subject	body
Managing corporate performance	The reason why management of performance in the corporate world has received so much attention is that it determines the profitability and, ultimately, the survival of the organisation. High performance organisations are success stories because of the effectiveness and efficiency in managing their operations. There are a number of factors that influence corporate performance. Organisational, managerial, leadership and environmental factors have all been found to affect performance. The part played by leadership is probably of greater significance in smaller organisations where the leader can exert more direct power and influence. While leadership is critical, it has been found to be effective in times of organisational growth, development and crisis. For the most part, the organisation requires maintenance. In such instances, the leader will, therefore, make little difference to the organisation’s performance. The subject of corporate performance has recently created anxiety and concern to decision-makers and strategy makers in the private and public sectors because of the economic challenges facing the country. Managers at all levels need a clear set of performance indicators that will assist them in managing the business. Unfortunately, in many organisations, the issue of managing performance at all levels becomes critical only when the organisation is in a crisis. The major problem the corporate world faces today in managing performance emerges when it comes to defining what to measure. Performance is a difficult concept in terms of both definition and measurement. Depending on the type of organisation, some treat performance as an end result of an activity while others would want to treat it as a process. Whatever definition one prefers, managing corporate performance poses a number of challenges for managers. A good performance measurement and management system should be derived from the company strategy and cascaded to the lowest level within the organisation. The approach that has been found to be very effective in managing performance is called the balanced scorecard. This concept has not only helped organisations define what they want to achieve, but has also helped many organisations to communicate key performance drivers and indicators to staff. A performance management system without the support of the top management within the organisation would not bring many benefits. For any system of performance measurement to work, the top people within the organisation need to drive it. Unfortunately, in many organisations, the issue of performance management has been relegated to the human resources department. This does not support the development of a performance culture in the organisation. All senior managers need to take a keen interest in managing performance. Employees in many organisations experience a lot of anxiety during periods of performance reviews. This results from the uncertainty regarding how they are going to be appraised. Despite an overdose of courses on performance measurement and management, managers still find it difficult to give an honest assessment of the subordinate’s performance. This problem has been experienced more in organisations that do not have a proper way of linking the performance system to the company’s strategy. These are the same organisations that are still measuring things like punctuality and other competency related dimensions. Unfortunately, when you measure competencies and personality-related variables, employees become defensive and do not cooperate as things of personality greatly affect an individual’s self- esteem. The best way to deal with this problem is to manage company performance within the concept of the balanced scorecard. This concept will enable the organisation to set goals and measures at each level of the organisation and devise ways of giving feedback to staff. The balanced scorecard system can also be used as a way of reporting corporate performance to the board of directors. Despite all these challenges, many organisations have gone a long way in putting systems in place to manage performance at all levels. In order to have effective performance management systems, organisations need to base their performance measurement system on their strategy. All this calls for more involvement by all stakeholders in creating a performance measurement system that is going to be acceptable to all employees. With a bit of effort, the challenges outlined above can be turned into opportunities for success. However, keeping leaders appropriately focused on performance management can prove difficult. Three important tactics can make a difference; keep the topic of performance management constantly "in front" of leaders, keep them involved in the system and its implementation. (courtesy of mnguwi)
Re: Managing corporate performance	You should start a BLOG.
PowerHouse Web uber alles	Having used PowerHouse and PH Web for over 10 year I think it is one of the BEST app dev tools around.  And PH Web makes it even better.  I can develop a robust app in PH Web in mucch less time than in Java or VB or .Net.
Re: PowerHouse Web uber alles	uber alles?
Re: PowerHouse Web uber alles	I believe it is Deutsch for "above/over all".  :)
Re: PowerHouse Web uber alles	It is -  only it spells with an "ü" or, on an English keyboard  ;), with "ue". Cheers Elisabeth (German and a PowerHouse-Junkie for more than 25 years now)
Re: PowerHouse Web uber alles	Fully Agreed! Now lets do a promotional image campaign. What would be the best place to start at? Hm, maybe inside Cognos...? Rgds Andy
Re: PowerHouse Web uber alles	UberAlles sounds much better than ReportNet  ;D Short and succint (perhaps I should move this thread to 'Wishlist') Welcome aboard guys - good to have a truly global membership.
How does DecisionStream compare with Informatica?	Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of using DecisionStream vs Informatica please?
Re: How does DecisionStream compare with Informatica?	My initial thoughts are: [b]DS strengths[/b] - metadata management - integration to COGNOS BI tools [b]Informatica strengths[/b] - flexibility - better performance when dealing with extremely large volumes of data - ETL is its primary business whereas COGNOS is a BI vendor that extended its product range to include an ETL tool
Re: How does DecisionStream compare with Informatica?	What do you mean by flexibility? Where can I see objective stats that show Informatica has better performance than DS?  Doesn't this also depend a lot on A) the RDBMS and machine use and B) how efficient the designer has built the ETL logic? Cognos is an ADT business that extended its product range to include BI.  It was doing ETL  years BEFORE BI (see PowerHouse QTP).  It has now moved on and extended its product range to include CPM/BPM applications.  I think that to say Cognos is a BI business is to say that Microsoft is an OS business or Oracle is a DB business or IBM is a hardware business.
Re: How does DecisionStream compare with Informatica?	In my experience The key diferentiators for Informatica are integration with data cleansing tools (like First Logic) and the ability to scale to multi server environments in order to increase throughput. DecisionStream has the ability to integrate with 3rd party apps, but only through job control and command line interface, or through custom development against an api (like creating a dll to reference within a function). On the scalable architecture point...once you have done everything you can in order to improve the efficiency of your etl code and application architecture (network, SAN, database), the only thing you can do is add processors and RAM. With Informatica you can add servers. However, DecisionStream has some novel dimensional functionality that is effective and easy to use. Managing surrogates, SCD's and late arriving facts is fantastic. The key problem for both is that it seems to take a certain kind of person to want to dig into them and really learn how to use them. There are so few quality developers out there...anybody here an expert level DS developer?
Link to CPM article	[url]http://www.businessforum.com/Comshare04B.html[/url]
Looks good	Nice site jonno! Love the colour scheme. Very extensive product list too.
Re: Looks good	ditto
Re: Looks good	Thanks D and J, a lot of blood, sweat, tears and obscenities went into this site
Re: Looks good	I've never even heard of some of these products. Are they really COGNOS?
Re: Looks good	marvelous effort that ...  congrats ... great to see !!!
Re: Looks good	Gee...I was hoping that we would have something like this. and now we have it. Great job and a big thanks Administrators and Moderators !! By the way, is there a training forum too? I have been working in Cognos Powerplay and Impromptu for 8 yrs and want to learn Reportnet. Did a little of that myself (Framework Manager, Query and Report Studios) but would be nice to go to a training. I had been to COGNOS training years ago for Powerplay, Impromptu, IWR, PPES, Upfront etc but now have to do it on my own and since COGNOS training is too expensive so does anybody know of any training center for Reportnet, preferably in California.  Sorry if this question is not proper for this forum.
Re: Looks good	Hi cognostechie, Thanks for registering as well as the great feedback! (Keep those posts coming) Not sure what you mean by training forum - can you elaborate? But feel free to pop any questions through the relevant board (or even an intro of yourself/company in the Intros board). Glad to have you on board. The COGNOiSe team
Re: Looks good	I think the poster means a discussion subject on Training. Another one might be for bugs, patches and other "gotchas" general to Cognos products or other software/hardware that one might use Cognos products with.  I don't mean a place to download patches from but rather a place to mention a certain patch exists to be downloaded from Cognos' site.  An example of a "bug" when using Cognos Impromptu and SQL Server RDBMS that I don't believe is documented and may be affecting other tools is if you use the data type MONEY in a SQL Server table the results in Impromptu IWR will be unpredictable.  E.g. $1,234,567 may be displayed on the report as $1,567.  Instead of MONEY use either FLOAT or DECIMAL as the datatype and if you can't change the table use a view and a CAST() or CONVERT() function of the column.
Re: Looks good	You are welcome Administrator. What I meant by the training forum is a forum which people could use for this: 1> Freshers who have no idea or very little idea about Cognos could inquire on which products they should get trained on (we could tell them that depending on their background/education/interest etc). Where to go for training. Now this would be difficult as there are very few training centers apart from COGNOS itself (atleast in US). 2> Institutes that provide training could post their ads here. This could be good because their previous students could post their experiences so the newbies get to know in advance what to expect and don't get cheated if the institute is bad. 3> People could ask questions on certification etc. Ofcourse, no copyrighted material to be transferred thru this forum. That is illegal anyway. Basically, for people who want to inquire something related to training and who provide such trainings. It could be helpful for freshers mainly and also for experienced Cognos experts who wish to expand their knowledge.
Re: Looks good	Many Cognos partners provide training, some even have their own facilities. My clients have used Sky Solutions in Chicago for example even though Cognos has facilities there.
Re: Looks good	As Blue has pointed out in another thread, Cognos is *first* an ADT company. So let's put the ADT section at the top of the home page so I don't have to scroll halfway down the page to get to the important PowerHouse section. Scorecarding? -- put it at the bottom!
Re: Looks good	;D Thanks for your feedback JWP. I must admit trying to figure out the composition and order of the boards was a bit of a nightmare so in the end we tried to follow the same outline as that used in COGNOS.com.  But the problem we found was that a lot of applications were not shown and the newer products seemed to be "shoehorned" into very broad (and sometimes unrelated) headings. So, being an democratic site we took a vote and went with the current format - not to say that if others express the same opinion that we are at all averse to moving ADT up the order. So please post your opinions and we'll let the community have the final say. In the meantime, this link should save you the extra key/mousestrokes: http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?action=collapse;c=6;sa=expand#6 PS. two of our moderators (Blue being one) are PowerHouse fanatics so I get an earful everytime this topic is raised! Thanks for the post JWP and welcome aboard.
Re: Looks good	Hi Administrator, I'd just like to add to the chorus of voices saying "what a great site".  I think the current layout is intuitive and easy to use, and as a long-standing PowerHouse fanatic myself, it's great to see it included in the list of topics open for discussion, even if it isn't top of the list! :-) On the subject of a training forum, maybe we could suggest that these kinds of questions initially get posted to the General Discussion area, and if there turns out to be a big demand, maybe then we could consider setting up a dedicated Training topic?  In the meantime, I'm sure that there's enough experience within the current list of members to be able to field most of the enquiries from people new to Cognos products and unsure of which training to take. Thanks for all your hard work in setting up and running this site. Best regards, MF.
Re: Looks good	Aw shuks  ::) You're making me blush Just for that I'll have to move PH up the order (at least for the the ETL et al section) Agree with your thoughts on the training forum but prepared to go with the will of the Cognoids..
Re: Looks good	and how about changing the emoticons...ones that don't have the tribal looks.
Re: Looks good	About the Reportnet training that I mentioned earlier, I found out a way. Cognos has CBT's which are good. Problem solved.
Re: Looks good	Congrats to the COGNOiSe community - [color=Orange][b][size=20pt]1000 high-quality posts [/size][/b][/color] since 13th of July 2005!
Re: Looks good	Let's have a drink on that :D:D  Congrats to you all!!!
DecisionStream vs Informatica	Should we include any others?
Re: DecisionStream vs Informatica	Perhaps.  But Informatica appears to be the "flavour of the month" right now and as this is a forum about Cognos products I feel a comparison of just these tools is warranted.  I would like to hear from people who have used both tools professionally.
Re: DecisionStream vs Informatica	Great topic, i surfed for comparisons between the two and there aren't any
Re: DecisionStream vs Informatica	[quote author=legSPINNER link=topic=7.msg9#msg9 date=1121221068] Should we include any others? [/quote] Ascential DataStage recently re-branded as IBM WebSphere DataStage should be included. However, I've only had experience of DataStage so cannot offer any comparison with the other tools mentioned. nrh.
Re: DecisionStream vs Informatica	I agree, I think we should have a new poll that includes DataStage, DTS, Data Junction, Oracle Warehouse Builder, are there any others?
Re: DecisionStream vs Informatica	In 2000 I did some investigation for GE on ETL and EAI tools available in the marketplace.  There were over 400! I think that we should just sick to comparing 2 tools at a time based on forum member's interests.
Drillthrough error	I am trying to create a drill-through from PP cube to PP report but keep getting this error message "The request failed because there is no valid cube mapping to handle the request" steps leading up to error: * load cube with PP for windows and save my view as test.ppx * in transformer, i open cube properties, tick 'allow drill-through', add a custom report 'c:\cognos\cer4\bin\test.ppx' * update the cube * open PPES server administration and insert my new report * insert cube, then open its properties and change drill-through settings to: powerplay cubes= enabled powerplay windows target: cognos:8010 powerplay web target: http://cognos/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe Any ideas?
Re: Drillthrough error	Does the drill through work for client only use?  ie is it falling over when using though your Enterprise Server? Ensure that the cube and ppx are registering with your PP Enterprise Server. cheers DW
Re: Drillthrough error	dwood09, your absolutely right - i'm an idiot. i had it pointing to a local cube. thank you
COGNOS vs Business Objects	COGNOS vs BO
Re: COGNOS vs Business Objects	not  that we'd be biased or anything  ;)
Re: COGNOS vs Business Objects	[move]BY FAR!!![/move]
Re: COGNOS vs Business Objects	Cognos has 20+ products in its inventory covering everything from application development to data mining.  Business Objects is only reporting and even then only limited OLAP if you don't include the recently purchased Crystal Reports.  The latter is not much better than Access for report writing and depends on the report writers SQL expertise. Cognos report writers (Quiz, Inquizitive, Impromptu, Query and ReportNet) require only a limited knowledge of SQL (or even none at all) by the user and rarely does the designer even see any SQL. Cognos and Business Objects approach OLAP quite differently.  Some people I have spoken to prefer the BO technology and find reporting against a BO cube easier/faster.  I've been using Cognos PowerPlay for over 10 years so I a little biased towards it. Business Objects has no application development, ETL, data mining, or purely web based tools not does it sell applications and financial tools.  That being said, didn't Hyperion buy Business Objects recently?
Re: COGNOS vs Business Objects	Setting aside the brainwashing we have all received  :D, I do think Cognos is better.  We have more breadth of tools and possibilities.  It is interesting however that if you talk to Cognos, BO, and Hyperion users they are all happy with the tools and think thier tool is the best.  Which for us means that Business Intelligence rocks.  Without ReportNet however, I don't think Cognos would be doing well now.  As to the SQL knowledge in ReportNet specifically, while a consumer and a business analyst does not need to be a guru, the admin and developer surely do.
Re: COGNOS vs Business Objects	Neither. I would point you in the direction of BIRT from the eclipse foundation. This is an open source Java based reporting solution. If you do not know how to drag and drop items onto a Report Studio report for e.g. Cognos support would be happy to help you. For anything more complex they simply fall apart. With open source you can see the code and solve the problem yourself. NKT
CPM	Corporate Performance Management (CPM) represents a renewed focus on quantitative management, a "management by the numbers," using insight gained from data analysis and performance reporting. CPM has moved to the forefront of executive discussions for two main reasons. First, dramatic increases in enterprise data make CPM more practical. Second, and more importantly, stakeholders demand that management deliver predictable execution, operational efficiency and corporate accountability, which collectively make CPM more imperative. Driven by technology and business, CPM combines management methodologies, such as Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma, with long-standing business needs for executive reporting and budgeting, plus newer business needs for financial planning tools and enterprise-wide, Web-based analysis and reporting. Reflecting this combination of analytical and operational needs, CPM technology is provided by three vendor types: Business Intelligence (BI), niche applications, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). With the analytical and operational split for CPM technology at roughly 80/20, BI is the dominant enabling technology.
Grant access to active directory user	How do I make a new user in active directory a report writer? Thanks
Re: Grant access to active directory user	Firstly, the authority for delegated administration needs to be set up for Reportnet. Ensure that the given server name or named account for starting the ReportNet service is set up in the Active Directory properties as an authority for delegated adminstration. Without these permissions, ReportNet is  unable to fully read all user properties from the Active Directory server.
Commentary	Will Metrics Manager allow you to post commentary at the KRA (parent level) as well as the KPI (child level)?
Re: Commentary	Commentary can only be entered at the KPI or Metric level ... however you could consider producing Metrics for your Key Result Areas as well ... there would be no link between the two though!!! cheers, DW
Re: Commentary	Can anyone tell how to learn Cognos Matric Manager
Re: Commentary	I did the online course via cognos.com for about $100 and it was pretty good. http://support.cognos.com/servlet-cs/etraining?pg=desc&COURSECODE=41737&CBT=1 depending on where you are, there would be certified partners that run courses.
Re: Commentary	We had a Cognos pre-sales techo assist with install and prep for prototype ... It was a really quicjk product to pick up and run with.  I spent most of my time in the prototype phase preparing automation procedures that facilitates the dynamic creation of scorecards and metrics as the organisational hierarhcy changes.  All in all, a pretty good product out of the box!  I suggest get a demo, install and play! good luck.  If you've got specific questions let us know. cheers, DW
Importing User classes from Access Manager	We have set up user classes in Access Manager for our existing 7.1 (pre ReportNet) installation, and am preparing for the big move to CRN.  Can anyone advise if there is a way of using these Access Manager user classes as Groups, rather than the default reference made as Roles. For example we have Finance, Payroll, Engineering user classes, which we would like to bring through to CRN as Groups, rather, CRN is seeing them as Roles. Hopefully we don't have to re-create all the groups in CRN and convert all Access Manager User Class' to Roles!?! thanks, DW
Re: Importing User classes from Access Manager	Based on Q&A in a webinar I attended a couple of months ago I think there is no easy way to migrate your security info from Access Manager.
Re: Importing User classes from Access Manager	Does CRN have an embedded Access Manager-type module?
Re: Importing User classes from Access Manager	Thanks Blue ... I was afraid of that :( ... Chias, CRN uses external LDAP services / interfaces, such as Access Manager to confirm that a user is who they say they are, and then facilitates the creation of roles and groups (similar in concept to User classes) to define what the will have access to. cheers
Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	Most of the Cognos demos I've seen use Viz as a scorecarding tool.  Shouldn't it be grouped under that classification?
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	I'm not so sure that it would be classed as purely a scorecarding tool. I think the key selling point of Viz is the graphical modelling of one's data. Whilst scorecarding may incorporate a graphical component, it is much more than having pretty pictures to go with the numbers. My 2 cents..anyway The clients I have don't really use Viz much. I'm interested to hear about client takeup rates.
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	Hi Blue, Viz is a visualization tool.  It is a multi-colored, three dimensional cherry on top.  It gives you ability to view the data in colorful displays and gages instead of simple crosstabs.  It is integrated with other Cognos tools and gets its data from PowerPlay for instance so you can do drilling.  It is not however a scorecarding tool and from what I have heard it is "going away".  Its functionality is built into Cognos 8 directly into Report Studio.
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	OK, now I'm puzzled.  What do people define as a scorecarding tool?  AFAIK scorecarding involves: 1. identify KPIs (key performance indicators) 2. collect and formulate data to measure KPIs and store in an accessable data store. 3. report the KPI values collected 3a. if by number in an OLAP tool, or some web based reporting tool like IWR or CRN. 3b. if by graphic in a visualisation tool such as Vizualiser. Can someone correct me if my assumptions are incorrect? Can someone give me an exemple of a tool that is designed PRIMARILY for scorecarding?
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	G'day Blue, If you look on the Cognos website, Cognos Metrics Manager is listed as a scorecarding tool. It allows metrics to be grouped within metric types, and assembled onto scorecards at various levels.  It includes its own diagrams etc, and allso allows links through to underlying reports in Powerplay etc. Best regards, MFGF.
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	You've got MM for scorecarding. Yet it's very interesting to hear about successful implementation stories bout it.
Re: Isn't Viz a scorecarding tool?	Visualizer = Dashboarding High level, highly visual, interactive presentation of data. Uses lots of colorful charts and navigation. Metrics Manager = Balanced Scorecard Logical groupings of metrics. Assigns accountability, tracks history, allows for collaboration and shows cause and effect. Tries to tie business process to results rather than overall outcome. CRN = Flexible reporting But the flexibility of the reporting allows you do do some things that replicate both scorecarding and dashboarding. I doubt they will even migrate Viz to series 8 because adding a few charts and mutidimensional datasources and you can do more than you could in Viz.
Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	From what I've seen CRN has been used as a replacement for Impromptu.  I don't see how it can be called a scoredcarding or dashboard tool. Has anyone out there seen it used for these purposes?
Re: Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	Blue, Youre a controversial one! What really stood out for me when I first saw the CRN demo was the composite reporting functionality. So from that point of view, I will not just call it a BI tool. Keep em coming!
Re: Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	I think CRN is BI + scorecard/dashboard tool..... but don't take my word for it, COGNOS.com has categorised it as the latter
Re: Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	Hi Blue, CRN can be used to create dashboard and scorecard like reports now in the current version.  It will however, from what I heard, have much more Viz like capability built into the Report Studio and have a separate studio for Scorecarding in Cognos 8.
Re: Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	hi, with crn 1.1mr2 we coul'd not use PowerCubes as data source so crn is still an reporting tool. The underlaying technice allow to use it for buliding dashboards and balanced scorecards. have a look here: http://applications.apparo-network.com/html/applications.html Regards, Jens
Re: Isn't CRN a reporting (BI) tool rather than Scoredard or dashboard?	You can use it for both. It can be used for dashboarding in that you can display information from different datasources in the same report (which you could not do in previous products such as Impromptu). You also have a great deal of flexibilty in layout and can provide the information in various graphical formats as well as data listings. You cannot use OLAP data as a datasource in this version, and you can't structure metrics in the way you can in Metrics Manager (or at least, not without a lot of work), so it's probably not the only tool you would want to build an overall scorecarding solution, but it can certainly form part of one.
Where can I find some good themes to get ideas from?	Upfront is highly customisable.  Where can I find some interesting themes ot get inspired by?
Re: Where can I find some good themes to get ideas from?	Check out Hewitt's presentation form October 2004 Chicago User Group meeting available at this URL: http://www.brightstarpartners.com/CIUGChicago/October2004/ug0410.html If you need something like it, let me know. I've been known to take Upfront to its limits. I wish I could post what I've done for Telus here, but I am bound by an NDA.
Packages	I'm a newbie to COGNOS -  in ReportNet, is a Package similar to a Catalog?
Re: Packages	Packages contain the business information and is the definition of the underlying database(s). If you click on the package explorer you can see the structure. Business info/rules can be included into these packages that cannot normally be included into databases eg. the calculation of profit.
Re: Packages	That description sounds very much like an Impromptu catalog to me, at least in functionality.
Re: Packages	Yes, a package is equivalent to a catalog. It has a lot more flexibility, but does not do everything the same way as catalogs (not that that's a bad thing).
Repeaters	What's a repeater? I can't find anything on it.
Re: Repeaters	repeaters are tables that contain cell information that display data for individual query items. Only list reports can be converted into repeater reports. They're often used to create mailing labels. I can't think of anything else that it might be good for......
Re: Repeaters	business cards ... know anyone who needs business cards!!!
Re: Repeaters	You can also use repeater cells to control layout. For example, a list has a bunch of records where the fields are spread out across the page horizontally. You can use a repeater to spread the fields vertically down the page instead. Sometimes people like this sort of thing. ;-)
Drill through reports in Reportnet	I can't seem to get the drill through functionality to work. I created the parent report (I assume this is the source report) and then the child report (the target report).  Selected drill throughs, selected the target report, method=execute but it doesn't drill through. HELP!!!!!
Re: Drill through reports in Reportnet	Have you added a filter on the child report?
Re: Drill through reports in Reportnet	you also need to be certain you are set to drill on a correct column.  Make sure that it is the same one as your filter.  By default it will select the column you clicked on for drill through setup.  Verify that it is the right one.  For instance, you may want to drill on Item Name but the filter in the child is for Item Number.
Re: Drill through reports in Reportnet	Make sure the data types dont mismatch too  8) :D
Re: Drill through reports in Reportnet	Hi Merchant, is it working now?  Can you provide more details?  How many parameters are you passing to the child report?
Modeling in Framework Manager	Dear Cognoids, Due to Framework Manager's "interesting" makeup I find it difficult to model transactionally in it.  Has anyone had success doing it?  Everything I do, FM tries to force me to model dimensionally and then I run into bugs with stich queries for instance.  Also, how do you force FM not to try to join based on indexes and primary keys but instead listen to you and the join strategy you create?  It seems to keep the indexes and primary keys on file (I assume in one of it's XML files) and if I don't use them it creates a cross join. Any best practices would be most appreciated. Thanks,
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Hi cognosguru, Hmm - thorny topic this! :-) You're right about Framework Manager forcing you to model dimensionally.  It makes inherent assumptions about what is a Fact Table and what is a Dimension Table based on the cardinality of the relationships defined.  Within the context of a query, any Query Subject that is only at the many end of a relationship will be treated as a Fact Table, and any that are at the one end of a relationship will be treated as Dimension Tables.  Unless you model dimensionally, you could inadvertently end up with a query containing two "Fact Tables", which would result in a stitch query being generated (full outer join using first-non-null). Stitch queries are not bugs - they are the right thing to do when querying two fact tables which share common dimensions, possibly linking at different levels.  The art of modelling in Framework Manager is to rearrange the data into virtual fact and dimension query subjects where stitch queries would never be used within a package (ie all your measures are within the fact, and all your descriptive data is within conformed dimensions).  You will need to do this by merging query subjects together, then rather than leaving the merged query subjects as Model Query Subjects, convert them back to data query subjects with their own self-contained SQL.  For the dimensional query subjects, you will then need to set up dimensionality to specify the hierarchical levels and their attributes within the dimension. Best practice is to define an import view where you model things transactionally (exactly as in the underlying database).  Then create a "star schema" view in a different namespace where you merge query subjects from the import view into new Fact and Dimension data query subjects, and set up the relationships between these, then define dimensionality for the dimensions, then create star schema groupings.  Lastly create a business view in another namespace, where you select relevant parts from a star schema and put them into model query subjects as per the requirements of the end users.  Do not create relationships at this level - FM will use the relationships from the star schema level.  Publish your package(s) using query subjects from this view. If you don't do this, you will have problems, one of which you've already encountered in that the underlying key definitions are stored in model.xml when the import is done from the database.  You could edit this if you wanted to, but probably best not to! :-) Best regards, MF.
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Thanks MF, To clarify I know stich queries are not bugs, but we have found at least 2 bugs with them (on DB2 for certain). Why is it better to convert the model query subjects into data query subjects?  Thanks,
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Hi cognosguru, If you don't convert your Model Query Subjects into Data Query Subjects, ReportNet will resolve how to code the SQL for report queries by looking back at the underlying Data Query Subjects upon which the Model Query Subjects are based.  This means your queries will still use the SQL and relationships defined in your import view, and you're no better off. Best, MF.
