Your SpotOn the IBM Cognos Edge

Say you want to change your Cognos security environment from one provider to another, Series 7 LDAP to Active Directory as an example.  Or how about migrating from two namespaces to one?  How about the other way around, from one to two?  Impossible, right?  Well, not so fast.

We have heard from a number of mid to large sized organizations that were close to throwing in the towel when it came to changing security applications and migrating their Cognos namespaces.  The task of migrating individual user policies, memberships, schedules, ownerships, folders, and more from one environment to another seems simple at first, then customers discover the complexities of the Cognos Content Store, and simple quickly turns to impossible.

Here are a handful of the technical roadblocks they ran into moving from existing to new namespace:

• Moving and accessing users My Folder content
• Migrating Schedule recipients information
• Maintaining integrity of Schedule owner and executer information
• Preserving user preference settings
• Migrating policies on content
• etc

We have a technology-enabled service that simplifies the auditing and reassigning of objects in the Content Store to the new authentication provider.  When we show folks how we approach the task, they initially look on with sceptical curiosity, and then they see it work. The scepticism turns into relief.

In our experience, helping customers get through this usually takes inside of a week or two.  One customer, prior to “finding us”, was planning on 6 to 9 months for their migration.  In two weeks we made some folks heroes in their company.

The way we see it, you have 3 options when looking to migrate your namespace:

1. Come to the conclusion that it is impossible and simply don’t change security providers.  This may not be an option for you.
2. Manually move every user and their policies from one environment to another – including copying My Folder content to a Public Folder, and then back to the new My Folder....  Hmmm, no thanks.  Too time consuming and too mistake riddled.
3. See if the SpotOn namespace migration service will work for you. 

Bottom line – you have to see it to believe it!

How are you planning your Cognos namespace migration?

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>

For over two years, we've applied our expertise in the IBM Cognos architecture and SDK to solve the challenge of GIS/enterprise mapping integration within an IBM Cognos BI report.  Amidst the blood, sweat, and many tears, the development experience and successful implementations have opened our eyes to the incredible business impact of integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with IBM Cognos BI software. 

Originally we gravitated to the term "Location intelligence", but as we gained insight and experience in the possibilities of the IBM Cognos-GIS integration we came to the belief that Geospatial Business Intelligence (GBI) was a more appropriate term.
 
Business Intelligence (BI) is all about extracting high value information from data, and getting the right information in the right format to the right people within the organization.  Whereas, Geospatial Business Intelligence (GBI) is about bringing the power of GIS and spatial analysis to the information foundation provided by the IBM Cognos BI solution.
 
As a concept, GBI is certainly not new.  Rather what is new is the ability for IBM Cognos customers to implement and benefit from GBI without the need for custom coding.  With the release of our award-winning SpotOn Vantage software, you can now seamlessly integrate third-party visualizations, such as live, interactive maps from ESRI directly into your IBM Cognos system and reports. 
 
Today we are busy enabling GBI within a growing number of IBM Cognos customers - across a variety of industries.  In fact, on a regular basis we learn of yet another novel customer requirement for the integration of a map (both geographic and operational floorplans) into their IBM Cognos reports.  Never in a million years would we have been able to imagine all of these unique demands for GBI when we ventured into this area of expertise.

The declaration of our commitment to GBI does not represent a departure from our core business of providing IBM Cognos SDK services - far from it!  Assisting organizations that want to integrate, extend, and customize their IBM Cognos BI solutions will remain an integral part of our business. 
 
Rather we see our expertise in GBI as a natural extension to our IBM Cognos SDK professional services practice.  Thus, from a product and services perspective, our company will continue to take a leadership role in the enablement of GBI for IBM Cognos customers.  SpotOn Vantage is evidence of our commitment to GBI - as are the partnerships, the awards, and most importantly - the customers that we have earned as a result of our GBI expertise.  

Having released SpotOn Vantage, we won't be taking time to rest.  Rather we vow to continue to invest in R&D and product development to better our out-of-the-box and custom GIS integration solutions for our IBM Cognos customers.

Hi folks,

There is a whole lot of new going on around SpotOn these days.  We've got (still relatively) new awards on the wall, new faces around the office, and a freshly minted website - check it out!

We're also introducing a new blog, and relaunching the current Edges blog.  Based on the popularity of the Javascript Prompts and FM on the Web posts, we're going to focus the blog you are reading on the work we do on the edges of the Cognos BI solution; SDK development, customizations, extensions, and application integration.

We're also very excited to be launch our blog focusing on the value of integrating spatial awareness with your IBM Cognos reports.  Geographic Business Intelligence (GBI) is something that will be on your radar in short order, if it is not already.  Please join us in the conversation.

Chris

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>

Wow, two blogs in one night! I'm wrapping up an engagement where a client was effectively looking for Framework Manager functionality on the web. That is to say, the ability to augment a model without using the FM application.

THe solution? Its been around since the beginning of Report Net: Report Studio. That's right, we're using Report Studio to modify models. Here's the scenario the client was looking at:

• Dynamically publish a model based on an ever-changing database schema (no problem, we do Metadata Automation all the time)
• Client wanted to add new query items to specific query subjects frequently

We showed the client a project from our past where we performed similar actions using Report Studio. The end result for the client: A report author can create calculations and data items, and have them automatically added to the model!

Ingredients: a little Report Studio, a dash of SDK, a mouse click, and stand back for about 2 seconds while the process completes!

Next time they go into a studio, the new data items are there! Oh yeah, did I mention that we also allowed the client to implement security on those new items?

Would like to hear from anyone who thinks this might be useful for their Cognos deployments.

