BI Publisher Handy snippets for checking if feilds exist and are populated

I found this when lurking about the interwebs looking for  a way to check if a field existed in the XML


• To define behavior when the element is present and the value is not null, use the following:
<?if:element_name!=?> desired behavior when the element exists and is not null <?end if?>
• To define behavior when the element is present, but is null, use the following:
<?if:element_name and element_name="?> desired behavior when the element exists but value is null <?end if?>
• To define behavior when the element is not present, use the following:
<?if:not(element_name)?> desired behavior when the element is not present <?end if?>

Extended Function Support in RTF templates BI Publisher

ok while hunting round the interwebz for a way of taking a date and turning it into a sub string a character at a time  (don't ask its a finance report thing  SHUDDER !)  I stumbled across this incredibly cool Oracle document  that shows loads of SQL , XSL, and FO elements and functions and how to do them in BI Publisher  well cool and extremely Useful  thank you Oracle   thank you Oracle Techno Pixies :)


extremely cool  and useful Linky