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	MF, I thought that if I define the relationship at the Model Query subject level, ReportNet will use that join structure not the underlying one.  Am I mistaken? Thanks,
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Hi cognosguru, In simplistic terms, that's correct, but there's a bit more to it than that. If each Model query subject is built over one single Data query subject, and you specify the relationships between the Model query subjects, then what you are saying is true.  However, your Model query subjects will be based on multiple underlying Data query subjects.  In order to retrieve the data you have asked for in any Model query subject, ReportNet will have to run the queries in the underlying Data query subjects, using the relationships you have defined between those Data query subjects to figure out how to build the data set to return into the Model query subject.  Once this has been done, the relationships between the model query subjects are used in queries that span more than one model query subject.  Net result of all this is that the "merging" you thought you'd done to prevent unwanted stitch queries hasn't done so, as your query still ends up making use of the relationships in your Import View. If you convert the Model query subjects into Data query subjects, this changes things.  Since each merged query subject now contains a SQL query, there's no need to go back to the Import View to find out how to retrieve data, so only the relationships you define between these merged Data query subjects are used. Regards, MF.
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	MF, Thank you very much for your detailed responses.  I will try your suggestion.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find someone who really understands what is going on with Framework Manager thus I appreciate it all of your help.  Cognoise rocks!
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Thanks MFGF - the COGNOiSe team appreciates your insight and the assistance you provide us all (especially on ReportNet!) Thanks for the feedback too, cognosguru!
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	You're welcome!  Happy to be of help where I can. :-)
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Dear Cognosguru I had a similar problem with FM ignoring my joins and going in for cross joins when I did not use all indexes that made up the composite key in the underlying table. My workaround was to import database tables one at a time instead of importing all of them as one normally does. This approach worked fine for me. Note we do not have to do this all the time only in cases where underlying database tables use composite primary keys. HTH Regards NKT
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Thanks Freelancer, Another method that seemed to work was to choose the last option when importing tables (matching column names only). Can't wait till Cognos 8.
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	What do you think about the Cognos FM Best Practices document? http://support.cognos.com/supported/docs/en/reportnet/1.1/bestpractice_modeling_fm.pdf
Re: Modeling in Framework Manager	Hi Darek, I have read through it and it helps clarify some issues.  In my opinion, it does not however go into the real crux of it.  I was able to pick up a number of good things but it left me with more questions then answers.
Ordering of Newsboxes in Upfront ... and automation	I've come across an interesting issue with Upfront NewsBoxes and automation... to ensure that a newsbox is listed first, I have put a space in front of it's name ... eg " Prior Year" newsbox appears before "02-03" and "03-04"... the issue that I have come across is that I have noticed that some of my automated processes see this item as "//NewsIndex/History/Newsindex", rather than "//NewsIndex/History/ Prior Year" ... it seems that when a space is used as the first character in a newsbox name then it is recognised internally as "Newsindex" ... I suppose I could test for a space first and then work with the newsbox, but that's a bit ugly.... any thoughts on why this phenomenon exists would be much appreciated. cheers, DW
Re: Ordering of Newsboxes in Upfront ... and automation	If you used an underscore instead of a space how does that sort?
Re: Ordering of Newsboxes in Upfront ... and automation	thanks Blue ... underscores, dashes, dots ... all are fine ... just that damn space ...  ??? cheers, DW
Re: Ordering of Newsboxes in Upfront ... and automation	If content sorting is what you crave, there might be a better solution. I'd like to refer you to an article yours truly wrote ages ago and which is available at this URL: http://www.brightstarpartners.com/tech_corner.htm Have fun. I did.
Re: Ordering of Newsboxes in Upfront ... and automation	Thanks Darek, brilliant ... food for thought, thats for sure ... I'll have a look at this in a week or so and let you know how it goes. thanks again! cheers, DW
Cross Tab Reports in Cognos	I want to create a CrossTab report in Cognos ReportNet, however my data is Text instead of numbers as: Table#1 AcctID     QuestionData     AnswerData ------        ------------           ---------- 100006     Name                Keith 100006     Address1          51 West Road 100007     Name                Ray 100007     Address1          21 Grey Street I want CrossTab report like this from the above Table#1:                  Name             Address1 100006     Keith            51 West Road 100007     Ray              21 Grey Street When I use any of the Aggregate functions as Max or Min ( which works with SQL Server ), I get the following output                   Name             Address1 100006     #!Error            #!Error 100007     #!Error            #!Error Is there any way of generating the report as above ? Most of the examples in Cognos ReportNet Help says about Numerical Data, which is not the case here... THANKS A LOT 8)
Re: Cross Tab Reports in Cognos	I would create an Alias table ,and the following SQL. [code] select distinct T1.ID, T1.DESC as name , T2.DESC as address from `test23.tab` T1, `test23.tab` T2 where T1.ID = T2.ID   and T2.TYPE = 'Address1'   and T1.TYPE = 'Name' order by 1 [/code] Then the result is: [table] [tr][td]ID[/td][td]Name[/td][td]Address[/td][/tr] [tr][td]100006[/td][td]Keith[/td][td]51 West Road[/td][/tr] [tr][td]100007[/td][td]Ray[/td][td]21 Grey Street[/td][/tr] [/table] It's not exactly a cross-tab, but the output is what you are looking for.
Re: Cross Tab Reports in Cognos	1 create a query 2 create a tab. model (named 'all') 3 within that tab. model you place two tab. models (named 'name' and 'address') 4 in the left (of the two) add: acctid, questiondata (rename to 'questionname') and answerdata (rename to 'answername') 5 in the left (of the two) add a filter questiondata=name 6 in the right (of the two) add: acctid, questiondata (rename to 'questionaddress') and answerdata (rename to 'answeraddress') 7 in the right (of the two) add a filter questiondata=address1 8 in the first tab. model ('all') get the acctid, questionname and answername from the tab. model 'name' and add questionaddress and answeraddress from the tab. model 'address' 9 add a filter to 'all' by dragging the acctid from step 8 to the filtersection and equal it to the acctid fom address. it should look like this [acctid]=[address].[acctid] 10 in the cube items add acctid as a dimension and the other fields as measures. 11 create a list and assign it to your query. 12 Drag from query items the item 'acctid' to the list and after that, place the two other fields (answername & answeraddress) from the query items on the list. 14 now edit the listheaders to see the desired header names (for acctid you can click the text-property and leave it blank and press ok. Good luck!
Plugins?	Hi there, Are there any plugins or extentions available to ReportNet? I'm looking for additional design features for the Report Studio, in particular, an ability to position columns in a list object across a page (like colspan in html tables)?
Re: Plugins?	You could fake the desired functionality provided that you'll use absolute object sizes.
Benchmark tests on Cognos Powerplay	Hi All,         I am new to this group. We are evaluating features of OLAP tools to suggest our client which one is best suitable. In this process I tryed a lot to get information on benchmark tests and their results that were done on [b]Cognos Powerplay7.3[/b].But I didn't get any information.So please let me know if anyone has any information on this. thank you, with regards, s.ramesh
Re: Benchmark tests on Cognos Powerplay	Powerplay is an absolutely wonderful tool. According to the statistics, the only one competitor is Informatica, though I don't know about Imformatica but Powerplay is absolutely wonderful in terms of functionality, ease of use, the power it has. It's not like SAP BW which in my opinion is not even worth calling BI tool.
Re: Benchmark tests on Cognos Powerplay	The are a couple of web sites dedicated to BI and OLAP inparticular.  Maybe you can find benchmarks there. www.OLAPreport.com www.datawarehouse.com www.intelligententerprise.com software review sites www.zdnet.com www.cnet.com research companies www.techdata.com www.gartner.com etc. and don't forget search sites like google and ask.
Cube & Fact table size	PP, being a MOLAP and file-storage tool, suffers from fact data size increase. Therefore: 1 what was your cube\fact table maximum? 2 query response time (complex Advanced Subsets i.e.) 3 did cube groups help you with this issue? Mine, for start: 1 200 Mb \ 10 GB 2 30 sec 3 Nope, that was week's data
Re: Cube & Fact table size	I doesn't matter how big you cube.. it depends on the number of dimension and measurs.. if number of dimension increases then the query response time will increate and please check the optimization tips from Cognos PDFs...
Re: Cube & Fact table size	Surely it's so. But there surely is a correlation between table size & quantity of dimensions :))). And usually client's ask: "We've 0,5 Pb datawarehouse, what your cubes maximum?" Yet I can bring dimension chart as well. Is it interesting?
Re: Cube & Fact table size	I've been successfully running cubes in excess of 2.5GB, even before COGNOS officialy supported such monster. There are many factors that will decide how big your cubes is: 1. # of dimensions 2. # of measures and their storage type 3. # of partitions (auto or manual) Having the cube time-partitioned helps performance as well, but there are limitations on what a time-partitioned cube can contain (like only one real time dimension, but you know, there are fake ones, too). Reponse times are usually within 3-30 seconds range, depending on query complexity, if running on an Intel platform. Any RISC hardware would be a waste of time, regardless how good the industry think it is.
Re: Cube & Fact table size	Additional comments: 1. There is a direct correlation between a cube size and its run-time performance. 5MB cube will perform much faster than a 5GB. 2. There is no physical limit on how big a cube can be. In my experience I used cubes as large as 10GB with decent performance. [To other moderators: If you think the next paragraph is of self-marketing nature, please remove] I'd like to invite everyone around Chicago Land interested in more details, to a presentation on this very subject during Performance 2005 on Oct 14th.
Re: Cube & Fact table size	Darek, do you, be any chance, know anything about PP's internal processing algorithm? I still hope on having time someday to perform rather a dull, but very informative test of loading the same table with different sorting. Results should vary, if any optimization techniques are used :) Just a remark: rather fast molap engines are being devised in science(exp QC,DWARF), but it seems not to have any issue with Cognos. Pity.
Re: Cube & Fact table size	Unfortunatelly, I don't. But that DWARF thing looks promising.
Re: Cube & Fact table size	Yet a lot o work to do. No incremental updates, no multi-measuring. See Quotient Trees & Quotient Cubes -- brilliant idea inside.
view/convert .imr files?	I have been sent some .imr files.  I do not have impromptu or reportnet, but I understand that that is the application to open them from.  Does anyone know of a tool that I can use to view or convert these files? ??? Thanks!
Re: view/convert .imr files?	Hi misscrf, You will need a copy of Impromptu to be able to open .imr files.  Also, unless they are snapshot reports which contain the data as well as the report definitions, I'd hope you also have more than just .imr files too - you'd normally need either some hotfiles (.ims) or a catalog (.cat) and relevant instructions to connect it to it's database. If you can get a copy of Impromptu (and if your reports are snapshots, or if you have a catalog, or if you have the hotfiles), you will be able to open the reports and save them in another format such as pdf, csv,excel,html etc. Best regards, MF.
Re: view/convert .imr files?	You'll also need the correct version of Impromptu to read the IMR files.  E.g. 7.0 won't read 7.1. Use a text editor like TextPad (www.textpad.com) to inspect the contents of the file.  IMR files are essentialliy semi-compiled instructions that tell the Impromptu report engine what to do.  As a poster has already said, sometimes an IMR file may also contacin data that the developer has saved with these instructions.  A pure text editor, unlike MS Word and MS Wordpad, will allow you to see the contents of the file without altering it.  In this way you should be able to see the version number near the start of the file. Good luck.
Power2000	I actually used this tool for a Y2K project.  It was kind of cool.  Is it still actually for sale?  :o Mark Stewart Consultant Windsor, Ontario
Re: Power2000	Was Power2000 a patch/upgrade for the then PowerHouse? Or did P2k supersede it? But to answer your question, it appears to be an obselete product : http://support.cognos.com/en/support/products/obsolete_products.html nichS
Re: Power2000	Power2000 was a tool written in Delphi which assisted customers with PowerHouse applications to find all potential problems which may arise from the new millenium (remember all the scare stories in the late 20th century about disasters as a result of the millennium bug?) It was essentially a global edit and change facility which could be programmed to find any syntax which may need to be changed because of date problems. It also came with a set of Impromptu reports. However, as you know, it is no longer supported. Also, it was completely separate from PowerHouse and only ran on Windows. However, it could be programmed to find any problem areas, not just problems relating to the millennium.
Re: Power2000	Nice short description. While Power2000 is from Cognos' point of view "obsolete" and no longer sold it may be that there is a second hand market for it.  It really requires no support, is self-contained, and does a great job at making complex (as well as simple) code to changes to many source files at once. I don't remember exactly how many copies were sold but ther must be quite a number of companies out there with a copy gathering dust on a shelf.  Where not sell or trade it online? Also if we lobby Cognos enough it might see the light and make the tool available on demand.
[Solved] Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Has anyone being able to effectively use tooltips in the reportnet reports? Here is the scenario. I would like to display to our user metadata information via tooltips about our reports and data. However this displayed metadata information needs to be centralized for ease control. When user passed cursor over a column name for instance, then information about the column would be displayed.  Has anyone attempted anything like and if so how did you manage it,  since based on best practises tooltips can only be imbedded by reporting authors and not Metadata Admins who does not write the reports
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	If you add values in the "Screen Tip" property in Framework Manager, this will be displayed in Report Studio when you mouse over the model item. Were you referring to tool tips in Report Studio or in finished reports?
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Hi All, i have another scenario. I have two tables, one table contains column name, description of  column, another one is table related to first one(that is all the column name eg. prod_name,prod_cate,prod_price etc). i want to display column description(for eg. for prod_name, it has to display "product name") as tool tip in report studio whenever mouse move on particular column. how can i achieve this? thanks in advance. vsudaya
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Have you tried it using javascript.. That's not gonna be very difficult.
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Yep, Can be done using Java scripts.... we used it in the past. This week I'm abroad but will search for it in the weekend... Regards, vincent
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Is it that what you are looking for? [img][/img] Cu Jolly
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	This is exactly what is describe in a [url=http://support.cognos.com/supported/supportlink/14n4/techreview10.xml]SupportLink Article.[/url]
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	[quote author=jolly link=topic=29.msg2112#msg2112 date=1129637291] Is it that what you are looking for? [img][/img] Cu Jolly [/quote] Yes, exactly what i am looking for?, how can i do that? any articles? thanks in advance vsu
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Hi vsudaya, look at the link posted from Draoued. This is an Article from Cognos.  I have attached a simple List Report which solved your Problem. Look at the two HTML-Items. Be sure you hav the GO SALES AND RETAILERS Package. CU Jolly
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	hi, thanks for reply.  i dont have access(account) to cognos support forums so that i can get the article. Can i have the description of that article so that i can get more idea on that. thanks in advance vsudaya
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	if you are using a Cognos application and paying the yearly fee , you must have an access. I would suggest that you contact your reseller and ask for an access. There is much more than this case describe in SupportLink Magazine, and you ll get at the same time access to Cognos Knowlegde database , which is also a good source of information.
Re: Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	Vsud: Read the board rules (I've just updated them)
Re: [Solved] Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	I have tried using the supportlink technique, but the html doesn't pick up the values from the query, just prints a small dash in the field. Can someone help? Thanks
Re: [Solved] Using tooltips in ReportNet Reports	[quote author=jeffnichuk link=topic=29.msg2875#msg2875 date=1131972171] I have tried using the supportlink technique, but the html doesn't pick up the values from the query, just prints a small dash in the field. Can someone help? Thanks [/quote] Are you using the HTML item in a list or somewhere else on the page?  It would have to be in an area associated with a query. Are you using the fully qualified item name ([querysubject].[itemname]) or just the item's name as shown in the query? Regards, Mike
Configuring ReportNet	Hi Guys, I never worked on Cognos ReportNet before, help me out in configuring the ReportNet into WebSphere AppServer.
Re: Configuring ReportNet	I have configured ReportNet with BEA Weblogic 8.1 SP4 and let me tell you this was one of the most difficult tasks I ever carried out support from Cognos consultants not withstanding. Essentially you create a p2pd.war file which is the jar file of a web application and you then deploy it the Websphere server. One hard earned lesson: Do not ever install ReportNet in a folder path that has names with spaces in it for e.g. 'Program Files'. BEA Weblogic did not recognize the existence of Cognos CRN  under such circumstances. For specific info. on the steps for integration you will need to refer to www.cognos.com Regards NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Hi, Here is my situation: I've got to have ReportNet Server on one node and Content Manager on another node. First i configured the ReportNet server node, generated the war file and deployed the war file into WebSphere. Later on configured the Content Manager node, generated the war file and deployed into WebSphere. But i dont see any tables being created in the database. Can you please send me the exact procedure to do this. I appreciate your help. Thanks, vinod
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Hmm! Your configuration is a bit different from mine. Is it possible for you to host the content manager servlet on the same computer as the ReportNet server. The actual content store can be put on any box. A few points to note. 1) you only need to generate one .war file called P2PD.war. You should not deploy two .war files to the J2EE server 2) Make sure you deploy the .war file to the managed server and not the admin server 3) Tables in the content store get created after you re start the managed server and not when you simply deploy. 4) The procedure I follow is applicable to BEA Weblogic and may not be suited to IBM Websphere. Let me know if you still need it. Can I attach files to this post Regards NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Thanks for your prompt reply. 1. No, i can't put the Content Manager in the same node as that of Report Server node as the design is so. So, i just need to deploy only one jar file, the one generated from ReportServer node. 2.Could you send me the docs, which u used for whole process. I appreciate you help. Thanks, vinod
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Hi Vinod Unfortunately my attachment exceeds the size limit of 128 KB NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Here is my mail ID: *email address removed* you can mail me to this ID. Thanks, vinod *sorry guys - email addresses are not a good idea because of the spam factor. We've already had a few nasty bots go through our site (and it's only been Live for 2 weeks!). I'll bump up the attachment size limit however feel free to email me with the attachment and I will pass it on. Cheers Jon COGNOiSe administrator [email]email@cognoise.com[/email]
Re: Configuring ReportNet	I've upped the attachment limit to 5Mb - let me know if you have any probs.
Re: Configuring ReportNet	We have a people friendly administrator  ;D The new limit is more than enough. Here comes the attachment. Regards NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Hi, I configued the Cognos ReportNet, build the war file and deployed it into webSphere. When I stop and start the AppServer,  I found follwoing errors under AppServer logs: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/cognos/accman/jcam/crypto/misc/JNISystemProperties [8/3/05 15:13:31:591 CDT] 70541535 ServletInstan E SRVE0100E: Did not realize  init() exception thrown by servlet dispatch: javax.servlet.ServletException: com/cognos/accman/jcam/crypto/misc/JNISystemProperties at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictServletInstance.doInit(StrictServletInstance.java:99) And I don't find any tables created in the Content store. Could you figure out what exactly had gone wrong. Thanks, Vinod
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Make sure you are using JCE 1.2.2 in your WebSphere JRE. I assume you did copy everything from CRN lib\ext to WebSphere lib\ext (don't overwrite though, except when copying JCE 1.2.2)?
Re: Configuring ReportNet	I did copy the JCE 1.2.2 jar file and also copied all the jar files from cognos\crn\bin\jre\1.3.1\lib\ext to WebSphere/AppServer/Java/Jre/1.3.1/lib/ext folder. Let me know how did u generate the CSK, encrypt and signkeypair keys. I deleted the initial keys as it was using Tomcat by default. And generated the new keys. Later generated the war file and deployed it. I guess there is some problem in cryptographic encryption. ERROR CCL-CFG-0007 Failed to initialize the cryptographic encryption. The cryptographic configuration could be incorrect or missing some security components. Please give me some idea yaar... Thanks, Vinod
Re: Configuring ReportNet	JCE 1.2.2 should have been copied last. Is this how you've executed?
Re: Configuring ReportNet	I copied the JCE 1.2.2 file first and do you think that's going to affect the whole process.
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Yes. First you need to copy lib\ext from CRN's jre1.3.1. Than JCE 1.2.2 which you can obtain from Cognos or Sun.
Re: Configuring ReportNet	I'm getting the same errors even after coping JCE 1.2.2 last. So the problem is something to do with keys being generated. Please let me know if you got any idea about the keys. Thanks, vinod
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Make sure you also removed/moved JCE 1.2.1 from your /lib path. If you do not remove it, do not just rename it, it will not work and you will get the same error.
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Delete (safely, with a copy) csk, ncryptkeypair and signkeypair from configuration folder. One more question. When you enter Cognos Configuration is JAVA_HOME set to WebSphere's JRE?
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Look for the JCE update as the 1.3 exipre 27th July [Correction from moderator: it is JCE 1.2.1 that expires, needs to be updated with JCE 1.2.2]
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Hi cognosfreelancer, I'm trying to configure the CRN 1.1MR2 with Weblogic 8.1 sp4, but got error for using the jdk comes with bea (I tried the jdk141 with WebSphere, had no problem, so I am puzzled) when starting the Cognos Configuration.  Could you please let me know the steps you took in configuration?  Thanks a lot!  Below is the copy of the execution and error message. C:\Program Files\cognos\crn\bin>crconfig.bat -java:env Found JAVA_HOME=C:\bea814\jdk142_05 Looking in: C:\bea814\jdk142_05\bin... Using CLASSPATH: .;crconfig.jar;dom4j.jar;xercesImpl.jar;xml-apis.jar;cclcfgapi. jar;jcam_crypto.jar;i18nj.jar;icu4j.jar;commons-httpclient.jar;CognosIPF.jar;log 4j-1.2.8.jar;jcam_jni.jar;xalan.jar Using J_HOME:    C:\bea814\jdk142_05 02/09/2005,13:31:22,Err,You cannot use Cognos Configuration because it requires Java version 1.3.x C:\Program Files\cognos\crn\bin> Lisa
Re: Configuring ReportNet	sshhhh! ;) Please read the moderator's request to not name names when posting. You are using the same version of JDK as I viz. 1.4.2 but what is the JHOME variable. I do not use that. NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Glad to hear from you, the J_Home is set up in the crconfig.bat, it is assigned with the JAVA_HOME var.  Does this make difference?
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Did you copy Cognos EXT libraries to BEA EXT directory?
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Lisa Try adding the JRE folder to the JAVA_HOME variable for e.g. D:\Apps\jdk142_05\jre NKT
Re: Configuring ReportNet	yes, I did add the \ext jars to weblogic; also tried the java_home=c:\bea\jdk142_05\jre... when I applied the same procedure to IBM jre, the Configuration wizard ran. so where did I miss the setting? ??? and what is it
Re: Configuring ReportNet	Lisa You may have multiple java homes with the Path variable pointing first to the incorrect JVM location. If possible please delete any other JDK folder or modify your path settings and then try running the Cognos Configuration NKT
Comparison between cognos Reports and crystal reports	Hi Everyone can any one pls help.I would like to know the difference between Crystal report and IWR(Impromptu Web reports) Comparinsion between crystal report to IWR, IMR hope people working on cognos will help me out. Regards sys2674
Re: Comparison between cognos Reports and crystal reports	Go for Repornet. Nothing better than that in the world as of today.
Re: Comparison between cognos Reports and crystal reports	Hi Thnx for ur effort. My actual meaning was difference between crystal report and cognos Impropmtu Web report. Crystal Report Vs IWR. I would realy appreciate if any one helps me out. thnx in advance
Re: Comparison between cognos Reports and crystal reports	I surfed yesterday to see if there was anything out there that might vaguely answer your question but nothing much by way of literature comparing the two. I would be very interested if anyone here had experienced Crystal XI [url]http://businessobjects.com/solutions/crystalreports/default.asp[/url] and how that compares with Impromptu. To be quite honest, the features mentioned in the brochure looks quite good. Crystal has always been loved by the accounting folk/masses and seems to have been poo-pooed by the tech community as a result. Here's the product review : [url]http://businessobjects.com/rr/crn_crystal_reports_xi/[/url]
Re: Comparison between cognos Reports and crystal reports	This has been discussed many times in the past, here are just a few thoughts from other forums. http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=889878 In my opinion as a person who uses IMR, IWR and Crystal Reports. For ad hoc reporting Crystal wins everytime, because of the ease of use and flexibility it offers to a report expert, i.e. direct editing of SQL allows any valid SQL statement including INSERT, UPDATE, UNION as well as SELECT statements. also by the use of subreports and SQL Expresions your report can fetch data from many unrelated data sources. to do this impromptu would require the building of hotfiles as impromptu only allows reporting form 1 data source. Using Cognos Impromptu first requires the user to create a catalog of the database tables and specify how all of the tables are linked to each other. Whilst this can be time consuming the benefit is to the casual user being able to create reports without the need to know anything about the database structure. The answer to your question really depends on how you and your users wish to use the end reports. If you have more specific questions about your particular requirements then please state them. also take a look here : http://grove.ufl.edu/~kayla/crysdec.htm http://grove.ufl.edu/~kayla/Cognos.htm and here's an excellent study done by Bristol university on Reporting tools in 2002 http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/projects/report_writers/report_writer_seminar HTH Gary
Most common database	I'm interested to see what databases are being used out there
Re: Most common database	We deliver to Oracle 9.2.0.5 (soon to be Oracle 10.1.0.4), from z/OS DB2 V7.1 (will be V8 early next year)
SDK Forum	First of all congratulations to all the movers and shakers that set this up. The existing forum on the Cognos site was quite moribund. Hopefully this will be more dynamic. One of the more interesting things about ReportNet is that it is based on Web services and SOAP messaging. This new product requires BI developers to be at least fair XML programmers. While I am no expert I am surprised at the difficulties I am experiencing creating even a small SDK program. This is compounded by a total lack of documentation. May I therefore suggest the formation of an SDK forum. I would be happy to start this forum. Regards NKT
Re: SDK Forum	Hi NKT (cognosfreelancer), Thanks for your kind comments though we're still experiencing a few teething issues (like our news feeds). But we're getting there. Happy to setup an SDK board in fact one of our moderators also suggested a 'Scripts' board as well. We were debating where this would sit. How would you like to incorporate this new board - any preferences for structure (ie parent-child etc etc) and scope (ie a little blurb at the board index level). Appreciate (and gratefully accept) your offer to run it - will set you up as moderator. Please advise. Cheers
Re: SDK Forum	Dear Cognoise Administrator I would be happy to run the SDK board as a moderator. I think an appropriate place for this board would be under the section 'App Development and tools'. We need to give some thought to formulating the scope of the board. I am aware that a significant number of Cognos installations still rely on programming using Cognos script with the older object model. IMHO the SDK approach being so different warrants a separate board from 'Scripts'. Regards NKT
Re: SDK Forum	Excellent. Just let me know when - as well as scoping that you would be happy with. I was also thinking of a 'Tips & Tricks' section - questions/problems logged will always be lifeblood of user forums but it might be nice to turn the tide on that point of yours re documentation.
Re: SDK Forum	Lets get started now. Regards NKT
Re: SDK Forum	..... sorry , the scope of the proposed board would be restricted to SDK/XML coding and related tools such as Axis,Xerces. Regards Naveen
Moonlighting forum	I know that job postings are explicitly forbid. However I would like to know whether it is all right to start a forum where opportunities to moonlight are advertised. Moonlighting is one way to tackle more challenging situations than what is experienced in the day job and of course the chance to make money is icing on the cake. Regards NKT
Re: Moonlighting forum	...watch this space............ ;)
Cognos and HyperRoll	Hello Cognoids, I ran across some information about HyperRoll and was wondering if anyone had used it with Cognos.  Thanks...
