Your SpotOn the IBM Cognos Edge

Hello again,

I've been working through a specific issue where I wanted to dynamically set the value of a Cognos 8.4 Text Box Prompt with Javascript. I immediately went to my previous blog posting to copy and paste the code! Unfortunately, this only got me half way.

Since the Cognos prompts aren't simply HTML form elements, it did not suffice to try searchPrompts("Address").value="HELLO!!!". What I REALLY needed to do was simulate the user typing the desired text. So, after spending some time trying to understand what is going on in the background, I'm pleased to announce that with just a few lines of Javascript, I can easily set the value!

<SCRIPT> function setTextBoxPromptValue(promptName, promptValue) { var SpotOnTargetControl = G_PM_THIS_.getControlByName(promptName); var SpotOnPCType=SpotOnTargetControl._type_; if(SpotOnPCType == "cognos.Prompt.Control.Text") { SpotOnTargetControl.bParse(promptValue,""); SpotOnTargetControl.setCurrentValue(); SpotOnTargetControl.checkData(); } } </SCRIPT> <A onclick='setTextBoxPromptValue("Address","520 Bronson Ave.")' href="#">Set Value for Address</A><BR>

Hi All,

During a recent client engagement, we came across an issue that some of you may have encountered: trying to access prompt controls at runtime.

In the past a Report Studio author could write something like this:

var x = getFormWarpRequest();
var y = x.elements["my control name"];

Of course, this is no longer the case in Cognos 8.4. Instead, the prompt control IDs are system-generated and obfuscated at runtime. In order to access the prompt controls now, you have to first obtain the obfuscated value, and then locate the control.

I've written a piece of code that seems to let me find the prompt control. I hope it helps your efforts!

In brief:

var y = searchPrompts("My prompt name");

<SCRIPT> function searchPrompts(promptName) { var SpotOnTargetControl = G_PM_THIS_.getControlByName(promptName); var SpotOnPCType=SpotOnTargetControl._type_; var SpotOnPCID = SpotOnTargetControl._id_; var SpotOnPCPrefix = ""; switch(SpotOnPCType) { case "cognos.Prompt.Control.SelectValue": SpotOnPCPrefix="PRMT_SV_"; break; case "cognos.Prompt.Control.Text": SpotOnPCPrefix="PRMT_"; break; case "cognos.Prompt.Control.DateTime": SpotOnPCPrefix="PRMT_"; break; case "cognos.Prompt.Control.Date": SpotOnPCPrefix="PRMT_"; break; } var SpotOnFW = getFormWarpRequest(); var SpotOnEL = SpotOnPCPrefix+SpotOnPCID; var SpotOnTargetElement = document.getElementById(SpotOnEL); return SpotOnTargetElement; } </SCRIPT> <A onclick='searchPrompts("TEST_LIST")' href="#">Get List named:TEST_LIST</A><BR> <A onclick='searchPrompts("TEST_TEXT")' href="#">Get Text named:TEST_TEXT</A><BR> <A onclick='searchPrompts("TEST_CALENDAR")' href="#">Get CALENDAR named:TEST_CALENDAR</A>