Mutiple layouts from BI publisher based on layout selected

Question

My end users have requested to have two different layouts on the same report based on if they have selected a PDF output or an Excel output. While I know I could create two version of the same report or I could create a parameter for the layout I was wondering if there was a way to detect what layout the user has chosen.
Thanks

Answer 1

Hello,
you could use the parameter _xf, which contains the output format of the report.
To  do so, you have to specify the parameter in your xslt layout:
<xsl:param name="_xf">pdf</xsl:param>
The parameter is filled by BI Publisher on runtime with pdf, excel, xslt, or whatever output format you use.
You can evaluate the parameter in your layout for example by:
<xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="contains('excel xlsx', $_xf)">
        <!-- do something for excel or xlsx output -->
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
        <!-- do something for other layouts, e.g. pdf output -->
    </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
HTH.
Kind regards,
Tobias