Cognos and Websphere Information Integrator	Cognoids of the world unite.... Another addition to the "have you done this" file.  I am currently evaluating using Websphere Information Integrator for my environment.  Has anyone used it in conjunction with Cognos and if so what your opinions are. Thanks.
Report Groups and No groups	I have a table: "ID" "Name"  "Qty" ----- ---------- --------   1    Red        5   2    Blue        10   3    White      15   4    Black      20 I want a report that will show the following: Red - 5 Black - 20 White, Blue - 25 Note: Some are grouped together and some are not. The groupings can change at any time. I also may need to group 3 or more rows together to get a total qty. What is the best way to accomplish this grouped and not grouped values?
Re: Report Groups and No groups	How is the grouping defined ?? I would create a grouping table, so if the grouping is changing only this table is updated and the report will reflect the changes. Grouping table: GroupID      ID      Desc       1            1        Red       2            4        Black       3            2        White,Blue       4            3        White,Blue select Grouping.Desc , sum(table.Qty) from Grouping, table where Grouping.ID = table.ID table is the table described in your post.
Re: Report Groups and No groups	You could use last(Qty) order by ID
Re: Report Groups and No groups	What about creating a custom grouping? ID" "Name"  "Qty" ----- ---------- --------   1    Red        5   2    Blue        10   3    White      15   4    Black      20 Solve it like: add a calculation eg NEW_NAME: Case when (name = 'Blue' or name = 'White' ) then ( 'Blue/white' ) else (Name)  end and group on NEW_NAME,sum (QTY) that's all
Content Manager Locking.When assigning user rights to folders or just new roles	Hi all you cognoks people. I am have three enviroments we use for Cognos. Development. Test 2 and Production. We have upgraded to MR2 414.36 after hideous problems and still not  able to be fixed by cognos support UK or finland Has anyone come across the same issue of the kind listed below. We have gone back to MR2 - Still occured Reapplied the patch - Still Occured. Recreated the DB and created a new content store in DB2 version 8- Still Occured CM-SYS-5133 While processing your request, Content Manager has waited for 601.16 seconds for access to objects that are currently locked. If this problem recurs, please contact your ReportNet System Adminitrator. Current Lock Manager state: Content Manager did something wrong</messageString></message><message><messageString>CM-SYS-5133 While processing your request, Content Manager has waited for 601.16 seconds for access to objects that are currently locked. If this problem recurs, please contact your ReportNet System Adminitrator. Current Lock Manager state:  ??? ??? ???
Axiant use in the marketplace	I remember way back when Axiant was only young.  It looked quite good in a Cognos presentation that I attended.  Cognos said that it was going to be very important in the near future.  Well, I am still waiting.  I asked at the time how Cognos expected to win market share since they were so far behind other Window development tools like Visual Basic, FoxPro, Filemaker, etc. They said that the strength of the product would sell itself.  I don't think that it did.  Does anyone use it now?  I think I know one person who once did. Here are the questions I still have about the product: 1) How much does it cost?  (DEV version, runtime) 2) How much does support cost? 3) How well does it work now? 4) How does Cognos expect to gain market share with it? Thanks for all comments, insights and even criticisms. Vaughn Smith
Re: Axiant use in the marketplace	Vaughn I know that my old company based in Rhode Island, USA has quite a few clients using Axiant.  Last time I saw any numbers from Cognos (circa 2000) there were more than 10,000 sites with licenses. Now Cognos provides a copy free when you buy PH 8.2n. Last time I got a price for Axiant standalone (circa 2002) it was about USD750 for the develop version.  Best person to ask is Bob Berry, the person who overseas all ADT development at Cognos.  Robert.Berry@cognos.com.  Or Charlie Maloney at Charlie.Maloney@cognos.com.
Re: Axiant use in the marketplace	Nice call Bluey
validate a field contains date values	I need to verify that a field I define contains valid date patterns. In QTP Request PARSE-FILE ACC INFILE ;Temps  DEF PROC-DATE CHAR*08 = INREC[46:8] How do I verify that the data contained in PROC-DATE is a valid date.  Prefably in the YYYYMMDD format.  I don't want to DEFine a numeric as I don't want the QTP process to abort.
Re: validate a field contains date values	Hi CHUCK_LOWE, I would have suggested the easiest option here would have been to use an EDIT statement to validate that PROC-DATE contains a date, something along the lines of EDIT PROC-DATE DATE but you're not allowed to use an EDIT statement like this on defines or temporaries that are not populated by a PARM option. Is it possible to define a dictionary structure for this record, where each field is described by an ELEMENT statement?  If so, and your ELEMENT was defined as (say) ELEMENT PROC-DATE CHARACTER 8, you could then do the following: QTP > Request PARSE-FILE ON EDIT ERRORS CONTINUE > > ACCESS INFILE > > EDIT PROC-DATE DATE If it's not possible to create a record structure in the dictionary, the next best thing would be to create a subfile in QUIZ which separates out the data item for PROC-DATE. QUIZ > ACCESS INFILE > DEFINE START_BIT CHAR*45 = INREC[1:45] > DEFINE PROC-DATE CHAR*8 = INREC[46:8] > REPORT SUMMARY START-BIT PROC-DATE > SET SUBFILE NAME INFILE2 KEEP > GO Once you have this subfile, your QTP code might look something like this: QTP > REQUEST PARSE-FILE ON EDIT ERRORS REPORT > > ACCESS *INFILE2 > > EDIT PROC-DATE DATE etc Hope this helps! :-) Best regards, MF.
Re: validate a field contains date values	Thanks, I will try it.
Re: validate a field contains date values	How exactly do you want QTP to behave if a value read in is not a valid date?
Re: validate a field contains date values	You could try defining a temp date field, ncon your field, if the result is 0 then not a valid date. Sorry do not have access to PH to test this.
Cube Builds .pyi or .mdl	I am building cubes using .bat files. Which is the best file to use for cube builds the .mdl or the .pyi file.
Re: Cube Builds .pyi or .mdl	I am not sure what you mean by .bat files. Those are usually batch files on Windows. I have built a bunch of cubes from flat files and from databases and always used .pyi as the model file in Transformer and I think .mdl is the compiled version of .pyi which can be used to upgrade models from one version to another. Edited : Sorry, I switched by mistake. .pyi is the compiled/encrypted file.
Re: Cube Builds .pyi or .mdl	Pyi are binary files, they are able to save the password. It seems that they are a bit faster than mdl files. If you are making lots of changes in the Pyi , from time to time save it as MDL , and resave the mdl to Pyi. All the changes in the Pyi are making the Pyi bigger and bigger, by saving it to mdl then to pyi again , you are removing the un-necessary data from the pyi and making the pyi file smaller. MDL files can be opened in notepad. Recommandation if you are working with PYI, is to have always a backup in MDL. If the pyi is corrupted ( it happens ...) there is no way to fix it. Have a look to this [url=http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=688096]post[/url]
Re: Cube Builds .pyi or .mdl	Thanks so much for the info.
DecisionStrean vs Datastage	Anecdotal evidence suggests that DecisionStream is able to accomplish things in a single click that takes loads of coding in DataStage. An example of this would be surrogate creation.
HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	I am new to reportnet and am having a problem trying to use traffic lighting and colour coding in Reportnet that quickly highlight any areas of failing performance so that they can be rectified. Please let me if there is any functionality available within Reportnet? Thanks a bunch! Raj
Re: HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	Hi Raj, You can do this in Report Studio by creating a Variable from the Condition Explorer, containing the condition(s) under which you want to use each colour (normally using a String variable containing an if - then - else structure). Once you have coded this variable, select the column(s) in question, and in the Conditional Style property select your variable. Lastly, hover over the Condition Explorer on the middle toolbar and select each variable value in turn.  For each value, set the foreground/background colours of your column(s) to suit. Best regards, MF.
Re: HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	You can also use the conditions to display images, to simulate the traffic light effect.
Re: HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	Hi together, another way to create dashboards and traffic lighting in ReportNet is to use dynamic pictures (e.g. bmp, jpg, gif). Create an calculated column that represent an url to an picture file. If you need some graphics have a look at http://***URL removed*** good luck, Jens HI JENS, THANKS FOR YOUR POST BUT I'VE REMOVED THE LINK AS IT FLIES A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO THE 'ADVERTISING' THAT IS PROHIBITED IN THE FORUM. MY RATIONALE IS: - THE URL LINK DOES NOT ADD DIRECTLY TO THE INITIAL QUESTION OF 'HOW WOULD REPORTNET BE USED TO DO TRAFFIC LIGHT REPORTING?', YOUR INITIAL REPLY IS SPOT ON AS IT MERELY DEALS WITH HOW REPORTNET'S EXISTING FUNCTIONALITY CAN BE UTILISED....THE LINK JUST TAKES IT A LITTLE OVER THE EDGE - THE GRAPHICS ARE NOT A FREE RESOURCE (THOUGH COST ON ITS OWN IS NOT PRIMA FACIE) AND THUS THE INSERTION OF THE URL MAY BE INTERPRETED AS ADVERTISING HOWEVER, I WOULD LIKE TO INVITE YOU TO POST IN 'Introduce yourself and your company!' (OBVIOUSLY WITHOUT THE ADVERTISING) AND GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF YOURSELF, YOUR COMPANY AND YOUR INVOLVEMENT/ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE COGNOS INDUSTRY. HOPEFULLY, THIS EXTENSIVE REPLY OF MINE CONVEYS THE IMPORTANCE THE COGNOISE TEAM ATTACHES TO USER INVOLVEMENT (YOUR INVOLVEMENT) AND THAT WE DO NOT STIFLE USER EXPRESSION WITHOUT TRANSPARENCY AND RESPECT. PLEASE DROP ME A LINE IF THIS DOES NOT PROVE SATISFACTORY AND I WILL REPLY PROMPTLY. CHEERS, JON email@cognoise.com
Re: HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	I'm a crn newbie so have made little notes for myself. here's my word doc for conditional formatting in cross tab reports(with screendumps) enjoy
Re: HELP! Traffic Lighting and Color Coding in Reportnet	Read you document legSpinner.. Looks great!!! I've also created an online tutorial on how to build it using images... tutorials @:[url]http://www.jeroendegraaff.nl/tutorials[/url]
ReportNet architecture	Does ReportNet use Cubes on the DB or does it need a standalone db for the queries? Thanks DDP
Re: ReportNet architecture	Ahh, you will get a Consultant's answer. It depends. ReportNet 1.1 MR2 by itself cannot query against a cube, that will come in ReportNet 8. For now it can query only against the DB. However you can integrate Powerplay 7.3 content into a ReportNet report creating one integrated report. HTH Regards NKT
Re: ReportNet architecture	And perhaps it's possible to connect to a cube by using excel. Don't ask me for the details, I want to try it myself also...
Re: ReportNet architecture	Theoretically it could, even before Series8 comes out. You can leverage Cognos Web Services (CWS) to access a PPES cubes and present it's data as an XML document, which can be added as an XML data source to ReportNet. It does not give you to much OLAP functionality though.
Re: ReportNet architecture	Cognosfreelance...We recently went on Repornet and the guy from COGNOS who came to give us the demo did insert a cube into Reportnet and made a report from that and that was version 1.1 MR2.
Re: ReportNet architecture	But the report you saw was a PowerPlay Report. What dpreston10 is looking for I believe, is having a cube as a data sorce available in Framework Manager, Query Studio and Report Studio. Not availble directly in CRN 1.1 MR2.
Re: ReportNet architecture	[quote author=dpreston10 link=topic=44.msg141#msg141 date=1122496072] Does ReportNet use Cubes on the DB or does it need a standalone db for the queries? Thanks DDP [/quote] Did you mean cubes that are a collection of database tables (Dimension and Fact Tables)? If that's what you meant, sure Reportnet can query on that as that is not technically any different than any other DB tables, or did you mean Powerplay cubes (.mdc files).
Re: ReportNet architecture	Correct. Tables fine. MDC not.
Launch of new SDK board	SDK's are a powerful way of customising COGNOS to suit the unique needs of the users. However, most SDKs are rather spartan in that they include a few sparsely documented programming examples. [glow=red,2,300]cognosfreelancer[/glow] came up with the great idea of starting a board addressing this gap (see Forum suggestion box thread below) and kindly offered to moderate. Great stuff! I have increased the attachment size limit settings - please feel free to upload any sample code and/or tips & tricks. [url]http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?topic=33.0[/url]
Powerhouse contracting issues	I was wondering if other Powerhouse contractors are facing the same issues as me: - Powerhouse is generally used for legacy apps, little new development - installed Powerhouse apps are likely big, complicated and (relatively) stable - little PH turnover in the local market - our PH apps are constantly at risk of being replaced with toy VB apps, (or similar) - cutbacks are made to legacy funding in order to release funding to fancy apps There are other issues, but these come to mind right away. Vaughn.
add new dimension to Contributor built mdl	hey. we use Contributor to create the mdl that reflects the Contributor model/data, off of published data. contrib model only has 4 dimensions. we now want to add another dimension in Transformer only, to show an alternate rollup. eg. model rolls up by Business, new dimension would rollup by Region. anyone done this before? the iqd's and mdl that are built from Contrib are pretty complex. anyone know of somewhere I can see an example? thx a million.
Re: add new dimension to Contributor built mdl	You could use Transofrmer's MDL langugae to open the generated model and add what you need. Or do it using GUI, but than, everytime the Contributor model changes, you will have to repeat what you've done.
Re: add new dimension to Contributor built mdl	Hey. I see this has been viewed a few times, so I'll post what I ended up doing. The issue totally revolved around the mdl being built from Contrib extension using external rollups. ie. the numbers in the cube do not really roll up via calculation, but are provided by the Publish. Because of ext rollups, I could not easily add the dimension. But, because we were publishing lots of data at the detail level, I was able to find a solution. I reconfgured all the original dimensions to NOT be external rollups, and also added my own dimension at that point, and manually created a cal hier for it to reference, and added that to the datasource. huge pain in the ass, but all the numbers tied out at the end of the day. morla of the story is that is is very difficult to manipulate contrib generated mdls becaus of hte external rollup feature. If I had any complex calcs involved in my rollups, I would not have been able to do this. cheers.
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Managing ad hoc reports	Hi, I'm a newbie to ReportNet so still getting my head around it.  I'm generally happy with the functionality that I've seen so far but I'm can't see how to manage ad hoc reports within ReportNet. I know that you can use Schedule Management to Cancel/Suspend/Release scheduled reports from the Activity pane which is great but most of my users run their reports as and when they need them and these reports don't appear in Schedule Management. In IWR you could check the report queues and identify a report process ID and kill that if necessary but this doesn't seem possible in ReportNet.  I can't believe there isn't some way of doing this though since it's a fairly critical thing to be able to do in an operational system - sometimes you just need to kill a troublesome report without stopping the entire service and killing all other user reports. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Re: Managing ad hoc reports	This feature has been requested by many. Maybe it will be put in some next release. I haven't found a way to do it in SDK yet, but maybe it could be done.
Re: Managing ad hoc reports	Thanks Darek - guess I'll just have to wait then, appreciate the reply though.
No such thing as business intelligence	One of our esteemed designer's latest effort...
COGNOiSe wallpaper : 'Balanced Scorecard' - 800x600	800x600
COGNOiSe wallpaper : 'Balanced Scorecard' - 1024 x 768	1024 x 768
Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Hi I am having trouble with one PC with the pop up boxes not opening on reportnet 1.1 MR2 414.36 We use XP Sp2 we dont have any popup software switched on any ideas or IE6 We have downloaded and used filemon to monitor the software between a working one and non working PC. Any help would be appreciated. John ??? ??? ???
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Is Active Scripting allowed?
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Also make sure you are using IE's JVM and not sun JVM. NKT
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Why would JVM matter? And by the way, I'm using Sun's JVMs only. NO problems whatsoever.
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	if it only affects one pc, then it would be quite logic to compare the browser settings between a working machine and a non working one.
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Derek it is interesting that you are having no problems with Sun JVM. By virtue of the fact that I am a Weblogic developer I have noticed that Weblogic administration works only if Sun JVM is enabled. Whereas when I attempt to open Powerplay reports in Upfront in Windows mode, the popup box does not work unless and until I switch back to IE's JVM. Can you test whether you can open Powerplay reports in Windows mode with the Sun JVM. NKT
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Oops! I got your name wrong. Sorry about that. NKT
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Hi Can anyone tell me what is this JVM all about. What is this Sun JVM and IE JVM. How are these two related to Reportnet. Srik
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Cognosfreelancer: I've had a gut feeling that it should work, but just to make sure I've published a Great Outdoors cube, than switched to open in Windows mode, got prompted by JRE 1.5.0_04 JVM if I'd like to accept the Cognos certificate, than got re-prompted by WinXP SP2 firewall if it shall allow PowerPlay to go through the firewall, and finally got the report opened in PP Client. BIsrik: JVM stands for Java Virtual Machine. It allows a piece of compiled Java code to execute within your OS client space, be it Internet Explorer for example. Sun, makes all kinds of JVMs, usally more or less tied into a release of JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Microsoft provides only a small JVM for IE, because they've tried to swing JAVA their way, too, which most people did not like it and since than they are forbidden to tinker with JRE code. There is also a JDK (Java Development Kit) available, which allows you to compile JAVA source code. You can read more at http://java.sun.com/
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	Thanks got a fair enough idea what is JVM and what it does.. srik
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	We have exactly the same settings on the PCs. Some guys at cognos Uk support were having the same problems. We have thousands of users whos PCs are locked down. Cognos anwser was to rebuild the PC affected??? Installed an ran a filemon trace which showed that the non working PC could not invoke the excel software. We have exhausted all avenues, checked registries etc.Any help would be appreciated
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	I had this same issue on a couple computers. Try adding your cognos server as a trusted site in internet security. I believe the issue was with ActiveX. I got so frustrated with the entire thing I just switched every DISABLED option in the internet and intranet zone to prompt or enabled. It did fix the issue but now I need to figure out exactly what switch was the correct one :)
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	I will try. But I cannot see this as all PCs use the same platform, and are locked down. So where can I get IE JVM....... This is happening within cognos support as well??but they are not too worried?
Re: Cannot open XLS or CSV files in report studio	[quote author=johnpenna link=topic=55.msg315#msg315 date=1124103477] I will try. But I cannot see this as all PCs use the same platform, and are locked down. So where can I get IE JVM....... This is happening within cognos support as well??but they are not too worried? [/quote] <sorry CRiNge - I removed this bit...might be interpreted unfavourably possibly contrary to your intention, Hope it's OK. Drop me a line if not. Cheers! email@cognoise.com> Does it happen to all users? Added traverse rights to the user/s with the problem? Why should Cognos Support be worried if it only happens on some machines, and 99% of customers NOT have the same problem... Have you ever tried Microsoft Support?
Scheduling Problem returning strange results	Hi All, When I use the scheduller or submit a report I always get two files back, the second one having been renamed with a 1 at the end. One is always a blank HTML file and the other renamed file contains the report. The format of the report is Excel 2000. This is the only report that works. All the other formats when running the schedule send a link to the user via email which look like a XML type file.(mhL)extension name??? Any Ideas???
Re: Scheduling Problem returning strange results	I am very familiar with this problem.  The Excel 2000 format is the only format that you can send to people that don't have Excel 2002 or later, and when you deliver it by email, you get the blank HTML file.  I guess the good news, if you want to call it that, is that users with the newer versions of Excel can open the Excel 2002 format, which is actually delivered as an MHT file.  I've hounded Cognos for a resolution to the problem with the Excel 2000 format, but haven't gotten anywhere.  Good luck!
Re: Scheduling Problem returning strange results	The official reply from Cognos... " choose to e-mail it to a user, in excel 2000 single sheet format, arrives in e-mail as an html attachment choose to e-mail it to a user in excel 2000 format, arrives in e-mail as an html attachment and an xls choose to e-mail it to a user in excel 2002 format, arrives in e-mail as an mht attachment " Looks like I am stuck with it
Job Postings	I'd love to see a space for job postings, both help wanted and help offered.  I work for a Cognos Consulting partner and we have immediate needs for a number of good resources.  This would be a great forum for networking and broadening our reach.
Re: Job Postings	Hi Rocket, Thanks for your post. We have been working on a jobs module that is a bit more structured than a bulletin board format. We have also been trawled over by spam bots so security is also a high priority. Watch this space..... Thanks for the suggestion and welcome aboard. Cheers
Re: Job Postings	Rocket..what kind of resources are you looking for? what skill sets are required? and what would be the location?
Re: Job Postings	Hi cognostechie.  I don't want to violate the rules of the site, so please take a look at www.brightstarpartners.com for more information.  You can contact us from there. Thanks!
Re: Job Postings	Rocket, I love the 'tech corner' on your site. You should create a new post with links to the tutorials I think they would be very useful to the community.
Re: Job Postings	freelancing???
Re: Job Postings	I have finished the prototype for a jobs listing module which I am thinking of running as a parallel website (ie. different domain name etc) as I believe COGNOiSe should remain an advertisement-free site. Would anyone have any objections? I was hoping to target COGNOS recruiters and charge them a small fee to use the facility. Please feel free to send me your comments either via reply post or email (email@cognoise.com). Cheers
Re: Job Postings	No add it to this site.... Only apply strict rules!!!
Re: Job Postings	I was keen to: - separate posts relating to COGNOS from the posts related to jobs - keep the forum free from advertisements (so I'll prob use the news box for listing a few job ads instead of a board) - have the ability for COGNOiSe members to load their resumes for searching by employers So the only way I could come up with achieving these goals was by setting up a separate site. But I wanted to know how receptive the community would be to the above? Is storing a resume important? Would the community like to see a news feed of a few featured COGNOS job ads to get a feel for the market for COGNOS professionals? Thanks
Re: Job Postings	Dear Cognoise Administrator That is a great idea. Thanks for coming up with this. I would like that to be separated from Cognoise.com. In my experience dealing with Yahoo groups formed by the alumni of my alma maters, there were so many job postings that most of us got turned away. Make no mistake, postings of opportunities are [u]very[/u] important to me and I am sure to many other members here. I have a closing question for you. How would this site be different from regular sites such as dice.com. Seeing the great job you and your team have done with cognoise.com I am hoping that the new site will have something to differentiate it. Regards NKT
Re: Job Postings	Hey NKT, Thanks for the feedback. Great question on how the job site might differentiate itself from dice.com etc. One of the things that I found difficult with the major job sites was that the inventory of skills was too generic, ie. it was hard to add the skill of having ReportNet experience for example - the closest thing would be 'COGNOS'.  Thus you have to type it into the free text area - which means it's a little harder for prospective employers to search. This new site will provide (amongst other things): - more product detail for the skills inventory to choose from (thus allowing employers to target prospective job seekers more effectively and vice versa) - caters for the BI/DW community only - updated job ads straight to the COGNOiSe news box, so you won't even have leave the COGNOiSe site to keep your finger on the pulse of the market - these job feeds will only be for COGNOS-related roles (other non-COGNOS roles will be filtered which means less scrolling and visual pollution) - caters for all countries (not just the US market)...I'm still struggling with the major COGNOS cities for each country so this may be of an iterative nature Would love your/community's thoughts. Perhaps you might like to help some of the team in user testing? Drop me a line if you're interested (email@cognoise.com). I expect we might be in a position for a soft-launch in a few weeks' time. Cheers, Jon
Re: Job Postings	We have immediate needs in Atlanta GA for Business Analysts with ReportNet skills..... one that is urgent is a team lead.  Please review our posting at http://www.datamasters.com. Will not go into more details to not violate the rules.... but lots of things coming.  Mainly permanent positions.  Client doing MAJOR implementation of COGNOS and looking for strong folks. Thanks.
Re: Job Postings	Do you provide tickets and housing :D
Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	Hi All, I have an automated process that publishes PPX reports to Upfront.  New publications work fine using the "PublishToUpfront", but I can't get the "RePublishToUpfront" mothod of a Report object to work. While stepping through I can see that the report exists in PPES and in Upfront, and the ID in Upfront is the same as in the PPX, but it just doesn't seem to like the command. Any thoughts or assistance would be fantastic. cheers, DW Further ... The "RePublishToupfront" method does not actually invoke a "Windows Common Logon Server" connection ... ie calling the method from scratch does not have the authority to publish.  If however, I perform a "PublishToUpfront" command, the connection is established, and then the "Republish..." can be called successfully ... perhaps I could publish a dummy report and then perform a "Republish..." on the real report ... not a good option ... hhheeelllppp  :)
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	What is the reason for republishing ?
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	hmmm, good question! Currently, we have as a standard, that publication to Upfront is perfored via PP client, and not through PPES.  As a consequence, when a report changes it needs to be re-published from PP client ... may be time for a change!!! ... we considered the concept of changing this some time ago, but it kinda lost focus ... I'll have to bring it back up again. I presume that's what you were getting at with your question?! thanks Darek
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	Should we all assume that you've followed the procedure for republishing? On a separate note, instead of opening the original file, would you be able to open the PPX from imported_reports instead?
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	I was just browsing fix list for 7.3MR2 and I've found this: 485012.0 Can't execute RePublishToUpfront method in macro.
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	woohoo ... we're in the process of upgrading to 7.3 ... happy days!!! thanks again!
Re: Re-publication of Powerplay Reports to Upfront	How did it go? Did you resolve the issue?
Training Material	Hi, I recently completed the ReportNet FastTrack training - and I'm wondering if anyone knows whether I can get a hold of the training material?  Not the textbooks, but the actual reports themselves. I'm mainly interested in the reports used with the Modeling and Report Authoring components - so it doesn't have to be the FastTrack training specifically, but alternatively from the separate Authoring or Modeling courses from which the FastTrack is derived. I want to re-do some of the training examples, but you need the reports to start with and they didn't come with the training manuals. Thanks Mick
Re: Training Material	Thats really great that u r really intersted in learning things. But i am afraid u may not get the things what u want because all the reports are real time business reports. i am afraid most of us including me can't share their work. What we can all share among us are the problems and solutions that we are facing.
Re: Training Material	Email your instructor for the files you are wanting. I did this and got a zip files emailed to me of all the training material for the class. If you took cognos training I believe their email addresses are firstname.lastname@cognos.com Also, next time you take training you should consider taking a USB stick to save all your files to.
Re: Training Material	All needed reports and databases are shipped with the CRN software. Check out the administration and security guide (also shipped with CRN) to learn how to set up the samples. Good luck!
Re: Training Material	I'm creating also some online tutorials: Visit the tutorials @: [url]http://jeroendegraaff.nl/tutorials/[/url]
Re: Training Material	Hi Mick, The Cognos training courses use the sample GO Sales and Retailers package, which is shipped with ReportNet as standard.  It can easily be imported onto your server - just copy the deployment archive from Samples into ReportNet's Deployment folder (on disk), create the GOSL and GORT databases and restore them from the samples shipped, then import the deployment from within Cognos Connection. Different countries have different rules on issuing course data, so your instructor may or may not be able to provide you with the course data - depends where you attended the course. Best regards, MF.
