters that would allow you to define the output format and destination. I just want to know what they are =)
All I'm trying to do is automate some of the SIM printing by making it trigger-based rather than GUI-based. If the client wants to, say, autoemail instead of autoprint, I would have no idea how to change the URL params to do this. Secondly, if such a URL could specify that bursting, per the XDO, take place, we can use this HTTP method to invoke BIP from an external scheduler which will be easier for us than using web services.
Thanks in advance,
-eric