I recently found out the hard way that a BI Publisher field can not be put on an RTF Word Document Page Header. At least that’s what they WANT you to think. BI Publisher fields CAN be put on a RTF Word Document Page Header. But not without a little finesse.
While it’s true that a field can not be inserted using the BI Publisher Add-In, The field can be hard-coded into the document. When the BI Publisher runs, the data will be filled in. An example:
<?E.BANK_ACCOUNT_NUM?>
typed in the header (or footer) of the page will cause, in this case, the Bank Account Number to appear on every page. Not only that, but xdofx fields can also be put on a header. For example:
<?xdofx:if E.BANK_ACCOUNT_NUM=’8854445′ then ‘ – JP Morgan Chase’ else ‘ – SBU Control Disbursement’ end if?>
A nice if-then-else to be executed every time a new page is created in your output. The down side is a messy looking page during development and maintenance. Here’s a screen shot of my most recent conversion project:
A very messy looking header. It runs perfectly though and allows data in the header/footer of your report. Also note the formatting included for the dates. Unfortunately, since the BI Publisher tool doesn’t allow for the insertion of a field, all formatting must be done the hard way.