Local Cognoise chapters	i would like to see boards/sub-boards for regions so that we could organise local events/drinks/user support groups. how about a 'buy a cognoid a beer' board? what do others think?
Re: Local Cognoise chapters	brilliant ... truly brilliant!!!
Display Default Data	hi, i have report of this type. The report has two columns date and quantity. The report also has a date prompt. The user enters a date range when he runs the reports. Lets assume date range is 1/8/2005 to 3/8/2005. Now suppose if there is no data available during this date range a default value zero has to come for quantity for all the three dates ie. 1/8/2005, 2/8/2005 and 3/8/2005. What reportnet does is if there is data then it displays properly, but if no data then only the column heading comes up. I tried with the missing value charecter in data format of quantity field but it didn't work. Please help me out. srikanth
Re: Display Default Data	Hi Srikanth How about modifying the columns by adding a calculation on the lines below: if null then zero I have not tested this myself ... HTH NKT
Re: Display Default Data	Thanks for the reply. But this works only when there is null values in the table. Then it will display zero. But if there is no data atall then even this condition doesn't work. How to achieve this when there is no data.
Re: Display Default Data	You'd need a date table outer joined to your fact table.
Re: Display Default Data	I was doing the same. But here i am actually using tabular sets to join two independent queries(Tabular Model). Now how to left join the date table with the tabular set.
Re: Display Default Data	Using filters, perhaps? Something like: TabularSet1.Field1 = TabularSet2.Field1 or TabularSet2.Field1 is null
Re: Display Default Data	As of the report requirements goes zero has to be printed there. Choosing colour option also works when there is some data atleast a NULL value. Here in my case there is not even NULL values. We made a workaround but it didn't work. We created a tabular sql which returns zero. Then used tabular set and union the report query and the tabular sql. this worked fine when there was no data. exactly what we needed. once there was some data added the default value zero also displayed along with data in the report. This was not needed. If it was one or two reports then we could have gone with the above soln. But this case repeats for almost 80-90 reports. So we couldn't go with the workaround.
Re: Display Default Data	sorry for the late response...the above filter didn't work
Re: Display Default Data	for that why dont's u choose color options , display some color where there is no values did ur try these sudhakar
Determining Report Bursting Status	Just wanted to see if anyone can assist me with a small issue.  We do alot of report bursting using ReportNet and sometimes the bursting fails.  We have no way of proactively and quickly finding out which packages failed the bursting process.  Therefore, we're thinking of building a reportnet framework model to extra log data from the Content Store to enable us create reports that can tell us this at specified intervals. Does anyone has any recommendations on how we can better do this - that is determine the status of report bursting activities?  Do anyone know the tables in Content Store that store this information?  Doe anyone has any suggestions on best practices how to get this done? Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Anthony.
Re: Determining Report Bursting Status	hello anthony, even we implement a lot of bursting and repeater stuff. can you explain to me in detail as to what you want to acheive. i had problems while bursting but managed to make them work and they are working fine. i din't understand this part "We have no way of proactively and quickly finding out which packages failed the bursting process." please let me know further and i might come up with simething for you. regards, sri.
Re: Determining Report Bursting Status	Hi, Thanks for looking into my post. We would like to develop a reportnet report that tells us which reports burtings passed or failed. We have hundreds of reports scheduled to burst at certain interval.  Right now the only way we know a report burst status is by logging into cognos connection and viewing it's history to see if it succeeded or failed.  We want to take that to another level - whereby we build a report scorecard (using report studio) that tells us which reports ran successfully or failed. I hope this clarifies things - if not please let me know. Thanks. Anthony.
Re: Determining Report Bursting Status	It might be easier with the SDK. Keep in mind that Cognos can change structure of Content Store between versions. Did you try Audit reports?
Re: Determining Report Bursting Status	hello, even we were stuck with it. the reports were bursting out properly but we did not had a way to know as to which were succesfull and which were not. there is an option  of "IsBursting()" function, but that wasn't helpfull either because it can be used only inside the report as a layout expression. but this function will tell you if the report is bursted to the reciepient or not. since it can be only used in the report layout, we can know if the report is bursted or not but, it can be only known if you open up the bursted report, which is not that helpfull. we had a case filed at the support for this enhancement. SDK probably has some extra functionality. you can ask the support if this can be acheived thru SDK. Regards, Skylab
3 Fact Tables - Union ALL?	I have 3 fact tables:USA,JAPAN, UK Each fact table has identical columns (item, quantity, price) They are joined to multiple conformed dimensions (customer,company, products, time, etc.) What I am wanting is a UNION ALL (sort of). I want price(fact) to be price for USA, JAPAN, and UK. I do not want to have to drag in price1, price2, price3(Framework wants to do a full outer join which will lead to this problem). The dimensions work fine. It is just the facts (price, quantity, etc..) that need to be joined in some way. So the question is: How can I merge the columns of 3 fact table into 1 result set using the same column names across the board while retaining my ability to independantly filter each fact star? (Yes, that confused me as well)  ??? Report Examples - Show me YTD sales(sum(price))  for Japan,UK, and USA by Item Number - Show me YTD Sales(sum(price))  for Japan and USA, excluding Item 12345 from USA
Re: 3 Fact Tables - Union ALL?	Do you want to do this in Framework Manager or in Report Studio? You could leave them as three separate fact tables in the model, and in Report Studio use Tabular Sets to perform the union join. You can apply the filter in the tabular models, and then use tabular sets to do the union on the filtered tabular models. I'm not sure what the performance of this would be, but it should accomplish the union with independent filtering. Good luck
Re: 3 Fact Tables - Union ALL?	with union only distinct values are selected.  union all will select all values regardless.  create a fact query subject and write the following sql select * from fact 1 union all select * from fact 2 union all select * from fact 3 make sure that the datatypes are the same for all columns in each table.
Re: 3 Fact Tables - Union ALL?	Thanks for the replies. I was just confirming UNION ALL was a valid option and the right way to go. I didn't want to be completely of base and wondered if someone had better approach :)
Cognos Toolset Integration	Hi Guys, Does anyone have recommendations on best practices and how to's for implementing strategies for the integration of Cognos tools (i.e. Visualizer, ReportNet, PowerPlay, and Impromptu)? We're working on a tool integration initiative where one can easily move from Poweplay to ReportNet or ReportNet to Visualize, or Powerplay to Visualizer, etc. with minimum effort. Any suggestions, experiences, reference, recommendations, etc. would be appreciated. Regards, Anthony.
Re: Cognos Toolset Integration	And what's available out-of-the-box seems not to be enough?
Re: Cognos Toolset Integration	That's my point - what is available out of the box?  Would like to learn how others are utilizing what's available out of the box - any experiences, suggestions? Thanks.
Re: Cognos Toolset Integration	Hi Anthony We are using ReportNet to integrate the various tools. For e.g we now use ReportNet to replace Impromptu and Powerplay reports. I think this is in line with the product strategy at Cognos. We have Cognos Metrics Manager but do not use it. We have been able to craete fairly evocative dashboards with ReportNet. It is so much easier to me as an administrator if we reduce the tool explosion. HTH NKT
Re: Cognos Toolset Integration	There are various levels of integration in Cognos products. For example: 1. Transformer can use Impromptu and ReportNet query definitions for building cubes 2. PowerPlay can drill from any point in a cube to an Impromptu, IWR or ReportNet report 3. Visualizer can use PowerPlay cubes as source 4. ... and so can Metrics Manager 5. Decision Stream can automatically create Impromptu catalogs and PowerPlay cubes 6. CWS can access any Cognos source (well, almost) 7. I could keep going ...
CSV Format Rounds Dollars to the Next Dollar	I need to pull a report that exceeds 65K rows.  The only option I have is to save the report with a .CSV extension.  However, the dollar amounts are automatically rounding to the next dollar (283.56 = 284).  If I save the report as Excel/html, the dollar amounts show two decimal places. Anyone know a work around this? Thanks, -A.J.
Re: PowerPlay,Impromptu, ReportNet	the cognos online training course gives a good overview and is not too expensive i think
PowerPlay,Impromptu, ReportNet	What is a good starting point to learn about PowerPlay, Impromptu and ReportNet? I have worked a little bit with PowerPlay and Impromptu but nothing with ReportNet. I am very interested in understanding these tools completely. Pl. provide me direction.
Re: PowerPlay,Impromptu, ReportNet	Thank you for the input.
Setting Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	Hi Gurus, anyone know how to change the Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report studio, when you select run with options Any help would be appreciated. :P
Re: Setting Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	Hi U can do this  by setting the run option property. go to public folder, select ur package then folder(if u have) then report. on the right side of the report u will have one option call Set properties. click on that. u can find 3 tabs General, Run Options and Permissions. select Run Options . U can find Specify the format. check the check box and select excel 2000 or any of the excel format. then click ok. Now run the report. this automatically takes the excel format. Cheers JO
Regarding Software!	Hi, I am planning to attend reportnet training classes. where can we get software for reportnet? any help is appreciated.
Re: Regarding Software!	... from COGNOS ... http://www.cognos.com/  :)
Powerplay Transformer Book/Training material	Hi Guys: I lost my book that they give at the Cognos training. Is there anything that I can download or anybody can suggest anywhere where I can get that training material. Only for the Transformer. I need to look at some advanced options like what's the difference between 'Precision' - 0 to 9. I know 9 rolls up the data most accurately but what are the diff. roll-up methods for 0 to 9. Also, the linking of diff. files/tables in the data source based on their keys. Appreciate your help in advance.
Re: Powerplay Transformer Book/Training material	Precision is available only if a measure is using floating point storage, in 8 bytes (64 bits). So every number is stored in a scientific form as in 13.1415E0. This means that if you prefer more precision, obviously less digits would be available to the left of the decimal point. Ususally 3 is enough. Linking is done through source fileds. Each category in a cube contains a source, a category, a label and a description field (plus some others like sort).
Re: Powerplay Transformer Book/Training material	Darek, thanks for the answer. Maybe I am not showing any decimals in the cube as they only want to see the dollars, that's why the cube is showing 29 million dollar in sales even when the precision is 9. For the linking..I know each category contains a source, label etc (in the properties) but I was looking for a document so that I can see how to link 3/4 diff. tables that appear in my data source when they are from different databases and flat files. Anyhow, I figured that one.
Re: Powerplay Transformer Book/Training material	I wasn't probably too specific. What I meant to say is that as long as a source field in one query match another field in another query by name, and they are designated as the source column for a level, those queries will be joined. Glad that you've figired it out.
Training Materials	Does anybody know where I can purchase training material, or tutorials for Cognos?  I am particularly needing information on Server Administration for ReportsNet and IWR.  I appreciate any assistance offered.  ;D
Re: Training Materials	Should be availble as PDF with the product.
Enable cube in Unix environment	Hi, My PPS is in Unix machine and we are working from windows machine. after buiding cube i can able to see the cube through my ftp client but not able to see it from Power play client. Is ther any command to enable the cubes. Thanks in advance Regards Sasikumar M.
Re: Enable cube in Unix environment	Has the cube ever been registered with PowerPlay server? If not, use the command line utility on UNIX called ppadmtool, or install PowerPlay Administration on your Windows machine.
Configuring Security	I'm trying to achieve single sign-on and need information on how it can be done. Currently, I have 2 LDAP servers. 1 server authenticates the user and 1 that determines the role of the user. Is Cognos able to leverage on both these LDAP servers for login and to determine the user class? Do I still need to configure the users and the user class through Access Manager? Thanks!
Re: Configuring Security	You will always have to use dedicated Cognos LDAP server (or at least a container) due to the nature of Access Manager (users are not really users and neither are groups or classes). As long as REMOTE_USER will be populated by LDAP1 after authentication, you can leverage it as an OS SignOn in Access Manager. The only way you could use what you have in LDAP2 is through some scripted, hand-crafted, replication.
Re: Configuring Security	Hi Darek, at the moment, we have an LDAP directory(say LDAP1) that authenticates the users when they log into windows. I believe a session is created once the user is log onto the network. On the other hand, I will configure Cognos to point to LDAP2 for authorization of user classes and roles. LDAP2 will have exactly the same users in LDAP1. My question is, can Cognos point to LDAP2 and still use this session created by LDAP1? Is REMOTE_USER a Cognos environment variable and how does it get populated? Thanks a million!
Re: Configuring Security	A word of caution regarding LDAP2: Access Manager will not use anything you have in there, and will change schema accordingly to it's needs, which might brake your existing directory if you have any. It's probably safer to keep it separate, meaning have an LDAP3 for AccMgr exclusively. Most of the web access control software out there, like SiteMinder for example, after authenticating a user with some LDAP directory, create a HTTP header variable, which contains the user id token that can be collectively recognized by all web agents using same LDAP. What this variable will be called is entirely up to the administrator. Sometimes it is SM_USER, sometimes LOGON_USER, sometimes REMOTE_USER. If it is REMOTE_USER, you are lucky and don't have to do anything at all, as every Cognos web app will automatically recognize it and attempt to match it agains an OSSignOn for a particular user (thus OSSignOn has to be unique in AccMgr LDAP, meaning you will not be able to create same OSSignOn for two different users). If it is not REMOTE_USER, than you have to leverage TrustedSDK for Series7 applications, or TrustedProvider for ReportNet. You will have to write some C or JAVA code respectively; however, this also helps in more elaborate authentication scenarios where user's trusted signon needs to be validated before processing (I did something very interesting in the past for The ARMY).
Re: Configuring Security	Thanks Darek, I've got a few other question to add. 1.  The status of a user on the ADAM directory is flagged with values of A (Active), S (Suspended), and T (Terminated). Can Cognos handle/use this attribute or do we need to write a script to handle this? 2.  How does Cognos handle archiving accounts? Do we need a termination date or something similar? 3. Is a user's authorization cached or updated real-time? We might have manual updates on ADAM when needed. If a user is logged in when a change is made, will the users role get reflected immediately or does the user have to log out and re-log in to get the changes ? Thanks a million!
Re: Configuring Security	Your problem sounds like a good case for TrustedSDK plug-in. You can extend Access Manager authentication, by writing bits and pieces of C code, and accomodate any extra requirements you might have (like status, termination date, etc). However I'd like to reapeat myself in saying, you'll have to have a standalone LDAP server for EXCLUSIVE Access Manager use. There is no other way. You can disable old accounts without actually removing them. Changes made to user's account are not reflected until his ticket expires and he needs to authenticate again. But you can make expiration time as short as you want.
Re: Configuring Security	Thanks again Darek, I needs another tip on security. We are trying to establish if Cognos is capable of providing the security authorization to users connecting to the source system. I understand that ad-hoc queries and reports are build using the metadata modelled in Framework Manager. The roles and responsibility on the metadata governs the visibility of metadata to reports developer and ad-hoc queries developer. Does this mean that the connection to the source system is based on service accounts used by the Framework Manager to connect to the source system? Are report consumers directly connected to the source system or does their connection stop at the Framework Manager?
Re: Configuring Security	I'm not sure. Could you explain the scenario a little bit more, please?
Content Store on Sybase	Hi, Can anyone explain me why Content Store cannot be configured in Sybase. As per the cognos, ORACLE, SQL SERVER AND DB2 are the only 3 RDBMS on which Content Store can be configured. Why can't we do this on the other RDBMS. What makes it to stop this?
Re: Content Store on Sybase	It is not related to ReportNet Architecture. For all I know it could run on an ODBC connection. I'd have to guess they've had to put some C code specific to the 3 databases and decided that should cover 95% of the market.
Re: Content Store on Sybase	Cognos made that decision based on market penetration by Sybase.
Re: Content Store on Sybase	Ok That was the answer they also gave me. I wanted to know what makes to stop this. Instead they could have done on a general basis. If u have sybase then configure on sybase, if u oracle then configure on oracle. Why did they restrict these choices. Is it anyway related to the Reportnet Architecture...or other part of reportnet. srik
[solved]Report Fomatting	Hi i have report of this type. ColA       ColB          ColC    ColD 001        2776          ABC     10 002        2775          ABC      25        Sub Total For ABC          25 003        2775          XYZ      30 004        2660          XYZ      06 005        2665          XYZ      09        Sub Total For XYZ          06 Grand Total                          80 Please Note: The subtotal is taken whenever the value of in ColC changes..in other words it is grouped on ColC. The subtotal value is taken for the lowest ColB Value. In the First Case ie for ABC the 2775 is lowest value in the ColB. The corresponding Value of 2775 in ColD is 25. This value has to come in the subtotal. The grand total should be addition of all values except the subtotals. In the eg.U get 80 when u add all the values except the subtotal values. How should i go about doing this. srik
Re: Report Fomatting	Can anyone give me an idea of how do this.
Re: Report Fomatting	hi i am able to achieve this almost 80%. Let me explain it. 1.First drag all the 4 columns to the list. 2.Group on Column C. 3. Click on Column B and Go to Property Window and Set "SOrt" to 'Sort Decending'( also u can do from tool bar) and" Aggregate  Function" to 'Minimum'. 4. Select Column D and got to "Aggregate" function in toolbar and select "Custom" U will get one more column under ColD like ColD1.Select that ColD1 and make "Aggregate Function " in Property window to "None". These will achieve till the Sub Total. I am  trying to get the Grand Total. Still i didnt get any solution. Let u know once i done.
Re: Report Fomatting	That was an interesting challange. Solution is posted below. The main trick was to leverage nested Tabular Models and minimum( a for b ). But you will have to allow cross-joins or create specific query subject in the model."
Re: Report Fomatting	<report xml:lang="en-us" xmlns="http://developer.cognos.com/schemas/report/1/"><!--RS:1.1--> <layoutList> <layout> <pageSet> <page name="Page1"> <pageBody> <list refQuery="Query1"> <listColumnTitles> <listColumnTitle> <textItem> <text>Order year</text> </textItem> </listColumnTitle> <listColumnTitle> <textItem> <text>Order month</text> </textItem> </listColumnTitle> <listColumnTitle> <textItem> <text>Order method</text> </textItem> </listColumnTitle> <listColumnTitle> <textItem> <text>Quantity</text> </textItem> </listColumnTitle> </listColumnTitles> <listColumns> <listColumn> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Order year"/> </textItem> </listColumn> <listColumn> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Order month"/> </textItem> </listColumn> <listColumn refLevel="Order method"> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Order method"/> </textItem> </listColumn> <listColumn> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Quantity"/> </textItem> </listColumn> </listColumns> <style> <CSS value="border-collapse:collapse"/> </style> <XMLAttribute name="RS_ListGroupInfo" value="Order method"/> <groupFooter refLevel="Order method"> <rowCells> <rowCell class="inlineFooter" colSpan="3"> <textItem> <text>Subtotal for </text> </textItem> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Order method"/> </textItem> <style> <CSS value="text-align:right"/> </style> </rowCell> <rowCell class="inlineSummary"> <style> <CSS value="text-align:right"/> </style> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="SubQuantity"/> </textItem> </rowCell> </rowCells> </groupFooter> <overallFooter> <rowCells> <rowCell class="inlineFooter" colSpan="3"> <textItem> <text>Summary</text> </textItem> </rowCell> <rowCell class="inlineSummary"> <style> <CSS value="text-align:right"/> </style> <textItem> <queryItemRef refItem="Quantity"/> </textItem> </rowCell> </rowCells> </overallFooter> </list> </pageBody> </page> </pageSet> </layout> </layoutList> <modelConnection name="/content/package[@name='GO Sales and Retailers']/model[@name='model']"/> <querySet xml:lang="en-us"> <BIQuery name="Query1"> <cube> <factList> <item refItem="Order year" aggregate="none"/> <item refItem="Order month" aggregate="none"/> <item refItem="Quantity" aggregate="total"/> <item aggregate="none" refItem="SubQuantity"/> </factList> <dimension name="Order method"> <level name="Order method"> <item key="true" refItem="Order method" aggregate="none"/> </level> </dimension> </cube> <tabularModel> <tabularModel name="Tabular Model1"> <filter> <condition>[Order year]=2004 and [Order month] between 1 and 3</condition> </filter> <dataItem name="Order year" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order year]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order method" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order method]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Minimum month" aggregate="none"> <expression>minimum([gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order month] for [Order method])</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order month" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order month]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Quantity" aggregate="total"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Quantity]</expression> </dataItem> </tabularModel> <tabularModel name="Tabular Model2"> <dataItem name="Order year" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order year]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order month" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order month]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order method" aggregate="none"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Order method]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Quantity" aggregate="total"> <expression>[gosales_goretailers].[Orders].[Quantity]</expression> </dataItem> </tabularModel> <filter> <condition> [Tabular Model1].[Order year]=[Tabular Model2].[Order year] and [Tabular Model1].[Order method]= [Tabular Model2].[Order method] and [Tabular Model1].[Minimum month]=[Tabular Model2].[Order month]</condition> </filter> <dataItem name="Order year"> <expression>[Tabular Model1].[Order year]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order month"> <expression>[Tabular Model1].[Order month]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Order method"> <expression>[Tabular Model1].[Order method]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="Quantity"> <expression>[Tabular Model1].[Quantity]</expression> </dataItem> <dataItem name="SubQuantity"> <expression>[Tabular Model2].[Quantity]</expression> </dataItem> </tabularModel> </BIQuery> </querySet> </report>"
Re: Report Fomatting	I've forgot to mention that the sample is based on GO Sales and Retailers package.
Need input	Hello everyone! I am tasked to come up with list of good technical questions to be used for interviewing Cognos developer applicant. I have already some but wondering if I could get any from here. Thanks.
Re: Need input	It's always fun to ask about the most challenging problem that has been faced, and how it was resolved.  This should give you an indication of the depth of understanding as well as their problem solving abilities. cheers, DW
Re: Need input	I think I would emphasis Framework Manager setup
Re: Need input	Thank you guys! Your suggestions will certainly help me a lot.
COgnos ReportNet Certification	Hai         If any body has any idea abt the Certification process of Cognos please let me         know abt it and tell me where can i get more information other than from their offcial      site. Regards Sekhar
Re: COgnos ReportNet Certification	There is one institue sql star which is offical training partner of cognos in India. U can contact them. I don't know there website add..try it in google.
Installation of ReportNet.	Hi, Can any one help me what are the prerequisite for installing Reportnet and steps for configure it. If any provide Installation Guide for reportnet will be great helpfull. Thanks in advance. kanth.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	You get the installation guide with the software. One of the pre-requisites is that you need to have an SQL Server/DB2. It will ask you the location during installation.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	I don't have report net software. If you could provide me installation guide it would be of great help Thanks Kanth.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	Why would you need Installation Guide if you don't even have the Reportnet software???? What are you going to install ?? Why do you need to know how to configure it if you don't even have it ????
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	There is notting wrong in learning new techinology.Wanted to know about.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	Hi kanth, I'm sure there was no malice meant in the last post (esp. given cognostechie's contribution and history with cognoise). Unlike some of the other software vendors, Cognos does not provide demo software (or if they did, they've stopped doing so) which makes it a little hard to learn from scratch if you're not a paying license holder. (Incidentally, I don't think I've seen a softcopy of the Installation guide for reportnet) Your best bets are: - arrange a demo with your local Cognos rep (or find a friend who has access) - have a look at the computer-based training on cognos.com Or, if you are in the evaluation stage of selecting between BI solutions I'm sure there are many forum members that may be able to help you if you have a specific query in mind. Good luck.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	try emule on the web.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	The CRN installation includes a set of documentation in both HTML and PDF formats that include an Installation and Configuration guide as well as a Quick Start Install/Configure guide. I've spent a few minutes looking through both and don't see any obvious copyright/do not distribute notices in the HTML versions, so if a forum administrator will say it's OK I'd be happy to attach or upload the PDF version of the quick guide for you to evaluate. It's about 157kb unzipped. The quick precis for requirements is a Windows OS server with 1gb RAM and at last 1gb storage for temp directory. It also requires a web server and database server, both for the data you're reporting on (if you're reporting from a db and not, say, flat files) and for the CRN content store. They support Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server, with different setup instructions for each. Web browser requirements include cookie and JavaScript enabled, and if IE is used then Active Scripting/ActiveX requirements are specified. A mail server is needed if you want to send out via email. The basic steps for single-server installation are: [list] [li]Create the content store on your database server[/li] [li]Install CRN (it uses a setup wizard to install)[/li] [li]Configure CRN for your environment[/li] [/list] The last step includes web server virtual directory setup for three directories, database connectivity established to the content store, mail server account establishment (optional), and then (if needed) installation of the Framework Manager and setup of the models you'll be using for reporting. You can also use Cognos Configuration to set up security providers (such as Exchange or LDAP) and other cool stuff. This is all if you want to use CRN on a single server (both a report server and web server) - if you want to segment your reporting platform across multiple servers you'll need to follow the more complex requirements specified in the full configuration guide. I have only done single server installations in support of our Onyx CRM deployment here, but we also have it deployed across multiple servers in our enterprise reporting system. The single server scenario installation is pretty straightforward, but it can get a little tricky when you start adding additional splits in the mix (i.e., web server on one machine, app server on others). However, the guide does a good job of walking through everything.
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	[quote author=johnpenna link=topic=80.msg316#msg316 date=1124103590] try emule on the web. [/quote] Isn't e-mule Illegal? Are you using e-mule at your site John? I think it would be unwise for me since I work for a major Bank...
Re: Installation of ReportNet.	It is definitely illegal !!!! Regards, vincent
About Tabular Reference	Hi, Can anyone tell me what is the use of Tabular Reference. I can use that only with a query. I can't put a tabular model and a reference at the query level. I can put that inside a tabular model. That is both become child elements of tabular model. If i do this the report doesnot validates as the source qualifier for the tabular reference elements are not valid. I can't use the tabular reference in tabular sets also. I am really not able to understand where the hell this is used. srik
Re: About Tabular Reference	Hi srik, The idea of a tabular reference is that you can create a report with multiple queries (2, say), and instead of each query having it's own tabular model, you could reuse your work from one query in the other query. For example, if you wanted the same data to be presented in both list and crosstab format within your report, you would need 2 queries.  If you needed to define a really complex calculation within this process, rather than having to define it twice (once for each tabular model), you could define it just once in the tabular model of your first query, then your second query could reuse the contents of your first query via a tabular reference. Best regards, MF.
Re: About Tabular Reference	Hi, I am attaching here a small document..by this u can get, how table referance can be used.. Bye Prem.
Prompt Pages	Hello, Can anyone tell me if Prompt Pages in ReportNet can be included/printed as part of the PDF Report Format or any other format for that matter? Thank You, Katerina
Re: Prompt Pages	No, but I think you could create a fake page for PDF with all prompts included. It would be probably easier just to include them somewhere on the report page, though.
Re: Prompt Pages	Thanks for the quick response.
Validating in Prompt Page	Hi All i need help. I have a prompt page. It has a textbox that gets the value of a column. When I enter a valid value in that text box I get the report perfectly. When I enter an invalid value into the textbox I get the report with no records. That’s fine. But I need to Print "Invalid Input " on the report when an invalid input in given into the textbox......got it? Any idea how this could b done? Thanks & Regards, Rajiv.
