Emailed BI Publisher Reports in HTML Format Not Showing Properly

So it seems that by default, BI Publisher uses CSS style sheets as opposed to inline CSS when generating reports in HTML format. This is perfectly fine as the reports render fabulously in our favorite browsers. However, in certain popular browser-based email services like Gmail, Hotmail, and so on… not so fabulous.. I first noticed this with table-based reports delivered to Gmail: the tables are aligned but the borders and color formatting were gone. The emailed reports were not polished and didn’t look 100% presentable. It seems these these email services don’t like CSS style-sheets and prefer CSS embedded in the HTML body.

There is a solution for this, but it’s not easy to configure… no a simple property or setting. Also, we have to do this system-wide for all HTML reports generated by BI Publisher. Also, by embedding the CSS inline, the HTML message will be much larger, and so will the email. This is the downside of this solution.

As per Oracle Master Note DOC ID 1270136.1, we have to modify the “xdo.cfg” file located in the following folder:

{MIDDLEWARE_HOME}/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/config/bipublisher/
repository/Admin/Configuration

We add the following property tag highlighted in bold within the properties element.

<?xml version = ‘1.0’?>
<config xmlns=”http://xmlns.oracle.com/oxp/config/” version=”1.0.0″> <properties> … <property name=”html-css-embedding”>embed-to-element</property> </properties> <fonts> … </fonts>
</config>

Save the document and restart BI Services.