Kudos to Ling T. and Chris T. on this project!

- Darren

Darren often suggests that I go "produce some marketing fluff".  At this point I feign outrage and usually threaten to write code.  A bit of a cold war style standoff!

However we have had some interest in understanding the concept of working on the Cognos Edges.  Truth be told, the Cognos extension and integration specialty was an area that SpotOn gravitated to rather than chose.  Furthermore, what seems obvious now (with Darren and team's SDK and architectural expertise) was not so clear in the beginning.  Of course you focus on the authoring and modeling services because that is that is where the large chunk of work is.  There are only a couple of organizations that need the SDK "heavy-lifting"...

Some kind of marketer I turned out to be.  What we found ourselves in was a niche, underserved market (shared with our friends down in Dallas) with clearly identifiable customer needs, with extremely high value and business impact to prospective clients.

I've also been accused of "reading books and telling us what to do".  If they don't like it, they should read the damn books!  It was in reading the Blue Ocean Strategy (http://blueoceanstrategy.com/) that the concept of working on the Cognos Edges emerged.  The concept in the book was how companies outpaced competitors by creating solutions in the space "in between": in between markets, applications, existing distribution channels, etc.  Trust me, it's a great book.

The concept that struck home was that SpotOn experienced great success once we got outside the Cognos box - on the Edge.  In these cases we were creating value in between the Cognos platform and the places organizations want to take their BI.  We've identified 4 key edges where SpotOn has consistently created value:

• 1. Look and feel, branding, custom UIs
• 2. Administration, Data & Metadata Automation
• 3. New Functionality & Product Extensions
• 4. Application Integration

It's this last Edge, Application Integration, that has our team really fired up these days.  We think we're on to a real 1+1=3 opportunity for our clients - we're going to make the BI sizzle.  Maybe make people go crazy like at the GIS Conference!  Who knows!?!

Hi, I'm Darren Nelson and welcome to my first blog post - Chris badgered me to do it.  I'll start off with a little bit about myself.  I was fortunate enough to develop the original ReportNet and Cognos 8 SDK and I continue to work with it on a daily basis.  Those early ReportNet days were pretty wild.  The BI market was primed and ready for a web-based BI platform, and the ReportNet solution hit the mark - almost too well for its own good.  Let me explain.

Reporting is effectively a horizontal solution - everybody needs information.  Organizations making significant investments in BI want the solution to meet their key VERTICAL requirements.  The ReportNet design team recognized that the solution could not be everything to everyone - thus tasked me to provide the keys to the castle in the form of the Software Development Kit (SDK).  This was one of my most memorable projects. When I began, I was perfectly fluent in English and French (written and spoken). By the time ReportNet launched, I was also fluent in SOAP (written and spoken)! 

I'm not sure anybody could have guessed the velocity that ReportNet would hit the market with.   Astounding for what was a V1 solution!  I'm not sure if anybody predicted how much these major early adopters would leverage the SDK to build out custom functionality or tightly integrate the solution into existing environments and applications. 

After a few years of "assisting" (read: chief cook and bottle washer) with these SDK initiatives, I moved to the Cognos OEM team; where my daily activities finally fell in line with my actual job description. 

Now I've managed to somehow surround myself with brilliant BI developers (and Chris) where they take my ideas (code that is usually held together with Duct tape and bubblegum) and turn it into art.  I have the extreme pleasure of being able to work with clients on a daily basis, helping them get the most out of their Cognos BI.  Maybe I'm starting to believe this "Edge" stuff!

We're really excited about sharing what we're up to with you.  We have some really cool stuff coming out of the labs, and we've decided to quit being our own best kept secret. 

"If you're not on the edge - you're taking up too much room!"  This was one of the slogans I remember from when the No Fear gear was popular with the "adrenalized crowd" (probably dating myself here).  Oddly enough, "the Edge" is the niche where SpotOn seems to have thrived.  I'll explain.

But first, let me introduce myself and this blog.  I'm Chris Ovens, the General Manager at SpotOn Systems.  Formerly with Cognos during the "rock and roll days" of the ReportNet and Cognos 8 launches,  I had the pleasure of being a Cognos evangelist - touting the best enterprise BI platform to all comers.  I also had the opportunity to hear what field folks, analysts, and (most importantly) customers wanted to accomplish with their Cognos BI deployments.  With this blog we (you'll meet them soon) would like to recount some of our adventures in addressing these wish-lists; as well as share some of our thoughts and opinions along the way. 

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

SpotOn is a Cognos Shop.  We've done consulting services for Cognos 8 BI clients, and along the way we've developed an array of Cognos add-on products and technologies for those same clients.  During SpotOn's 3 years of existence, we've had our share of exceptional projects, as well as those that would be better characterized as "just alright"...  Nobody wants to be just alright.  With a little reflection, it's easy to understand when and where SpotOn shines: it's out on the edge of Cognos - outside the box, if you will.

Don't get us wrong, we believe the Cognos 8 BI platform to be the best "box" in the business.  We are also intimately aware of the things that Cognos customers attempt to accomplish with the platform - definitely coloring outside the lines.  And it has turned into a decent business for SpotOn: out on the Edge of Cognos.

What exactly I'm I talking about here?  Let me give you a few snippets:

• Cognos customization, look and feel, branding
• Legacy application integration
• Management and performance solutions
• Extensions and add-on functionality
• Advanced visualization integration

Trust me there's more.  Sure we do report authoring as well - doesn't everybody...?  But life is definitely better than "just alright" out here on the Edge. 

Stay tuned for SpotOn tales and adventures.  I hope to convince my partner in crime, and SpotOn's secret weapon, to introduce himself here shortly.

CO