Re: Validating in Prompt Page	Hi, Use a HTML item in the prompt page. and write java script to validate the text box. Cheers JO
Re: Validating in Prompt Page	thanx Jo. iam new to cognos reportnet. can u please explain it how to do. i have a prompt page with a "Text Item" and a "finish" button below. how can i validate the "TextItem" on click of "finish" button. Thanks and Regards Rajiv.
Re: Validating in Prompt Page	can u explain me briefly, what is there in prompt page and report page. and also explain ur requirement. JO
Re: Validating in Prompt Page	as already said  i have a prompt page with a "Text Item" and a "finish" button below. how can i validate the "TextItem" on click of "finish" button. Thanks and Regards Rajiv.
Re: Validating in Prompt Page	Based on your original request, you have two options: either validate the input data via javascript as previously suggested; or accept the invalid data, let the report run, and display "Invalid input" on the report. You can achieve the second option by using conditional formatting on a text box in the list header or footer. [list] [li]Add a text box with the text to want to display when no data is returned.[/li] [li]Define a condition for a report variable as count(some query column) > 0.[/li] [li]Apply the condition to the text box. Where value > 0, set box type property to None.[/li] [/list]
Reason for "GeTemplate iwr_modifyprompts.utml failed. "	Hi,   When you publish impromptu reports as IWR reports there seems to be 2 options of setting up the database connectivity. One specifying to use access manager authentication in the IWR report administration->publish reportsets. 2nd method is specify to use impromptu catalog database connection in IWR report administation->publish reportsets. I am going by 2nd method. But, I am getting the error..."GeTemplate iwr_modifyprompts.utml failed."... Can you tell me why??? and a solution for this... Thanks in advance... Shyam Sundar...
Re: Reason for "GeTemplate iwr_modifyprompts.utml failed. "	Make sure that the database connection has been defined on the IWR server.
Re: Reason for "GeTemplate iwr_modifyprompts.utml failed. "	if you are mapping all user classes to "creator" for the report set, also check that the catalog has the database login and password embedded within it under the creator logon .. find this under Catalog -> USer Profiles -> Database Tab cheers, DW
redirection from promptpage	Hi all i have a prompt page containing a TextItem. based on the input to this textItem i need to call either the report page 1 or report page 2. please tell me how i can achieve this. thanks & regards Rajiv.
Re: redirection from promptpage	The high level answer that I have used is to create a conditional variable based on your text box (use a text box prompt and assign the value to a parameter, then create your variable based on that parameter). You then create Conditional Layouts based on that variable using the Conditional Layouts command on the file menu. You can then see the different layouts from the Page Explorer view - select a layout and you can add report page(s) and even additional prompt page(s). In my scenario I use conditional layouts to display different pages based on a parameter passed to a report from a drill-through, but the same concept applies here I believe. the Report Studio documentation has a good entry on this under "Adding Conditional Formatting to a Report" under "Add Multiple Layouts" that step through the process in detail - it's geared more toward multilingual layouts, but can use any variable type. I hope this helps!
Re: redirection from promptpage	I would suggest to create a single page instead of two pages and change the contents of the page using conditional blocks to show different controls based on the variable value .  But, this approach might be complex if you have 5 to 6 different pages to Navigate based on the prompt value instead of 2 pages. I think for your requirement, Conditional Layouts approach might not work. I remember trying out this sometime back. share with us if you could do that...
Hierarchical Prompt	Is there a way to create a prompt in Report Studio that displays each of the levels of a dimensional hierarchy and allows a user to choose values from any level of the hierarchy? For example, consider a hierarchy of product line, product type and product name.  I'd like to create a prompt that would display each product line, the product types within each product line and the product names within each product type.  The user could then select values from any level to construct a filter such as "All of product line A, product types 1 and 2 from product line B, and products x, y and z from product type 3 from product line C", or any other combination they choose. Here is an image of something similar in MicroStrategy's tool:  [url]http://i.cmpnet.com/intelligententerprise/040320/gifs/704products_fig2.gif[/url] I know how to create a cascading prompt among the members of a hierarchy, where I could choose a product line and the product types within it are displayed.  Then I choose a product type and see the list of product names within the product type.  What I want to be able to do here is max and match selections from multiple levels of the hierarchy with no dependencies on previous selections. Any thoughts? Thanks
Re: Hierarchical Prompt	Tricky and sounds alot like an OLAP report, which would be better handled by PowerPlay. Or actually it will exist in Series 8 accordingly to some reports.
Re: Hierarchical Prompt	I don't know of an easy way to display the prompt like your example, but you should be able to construct a query for use in a Search and Select prompt. You may be able to simulate the look of a hierarchy if you left-padded the string values while preserving the sort order with a separate sort order field in the prompt query. You would need to be very tricky in determining the prompt value from a given selection, although you should be able to construct something based on the level of the selection. It depends on how complex your hierarchy is. Of course, the more processing required in your prompt query and resulting filters, the more performance of the underlying report will be affected. However, the search and select prompt should supply something close to your requirement; you may just have to manage the users' expectations.
User ID on footer and default prompt based on System Year	Hello, I have two ReportNet questions that are keeping me from completing my first report.  1)  Does anyone know how to add the ID of the User running a report to the footer of the report? 2)  Does anyone know how I can default the current year on a prompt.  As far as I can see I have to put a specific value as a prompt default.  Your input will be appreciated. Thank You, Katerina
Re: User ID on footer and default prompt based on System Year	Add a calculation field with this macro: #sq($account.personalInfo.userName)# If you want to place it anywhere on your page I believe you will have to associate the Page with a QUERY or some sort.
Re: User ID on footer and default prompt based on System Year	1. You could once a year set a prompt value. 2. You could do the same with a piece of SDK code running at 00:00:01 on 01/01 3. You could write a small JavaScript and insert it as HTMLItem into the prompt page.
Find Report Dependencies	Hi all, I'm trying to identify which reports are dependent on certain query items so that I can inform Report Authors when I am about to ruin their reports. However, this function (Tools > Find Report Dependencies) only seems to work at the Query Subject level in the TableSpace that I publish to Authors. In this TableSpace I have shortcuts which then link to the underlying table. For example in each Datamart I have a market dimension which is really a shortcut to the underlying market dimension which is hidden from authors - so that I only have to maintain one market dimension table. So when I select the 'Deal' datamart and then the 'Market' dimension within it 'Find Report Dependencies' works as expected in that I receive a report which shows me all the reports which contain items from the Market Dimension in the Deals datamart. I guess it is searching all report which contain the string '[Deal].[Markets]'. This is a big list. What I really want is to be able to select a Data Item in the market dimension, say MarketName, and get a list of all the reports that contain just this item - so the report would contain [Deal].[Market].[MarketName]. However because I use short-cuts I have to go to the 'hidden' TableSpace ([MarketDim]) to select [MarketName]. Running 'Find Report Dependencies' at this point returns no results even though I know there are reports which contain this Item. What I think happens is that 'Find Report Dependencies' looks for the NameSpace [MarketDim] which is the name of the hidden base table which I shortcut to, rather then using the name in the User View (ie [Market]). Any ideas how I might get this to work? Many thanks, NRH.
Re: Find Report Dependencies	Sounds like a great enhancement request or could be a candidate for SDK code. To be devil's advocate here, the reason why FM is not able to do what you need it to, is that it can only analyze directly impacted reports. Say for example you've had a calculated column, made of two database fields, published as a single query item. It will be possible to analyze impact of changing the calculated column, but not any of the database fields which actually make it. Again, could be done with SDK.
Re: Find Report Dependencies	Is there a way of manually searching the reports for the item I'm considering changing? I'm wondering whether I could search the content store for instance?? nrh.
Re: Find Report Dependencies	Theoretically, YES (sounds like a line from "5th Element" with Bruce Willis). The thing is that there is no documentation whatsoever telling us what is stored where. Some people were successful in reverse engineering the Content Store DB, but whatever utility they've developed might not work in the next release as the Content Store structure might and most probably will change in the future. However, you can utilize SDK and JAVA to query CS and get models and reports out. They will be returned as XML documents, which you could process with SAX for example to provide for better impact analysis tool. Alternatively, you could just pay somebody to develop such utility for you (wink, wink, ... I hope I am not pushing the posting rules of this forum). If you need some names, shoot me an email off-line.
Re: Find Report Dependencies	Thanks Darek. nrh, all emails can come through me initially and I will pass on. Darek can then reply directly. Have to keep those spammers at bay.
[Solved] Date Format Problem	Hi I have an irritating problem .I cannot force the date format in the date prompt to display in the format dd/mm/yyyy It displays 07-Jan-04. I have tried The data format properties of the object. i.e Displaying the Format, trying to force the pattern to display months 2 digits using dd/mm/yyyy in the pattern...The Parameters below being the data prompts... The expression says   Dateprompt 1 = From Date "Database1.shareholderview.tradedate<?Parameter2?"                                    Dateprompt 2= To Date "Database1.shareholderview.tradedate>?Parameter3?" There is some suggestion of changing the server date.???? or  changing the raw SQL to something like this below. to_date([CDATE],'mm/dd/yyyy') in_range  ?DateRange? Any help or this irritating problem. Cognos sais "The issue lies in the fact that a prompt value for a date is actually considered a string rather than a date.  Therefore you need to cast the parameter to a date in a data item and then format that column." John"
Re: Date Format Problem	If I am not mistaken, the internal value of a date prompt will be always YYYY-MM-DD to keep it in compliance with SQL9x standard. So there is a separate function for drawing on the user's screen, called CDatePicker_drawDate() //render the date in the proper format function CDatePicker_drawDate() { var sFormatDate = ""; if (this.m_dDate) { //update the edit box sFormatDate = getFormatDate (this.m_dDate, this.m_iType, this.m_sInputOrder); } if (this.m_bInline == 0 ) { this.m_oEditBox.value = sFormatDate; } } Potentially you could overwrite it, or you could overwrite the getFormatDate function, which really performs the formatting. Or instead of modifying Cognos code, you could inject a JavaScript snippet into your prompt page, which would attach itself to blur event and reformat date after CRN."
Re: Date Format Problem	You obviously have tried to create a calculation to format this dataitem in Framework Manager???
Re: Date Format Problem	With help from cognos I have solved the problem. Just a case of using the datecast function in report studio.MAking sure I have selected the DB2 vendor option in the expression builder. I used data items instead of the parameter.This allowed me to format easily without any coding. Thanks for the help guys
Re: Date Format Problem	I've misunderstood. I've thought you need it in the prompt box itself ...
[Closed] Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	I am very new to Cognos. I Have a chart report that runs off of a tabular sql. The tabular sql does counts off of source tables and I want to graph the counts. I have the counts at the top (1) and the months at the bottom (2). The report validates fine but when I go to run it I get a DPR-ERR-2082 error (exception was encountered while building the cube).  If I just run tabular data I get "an error occured while performing operation 'sqlOpenResult' status='-28'. with the same DPR-ERR-2082 error.
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	I wonder if the problem might related to similar issue with crosstab reports. Try this 1. Open the CQEConfig.xml file, located in the install_location\configuration directory, in your favorite text editor. 2. Change the value of crosstabDecimalPrecision from 7 to 2. 3. Restart the Cognos ReportNet service. Or another issue: The maximum size for a measure in a crosstab and chart is 19 digits. You can use the maximum of 19 integer with 0 decimal precision. The default decimal precision is 7, so 100000000000 works but 1000000000000 would generate the error.
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	Darek... thanks for your help.  We tried those things but no luck.  I'm trying to open a case with Cognos support if they can ever get my company account straightened out.  I'm thinking that the tabular sql might be messing things up.  In the sql I'm counting instances of data to create the numbers for the graph.  It works fine in Oracle Reports but not in Cognos.
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	Could you provide the working Oracle SQL?
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	select YM, Month, sum(Received) Received, sum(Created) Created, sum(OpenBacklog) Open_Backlog, sum(Closed) Closed, 50 Backlog_Goal_Max from( select to_char(imported_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(imported_on, 'Month') Month, count(to_char(imported_on)) Received, 0 Created, 0 OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from document where to_char(imported_on, 'YYYY/MM') >= :start_date and to_char(imported_on, 'YYYY/MM') <= :end_date group by to_char(imported_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(imported_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, count(to_char(created_on)) Created, 0 OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from response where to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') >= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') <= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, 0 Created, count(to_char(created_on)) OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from response where completed_on is null and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') >= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') <= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, 0 Created, 0 OpenBacklog, count(to_char(created_on)) Closed from response where completed_on is not null and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') >= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') <= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') ) group by YM, Month order by YM
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	So, do you have a total of three tabular sets for your query? Do any of them work alone?
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	The chart works fine in our Oracle development server, actually there are three, I only sent you one of the three sql's. When we run in our Production Oracle Reports environment the report won't work.  That's why I'm trying Cognos.  We are moving from Oracle Reports to Cognos anyway.
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	I apologize for not being to specific. If I was the one bringing it into ReportNet, the statement you've posted would be divided into three tabular sets: 1. First UNION between firs and second SELECT 2. Second UNION between third and fourth SELECT 3. Third UNION combining two previous results These would make a single Query object in Report Studio. and I'd definitely replace thow :start_date and :end_date with ?start_date? and ?end_date? Why don't you paste here the clipboard copy of your report so we can all look at it?"
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	<report xml:lang="en-us" xmlns="http://developer.cognos.com/schemas/report/1/"><!--RS:1.1--> <modelConnection name="/content/package[@name='GIDEP']/model[@name='2005-08-11T20:58:03.796Z']"/> <querySet xml:lang="en-us"> <BIQuery name="Query1"> <cube><factList><item refItem="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/><item refItem="RECEIVED" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/><item refItem="CREATED" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/><item refItem="OPEN_BACKLOG" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/><item refItem="CLOSED" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/></factList><dimension name="YM"><level name="YM"><item key="true" refItem="YM" aggregate="none"/></level></dimension><dimension name="MONTH"><level name="MONTH"><item key="true" refItem="MONTH" aggregate="none" isHeader="true"/></level></dimension></cube> <tabularSQL name="Tabular SQL1" idConnection="(server not shown)"><SQL>select YM, Month, sum(Received) Received, sum(Created) Created, sum(OpenBacklog) Open_Backlog, sum(Closed) Closed, 50 Backlog_Goal_Max from( select to_char(imported_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(imported_on, 'Month') Month, count(to_char(imported_on)) Received, 0 Created, 0 OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from document where to_char(imported_on, 'YYYY/MM') &gt;= :start_date and to_char(imported_on, 'YYYY/MM') &lt;= :end_date group by to_char(imported_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(imported_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, count(to_char(created_on)) Created, 0 OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from response where to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &gt;= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &lt;= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, 0 Created, count(to_char(created_on)) OpenBacklog, 0 Closed from response where completed_on is null and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &gt;= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &lt;= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') UNION select to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM') YM, to_char(created_on, 'Month') Month, 0 Received, 0 Created, 0 OpenBacklog, count(to_char(created_on)) Closed from response where completed_on is not null and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &gt;= :start_date and to_char(created_on, 'YYYY/MM') &lt;= :end_date group by to_char(created_on, 'YYYYMM'), to_char(created_on, 'Month') ) group by YM, Month order by YM</SQL><dataItem name="YM"/><dataItem name="MONTH"/><dataItem name="RECEIVED"/><dataItem name="CREATED"/><dataItem name="OPEN_BACKLOG"/><dataItem name="CLOSED"/><dataItem name="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX"/></tabularSQL></BIQuery> <BIQuery name="Query1_chart"><cubeReference refQuery="Query1"/><summary><dataCells><item refItem="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX"/><item refItem="RECEIVED"/><item refItem="CREATED"/><item refItem="OPEN_BACKLOG"/><item refItem="CLOSED"/></dataCells><columnEdge><level refLevel="MONTH"><item refItem="MONTH"/></level></columnEdge><rowEdge><cellMembers/></rowEdge></summary></BIQuery></querySet> <layoutList> <layout> <pageSet> <page name="Page1"> <pageBody> <chart refQuery="Query1_chart"> <chartBody/> <title render="false"> <text/> </title> <subtitle render="false"> <text/> </subtitle> <footer render="false"> <text/> </footer> <legend> <itemTruncationText> <text/> </itemTruncationText> </legend> <axis axisPosition="X"> <labels/> </axis> <categoryItemTruncationText> <text/> </categoryItemTruncationText> <axis axisPosition="Y1"> <labels/> </axis> <combinationChart depth="0" standardType="standard"><line><chartMember refMember="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX"/></line><column showValues="none"><chartMember refMember="RECEIVED"/></column><column showValues="none"><chartMember refMember="CREATED"/></column><column showValues="none"><chartMember refMember="OPEN_BACKLOG"/></column><column showValues="none"><chartMember refMember="CLOSED"/></column></combinationChart> <chartMeasure><chartText><queryItemRef refItem="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX"/></chartText><style><numberFormat decimalSize="0"/></style><member refMember="BACKLOG_GOAL_MAX"/></chartMeasure><axis axisPosition="Y2"><labels/></axis><chartLevel refLevel="MONTH"><queryItemRef refItem="MONTH"/><chartText><queryItemRef content="label" refItem="MONTH"/></chartText></chartLevel><chartMeasure><chartText><queryItemRef refItem="RECEIVED"/></chartText><style><numberFormat decimalSize="0"/></style><member refMember="RECEIVED"/></chartMeasure><chartMeasure><chartText><queryItemRef refItem="CREATED"/></chartText><style><numberFormat decimalSize="0"/></style><member refMember="CREATED"/></chartMeasure><chartMeasure><chartText><queryItemRef refItem="OPEN_BACKLOG"/></chartText><style><numberFormat decimalSize="0"/></style><member refMember="OPEN_BACKLOG"/></chartMeasure><chartMeasure><chartText><queryItemRef refItem="CLOSED"/></chartText><style><numberFormat decimalSize="0"/></style><member refMember="CLOSED"/></chartMeasure></chart> </pageBody> <pageHeader> <block class="reportTitle"> <textItem class="reportTitleText"> <text/> </textItem> </block> <style> <CSS value="padding-bottom:10px"/> </style> </pageHeader> <pageFooter> <table> <tableRow> <tableCell> <textItem> <expression>AsOfDate()</expression> </textItem> <style> <CSS value="vertical-align:top;text-align:left;width:25%"/> </style> </tableCell> <tableCell> <textItem> <text>- </text> </textItem> <textItem> <expression>PageNumber()</expression> </textItem> <textItem> <text> -</text> </textItem> <style> <CSS value="vertical-align:top;text-align:center;width:50%"/> </style> </tableCell> <tableCell> <textItem> <expression>AsOfTime()</expression> </textItem> <style> <CSS value="vertical-align:top;text-align:right;width:25%"/> </style> </tableCell> </tableRow> <style> <CSS value="border-collapse:collapse;width:100%"/> </style> </table> <style> <CSS value="padding-top:10px"/> </style> </pageFooter> </page></pageSet></layout> </layoutList> </report>"
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	Now I can see better. Couple of things I've noticed from start: 1. To much grouping I think. You don't have to group by YYYYMM and Month. If you group by YYYYMM and get min or max or first or last of Month, the result will be the same 2. Try to use Framework Manager Query Subjects and Query Items. Don't just force SQL down to CRN. 3. Brake those four union queries into three separate tabular sets just like I've explained in my previous suggestion 4. If I am not mistaken, in "proper SQL", if a field is not part of grouping, it needs to have aggregate function specified. That means instead of "0 Created", use "sum(0) Created". Yet again, if this will be FM driven, you won't have to worry. (actually this would be just autosummarized calculated data item with contstant value of zero and name of Created). 5. Instead of count(to_char(imported_on)), do count(imported_on) or count(1). Result should be the same. Try these and let me know if it fixed the problem.
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	Thanks Darek, I will take this up with my team lead. They have another person doing the Framework Manager task and she just went on vacation.  We are still in development and running off a local box so I might be able to get this all done without too much trouble.  I'm a reguritated mainframe puke so I'm still experiencing SQL and the context of it's use so I overdo things at times.  I'll post a reply when I've had a chance to try these things. Jim
Re: Chart report won't run, gives DPR-ERR-2082	I ended up doing this chart task in NetCharts, thanks for your help. How do I close one of these topics?
Button Page Change	Is it possible to make a button or link change the page(jump to) to a particular page. Say I have a very large report 1 page is US sales and 1 page is International. I want to click a button to jump to the page named International. Similar to the TOP, BOTTOM, Page Up, Page Down links on the footer but be able to specify an actual page name or some other ID to get it to move there.
Re: Button Page Change	Hi CoginAustin, You might be able to achieve something like this by adding bookmarks to your report.  Assuming you have grouped your report by Sales Region (or created section headings), you could add a list containing the Sales Region to the report header, add a bookmark before the Sales Region within the report (based on the Sales Region Query Item), then from your list in the header, turn on drill-through to the bookmark. There is one big limitation to this, though - you must be rendering as HTML for the bookmarks to work, and the report should be completely rendered too (try running the report from Cognos Connection and saving the output as HTML before you test the bookmarks). Best, MF.
Re: Button Page Change	Hi CoginAustin, did you already solve the problem? - I heave a similar one: A report with a ConditionalLayout. One variable with 7 values, where every value has 1 to 3 Report Pages. No groupings, no sections. I'd just like to adress the next or next but one page ... Some ideas anyone? Thx a lot, Jenny.
Re: Button Page Change	I have a similar issue. I have a Summary (Dashboard-type) page.  I'm trying to create a drill-through on a text item (don't need to pass any parameters) to the second page.  Yes, I could tell the users to use the next page option but I also have other text items in the dashboard to other pages. For example, I have a page named "Calls Per Surgeon".  I set a drill through on a text item using expression: PageName() = 'Calls Per Surgeon'.  Just to check it it, I create a calculated display: IF (pagename() = 'Calls Per Surgeon) THEN (1) ELSE (0).  When I run the report the calculation is displaying 1 as it should.  But, when I click on the text item with the drill-through, nothing happens.  Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? THANKS.
Re: Button Page Change	I'm guessing you are rendering as HTML? Bookmarks only work if they are on the same HTML page, so if you are trying to test your bookmark by running the report interactively from Report Studio (or from Cognos Connection), only one page at a time is getting rendered, so your bookmark will not work.  Try saving the report, running it from Cognos Connection and saving the HTML output into the content store.  Once the report has executed, click to view the output, and your bookmark should then work as the whole report appears in one long HTML page. In short, you're doing nothing wrong - it's just a case of understanding how the bookmarks work. Best regards, MF.
Re: Button Page Change	Thanks for your reply, MF.  I really appreciate the help.  I saved the report and opened in Cognos Connection.  Then, I saved the report to the content store using the far left icon (Save the Report).  I then ran the report and the drill-through did nothing.  Any suggestions? Thanks.
Re: Button Page Change	Can anyone offer some assistance with this issue.  I have an extremely tight deadline and I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance!
Re: Button Page Change	CoginAustin = bdybldr?
Re: Button Page Change	No, I just didn't want to start another topic when one already exists.  Should I open another topic?
Re: Button Page Change	Just checking - you are viewing the saved output rather than running the report again?  Please don't be offended - I know it's an obvious thing, but no stone should be left unturned... :-) I have put together a simple example of what (I think) you want to achieve using the GO Sales and Retailers package - the xml for the report is attached.  Can you compare what you're doing with my example - it may help you to see if there's a problem with something you're doing? To get my bookmark to work, I saved the report to My Folders, then in Cognos Connection I used the 'run with options' icon next to the report, and selected the 'save the report' radio button.  Once the report had executed and saved the output to the content store, I clicked on the report name link to view it, and the bookmark navigated me to the next 'page'. Best regards, MF.
Re: Button Page Change	Excellent!  Thanks for all your help, MF.  My hat is off to you.  It worked as you said. question1: Will the user be required to save the report first before running it? question2: I noticed that it displayes everything as one page.  Is it possible to open a new window and only show the section that you bookmarked? One thing that needs to be mentioned here...[b]The text item label must be identical to the label used in the bookmark or it will not work.[/b] Thanks again MF!  btw...I applauded you for your contribution.
Re: Button Page Change	Wow!  High praise indeed!  Thank you :) Sorry to say the answer to your first question is yes - the report will need to be run and saved to the content store before the bookmark will work, as drillthrough to bookmark will only work if the bookmark is on the same HTML page, and saving the output renders as one long page. I suspect the answer to question 2 is no, for the same reason (unless anyone else has a nifty bit of javascript to do the job, if it's possible). Please, put your hat back on now, or your head may get cold (brrrrr) :) Best regards, MF.
Re: Button Page Change	Sorry to hear.  Sounds like a possible future enhancement.  Thanks again.
Report Studio Error	Hi, we are having a very strange error with Cognos report studio: When the server loads metadata objects in the pane that says "Insertable Objects" and when more than about 8 users are using the server at the same time, the page times out and an error window appears which is titled "BI Bus Error".  And in the window, there is the following text: ------ The server returned and unrecognizable response: It is either incomplete or empty. 12152: Unknown ------ Has anyone seen this problem before? Thanks for reading! -Rob
Re: Report Studio Error	What's your environment like ?
Re: Report Studio Error	Most likely you have kept the default timeout vakue of 30 seconds for the Report Service process. Log into server administration and increase the wait time to about 60 seconds. There is a lot more that can be done as far as tuning is concerned as and when you answer Darek's question. NKT
Prompt Questions	I have a couple of questions around prompts that I'm hoping someone can help out with... 1. Is there a way to display prompt values in place of the prompting object itself when exporting the report to Excel or PDF? I have some reports that have optional prompts as filters at the top of the report, but when the user sends the report to an external app for printing they don't know what filters they have applied. I can create text objects that reference those parameters and place them on my layout, but I'd like to "replace" where the prompting objects were in the layout to take advantage of the table(s) I've already made that show the prompt label in one cell and the prompt object in the next, if this is possible... 2. Is there a way to "pass" a prompt value through to a target report if that prompt value is not displayed within the report object (list, crosstab) that contains the drill-through link? For example, say I have a report with a prompt for Region (so the user can filter on the Region they want to display details for), but I don't really want to display the Region in the report itself (this is a simplistic example). Is there a way that the child report can "see" that prompt value/parameter? I haven't been able to pass any values to a drill-through report that aren't containted in the actual displayed report that "does the drilling" - I imagine this could probably be done with JavaScript somehow, but I haven't been able to come up with the approach and I'm hoping someone around here has already done it. Just as an FYI, adding the parameter as a data item in the query source for the parent report doesn't seem to work - nothing ends up getting passed to the target, even though it would "seem" like this would be the correct approach...unless I'm just doing it wrong!
Re: Prompt Questions	Ad 1: You could leverage conditional blocks based on a variable driven by ReportOutput() function. Ad 2: Yes, this should be possible. Did you try making a parameter a query item that is not being used for display?
To displya a queryitem in a single cell with grouped	i want to display queryitem in list and wannna to be displayed in a single cell can u help me guys.. thanku sudhakar
Re: To displya a queryitem in a single cell with grouped	You will have to provide more details, my friend, because I don't really see where the challange might be ... ?
