Saving Report Output to the Server File System

Transcription

1 Guideline Saving Report Output to the Server File System Product(s): IBM Cognos 8 BI Area of Interest: Infrastructure

2 Saving Report Output to the Server File System 2 Copyright and Trademarks Licensed Materials - Property of IBM. Copyright IBM Corp IBM, the IBM logo, and Cognos are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. IBM does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology team. You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to cscogpp@ca.ibm.com.

3 Saving Report Output to the Server File System 3 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION PURPOSE APPLICATION OVERVIEW ENABLING THE SAVE TO FILE WITHIN COGNOS CONFIGURATION Globally Enabling the Save to the File System Setting the physical file location CREATE END-USER ACCESSIBLE SUB-DIRECTORIES SAVE THE REPORT OUTPUT TO THE FILE SYSTEM ADDITIONAL INFORMATION... 7

4 Saving Report Output to the Server File System 4 1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document was created to provide a single point of instructions to successfully enable the saving report output to the file system feature in IBM Cognos Application The technique used in this document was validated using: 2 Overview IBM Cognos 8 BI 8.3 IBM Cognos 8 BI 8.4 This feature allows an administrator to selectively allow specific users or groups to save report results to the file system of the Cognos 8 BI server on a report by report basis. This setting is not in any way related to the advanced Content Manager property CM.OutputLocation. 2.1 Enabling the Save to File within Cognos Configuration In order to enable this feature several configuration changes are required in Cognos Configuration. These are: The Save to File System has to be globally enabled. A physical file location needs to be specified Globally Enabling the Save to the File System To enable this property: 1. Open Cognos Configuration. 2. Within the left hand Explorer pane, select Data Access\Content Manager. 3. Change the Save the report outputs to file system from false to true Setting the physical file location To set this property: 1. Within Cognos Configuration, Select the Actions/Edit Global Configuration menu option. 2. Open the General tab. 3. Set the Archive Location File System Root value to valid location. For this example the path could be file://e:/myreportarchive.

5 Saving Report Output to the Server File System 5 4. Ensure that the folder structure identified by the previously set value physically exists on the file system. The setting will not automatically create the structure. 5. Save the configuration and restart the IBM Cognos 8 service. 2.2 Create End-User Accessible Sub-Directories As identified by the setting label, the configuration value above will act as the root location where the output files will be saved. In order to avoid overwriting existing files it is recommended to write report outputs to sub folders in this root location. To do this: 1. Launch Cognos Administration. 2. Click on the Configuration tab located at the top middle of the screen. 3. Select Dispatchers and Services link within the left hand pane. 4. Click on the Define File System Locations toolbar button at the top right of the screen. 5. Within the Define file system location dialog screen, click the new link. 6. Provide a friendly name. For this example the name will be Great Outdoors Output. 7. Provide a file system location. For this example the location will be GODB_Output. This means that any report outputs which are saved to the Great Outdoors Output location will be located at E:/MyReportArchive/GODB_Output on the physical file system. 8. Click the Finish button and return to IBM Cognos Connection.

6 Saving Report Output to the Server File System Save the Report Output to the File System Once an output location has been defined, output can be saved to the file system on a report by report basis. In order to do so follow the steps listed below: 1. Within IBM Cognos Connection, click on the more link for the desired report. 2. With the Perform an Action dialog screen, click the Run with options link. 3. Under the Delivery section on the left hand side of the screen, ensure the Save the Report radio button is selected. 4. The click on the Advanced options link on the top right hand side of the screen. 5. Within the right hand side Delivery section, check the Save to the file system check box. 6. Click the Edit the Options link to display the following screen. 7. Ensure the Location section has the previously created output location defined and click the OK button. 8. Click Run, then OK, to run the report. 9. Traverse the file system on the IBM Cognos 8 server to the output location. For this example the output location will be E:\MyReportArchive\GODB_Output

7 Saving Report Output to the Server File System 7 3 Additional Information When the report is saved, the requested report formats are saved using the report name or custom name with the locale appended to it. This filename may be modified based on the Conflict resolution rules. A matching XML description file will be created alongside the file with the naming convention <name>-<format>_desc.xml. This file can be used by an external program to understand and access the files. When setting the Archive Location File System Root in Cognos Configuration it is also possible to use UNC names such as File://\\servername\mydirectory given that the user account used to start the IBM Cognos 8 service has the appropriate permission to write to that location.