If you are unable to create a new account, please email support@bspsoftware.com

 

News:

MetaManager - Administrative Tools for IBM Cognos
Pricing starting at $2,100
Download Now    Learn More

Main Menu

Recent posts

#11
General Discussion & Gossip / Re: AI
Last post by cognostechie - 04 Mar 2026 12:52:54 PM
Found a good course from Texas A&M University. 6 month fully remote course, can be done in your own time and covers Python, ML and other things for becoming an AI developer. Going to start on it soon
#12
AI Readiness for BI Teams / Today's demo on TechXchange
Last post by cognostechie - 04 Mar 2026 11:07:51 AM
I know this is a dead forum but posting this just in case..

I saw today's demo by Rachel Su ad wanted to ask if anyone has seen Agentic AI make metadata models and/or reports. She did not show that in the demo and I wonder if that AI can actually make reports without the need of a report developer? As everyone knows, most organizations do not have a self-service BI model and the packages they have allows only to pull the data which requires a developer. Can AI just take the data from the database and do the rest to be able to make the reports? Can AI make the metadata models from an ERP schema which is in the snowflake design?

The generative AI I have seen so far in google etc. scans the sites and interpretes the content like a human brain..
#13
Reporting / Re: Can author influence seque...
Last post by cognostechie - 04 Mar 2026 01:00:27 AM
Quote from: dougp on 15 Dec 2025 10:20:30 AMThat's always a good double-check.  So if you write custom SQL for this, you get different results than what Cognos is producing?  Cognos is just generating SQL for you based on what you have created in Reporting combined with the way the model was defined.  So what's different between the SQL that Cognos is generating and the SQL that you wrote that produced the result you wanted?  Did you make a mistake in the report?  Is there an incorrect relationship in the model?  ...?

You provided a very simple query as an example but the results are different in case of complex and/or multiple queries. With inner and outer queries you can control which filter is applied where and make sure they are exclusive which is what the OP's problem seems to be. Many people create multiple filters without realizing that they are not exclusive and one filter will clash with the other causing the results to be wrong. It is true that Cognos will still re-write the SQL you write but it does not alter the logic of your SQL. I am working for a company which used Deltek's  Costpoint which is an ERP only for government contractors (project based sales only) so the data is small but there are hundred of reports which take hours and even days to run. I re-made those reports using hand written SQL and they run in seconds now! If any report is using joins from a package then never create joins in the report. It's better to write your own SQL which is a complete SQL containing all queries and use that complete SQL in one query in the report instead of creating separate small SQLs and then joining them in the report. That's what did the trick.
#14
Reporting / Upgrade Cognos without upgradi...
Last post by cognostechie - 03 Mar 2026 02:33:50 PM
There is a company where the BI manager always installs the latest version of Cognos as soon as it is released but never upgrades the reports. He didn't even know that reports should be upgraded until I told him. Most of the reports are written in version 8x and 10x. While IBM says that they would run in newer versions even if not upgraded but this time I saw some reports stopped running showing syntax errors in the latest version while the same reports are running in the prior version.

Any thoughts? It maybe that the SQL generated in the latest version is slightly different than the earlier one.
#15
Administration and Security / Re: Configuring SSO with Shibb...
Last post by dougp - 30 Jan 2026 12:15:01 PM
How did you end up solving this?  I'm looking for a way to make Cognos available through the same authentication we use for M-365, which I understand is SAML-based.
#16
Report Studio / MOVED: Optimization for 2 join...
Last post by MFGF - 29 Jan 2026 12:58:22 PM
#17
Reporting / Re: Date format in CSV
Last post by bus_pass_man - 28 Jan 2026 02:08:46 AM
Quote from: Good Friend on 27 Jan 2026 02:01:52 PM2.  When you test that column, what does the data look like?
    In CSV the format changes to YYYY/MM/DD


No, when you test that column in CA, preferably in the modelling tool which you are using.  Also, when you test that column in your DB's administrative tool.

The object of these exercises is to identify where in the chain things go wrong.


Quote from: Good Friend on 27 Jan 2026 02:01:52 PM3.  If you use the cast function to cast the column to date what does the data look like?
    I casted it to varchar and HTML AND EXCEL gives YYYY-MM-DD which is the desired format but users are running this report in CSV and exporting it


No, when you do the cast it to date and view it in CA.  Also, why, if your column is a date data type, are you casting it to varchar?

Off the top of my head I don't know what variations native date data type columns can have for each DB vendor.   Certainly if it is cast to date in Cognos it will be rendered in the ISO 8601 format, which is YYYY-MM-DD.
#18
Reporting / Optimization for 2 joins
Last post by +12345 - 27 Jan 2026 04:18:25 PM
Hi Everyone,

I have a report (403b) i have been building and adding features too as I learn and want to know if it could be optimized in report studio.  It is currently at 5 minutes and I want to add comparisons to the prior month.  I tried some of the property panels but was not able to notice a difference and I am not sure if I am doing it correctly.  (Concurrent, Use sql with clause, Data Base only, Join filter to in).  At the description level these seemed easy to understand but they didn't work enough to notice.

The report has 3 main queries + prompt queries + render features. The 3 main queries are Gross earnings, Point in Time for EE Status and Point in Time for Dept.  I used 2 joins 0:1 on both sides to create the final query with the correct amounts. A picture of the queries is attached.

Any tips or better articles to read would be greatly appreciated. Or if this seems like an appropriate time for this.  I don't have much to compare it too.  I am working in UKG, IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson 11.2.4

 
#19
Reporting / Re: Date format in CSV
Last post by dougp - 27 Jan 2026 03:03:58 PM
Still didn't answer the questions.

2. So, you're viewing the output in Notepad and the format of that column is YYYY/MM/DD?

4. Opening the CSV how?  Is the user opening the CSV file in Notepad?  Or are they allowing Excel to mess up the data?
#20
Reporting / Re: Date format in CSV
Last post by Good Friend - 27 Jan 2026 02:01:52 PM
I'm sorry if I couldnt answer your questions properly earlier.

1.  What is the data type of the column which is the source of your data?
     Using Current_Date so it is a DATE data type

2.  When you test that column, what does the data look like?
    In CSV the format changes to YYYY/MM/DD

3.  If you use the cast function to cast the column to date what does the data look like?
     I casted it to varchar and HTML AND EXCEL gives YYYY-MM-DD which is the desired format but users are running this report in CSV and exporting it

4.  Can you answer Doug's question.  Are you using a text editor to look at the CSV output?
     They are downloading the CSV file and opening the .CSV as is