Re: To displya a queryitem in a single cell with grouped	i had created a data item , assigned to nationality table, it should show nationality group id, i had drag&drop list to work area and draged data item(nationality id) on the list report, and grouped the data item..then in the properties i am hiding the column title. after that two times the (nationality id)  repeates in two cells.. but i want to display in single cell.with groupby.. i dont' wanna to repeat ( nationalityid)  as it shows in list report can u help me sudhakar
Publishing reports in 7.3 to ReportNet	Version 7.3 of Powerplay is quite a disappointment when it comes to publishing reports directly to ReportNet. You cannot. The only way to publish is through the PPES admin tool. Even this approach is limited in that all reports can be published to only one fixed location. Likewise with the cubes. This is a security problem as it will mean that all delegated admins can view reports published by other delegated admins. I was wondering whether anyone has encountered this issue and what your thoughts may be on working around this. Regards NKT
Re: Publishing reports in 7.3 to ReportNet	That's partially correct. You are correct by saying that you can only publish from PP admin tool. However, each folder can have it's own publishing target. It would be nice to have the ability to publish from PP Client directly to CRN, but guess what: accordingly to what was presented at the User Conference down in Florida, there will not be a PP Server in Series 8, so they are probably not going to put in this particular functionality in 7.3 MR3 for example. For now, as an alternative, you can still host your Upfront Server and embed it's content in Cognos Connection. Not exactly what you hoped for, I know.
Re: Publishing reports in 7.3 to ReportNet	Darek Thanks for the reply. Can you please clarify what you mean by your statement "However, each folder can have it's own publishing target. " When I changed the location of the target folder for publishign reports from my Powerplay admin tool, I saw that change reflected in the Powerplay admin tool of a separate user on her own computer!. I am not sure how we can have multiple target locations. Regards NKT
Re: Publishing reports in 7.3 to ReportNet	Glad to ... First, let me say, you should not have to many admins for PowerPlay, because things can get messy. There is only one PowerPlay Server, therefore if somebody has access to PPADMTOOL and PPES has not been secured, each person will be able to see everything the others do. And overwrite whatever others did (very dangerous). If you go to any Folder properties, Settings tab, you will see that there are two folders ReportNet publishing. One for cubes and one for reports. So what I was trying to say is "you can have various publishing targets, one for each folder". But not one for each user. As a workaround, you could have just a couple of admins for publishing cubes, while superusers would have the ability to only save new reports to Cognos Connection.
Regarding Certification	Hai I am new to Cognos and I would like to know abt the certification exams,I had visited the web site www.cognos.com and I would like to take the BI Author Test first. Which all ReportNet Pdf files have to be mastered for this exam? ( I did not have any professional training for the same but have a few months experience in Impromptu, Power Play and ReportNet) How are the questions distributed ? Would Cognos let you take these exam without taking their TrainingCourses? Or do you have to take their prerequest courses before being eligible to take the test? Thanks
Re: Regarding Certification	As far i know, if u have an access to the partner network of cognos then u can take the exam without the training courses. I don't know for non-partners access. U can check with the sqlstar which is the only authorized training partner of cognos in India.
Re: Regarding Certification	You don't need to take any courses in order to take the exam. But your company must be current Cognos customer (which means the support contract is valid). All Cognos exams are done through the Internet and they are all multiple choice questions. I think you can have 3 attempts for each exam. I am not sure about BI Author cert, but most Cognos Certificates require you to pass multiple exams before they give you the certificate.
Re: Regarding Certification	I can get you the exams and the correct answers, for a charge... ;)
Re: Regarding Certification	.....just to preempt any emails, CRiNge is JOKING!!!! Thank goodness for the 'terms of use' agreement. Now, CRiNge about that thing that fell off the back of the truck..... :-X
Re: Regarding Certification	hello CRiNge what's the deal for getting the corect question papers and attending the exams thank u sudhakar
Re: Regarding Certification	Hai   Can u plz come up with the price and details. Thanks
Re: Regarding Certification	I think it is OK to talk about what areas the exams focus on but not about the actual questions and answers. This forum should not be the place for that.  Do yourself a favor. Learn from these posts and I am sure, passing the exams will not be difficult at all.
Re: Regarding Certification	Resently i completed my certification in SQLSTAR in Bangalore. In Sql Star they will give COGNOS ReportNet course material if u go throught the material u can clear the certification.
Re: Regarding Certification	Hi Suneel, i heard there are 4 levels are there in cognos reportnet. which one u cleared. can u tell me the fees for the exam... cheers JO
Re: Regarding Certification	Hi JO, You are Right JO, These are the four level we have to right the Exams: 1) Basic Query and Reporting 2) Cognos ReportNet Advanced Authoring 3) Cognos ReportNet Metadata Modeling 4) Report and Server Administration I Cleared Basic Query and Reporting Certification. Regarding fee Details In SQL Star I wrote free for attending the Exam. They will give three times to write the test each paper. I paid the course fee Rs.30,000/- Cheers Suneel
Re: Regarding Certification	HAi suneel_pgv Can u plz tell me for the first two exams which all  files i have to prepare 1) ReportNet Introduction(1051) or 2)Intermediate(53) or 3)Advanced(54) plz let me know abt the type of qns and the time. Thanks
Re: Regarding Certification	Hi Jyothi, You Have to Prepare 1) 1050 2) 1051 3) 1053 4) 1054 1) Basic Query and Reporting -- There are a total of 60 questions in 1 section. You have 60 minutes to complete this test. A set of answers preceded by square checkboxes indicates there is more than one correct answer. A set of answers preceded by round checkboxes indicates there is only one correct answer. 2) Cognos ReportNet Advanced Authoring -- There are a total of 40 questions in 1 section. You have 40 minutes to complete this test. A set of answers preceded by square checkboxes indicates there is more than one correct answer. A set of answers preceded by round checkboxes indicates there is only one correct answer. ALL THE BEST.
Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Hello Cognos Gurus: I have been making cubes from an RDBMS called PROGRESS (thru ODBC) and from flat files. I want to make cubes now from Oracle and SQL Server. Since Powerplay Transformer does not give any option to choose any Oracle/SQL as the source when you are building a model, I was wondering do we make cubes from Oracle/SQL Server by using an Impromptu IQD ? Thanks in advance, Steve
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Yes, you should use an IQD, created by Impromptu, ReportNet, Notepad or UltraEdit. Here is an example of what it looks like: COGNOS QUERY STRUCTURE,1,1 DATABASE,gosales TITLE,[gosales_goretailers].[Sales reps] BEGIN SQL {select "Sales_staff"."Staff_name" AS "Staff_name", case  when "Country"."COUNTRY_CODE1" = 11 then "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB"+' '+"Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB"+N'' when "Country"."COUNTRY_CODE1" = 12 then "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB"+' '+"Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB" when "Country"."COUNTRY_CODE1" = 13 then "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB"+' '+"Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB" when "Country"."COUNTRY_CODE1" = 14 then "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB"+' '+"Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB" else "Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB"+' '+"Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB" end  AS "Staff_name__multiscript_", "Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME" AS "First_name", "Sales_staff"."FIRST_NAME_MB" AS "First_name__multiscript_", "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME" AS "Last_name", "Sales_staff"."LAST_NAME_MB" AS "Last_name__multiscript_", "Sales_staff"."Position1" AS "Position1", "Sales_staff"."WORK_PHONE" AS "Work_phone", "Sales_staff"."EXTENSION" AS "Extension", "Sales_staff"."FAX" AS "Fax", "Sales_staff"."EMAIL" AS "Email", "Sales_staff"."DATE_HIRED" AS "Date_hired" from ( select "SALES_STAFF"."FIRST_NAME"+' '+"SALES_STAFF"."LAST_NAME" AS "Staff_name", "SALES_STAFF"."FIRST_NAME", "SALES_STAFF"."LAST_NAME", "SALES_STAFF"."FIRST_NAME_MB", "SALES_STAFF"."LAST_NAME_MB", "SALES_STAFF"."POSITION_EN" AS "Position1", "SALES_STAFF"."WORK_PHONE", "SALES_STAFF"."EXTENSION", "SALES_STAFF"."FAX", "SALES_STAFF"."EMAIL", "SALES_STAFF"."DATE_HIRED", "SALES_STAFF"."SALES_BRANCH_CODE" from "SALES_STAFF" "SALES_STAFF") "Sales_staff", ( select "COUNTRY_MULTILINGUAL"."COUNTRY_CODE" AS "COUNTRY_CODE1" from "COUNTRY" "COUNTRY", "COUNTRY_MULTILINGUAL" "COUNTRY_MULTILINGUAL" where "COUNTRY"."COUNTRY_CODE" = "COUNTRY_MULTILINGUAL"."COUNTRY_CODE" and "COUNTRY_MULTILINGUAL"."LANGUAGE" = 'EN') "Country", "SALES_BRANCH" "Sales_branch" where "Sales_branch"."SALES_BRANCH_CODE" = "Sales_staff"."SALES_BRANCH_CODE" and "Country"."COUNTRY_CODE1" = "Sales_branch"."COUNTRY_CODE"} END SQL COLUMN,0,Staff name COLUMN,1,Staff name (multiscript) COLUMN,2,First name COLUMN,3,First name (multiscript) COLUMN,4,Last name COLUMN,5,Last name (multiscript) COLUMN,6,Position COLUMN,7,Work phone COLUMN,8,Extension COLUMN,9,Fax COLUMN,10,Email COLUMN,11,Date hired That database has to be defined somewhere: IMPROMPTU.INI or AccessManager
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Thanks Darek, and sorry for posting it in the wrong forum. So, I wonder why Transformer doesn't interface directly with Oracle/SQL Server, since it does interface with even the old ones (DBase), and since the largest market share for COGNOS customers is probably using Oracle. Any particular reason why they didn't have this functionality.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Well, it does interface directly, meaning it will use ODBC, OLE DB or native drivers to get data from DB. It only needs a connection, or rather query definition. It would be too much and kind of redundant, to put query modelling facilities into Transformer. Oh, I've almost forgot, there is a tool which allows you to do "query modelling". It is called Architect, comes with Transformer, but use it at your own risk. As every model and query definition is being stored in Access Manager LDAP directory (or LAE file), Architect has been known to corrupt security once in a while.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	I may not have been too clear Darek. I am not concerned with Query modelling as I can always do that in Impromptu and save it as an IQD. What I meant was, since Transformer can read directly from Dbase, MS Access, Flat files, why not read Oracle the same way. Is it because it needs an SQL to pull the data out? Even thru ODBC, it's not direct as it will involve an IQD or some kind of SQL as you said and the ODBC itself is another component.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	You hit it right on the head ... Reading flat files, dBase or Acsess, is a no brainer. Reading from database server is a different story. There is networl involved, drivers, ports, cables ... you get my point. I'd like to reiterate: it interfaces directly with Oracle or any other DB server. It just needs to be told how to get there.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	darek, but the cognos people themselves says that the transformer can't read oracle, SQL server and similar RDBMS directly. They have to be fed through other means. They couldn't give a satisfactory answer. One of the support guys told that this is due to security reasons. Is this reason... srik
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	I like a good story every now and than ... Anyhow, can Transformer open an Oracle table directly in its interface so you can see all columns and data types? NO. Can it read such table directly once it is told what it looks like by Impromptu or Framework Manager or notepad-driven-IQD? YES! Tha's all I was trying to say. That it does not need any extract file, dum file or anything of that kind. Just where the source is (even if it comes from multiple tables) and what it looks like. Cheers.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Srik and Darek: I have also been thinking about this so dug up this post. Yes, both of you have a point. The main reason is the database security and the fact that modelling cannot be done in Transformer and it would be redundant to do that as Impromptu and Reportnet can do it. However, the network, cables, protocols is no longer an issue. Nowadays, any directory on UNIX can be shared thru NFS and can be mapped to any Windows box thru a drive letter. It acts the same as reading something from a 'C' drive of any computer. Moreover, having Oracle or any other RDBMS on the local machine would also not connect to Transformer without ODBC.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	Darek The "Architect" tool you refer to is correctly named "BI Architect".  The original Cognos tool named "Architect" was designed to document PowerHouse 4GL applications and has nothing to do with BI meta data models. Reagrds, Blue
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	the reason why we don't need to import from oracle into transformer can be because RDBMS are build on joins and transformer doesn't have joins but catagories,levels and dimensions. so even tought you import a schema into transformer i think it will be of no use.
Re: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	There are other pragmatic reasons why Cognos uses a "standard" method of interacting with data sources in Transformer.  There is a multitude of database engines around now, hundreds in fact, and Cognos has no desire to waste/invest money in a) developing native drivers for each of these and b) maintaining such drivers as the database vendors change their APIs.  Oracle alone sells several different RDBMS options. The "legacy" data source options such as dBase are there as much for historical reasons as any practical one.  Who on this forum has ever used a PowerHouse Portable Subfile as a data source for Transformer? :) Blue
MOVED: Cubes from SQL Server/Oracle	This topic has been moved to [url=http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?board=21]COGNOS Transformer[/url]. [iurl]http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?topic=98.0[/iurl]
COGNOiSe blogs?	We're able to introduce some blogging software into COGNOiSe without too much extra cost, just wanted some feedback on whether there is any interest? (both from a reader's as well as a blogger's point of view) Anyone keen to start and maintain a BI blog? (see the Claudia Imhoff example in the News Box top right-hand corner- scroll down about three-quarter way) Cheers
Framework Manager import ROLAP data	Hi! We are currently using Teradata to generate ROLAP data marts. Does anyone know if Cognos Framework manager is able to import this metadata to be used? Thanks!
Re: Framework Manager import ROLAP data	You can use Teradata ODBC connection to connect your datamarts in Framework Manager.
Re: Framework Manager import ROLAP data	Can Cognos Metric Manager and Powerplay utilise these ROLAP data mart? Does this application create an instance of the data source or do they access the data directly from the data source?
Summary Metrics	Hello, Just trying to find out how to create a summary metric.  Basically I want a metric at the top level of my scorecard hierarchy which is a sum of all the metrics in the level beneath it? Can this be done?
Re: Summary Metrics	Hi, There is no rollup of values, as such through from children to parent within CMM. One option is to use the metric type that you've used to create the child metrics to create a parent metric.  Then use a pre-staging process to calculate the patent level metric data for the staging tables. Another option would be to create a calculated metric based on the values of the child metrics.  This option would not be suitable if you expect the definition of the parent to change. If however your summary metric is to be based on several metrics then I think that the calculations should be prepared for the staging table and a new metric type and metric created specifically for this purpose. cheers, DW
Forum Citizenship	I see this in each poster's profile. What does it mean NKT
Re: Forum Citizenship	NKT: When you log on you will see "Applause this members' contribution" and "Warn others about this member" right below the Forum Citizenship. If you click "Applaud..", it adds a point for citizenship. Atleast that's what I found some time back. So that's the + . So I presume if you click on "Warn..", it might add to the - points. It's probably to give recognition to members for their contribution.
Re: Forum Citizenship	That's correct, cognostechie. It's a forum karma thing - when someone helps solve a problem it's customary to acknowledge the contribution by clicking on 'Applaud'. This adds to the '+' for the contributing party. This way, other users can gauge how good/helpful/reliable another user has been. I might, however, just re-format the numbering system from '+/-' to just a single number (eg. instead of +5/-1, just show '4')
XML file, prompt page	I am new to cognos. I was trying to update some of the reports with prompt pages. Is it posible to copy and paste some of the XML code to the notepad? so I could change some code or inser new.
Re: XML file, prompt page	Just use Copy to clipboard - Open from Clipboard.
Re: XML file, prompt page	Hi Darek, thanks for the help. can you sudject any free sorsers online where i can get more information about cognos reportnet? (creating reports)
Re: XML file, prompt page	Cognos Support page has couple examples in Multimedia Knowledge Base. Try also CRN's own Help System.
Powerhouse + Cobol UNSTRING	Does any one know an easy way to Unstring a field like the Cobol command     UNSTRING WS-ARRAY DELIMITED BY ","                             INTO RPT-ARRAY(1)                                   RPT-ARRAY(2)                                   RPT-ARRAY(3)                                   RPT-ARRAY(4)                                   RPT-ARRAY(5)                                   RPT-ARRAY(6)                                   RPT-ARRAY(7)                                   RPT-ARRAY(8)                                   RPT-ARRAY(9)                                   RPT-ARRAY(10)                                   RPT-ARRAY(11). * The field coming in is delimited by commas and contains 11 seperate values.
Re: Powerhouse + Cobol UNSTRING	Hi Chuck, My answer comes without the aid of any PowerHouse manuals in front of me, but with 18 years experience, here goes ... As less elegant but just-as-useful approach (assuming that your using Quick) is to use a [b]While-Retrieving [/b] loop and combine two function - [b]Index[/b] and [b]Substring[/b].  Index will give you the relative prosition number of each comma, and substring will allow you to extract the value beween commas or at the start of or the end of each record. If you're using Quiz or QTP then you still use the two functions but appy them to each record of the record complex ensuring that you've call the data file in the Access statement. Good luck!
Re: Powerhouse + Cobol UNSTRING	Thanks, I'll try it.
prompt page	I created one page of the report and one prompt page. when I run the report I have my full report, the prompt page didn't apeared. is there are spesific settings that i have to assign to the main page in order the prompt page to be apeard first?
Re: prompt page	Most probably your prompt was not required, therefore the whole page was ommited.
Re: prompt page	Or the case might be that the prompt was set to required = Yes, but wasn't filtering the report query and so wasnt included.  You need to include some reference to the prompt in the query itself if the prompt is not being populated from data items and applying a parameterised filter.
Re: prompt page	did u try using build prompt page, it can help u sudhakar
[Solved] Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	Is there a way to save the prompted values on one report and use them while drilling through from this report to another report. Thanks in advance
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	You need to have the prompt values as query items in the query (not necessarily in the face of the report, but in the query).  THe second report (the drill through) has to have prompts set up to accept these.
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	Thanks a million for the reply, Actually the problem is that i am using a SQL Query as a Tabular SQL and i cannot omit out the start and end dates, as i have some aggregations in the SQL. So isnt there any other way to save the start and end dates picked the first time and use it in the second report that was drill through. Thanks in Advance [quote author=Darek link=topic=107.msg362#msg362 date=1124213454] You need to have the prompt values as query items in the query (not necessarily in the face of the report, but in the query).  THe second report (the drill through) has to have prompts set up to accept these. [/quote]
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	You don't have to omit anything. Just add the parameters as Data Items to your query. Than you'll be able to reuse.
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	What i meant was that because its a tabular SQL that i am using, i can add the date, but that will change my windowing logic in the sql, so i am forced not to add the date in the SQL. Hence dosent show up in the DataItems. Moreover reportnet does not allow you to add new dataItems when you use tabular Sql.
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	Than supersede the Tabular SQL with Tabular Model. Meaning if your query looks like this: Query 1   Tabular SQL 1 Make it to look like this Query 1   Tabular Model 1       Tabular SQL 1 Than you'll be able to add those parameters as Data Items without disturbing your SQL.
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	And I've just tested that you can add new Data Items to a query driven by Tabular SQL. At the query level.
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	I've forgot to ask: what do you mean when you say "windowing logic in the sql"?
Re: Carry Prompt Values from one report to another	Thanks a million it works
Katie McCray - MIS Project Analyst, Bush Industries Furniture Mfg	[color=Blue]Hello Everyone! My role as a project analyst covers many topics, including that of our one-and-only Cognos developer/modeler/end-user/etc within the company. We are a furniture manufacturer located in Jamestown, NY, and we use Powerplay for Windows with cubes created via Transformer with Impromptu .iqd files. We have just recently started the ball rolling in our company with this software and adding on additional end users. I look forward to this website gaining some ground to help all of us 'newbies' out there... and in turn, we can learn and help others along the way.[/color]
Re: Katie McCray - MIS Project Analyst, Bush Industries Furniture Mfg	Great stuff, Kattrix. How's the user feedback been like on the COGNOS tools?
Re: Katie McCray - MIS Project Analyst, Bush Industries Furniture Mfg	Skeptical, at first. We have actually had these products for two years now. However, the developer before me created one huge, cumbersome, over-populated cube using terms that the users were not familiar with... thus leaving the cube slow and non-user friendly...not to mention the garbage that went in to it. At the time, the users had a bad taste of it. When I took over, I created many smaller, more customized cubes. After I trained the first two users, they put out a good word on the ease of use & accuracy... and the ball has been rolling since. Now, we have approx 10 cubes and more users coming on board all the time. Formatting, however, is by far the biggest complaint. The inability to format individual cells within Powerplay is an issue. Also, the lack of printing adjustments/formats is a complaint - mainly the margin size minimum of .50.
Re: Katie McCray - MIS Project Analyst, Bush Industries Furniture Mfg	It's amazing how common that storyline is. ..Company finally invests in much needed BI tool...Consultant/Internal IT goes nuts building datawarehouse/cubes from hell...Performance grinds to halt and overnight builds take 2 weeks to complete...Users get shirty..cognos deemed unuseable. Good thinking on training your two initial 'power' users. Got some viral marketing happening. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Thanks for signing-up Kattrix, hope you find COGNOiSe useful. Cheers
prompting and displaying	Hi all, i'm really n00b at Cognos. i dont even have the basics yet. but i gotta learn the hard way of doing cognos. anywayz i am doing a simple report just to familiarize myself with cognos. it really simple. requirements: 1) prompt user a number AND a product ID. 2) construct a list table displaying the records matching that number and product ID. how do i go about this? i'm ok at programming ,php,asp,vb, i know how to set the prompts when creating the model using the #prompt()# in my sql. so my confusion?difficulty? here is ...how do i pass the user input into the sql and then have cognos generate that report using what the user input? in programming SQL we'd go like, select * from table where number='userinput1' AND productID='userinput2' does cognos actually do this by itself? do i have to set it up myself? all i have is a prompt page and the display page. and when i key in correct input i dont get any records displayed in my report page. do i have to set some more query or filter? need help... anyone got some cognos tutorials plz inform me...thanks.
Re: prompting and displaying	I suggest you first take a look at the Report Studio User Guide. Alternatively, you can start by having a look at the Report Studio Tour, available from the Help menu in Report Studio.
3rd Party Publications	Has anyone come across any 3rd Party publications having to do with Impromptu?  Actually anything other than [u]Impromptu StartUp![/u] by Brian Olah. Thank you.
Re: 3rd Party Publications	Not at all - and I've been [u]SEARCHING[/u] I'm surprised no-one out there's taken advantage of this gap in the market
Re: 3rd Party Publications	There used to be a book on Impromtu, but supply was limited ... oh wait ... here it is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130191159/amzna9-1-20/ref=nosim/102-0937464-1700941?dev-t=D26XECQVNV6NDQ%26camp=2025%26link_code=xm2
COGNOiSe.com down for site maintenance on 17/8/05	Our webhost has indicated that some maintenance work needs to be done on our servers: Date:                08/17/2005 Start time:          05:00 GMT Services/Equipment:  All servers. Type of work:        Kernel upgrade Purpose of work:      Upgrade all kernels to the most recent release Impact of work:      Loss of connectivity for less than 5 minutes *shockingly late notice, i only got the email this morning
Re: COGNOiSe.com down for site maintenance on 17/8/05	I will miss it when it is down. :-\ This community already feels like family NKT
Re: COGNOiSe.com down for site maintenance on 17/8/05	You and Darek practically live here! ;D I hope you have the official COGNOiSe.com wallpaper (from the 'Downloads' board) emblazoned across your desktop...
Re: COGNOiSe.com down for site maintenance on 17/8/05	Apologies to those that were affected by the longer than expected downtime. All is well and we have not lost anyone (or any posts).
format number into date	Hi, would like to know how i can format a number into a date... user Inputs a number in yyyymm format eg - 200501 i need to display in my report that this number actually represents January 2005. coz i am using this as a title. anyone got any idea how to do this?
Re: format number into date	What is your DB ?"
Re: format number into date	If your DB is M$ SQL it is going to be a three step process. 1. Add a new vendor specific function to SQLServerTree.xml <function> <id>sql_datename</id> <name>datename</name> <canonical>datename</canonical> <returnType>string</returnType> <parameter> <type>literal</type> </parameter> <parameter> <type>date</type> </parameter> </function> 2. Restart CRN 3. Add new calculation to your query   datename({month},?Par1?+'01') If it is ORACLE, you can do same with a combo of to_char and to_date."
Re: format number into date	An alternative way to handle these date display conversion is to have a Date dimension table in your database. The date dimension table can hold day names, year, month, accounting period, different display formats etc for each date, allowing you to convert between formats with a simple lookup.
Re: format number into date	Darek, i'm using Oracle... i'm really unsure how to do this conversion. you mean i need to specify in my sql statement when i create my model to convert this user input into a date? my sql is Select * from table where datemonth = #prompt('prmMonth')# so i created a prompt page. user keys in 200501 (data in my database for this is Integer not date) so how do i convert this user input to dae eg- january. i know how to use the to_char and to_date. but i just dont know how to implement it in Cognos...
Re: format number into date	Oh, that's much easier. It sounds like all you need is conversion of int to date to dispaly on the report only. There is couple possible solutions, one mentioned above with the lookup table. Another one would be to leverage parameter maps. And last but not least is a simple conditional case or if-the-else with left and right or substring functions. Do you still need an example?
Re: format number into date	hai u can  have the sql funtion as mentioned above to_char, to_date, but as they said,, u need to have tables for data&time format.. for that u need to go for query explorer... in tabular model section of date& time columns select sort acendint and decending and dont sort option r there. u, select the that column in the tabular section .. in the properties.. u saya s particular month  click as sortasecndint and  another one  in fact item  clcik dont' sort.. try these sudhakar
Re: Scheduling Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	I think dwood might have used vba - i'll check with him and get back to you
Scheduling Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	Hi does anyone know how , if possible, to receive just an xls file in the scheduler via email.We want to upload this automatically to our DB without any html, mht etc... Cognos sais it cannot be done. Wondering if anyone has a workaround that does not involve extracting the xls file to the desktop/saving and then emailing manually. Any help would be aprreciated
Re: Scheduling Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	If your goal is to kick off a bunch of reports and save their XLS version into a standalone DB, it can be doen using event based scheduling, small JAVA program and CRN SDK.
Re: Scheduling Default Reports to XLS rather than HTML in report Studio	yes we have had no success with cognos UK support. We use want to extract a simple xls file from cognos without the mht, html etc straight to the users mailbox. They have blamed the issue on microsoft. If anyone knows the underlying technology . i.e. which Java 2 release, which toolkit, which libraries etc) or even the binary file format (BIF) created by cognos. Only the developers know how this is achieved.
