XML Data from PL/SQL procedure -- special character issue (eBS)

Question

Hi All,
I am developing a report, where the XML data is created by a PL/SQL procedure. I chose this approach over a data template, since there is a lot of processing involved in producing the actual data, and it cannot be done by select-statements alone. The report is run as a regular concurrent request.
So far so good. There is a problem though. Every time the data contains special characters (ä, ö, umlauts), the concurrent request is completed with a warning, the log confirms that "One or more post-processing actions failed.", also there is no output file. The XML structure is valid as such. The report runs smoothly and produces the output when the XML data does not contain special characters.
I am producing the XML lines by using the standard FND_FILE.PUT_LINE procedure: Fnd_File.put_line(Fnd_File.output, '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'); This seems like a character encoding issue, but declaring the UTF-8 encoding in this way does not solve the problem.
Any ideas what can be done to fix this? I have been searching Metalink but cannot find an answer. Many thanks for your kind help.
Best Regards, Matilda

Answer 1

Hi Rajesh,
One idea I have, is that it might be possible to modify the PL/SQL code into a "before report" type trigger, attached to a data template. The code would process the data and write the lines into a temporary table, from which the data template could retrieve them in a simple select-query. However, it would be neat to be able to solve this without adding an extra layer of processing, since BI Publisher supposedly supports PL/SQL procedures as the data source.
The data in this case is all correct, special characters are an intrinsic feature of the Finnish language. :)
Best Regards, Matilda