Passing menu selections as parameters to Data Template

Question

Hi,
Following is my data template where i am passing 3 parameters - product_names(drop down menu, with option of multiple select with All), balance_date and trailing_days:
<dataTemplate name="ProductTrendDataTemplate" description="Product Trend Report" dataSourceRef="PI reporting DS">
     <properties>
          <property name="include_parameters" value="false"/>
          <property name="include_null_Element" value="false"/>
          <property name="include_rowsettag" value="false"/>
          <property name="scalable_mode" value="off"/>
     </properties>
     <parameters>
          <parameter name="product_names"/>
          <parameter name="balance_date" dataType="date"/>
          <parameter name="trailing_days" dataType="number" defaultValue="30"/>
     </parameters>
     <dataQuery>
          <sqlStatement name="settlementlvl">
               <![CDATA[     
          select
            to_char(eff_d , 'MM/DD/YYYY') as settlement_date,
            prdt_nm as product_name,
            sum(tt_now_mmda_bal_a) as balance,
            sum(acc_cnt) as account_count,
            to_char(latest_settlement_date, 'MM/DD/YYYY') as latest_run_date
           from
            <tables>
           where
            prdt_nm in (:product_names)
            and eff_d <= nvl(cast(:balance_date as date), (select max(eff_d) from t_frdba_daily_bal_f))
            and eff_d >= nvl(cast(:balance_date as date), (select max(eff_d) from t_frdba_daily_bal_f)) - :trailing_days       
            group by eff_d, prdt_nm, latest_settlement_date
            order by eff_d, prdt_nm
               ]]>
          </sqlStatement>
     </dataQuery>
     <dataStructure>
          <group name="SETTLE_INFO" source="settlementlvl">
               <element name="SETTLE_DATE" value="settlement_date"/>
               <element name="PRODUCT_NAME" value="product_name"/>
               <element name="BAL" value="balance"/>
               <element name="ACCNTS" value="account_count"/>
               <element name="LATEST_SETTLEMENT_DATE" value="latest_run_date"/>
          </group>
     </dataStructure>
</dataTemplate>
The parameter definition in the xdo document is as follows:
<parameters>
<parameter id="balance_date" dataType="xsd:date">
<date label="Latest Settlement Date" format="dd-MMM-yy"/>
</parameter>
<parameter id="trailing_days" defaultValue="90" dataType="xsd:integer">
<input label="Trailing Days" size="4"/>
</parameter>
<parameter id="product_names" defaultValue="*">
<select label="Products" valueSet="product_list" multiple="true" all="true" allValue="lov"/>
</parameter>
</parameters>
My problem pertains to the parameter product_names. When I select either All or multiple product_names (that is when I select product X,Y and Z from the front end), the product names are passed in as a single string into the query. As a result of this the query prdt_nm in (:product_names) fails as it trys to find all the product_names with value "'X','Y','Z'" instead of selecting on values 'X', 'Y', 'Z' separately. Thus the query is failing for multiple select. Can anyone suggest as how to handle this condition?
Please let me know if you need more information on this....
Thanks,
Ashwin

Answer 1

Tim,
The output from my OC4J terminal with debugger turned on is
The sql query at run time looked as: prdt_nm in (:product_names)
Parameter value substituted as:
[101609_022156559][][STATEMENT] 1: product_names:'X','Y','Z'.
So I assume that the data template recvd this parameter as an string " 'X','Y','Z' ".
Just out of curiosity, I tried the same without using data template , just using plain SQL query, the output from the OC4J terminal is as follows:
In the query the parameter product_names is replace as prdt_nm in (:product_names2905,:product_names2906,:product_names2907) and the values are substituted as
[101609_022637635][][STATEMENT] 1:X
[101609_022637635][][STATEMENT] 2:Y
[101609_022637635][][STATEMENT] 3:Z
So from this you can see that BI publisher is some how handling the data template's parameter parsing differently from plain sql query.
Tim, I am not familiar with pre-fetch triggers as I am new to PL/Sql. Is there someway to handle this at the query level instead of writing a PL/SQL function.
Appreciate your help.
Ashwin