ReportNet thread Configuration	This is related to performance tuning. My ReportNet servers are integrated with BEA Weblogic instead of the default Tomcat. What is the relationship between the servlet threads that I configure using BEA Weblogic admin console and the threads (affinity connections) for the report service processes that I configure within ReportNet server administration. I believe each user request results in creation of a dispatcher thread and a Content Manager thread. Assuming it is an interactive request, the dispatcher thread will in turn create a thread from the report service process. This seems to indicate a one to one relationship. The rule of thumb is to configure 2.5 times the number of concurrent users as threads, but I need to understand the relationshio better rather than just follow something I do not understand. Regards Naveen
ReportNet wishlist	Here's one: The ability to rotate text in column headings to any angle
Re: ReportNet wishlist	First you would have to convince them ...  http://www.w3.org/
Re: ReportNet wishlist	CSS works to rotate text. [code] <div style="layout-flow: vertical-ideographic"> [/code] Column Header Field [code] </div> [/code] Also DHTML can rotate text on all axis..
Re: ReportNet wishlist	At "ANY" angle ?
Re: ReportNet wishlist	You can rotate to any angle. However, it must be absolutely positioned and it would take extra real estate(vertcal length+horizontal length) since the actually column do not display at the same angle. With this in mind you will also have to adjust the column height and width manually as the text is basically not part of that cell. I have no idea what issues there are as far as printing. Another easier way to go about it is to just create a .gif of the text at the angle you want  ;D Real estate required: *Vertical text abcdefg *Horizontal a b c d e f g Diagonal a b   c   d     e       f       g To do it: [code] <STYLE> .positioned { position: relative; } </STYLE> <SCRIPT> var id = 0; function displayTextDiagonal (text, down, deg, lsp) {   deg = deg || 45;   deg = Math.PI / 180 * deg;   lsp = lsp || 10;   dy = lsp * Math.tan(deg);   var html = '';   html += '<DIV ID="td' + id + '"' + ' CLASS="positioned"' + '>';   if (down) {     for (var r = 0; r < text.length; r++) {       html += '<SPAN ID="td' + id + r             + '" CLASS="positioned" STYLE="left: '             + (r * lsp) + 'px; top: ' + (r * dy) + 'px;">';       html += text.charAt(r);       html += '</SPAN>';     }   }   else {     for (var r = 0; r < text.length; r++) {       html += '<SPAN ID="td' + id + r               + '" CLASS="positioned" STYLE="left: '               + (r * lsp) + 'px; top: '               + ((text.length - r) * dy) + 'px;">';       html += text.charAt(r);       html += '</SPAN>';     }   }   html += '<\/DIV>';   id++;   document.write(html); } </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT> displayTextDiagonal('Column Heading', true, 45); </SCRIPT> [/code]
Re: ReportNet wishlist	"Any" angle was a big ask, I know. Personally, I'd be happy with 90deg anti-clockwise. Currently I can only get 90deg clockwise. I raised this with Cognos and they've created an enhancement request. With my user hat on, I can see how it would be easier to read at a more acute angle such as 45 or 60; the sort of thing you can do in Excel (much as I hate the beast, it does have good layout options). Granted it does take up more real estate. And I was also thinking that this should be EASY for non-technie authors to implement - which tends to rule out workarounds heavy on the scripting and graphics manipulation. But I will try the suggested css option & see if that helps - thanks, guys!
[Closed] Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero vals in a CRN crosstab	I'm trying to apply conditional formatting to a crosstab in reportnet. My crosstab is employees by days, with the daily load rate (ie 0 - 1 formatted as a percentage) as the measure.  I have a conditional variable (string) called allocation, defined as follows: [color=Blue]case when load > 1 then 'Overallocated' when load > 0 and load < 1 then 'Partially allocated' when load > 0 then 'Unallocated' when load is null then 'Unallocated' when load is missing then 'Unallocated' else 'Unallocated'[/color] I have applied the variable as a conditional style to the crosstab measure cell, and applied conditional cell background colour formatting for each of the allocation variable outcomes (ie. Dark red for Overallocated, yellow for partially allocated, red for unallocated). The problem is that all my 0 values are not being formatted with a red background - they are just appearing with the white default but all the other formatting is being applied.  Ie...this is what is happening: [color=Blue] If the employee record for the day has a loading of > 1, then formatting is correct (ie dark red) If the employee record for the day has a loading of 1, then formatting is correct (ie green) If the employee record for the day has a loading of >0 and <1, then formatting is correct (ie yellow) If the employee has no record for the day, then formatting is correct (ie red) If the employee record for the day has a loading of 0, then formatting is not being applied (and the cell stays white). [/color] In an attempt to try and fool reportnet around this problem, I also formatted the default 'Other' value for the variable to display red, and it still isnt colouring the cell. Anyone have ideas on what the hell is going on here?
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	Hello JGirl I have not tested this solution but what struck me was that you were not testing for the value zero but only for values greater than or less than zero. Change this statement: when load > 0 then 'Unallocated' to : when load >= 0 then 'Unallocated' HTH NKT
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	Thanks for such a speedy reply, but..... My apologies - I just realised that I very stupidly placed the wrong logic in my posting, so let me clarify: (this happens when you change the logic a million times in order to try and get this working and then and type it into a forum - I should have just used good old cut and paste  :)  ) The actual case statement is case when load > 1 then 'Overallocated' [color=Blue][b]when load = 1 then 'Fully Allocated'[/b][/color] when load > 0 and load < 1 then 'Partially allocated' when load [color=Blue][b]=[/b][/color] 0 then 'Unallocated' when load is null then 'Unallocated' when load is missing then 'Unallocated' else 'Unallocated' There are 4 possible outcomes, and 4 different colours that i'm attempting to reply, but the report that I'm running has 5 colours (the 4 I am applying, and the standard white for when the logic doesnt apply).  The thing that has me confused is that I'm setting the format color to red when the value is 0 (and it is 0 in the database not just in my report), I've set all the other values through the 'ELSE' clause to red, and I've set the reportnet defualt 'Other' variable to be red, so I can't see how the hell the zeros are slipping through unformatted. I want the zeros to appear as red, the same as the nulls, missings and everything that doesnt apply to the logic, but for some reason it isnt processing the load=0 properly. Any ideas on why this is slipping through the loop? J
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	What's the datatype on the item you're testing? You say it's formatted as a percentage, but is it a float or an integer? Sometimes you can have issues when testing for equality with 0 for a float. If so, try testing for equality with 0.0 instead. Let us know how it goes...
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	Or try when SUM(field)=0
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	I've tried testing as = 0, =0.0, =0.00 etc with the same result (no formatting applied). The database is MSSQL server and the datatype is float. The thing that has me baffled is that I've added logic in the case statement to handle everything else not already handled in the when clauses (for when the =0 doesnt work!), and that I've also applied the formatting to the reportnet 'Other' value for the variable, and these zero values are totally slipping through the net!
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	Also - in addition to my other (hundred) postings for this topic:.... If I copy the variable logic and paste it into a calculated column in the query, then view the tabular data, it is seeing that the zero values (appearing in the tabular data as 0.00) are actually a 'NA' value - its only the formatting that doesnt seem to pick up on the correct value. J
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet cross	Could you try this logic instead case when load > 1 then 'Overallocated' when load = 1 then 'Fully Allocated' when load > 0 and load < 1 then 'Partially allocated' when load < 0 then 'Other' else 'Unallocated' I am not sure if you need the less-than-logic so feel free to remove it.
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	Darek, Thanks for your reply... I tried a similar approach (ie. removing the logic to check for = 0 so the value will fit into the 'else' condition) but still no luck.... This is what I can't get my head around....every value (null, missing, less than zero etc) is being handled correctly, except the EXACT zeros, regardless of whether I explicitly define code for equality to zero, or if i try to force it into the else condition. I've checked the logic in the tabular data for the query, and the logic in the case statement is OK (ie. the query knows that the zeros should fall into the 'Unallocated' bucket), but somehow reportnet can't apply the formatting rule i created for 'Unallocated' (but only for the zeros)
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet cross	This rings as a bug ... Maybe something like 0 ain't 0.0 ? I'm puzzled. Could you try casting the source value * 10 to int and see what you get? Base your conditions also on *10 ranges, please.
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	by any chance when you formatted the cell/column to percentage, did you set the 'no. of decimal places' to zero. If yes, then there may be a possibility that the data may  be a fraction 0.002 etc which is still not zero and therefore does not fall into  the '=0' category. The report output will still show 0 because fractions will not be displayed. Just thinking out aloud..
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	The value is definitely 0.....both in the DB and in the report....definitely something buggy going on
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet cross	I've just read the first post in this thread. It is a CROSSTAB. Conditional formatting of crosstabs is not supported up to CRN 1.1MR2. Only lists and alike.
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	J, Just a suggestion...Have you tried placing WHEN load <=0 THEN "Unallocated" in the first position of the case statement? Also, have you tested the values of your case statement?  What value is displayed for load <=0? Please keep us posted.  I'm intrigued by your dillemna.
Re: Problems applying Conditional Formatting to zero values in a ReportNet crosstab	I [i]was[/i] intrigued for a little while, but I'm long over it now... I have tried when load  <= 0 = 'Unallocated' I have also tried when load <= 0.00 (with and without percent formatting) What I have now is: [color=Blue]CASE WHEN [load_day] > 1 THEN 'Overallocated' WHEN [load_day] >= 0.875 and [load_day] <= 1 THEN 'Fully allocated' WHEN [load_day] > 0.00 and [load_day] < 0.875 THEN 'Partially allocated' WHEN [load_day] <= 0.00 THEN 'Unallocated' WHEN [load_day] is missing THEN 'Unallocated' WHEN [load_day] is null THEN 'Unallocated' ELSE 'NA' END[/color] and it still doesnt work.  Turns out zero doesnt equal zero.  Also turns out since it is a crosstab it isnt supported (thanks for that bit of infor darek) :( Thanks everyone for your contributions
MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	Hi I potentialy have two discreet groups of users that I want to be presented with diffirent Cognos connection home pages. Each set of users will be able to log in and access their own pages but I want to be able to present to deal with diffirent types of 'anonymous user'. Is there a way of setting up seperate cognos connection pages by providing diffirent URLs to each user group..? The reason for this is that I want to be able to present 'internal' users with basic company wide information but external users accessing through an extranet I want to offer a very basic welcome page for them to log in. Thanks Geoff
Re: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	Yes this can be done. We have three enviroments. Dev http/ubrs3004.rdc.uk.kjdsfjdsj.com  etc,etc. UAT /ubns3004.uk.kjdsfjdsj.com  etc,etc. Production Unfortnately you must change your cognos connection  URL on your own PC each time you want to publish a package with framework manager to a different environment. Not too much of a hassle.
Re: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	... or just three separate gateways poiting to dispatchers poiting to common content manager ... or programming front-end with JAVA or .Net ... or buying a pre-written library for creating JAVA front-ends
Re: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	[glow=red,2,300]"... or just three separate gateways poiting to dispatchers poiting to common content manager"[/glow] This sounds like the easist option unless I misunderstood the eariler post. Where would I get the best description of how to set up multiple gateways as you suggest - from the architecture guide..? Geoff
Re: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	Yes, but basically you perform a standard Gateway and Dispatcher install, while during configuration you disable any reporting services. This way not only you can customize skins, but also certain UI elements can be removed at the dispatcher level.
Re: MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF COGNOS CONNECTION	Thanks very much - Iwill try that... Cheers Geoff
Accessing DB2 database on the Mainframe	Does anyone know if Reportnet is able to access DB2 residing on the Mainframe? Are there any additional architecture requirements?
Re: Accessing DB2 database on the Mainframe	What is the DB2 release?
Re: Accessing DB2 database on the Mainframe	The database version is DB2 UDB for iSeries. Does Cognos support this connection?
Re: Accessing DB2 database on the Mainframe	As a data source, yes. DB2 UDB 8.1 FixPak 1+ (including FP7a which is equal to 8.2) via 8.x runtime client  Active DB2 UDB 8.2 via 8.2 runtime client  As a Content Store, some. IBM UDB 7.2 VIA DB2 7.2 JDBC driver (not supported for DB2 for z/os or AS/400)  Windows/UNIX IBM UDB 8.1 (including FP7a which is equal to 8.2) via DB2 8 JDBC driver (not supported for DB2 for z/os or AS/400)  Windows/UNIX
Strange error on reports when opening them!	??? Hi we are getting the followwing error when opening the reports, " Some of the files in this web page arnt in the exspected location,do you want to download the source, click yes." Any ideas? John
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	I assume you are tying to open them in Excel? And that the error is just a warning, that can be bypassed by clicking OK. So what is the problem?
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	I,m used to products that are consistent. Would be nice to find out why its intermiitant. Just had confirmation that this has been logged by many other users as a bug in the vendor application by cognos.
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	The final comment from the product manager with cognos is that this is expected behaviour. Also take a look to Report Studio User Guide page 207. It also states that this is expected.
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	Hi John, Able to provide more info? perhaps: - type/style of report - report studio? - exporting or just report launching? etc Curious that COGNOS would leave a bug hanging like that. cheers jon
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	Did you try to add CRN to trusted sites?
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	This is the sequence my users use. Sequence: 1. Run a report that goes straight to xls and select open instead of save 2. Leave IE displaying the xls 3. In the original ie window select another report. 4. When run select open 5. Error message in Excel has to be ok'd before viewing the report Hope this helps.
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	User Guide 207 Appendix E: Producing Reports in Microsoft Excel Format The following limitations exist when producing reports in Microsoft Excel format. Microsoft Excel Limitations The following issues were identified in Microsoft Excel and affect producing Cognos ReportNet reports in Excel format. Unable to Load Images from the ReportNet Content Store in a Report If a report contains an image whose URL points to the ReportNet content store, Microsoft Excel generates an access violation error and shuts down. This problem is a known issue in the Microsoft knowledge base, and Microsoft is currently investigating the problem. This problem occurs only in Excel 2000 and 2002. Blank Worksheet is Opened If Microsoft Excel cannot download a worksheet within a timeout period, Excel may instead open a blank worksheet. [b]Warning Message Appears When Excel Opens a ReportNet Report Each time Microsoft Excel opens a ReportNet report, the following message appears: Some of the files in this Web page aren’t in the expected location. Do you want to download them anyway? If you’re sure the Web page is from a trusted source, click Yes. This is normal Excel behavior[/b]. Loading Excel Reports in Netscape 7.01 is Not Supported This version of ReportNet does not support loading Microsoft Excel reports in Netscape 7.01. Nested Labels in Charts Are Not Supported Currently, it is not possible to specify nested labels for the category axis via XML. Data Series Are Truncated Microsoft Excel may show data series or categories grouped differently when compared to a chart produced by ReportNet. Excel limits the maximum number of data series per chart to 255. Data series over 255 are truncated.
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	guess i,m stuck with it. I have added to the crn list. ;D John
Re: Strange error on reports when opening them!	This is a bug which after installed hotfix 414.46. This is now fixed.
Portable Catalogs?	I'm using Impromptu 5.0 over the Syteline ERP.  For catalogs, the then Symix folks were kind enough to create a bunch of user-friendly catalogs over one of our twelve Progress databases.  I'd like to re-create those same catalogs over some of the other Progress databases.  I can copy the catalog easily enough in Windows, but I think it is still pointing to the same database it was created over (or against).  Is there a way to edit the metadata in a catalog to make it point to another database?  Of course, the schema in these twelve databases is exactly the same, so no worries about table/field name mismatches.
Re: Portable Catalogs?	Well, I don't know much about version 5, but later versions use a DSN entry to define the database connection. If you change where the DSN is pointing to, you should be able to reuse the same catalog. But as I said, maybe version 5 did it differently...? Good luck!
Re: Portable Catalogs?	You could modify the "Cognos.ini" file, where the database connection information is held.  This file can typically be found in \\installdrive\program files\cognos\. Firstly find which database name There should be an entry in there for you existing catalog. cheers, DW
Re: Portable Catalogs?	Hi If you have the administrator version you could select catalog - tables menu option to find out what logical database your catalog is using. NKT
Re: Portable Catalogs?	That's correct. Truman..that logical DB name is a logical name in Impromptu that is pointed to an ODBC data source that connects to the Progress database. When you copy the catalog and save it, the new catalog is still pointing to the earlier ODBC data source which is connecting to the earlier database. You can do this: 1> Create a new ODBC data source for connecting to the 'other' database. You might have to create a diff. ODBC data souce for each of those 12 DB's. 2> Open the new catalog (which you copied from the original). Choose Catalog/Tables option. Change the logical DB name to point to the new ODBC data source. I have done this with MFG/PRO and MXP. Edited :For spelling mistakes.
Re: Portable Catalogs?	Fantastic advise, all!  I've made catalog copies for all twelve sites and data is correctly flowing from each one, through their own ODBC definition.  Thanks!
Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	Hello I am running both versions 7.1 and 7.3 each on two Windows 2000 boxes. I needed to create shares on folders such as ppservertemp and ppwb. As I did not want to overwrite the shares created for 7.1, I changed the names of the shares and folders to ppservertemp73, ppwb73 and temp73 for PPES 7.3. I could validate the apply the configurations successfully. However when I attempt to run the Powerplay reports I get a 'Cannot create temporary files' message. The NTFS permissions are pretty open at the moment so I am baffled with this error message. Any thoughts NKT
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	Does it mean that you've created new shares or just trying to share same folders between 7.1 and 7.3 ?
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	Hi Darek No I created new shares. The folders are different. The ones for 7.3 have the suffix 73 and exist under the cer4 folder. The ones for 7.1 exist under the cer3 folder and retain their original names and shares. Regards NKT
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	This is a long stretch, but check if by any chance any other temp directories (including referenced by TEMP and TMP) do not everlap each other.
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	Why do you create shared folder , if one version is only in one computer ?? 2 comments if you still want to use shared folder. Use / instead of \ when defining the shared path in Cognos Configuration ie:  //mycomputer/ppservertemp73  and not \\mycomputer\ppservertemp73 Change the system user that starts the service to one named user with enough rights.
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	If they are networked shares, you have to run your Cognos services under a domain account. Or on UNIX they have to be NFS mounted I believe.
Re: Running different versions of Powerplay Enterprise Server	Apologies on  not closing this earlier. Keeping sir Jeroen's note in mind. :) I am running both versions on the same computers. The problem was not resolved even after literally opening up NTFS access to the folders. The reason for this is that yours truly had converted to ISAPI gateway but had forgotten  :-[ to make one slight change to the PPES configuration. It was reflecting the CGI gateway. No idea why it worked fine for me but not for users. Once I changed all to ISAPI gateway , the problem disappeared. NKT
Limitation on Sessions	Hi, Is there any LMITATION ON NO OF SESSIONS ON A PARTICULAR COGNOS USER ? if so how do we handle ? is there any possibility of increasing the limitation ? Thanks
Re: Limitation on Sessions	There is none.
Swaping Columns and Rows at Runtime in CrossTab	Hi , In crosstab report Is that possible to swap the columns and rows in Cognos Report at runtime? If so how do i proceed to that ? As i used to work on OWC Pivot Table where i can swap the rows and columns, so i am wondering if i can achieve the same functionality in Cognos Report at runtime too? Thanks
Re: Swaping Columns and Rows at Runtime in CrossTab	Abd what would be the condition and timing of such swap?
Re: Swaping Columns and Rows at Runtime in CrossTab	Hi Darek, Thanks for the reply. Here is my Goal for swaping ....Let me give an example Let say int he cross tab if Years on Columns and Country on Rows, i amy be validating Country wise sales of a particular year, for a particular case i would like to swap means what ever i can do in the Design time (Click on SWAP icon) i want to achieve the same thing at runtime.             1998  1999  2000 USA      30%    40%  80% UK          20%    50%    45% EGY        10%    5%      6% now if i apply swap the years will be on rows and country will be on rows, i want this in runtime. The same functionality as a Microsoft Pivot Table where u can swap the Measures as u wish to analysse the data Hope i am clear Thanks
Re: Swaping Columns and Rows at Runtime in CrossTab	Hi Darek, (I am posting my question again as some spell mistakes which changes the meaning) Thanks for the reply. Here is my Goal for swaping ....Let me give an example Let say int he cross tab if Years on Columns and Country on Rows, i amy be validating Country wise sales of a particular year, for a particular case i would like to swap means what ever i can do in the Design time (Click on SWAP icon) i want to achieve the same thing at runtime.             1998  1999  2000 USA      30%    40%  80% UK          20%    50%    45% EGY        10%    5%      6% now if i apply swap the years will be on rows and country will be on Columns, i want this in runtime. The same functionality as a Microsoft Pivot Table where u can swap the Measures as u wish to analysse the data Hope i am clear Thanks
[Solved] Hiding folders in the reportnet	hi, My requirement is to hide the Folder in the report net. i have some reports which are in the folders. these reports cant use directly. these are drill thru reports. so i dont want to show this folder which contain reports to the user. In reports net we have a disable entry option, but it does satisfy my requirements. can anybody plz help me? Cheers JO
Hiding folders in the reportnet	Sry in the above mail i have wrongly mentioned. The disable entry option in the reportnet doesnot satisfy  my requirement. suggentions are highly appreciable.
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	You can't hide it without disabling access to it. We all miss this type of functionality from the Upfront world. Cognos' intention was to have TRAVERSE not display a folder, which would accomplish exactly what you need, but something happened and it does not work as intended. But there is a workaround. What you could do is change the root of Cognos Connection Public tab to a subfolder within Public Folders for non-admin users. This way they will never see any packages or drill-through folders.
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Hi Darek, Thanks for ur reply. but my intention is to hide the folder in the same package without moving in to anyother location. suppose i am having a one report say "X" the drill down report say 'Detailed X'  is in same package with in the folder say "Detail". i want to hide this folder showing only X report to the User not the folder. Is there any other way of doing it? Jo
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	My suggestion was a workaround, in my opinion the only viable option given your needs and current state of the product.
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Darek You piqued my interest. Could you explain your workaround further. I could not quite understand it. Thanks NKT
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	[quote author=cognosfreelancer link=topic=124.msg457#msg457 date=1124460350] Darek You piqued my interest. Could you explain your workaround further. I could not quite understand it. Thanks NKT [/quote]"
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Take a look at templates\ps\system.xml ... <!-- Specify the base navigation root for consumers. --> <param name="consumer-root">/content</param> Enjoy tweaking ..."
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Hi Darek, Can u explain me  how to imply workaround in detail... Jo
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	1. Create a new folder under Public Folder 2. Go to its properties and view search path 3. Copy search path to your clipboard 4. Paste it in place of /content for parameter consumer-root in ps\system.xml template 5. Save the file 6. Restart ReportNet
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Hi Thanks for ur reply.  it workedout well. JO"
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	I love to correct myself once in a while. By accident I've figured out how to bring back the old Upfront "hidden folders" or how to hide folders to which users have only traverse right. In Templates\ps\portal.xml you can find this parameter: <param name="visible">[permission(&quot;read&quot;) or permission(&quot;write&quot;) or permission(&quot;execute&quot;) or permission(&quot;traverse&quot;) or permission(&quot;setPolicy&quot;)]</param> If you remove "or permission(&quot;traverse&quot;) " it effectively hides the folder when only traverse right has been granted. You have to restart ReportNet after making the change."
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Hi Darek, i am not able to find the Portal.xml in "Templates\ps" location. This portal .xml is in "\templates\ps\messages" location. Within this xml i didnt find <Param name = "Visible">. Can u please tell me where it is exactly locatetd and where do i need to make changes? JO
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Sorry for the typo. I've meant system.xml.
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	hi Darek i made the changes whatever u mentioned, but i am able to traverse, and i am able to view the folder. do i need to set any thing other than this. JO
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Do you have ONLY Traverse? Are you an Admin ? If any of the above is true, you will be able to see it.
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	Hi Darek, Thank U very much. Actually i did a small mistake, i had give exceute , read and traverse right permission to the folder. becoz of this i was able to see the folder. Now i changed only to traverse right. i am able to HIDE THE FOLDER  :D. Once again, Thanks a lot. Cheers JO
Re: Hiding folders in the reportnet	This has been a pet peeve of ours for a long time.  Your solution works very well.  Thank you!
Re: [Solved] Hiding folders in the reportnet	I've tried editing the system.xml (removed traverse from the visible field). For me, it works as in it effectively hides the folder but i cannot drill through to any report placed within the 'hidden' folder. I require the execute permission for the target reports. I also tried inserting traverse back into the system.xml and removed execute. I thought this would have a similar effect... if the folder only has execute permission then it will be hidden from the user. However, when i tried to drill through to a target report the error message returns that it cannot find the target report (no traverse rights). The same drill through works for myself (admin rights). Anybody got any thoughts?
Re: [Solved] Hiding folders in the reportnet	Normally, I would not have read or responded to a [b][Solved][/b] topic, please consider starting a new topic if you encounter a similar situation again.  On our project, I removed traverse as was suggested, then I overrode the access permissions from the parent entry and set just traverse on the folder for Query Users (Role) and Report Users (I made the last group) and verifying that admin had all permissions for the folder.  I too had the problem of then not being able to execute the drill through reports.  I noticed two things - first the drill throughs were going to the wrong place, this gave me the "not able to find the target report" message.  After I reset the drill through references (6 drill through reports total from 8 different reports) to the correct reports - I received the "unable to execute report" message.  Again I overrode the access permissions from the parent entry for each drill through report and I explicitly set execute and traverse on each drill through report for the Report Users group and it works perfect.  This really helped us out, because we had over zealous users trying to execute the drill through reports directly!  Now they can run the drill throughs in the proper manner from a parent report. Don
Re: [Solved] Hiding folders in the reportnet	Sorry for positing in a [Solved] topic but i thought it'd be better here than starting another topic on exactly the same problem. You suggestion sounds good and i'll look into it. Thanks
RCIException code errors	Has anyone ever experienced and RCIException code error?  They seem to happen when parameters get stuck in a report because more than one person is running the report.  Anyway, any help to avoid the error and to ensure that all parameters are cleared before the next user runs the report would be great.  thanks! The exact wording of the error is: cannot find deserializer from 'parametervalueitem' []:'http://developer.cognos.com/schemas/bibus/2/'to 'ParmValueItemArray'
Multifact query challenges	Does anybody else have difficulty dealing with multifact queries?  Our data is in a star schema, and I published a package with two facts and some conformed dimensions.  One of the facts is "sales", the other is "returns".  It is possible when querying for both sales and returns that one of the other will be NULL, in which case the calculation ("sales" - "returns") is also NULL.  I have to use an if-then-else or a case statement with four different states in order to get the correct answer.  Creating a calculation that sets anything that's NULL or MISSING to 0 does not work---if it did then I would do the final calculation using these intermediary ones.  We run on UNIX and Sybase, and have problems that you who run on Windows and/or SQL Server do not.  Is this one of those problems?  If you all have the same experience regardless of platform and db, what do you do to simplify such calculations for authors?
Re: Multifact query challenges	How did you try to overwrite the NULL/MISSING value? It should work properly most of the time.
Re: Multifact query challenges	I use this statement to try to turn a NULL to zero:            If ([fact_measure1] is missing) then (0) else ([fact_measure1]) I have also tried "is null" instead of "is missing".  Neither of these work.   Strangely, the following calculation works when trying to produce a difference where the second element could be NULL:            If ([fact_measure2] is missing) then ([fact_measure1]) else ([fact_measure1] - [fact_measure2])
Re: Multifact query challenges	If your underlying database is Oracle why don't you try to modify all metrics in the two fact tables  on the following lines nvl(metric1,0) fact measure1 may not be null, it may be a blank string. Create a check for that. NKT
Re: Multifact query challenges	Hi Annette, We ran into the same problem on AIX & DB2.  However, I belive it is not the problem of the environment.  The word from Cognos support is that it is a BUG.  The work around that we did is to build a 1 Fact table with both returns and sales information, called Sales_Returns Fact (very original).  We had a left outer join between the Sales Fact and Returns Fact to create the Sales_Returns Fact.  Sales_Returns in our case was a Model Query Subject.  Then we joined that to the confomed dimensions and it works fine.  Good luck.  I hope this helps in at least telling you you are not alone :)
Re: Multifact query challenges	Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.  Just to confirm:  your Sales_Return fact was done as a Model Query Subject, and not as a table in the data warehouse, correct?  If so, did you find performance on that package to be noticably slower?
Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi, This is the weird problem i am facing while doing a Cross-Tab report. This is what i want to achieve in the Crosstab report I would like to highlight the backgound color of a particular cell depending on the condition. For eg: Consider two coloumns Salary and Commission, and i want to highlight the salary background color as red when Salary < Commission else Green But we are getting only the false condition Can any one please help me out on this Thanks
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	If you are applying conditional formatting for a particular column, try: http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?topic=43.msg169#msg169
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi, have you resolved this issue yet?  If not, what do you have as the expression for the conditional varaible?  Have you created a test column in the query to ensure that your logic is being applied correctly? I'm watching this posting with interest as I'm also having problems with applying conditional formatting to a crosstab for a particular condition....
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi My issue of  crosstab is ,i need to apply colors based on two column condition. i have an few attributes in my report like (month_value, target_vlue.....) these two Month_Value and Target_Values are measurable attributes my condition is if the Month_Value  is gretertan Target_Value then background color green if the Month_Value is lessthan Target_Value the  background color is Red for this we created variable(we trye with boolean as well as string variable) and apply the conditions in conditional style properties. but the condition is not applicable it shows only one color,while we r applying color condition for one attributr like Month_Value>1000 then background color is Green and Month_Value<1000  then background color is Red. this works fine. when we will try to apply the color condition with two attribute,it can not be applicable. please anybody having an idea update me as soon as possible, its very urgent for me. Thanx
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	I was asking what EXACTLY is your report expression for the conditional variable? Is it something like [color=Blue][Month Value] > [Target Value][/color], or something different?
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi, Exactly the same... My Condition is,(String Variable) CASE WHEN [MONTH VAL] > [TARGET VALUE] THEN (0) WHEN [MONTH VAL] = [TARGET VALUE] THEN (1) WHEN [MONTH VAL] < [TARGET VALUE] THEN (2) END Where 0-Green , 1-Yellow , 2-Red These  Background colors should be highlited... Thanks In Advance... Prem.
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi Jgirl, Look into the condition that "addpremkumar" posted. He is one of my colleague so he posted the logic Thanks
Re: Cross Tab Conditional Color Signalling (Red, Green, Yellow)	Hi, While looking into a forum i came across the article which says there is a bug in COGNOS MR1.0 or MR1.1, and the Crosstab issue is resolved in Cognos MR1.2, but still i guess its not resolved. Have a look into the attached document. Thanks
checking the data in report	how to cross check the data in report whether is correct according to our data.. do we need to check in the database. or any other like sqlstatement.. can u help[ me guys thank u sudhakar
Re: checking the data in report	There will be a JAVA Unit testing library available soon. Made in USA.
help me guys!!!	Hi ,         This is Gopi,I have a problem.. In my Cross tab. report  i tried to apply total to a column, in that  i dont want subtotal or rowtotal i want only Grand total ,i want to hide row&sub total ... Can u guys plz help me out in this
Re: help me guys!!!	Use Page Header or Footer option.
Re: help me guys!!!	hi u can create a calculated clomun  in frameworkmanager..then add to reportnet, and create a dataitem  and bring backto report sudhakar
Re: help me guys!!!	Or you could use the total button on the toolbar, and just delete the subtotal levels you don't want.
Display 10 to the power of 3 in TextItem in cognos reportnet	hi, i would like to know how to "Display 10 to the power of 3 in TextItem in cognos reportnet" thanks & regards Rajiv
Re: Display 10 to the power of 3 in TextItem in cognos reportnet	You mean the text? The number? The mathematical formula? Did you put the least amount of effort to find an answer? I know free is good, but it is no way to learn.
Number of Recods	How to display the total number of records read in a reportnet report. I think this might be not possible when executing the report in HTML format. but might be possible when executed in PDF fomat. Not sure on this. Help me out plz... srik
Re: Number of Recods	If you have an existing query, and you create an additional query with Tabular Model using Tabular Reference to the first query, and you perform a count operation on the referenced data set, theorethically it would return what you need, right? And so it does ... Check the attachment for a clipboard copy of the report.
Re: Number of Recods	i am not creating any additional query... Darek could u plz tell me how should i convert the xml script to the reportnet report so that i can see it in the report studio
Re: Number of Recods	1. Save the attachment to your local disk 2. Open in Notepad or any other text editor 3. Copy to clipboard 4. Open blank report in Report Studio 5. Tools - Open Report from Clipboard (or something like that)
Default selection for month and year prompt	Hi, In my report, have month and year prompts, with these 2 prompts, i have others prompts which are value prompts(combo prompt). i want to set the month and year as current month and year by default. here i am not using prompt page. i want to achieve this in report page. i have written an java script  but the report is submitting twice and some times its getting disconnectetd and going to welcome page. can any one suggest me how to achieve this without using prompt page? Jo
Re: Default selection for month and year prompt	Hi, Once U Create a prompt in your report,there is an option called default selection inthe lef side pane. Just click the Prompt created for the Year and month and then u can selcct the default values. So,U can hide the prompt page. Make shoore that  Year prompt is a cascade source to Month prompt. Bye Prem
Displaying prompt values in order	In my report, i am using a quarter filter by prompting values in value prompt. Here the problem is i just want to sort the values in order. But the prompt displaying as first,fourth,second and third. I want it to be like first,second ,third and fourth for each year. Thanks in advance.
Re: Displaying prompt values in order	If the names are first, fourth, second and third, than you are dealing with natural text sort. you will need a numerical column for sorting purposes.
Re: Displaying prompt values in order	hai. for that u need to create  four quarter data item and drop in the tabular model and in the properties mention it as sort key, name according to the data required.. say q1,q2,q3,q4, tabular item, we can say them as sort keys, and add them to facts cloumn in query explorer..  and  in report studio drag and drop in report studio beside to the data that should be displayed try these sudhakar
how to get the operators in runtime	Hi all I just want to know how to get the operators in runtime for a attribute. Like in,not in,between etc Thanks In advance
Re: how to get the operators in runtime	Do you mean change the operator at runtime ?
sorting issue	hi, i have a sort issue of this kind. I have 2 levels in a dimension. days group and days. days group are <15 days, <1month when i sort the days group it gets sorted in this fashion <1month and <15 days. According to powerplay this is r8 but for user it is not the sorting required. It should have been <15 days and then <1month. This could be done by using the order value in each category of the days group. But this involves some manual work. if in future if any other category is added to the level the sorting may change. then it involves some manual work. Is there any work around for this to happen automatically. srik
Re: sorting issue	i got an still easy way of doing this..I just gave the column days for the sorting column in the days group level. It did the work... Anyway thanks for the soln.
Re: sorting issue	Yes, have a calculated column which will return naturaly sortable values. It would use same conditions as your existing one, just different output, say 1,2,3,...
Re: sorting issue	I am guessing here, but I think your current calculation says saomething like: case when a then '<15 days' when b then '<1 month' else '>1 month' end add another calculation case when a then 0 when b then 1 else 2 end and use it for sorting
Re: sorting issue	can u explain me more. i couldn't get what u were saying
CoGNOS API'S	Hi, Is there a way to change the color of a particular cell of a crosstab report from COGNOS SDK, is there any API's for that ? Thanks
Re: CoGNOS API'S	Hi You should be able to. You will need to manipulate the report specification of the report. 1) capture the report specifications using the baseclass object (ReportNet SDK) and the getspecification method 2) use an XML parser to modify the report specification 3) in order to get at the cell I think you need to use columnedge and rowedge elements. 4) Save the specification back There is an excellent sample included within the ReportNet installation called API.java that should get you started. Regards NKT
Re: CoGNOS API'S	Thanks for that, will have a look and let you know the output Thanks
Forum permissions	After a series of wild goose/geese chases, we have finally fixed up the permissions settings for all member groups within the forum. It appears that there were inconsistent settings that were restricting certain groups of users from: - viewing/posting attachments - viewing/posting calendar events - viewing members online - viewing/posting to polls - setting post notifications - viewing forum stats - voting on karma (applaud/warn) - viewing others' profiles - etc etc etc So my sincere apologies (esp. to [b]Darek[/b]! The Dev team thought it might have been a session handling issue - shows how little we know!!!! :-\) So please take the opportunity to 're-explore' the Forum again. Please drop me a line/post if you feel there is anything funny re your settings. Sorry Jon
MOVED: CoGNOS API'S	This topic has been moved to [url=http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?board=47]Developing with Web Services/ReportNet SDK[/url]. [iurl]http://cognoise.com/community/index.php?topic=138.0[/iurl]
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	malyadri reddy, as i previously told u this is problem with the reportnet software itself. U can't even format ur report with pagenumber of pagecount when u r viewing this in html format. With pdf it works fine. the answer i got from cognos was: when u execute a report in html format the RN server doesn't executes all the records of the report. Every time u press page down the RN server executes the request. Where as in PDF it executes all the records and then opens it in the pdf file. So u can see all the 1000 pages. if u wish to go to 100th page u can do there. At present i am also working on the same issue. if u find any soln please share with us. srik
How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	hi i am new to reportnet and i am having problem i didnot find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages how is it  possible plz let me know.   waiting for u r replay                     thanks for all                                     best regards                                     malyadri
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	r u using html format for the report. if yes i doubt this could be possible bcause reportnet executes one page at a time in html format. when u click page down the next page is then executed. well anyhow i am also trying on the same. srik
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	I want to challenge anybody as to the usefullness of 1000 page report
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	How are you identifying the pages you are trying to find?  Are there any rules you could use to build in bookmarks, for example?  Sorry to be vague, but it's difficult to help unless I undertand exactly what you are trying to do. Best regards, MF.
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	hi   thanks for all     what is my problem  u all didnot get ,i know page up and  page down options but what i am try to tell all, if we are run in PDF then getting 100 pages report.so in that 100 pages i want to antother report only 10 pages, i dont want to all pages .                     malya
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	I'm still not sure what your requirement is - are you trying to filter? burst? what? Are you getting 100 pages when you should be getting 10? Or do you want to break up the 100 pages into 10 separate reports of 10 pages each? Or do you want to drill through to a different report from your first blunderbuss?
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	hi   sorry for the distrubing u all, still i have same problem. ok i am telling detail   suppose when we fire any query or drag and drop the subject item in reporting area then we will run the report, not a importance of the format , then we will get report of 100 pages. after wards i want to run again same query but i want to filter only 10 pages out of 100 pages.                       plz help me out abt the query to be run to get the above result             malyadri
Re: How to find out 10 pages with in 1000 pages report	Ok let me understand ur requirement first. U said " i want to run again same query but i want to filter only 10 pages out of 100 pages. " firstly what do u mean  filter only 10 pages out of 100 pages and Secondly what is that filter condition.
HOW TO ADD ARROW INDICATORS TO REPORTSTUDIO	HI EVERYONE.. I HAD DIFFICULT SITUTATION.. I NEED TO CREATE  ARROWINDICATORS.. THEN INDICATORS SHOWS THE SALES PERFORMANCE THROUGH YEARLY OR MONTHLY ANALYSIS. FOR  THAT I  HAD TAKEN A BLOCK TO WORK AREA.. AND IMAGE FROM THE TOOLBOX. I COULDN'T FIND THE ARROW IMAGE IN THE  GIF'S IN THE DATABASE.. HOW TO ADD AND WHERE TO WRITE THE CODE FOR THE INDICATOR,, FOR ex. if the sale in a particular month is high, the arrow should show upward direction.. how to do this,, can u help me guys thank u sudhakar
Re: HOW TO ADD ARROW INDICATORS TO REPORTSTUDIO	FIRST, COULD YOU STOP SHOUTING, PLEASE! You can do this with conditional blocks and a couple of image files. For information on setting up conditional blocks, see the Report Studio User Guide, which has a couple of examples. For the image files, you just need to find appropriate images from any source in a web format (eg gif or jpg), and copy them to a directory available to a web browser.
Crosstab API	Hi, do any one have any info regarding the Crosstab Relate API in Cognos Reportnet ? Thanks
Re: Crosstab API	Crosstabs do not have any special API's.
Displaying all Legend Values Problem	I have a list report with a pie chart, and there are 31 rows returned to the list report.  On the legend to the right of the pie chart only the first 15 or so are displayed, however, the pie chart has all 31 corresponding values.  There is a down arrow at the bottom of the legend list, but it appears to be decorative only.  I have tried resizing and re-orienting the pie chart, but the results are the same as before.  Any help/suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanks, Don
Re: Displaying all Legend Values Problem	Try changing the Resolution setting in the properties rather than the size. Does that help?
Re: Displaying all Legend Values Problem	hai why dont' u  try page settings  in the properties. and boder alignments.. chechk these sudhakar
Re: Displaying all Legend Values Problem	I have been in touch with Cognos customer support on this problem. Apparently it is a "known issue"...
Re: Displaying all Legend Values Problem	Thanks for the suggestions/comments - I have tried the resizing and although it does pull in all the values, the page becomes unwieldy.  The legend needs to be implemented as a window with a scoll bar.  So far, the only way to do that is by using the SDK.  If I ever get the time to work on that at my current project, I will come back and share.  On one report I created, the legend has 81 values - making the Chart part of the page too long to be of practical value.  Of course one must ponder the question why management needs a pie chart that looks like a bicycle wheel with a lot of differently colored spokes (81 in fact (and some do not even show)). Don
Working with Trimesters	What is the best method to incorporate trimesters as a measure of time, rather than quarters in Transformer and thus PowerPlay cubes?  :-\
Re: Working with Trimesters	You will probably have to bring it in as any other category, without designating any particular time period, possibly in an alternate drill-down path if regular time periods are needed as well.
Re: How to execute a DB2 Stored Function from Cognos?	For accessing stored function u have to call the stored functions in a stored procedure. then define a stored procedure query subject in the framework manager and access the stored procedure. Publish the package and use the stored procedure query subject in ur reports. If u have any other solution please share with us. srik
How to execute a DB2 Stored Function from Cognos?	I'm new to Cognos, and am just learning it... (as you can tell, I'm easing into it...) OmniSource is using JDE OneWorld on an AS400/DB2 database. OneWorld, because it works on four or five different databases, uses its own quirky format to store dates and numeric values. We want to use a DB2 stored function to convert these to a more commonly used representation (e.g., YYYYMMDD). I've written the Stored Function, and tested it in STRSQL (AS/400 SQL Query execution app), but when I try to use it in a Cognos field definition, I get an error similar to the one DB2 gives when it can't find the stored function. Does anyone know where to check next, or of a resource they could point me to that could help? (I'm guessing that the Cognos Server's DB2 ODBC connection login does not have execute permissions on stored functions OR that the stored function itself does not have correct permissions, but it could be something totally different). I can provide more details is someone is willing & able to take this on...
Re: How to execute a DB2 Stored Function from Cognos?	Thanks. It does not sound easy or straight-forward. If I discover anything else, I'll post it.
Re: How to execute a DB2 Stored Function from Cognos?	OK. Call me stupid, but I'm still struggling with this. Can someone post (or direct me to) a sample of an IBM DB2 stored function and stored procedure? On pg. 10-37 to 10-46 of the Cognos ReportNet 1.1 - Metadata Modeling Part 1 Student Guide, it talks about how to use a stored function from Cognos. However, it assumes a working stored procedure to use, and that is what I'm having trouble with. I've been trying to work through the documentation from IBM, and have been able to write stored procedures, but not able to get information from a table to a variable or to  be visible outside of the stored procedure (without using an INOUT or OUTPUT parameter, because Cognos does not allow them). Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Accessing attributes on LDAP	Hi, does anyone know the answer to the following question : 1)  Is Cognos capable of accessing additional information stored in the ADAM directory for reporting ie: email address, termination date, start date, manager id, building code etc? 2) If a status of suspended (S), active(A) and terminated (T) is available in the ADAM directory, can Cognos utilise this information to update the status of the user without having an adminstrator to update the status of a user through access manager? I'm trying to minimise the administration of users by refreshing the ADAM directory. Thanks!
Query optimisation	Hi, i wanted to optimize the query in the framework manager. First let me explain the query and report. My report achieves a drill thru from level 1 to level 6. all the 6 reports use the same query from the framework manager. for example... level1-channel(Highest  granularity) level2- branch level3- manager level4- ... level5- ... level6 -Agents Agents is the lowest granularity. In the Report side, totally i have 6 reports(drill thru). these access the same query. In the framework manager, the query looks like this... basically to find the actual and target sales and ratio of that for monthly, yearly, year(jan) to till date, and lastyear(jan) to till the current day of lastyear. target data and actual data are in different fact table. The native Sql query gives the data from level1(channel) to level6(agent) with full outer join.  so this leads to performance issue, since somany outer joins and also every level of report hitting  the same query . i thought of breaking the  query to each level(for level1 one query which access only actual and target ratio for channel... like this for every level). Is there any other way of doing.... and also How to reduce the joins and in what level? Thanks in advance JO
Re: Query optimisation	No Response  :-(
Re: Query optimisation	hmmmm....nice one
Re: Query optimisation	Hi JO From what I understand of your requirements, you are running the same query over and over to get different subsets for each of the drill through reports. You would benefit a lot from caching. Materialized view would be the way to go. Capture all levels in the view. You will not have to worry about outer joins any more. NKT
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Hi, ??? I guess i clearly conveyed in my early posting that i already have the Cognos running on IIS. As i reinstalled everything in new system in which i need to use Sun One Webserver instead of IIS. So i dont know how to create virtual directories in Sun One Webserver if that concept exists? So i would like to know how to integrate the Cognos and Sun One Webserver. I guess this forum is for posting the issues, i know i can go to Cognos Support by paying some bucks i can get the help. so wat do the Forum do then ? I dont mean to hurt any Thanks
Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Hi , Till now I am running the COGNOS Reportnet on IIS, but as a switchover in the architecture now i need to configure the COGNOS on SUN ONE WEBSERVER. Can any one provide the Guidelines on how to approach. Already installed the Sun ONE Webserver, ut i dont have any idea on configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver. Any documents or Links or greatly appreciated Thanks
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Hi Kalyan I am going out on a limb here. You are only changing the web server and not the LDAP server so there should not be any change to your ReportNet configuration because of the switchover. I can think of the following changes on the web server side. 1) All you will need to do is ensure that you create the virtual directories by hand since ReportNet is already installed. 2) Ensure correct permissions on virtual folders. In IIS you would have to grant scripts and execute permission on the cgi-bin virtual directory and just scripts on the remaining. On the ReportNet configuration side you will need to remove the ISAPI gateway if you had one. You could revert to the CGI gateway. Regards NKT
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Hi I want to use sun one webserver 6.1 as my webserver instead of IIS,the one that u gave is for IIS which already we have. We want tocnfigure Cognos Report Net for SUN ONE WEBSERVER Thanks
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Please re read my post. I attempted to give you general direction with examples from IIS. NKT
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	If you need step-by-step instructions, look it up in Cognos Documentation PDFs. If you find it difficult to follow, schedule some billable time or get some training.
Re: Configuring Cognos Reportnet with Sun one webserver	Hai       i have some material i cant post that here u can contact me in this id raz_sekhar@sify.com and i will mail u when i get ur mail id bye sekhar
Need Brain Salad Surgery on a particular expression	Acutally I'm hardly over the hump in figuring out how to write expressions. I purchased a tutorial that didn't go into any detail on it. I'm looking to take my on hand inventory quantity and back out all receipts, returns, issues and adjustments over a given time then multiply what's left by a value. Like this, [Materials].[R5STOCK].[STO_QTY] - [Materials].[R5TRANSLINES].[TRL_QTY] * [Materials].[R5STOCK].[STO_AVGPRICE] This just doesn't get it. I could whip it out in a flash with SQL, but I can't seem to figure out how to make the fat lady sing with my new play toy. Any help would be appreciated.
Re: Need Brain Salad Surgery on a particular expression	Well, for a start, you could try using some brackets in there to force the order of calculation. You also need to be careful about mixing data types (although this shouldn't be a problem in your case), as you can get some unexpected results. And finally, if you come up with some complicated expression which just doesn't work, try creating data items with the inner calculations, and then use those data items in the outer calculations. Hope this helps.
Alternate data type for dates in a drill-through to ReportNet	I am trying to set up a drill-through from a PowerPlay cube to a ReportNet report.  The cube sends the date parameter as a "date" datatype, but the underlying database that ReportNet uses stores the date in a "datetime" format.  This results in a prompt page on the ReportNet side pre-populated with nonsense data which will confuse the users.  Our database is Sybase, which is a lot like SQL Server.  My first thought was to change the datatype in the database to "date" but apparently that's not possible in Sybase.  One solution is to cast the "datetime" field to "date" in the ReportNet filter, but this slows the query down....way down.  Is that normal?  Perhaps there's something else I'm missing. Is it possible for PowerPlay to send the date parameter as a datetime?  Or better yet, as an integer (YYYYMMDD), which is what I gave to it in the first place?  We use a date dimension so I have a lot of choices about what to filter on.
Re: Alternate data type for dates in a drill-through to ReportNet	I've found that time dimensions in transformer will always pass date types.  I've tried assigning int fields as the drill-thru source, but still nothing but date type!!!  I've heard a lot about the flexibility of reportNet (yet to experience much of it).  Can you put a translation layer between PP and reportNet that can perform the conversion?!  cheers, DW
Re: Alternate data type for dates in a drill-through to ReportNet	Sure, casting at the filter level always does the trick.
Conversion Tools	Hi.  We are getting ready to install ReportNet.  Consequently we will also be converting existing Impromptu reports over.  I have seen the Cognos conversion tool and have also looked at Envisn.  Are there any other conversion tools available on the market? Thanks, Scott
Re: Conversion Tools	Hi Scott I have looked at both the tools you mentioned and Envisn is by far the better one. I have not found any other vendors for conversion, let me know if you find one. NKT
Specify defaults in value prompts	I have a value prompt that lists week end dates in desc order like 8/20/05, 8/13/05, 8/6/05, ..... This list is generated dynamically depending on what the current week is. How do I default to the topmost first entry (8/20/05 in this case) as reportnet does not allow for dynamic default values? Thanks."
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	I guess we can achieve this... The current Query you associate would be returning a value which you might be using it as both use value and Display value... [b]I suggest you to put the Row Number in the prompt Query as one of the fields and give "1" as the Default selection for your prompt... This will make the first row get selected... [/b] This way, your query result might look something like below... Row Number Weekend Date 1 8/20/05 2 8/13/05 3 8/6/05 Now, Use the Row Number as Use value and Weekend Date as Display value... I guess this should work... I didn't try but let us know if this works... Regards, Sri"
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	I am kinda new to this. How do I add the Row Number to my prompt query?
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	Actually, I got the row number to work. But if the Use value is the row number, how do I pass the date to a query to filter the results?
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	Can u send us how the current date filter looks like?
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	Here is the scenario. I have a prompt coming from a Query say Q1 that has RowNum, WeekID, WeeEndDate. I have another query Q2 that I need to filter against and it has the WeekID too. The prompt uses RowNum as its Use Value and Date as Display value. Now I want to be able to filter Q2 based on the WeekID corresponding to the RowNum selected in the prompt(actually date selected). How do I accomplish that.
Re: Specify defaults in value prompts	sorry for very late reply... i thought that your filter would be on some date field. then, you could calculate the dates you want by using the functions and the row id value... if there is anyway to calculate your week id from the row id, then you can do that and use it in your filter... like as below... [b]_week_of_year(_add_days(current_date, rowid))[/b] hope this helps you in someway... [b]Regards, Sri[/b]
Encryption Problem with Cognos Configuration on Framework Manager Workstation	All: I tried to create a new project from my Framework Manager PC.  When I changed Cognos Configuration to address the new dispatcher and tried to save the configuration, I got an error on the second item - Generating cryptographic information.  It gave no details.  When I try to save it again, a dialog box pops up offering to let me save it as plain text.  If I save it, the configuration completes, but creating a new project does not - says it cannot find user/password information.  If I click No on saving as plain text, then I get a Java error: [Cryptography] 1. [ERROR]java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Re: Encryption Problem with Cognos Configuration on Framework Manager Workstation	Hello There is a Cognos advisory out that requires you to update your JCE to version 1.2.2. If you have not yet then you should do that first. Do the below on the computer that has FM. 1) rename your crnstartup.xml file. 2) Delete the folders encryptpair,signkeypair, and csk 3) rename crconfig.prefs file 4) copy the above three folders and one file from the box on which ReportNet server is installed to your local CRN_ROOT/configuration folder. 5) Open up Cognos Configuration and ensure that gateway and dispatcher values match exactly with config. on server 6)Under crytptography in your local machine ensure store symmetric key locally is set to TRUE. Cryptographic generation has always been my bugbear with ReporNet configurations. Pretty much, the above steps should help you resolve the issue. NKT
Re: Encryption Problem with Cognos Configuration on Framework Manager Workstation	cognosfreelancer: Thanks for the info - I need an admin to get something on the network we have COGNOS on, so tomorrow I will do the upgrade to 1.2.2. I have downloaded the files already. Beyond that, on number 4 is crnstartup.xml the file I copy with the three directories? Thanks again for the truly rapid response and the information!
Re: Encryption Problem with Cognos Configuration on Framework Manager Workstation	No problem. crnstartup.xml will be regenerated when you open cognos configuration. You should not copy this from the server. NKT
Databases	Apoligies to all if this is really a stupid question.But iam really new to the Cognos Enviornment  .Our clients uses lots of systems like Finance use SAP ,CustomerService use Navitiare etc.i know this all needs to be linked to a cognos connection .But would there be any performance issues in either of the systems when data is pulled . Thanks Joe
Re: Databases	Yes there would be performance implications on the data stores. It all depends on the complexity of the query and volume of data pulled. NKT
Re: Databases	It also depends on which Cognos component you are talking about. Reportnet/Impromptu are report writers so you would connect them to your Production DB so you might have performance issues depending on what type of query it is and depending on what type of DB you are using. Different databases interpret report writer queries in different ways. If you talking about building cubes with Transformer, there are different ways to make cubes. 1> Build cubes thru Impromptu IQD's. This will c