Prompt Set Manager – Saving and
Re-using Prompts in Cognos BI
Crop Production Services
Loveland, CO
May 2011
About Crop Production Services
• Retail distributor of agricultural inputs
– Chemical
– Seed
– Fertilizer
– Services (blending, application)
• Headquartered in Loveland, CO
• Retail locations in USA, Canada, S. America, and Australia
• Approximately $9 billion in annual revenue
• Owned by Agrium, Calgary Canada (Symbol = AGU)
• Cognos users since ReportNet 1.1 (2004)
CPS North America
CPS BI Design Principles
Develop reports that are:
• Highly flexible
– Write 1, not 10
• Self-describing
– Textual help on prompt page
– Prompt values always output on report page
• Should require little or no training
– Graduated user interface
– Simple navigation
Typical CPS Cognos Report
Prompt Menu (shows current selections)
Sample Prompts
More Sample Prompts
Column Projection Prompts
CPS Item Sales Report
• Prompt Page contains 65 total prompts
– 28 data filtering prompts
– 37 data projection (column output) prompts
• Allows user to build a highly summary or highly detailed
report based on their selections
• Leverages typical javascript techniques to hide and show
prompts to reduce complexity for the user
• Most heavily used report at CPS
– But had one significant shortcoming….
Frustrated Users….
-----Original Message----From: < A Typical User>
Sent: 3/2/2009 10:21:32 AM
To: Wheat, David [mailto:david.wheat@cpsagu.com];
CC: <Pretty much everybody>
Subject: Saved Parameters for Item Sales Reports
David,
Is there any way to save parameters on the Cognos
Item Sales report accessible from the Decision
Support Portal like we can in Segmentation?
Thanks,
Dave
The PromptSet Manager Toolbar
• Developed by BrightStar Partners for CPS in 2009
• www.brightstarpartners.com
• Services and utilities that enhance Cognos modeling, development, and
administration
• Moderate COGNOise technical forum www.cognoise.com
• Available for purchase (we think) from BSP
• Requires:
• A SQL Server DB to save prompt sets
• Modifications to reports to include PromptSet Manager
Saving current prompt values
Reusing a saved prompt set
Manage Prompt Sets
Technical Requirements
Five Key Components:
• Prompt Set Manager Website/Virtual Directory
– PSM must have its own Virtual Directory in a IIS website
– CPS uses the same website as IBM Cognos
• MS SQL Database
– Handles Stored Procedures, Prompt Sets, Parameters, Reports and Users
• Data Access layer
– .aspx pages access and update the database
• User Interface
– What you have seen from previous slides
• Client Scripts
– JavaScript ‘method calls’ that access PSM scripts
Prompt Set Manager Website/Virtual Directory
• Traditional IBM Cognos url
–
http://dcpcognos2:80/ibmcognos/cgibin/cognosisapi.dll?b_action=cognosViewer&ui.action=run&ui.object=%2fcontent%2fpackage%5b%40name%3d%27UAP%20DW%27%5d%2ffolder%5b%
40name%3d%27Sales%20and%20Margin%27%5d%2ffolder%5b%40name%3d%27Pre%20Production%20Testing%27%5d%2freport%5b%40name%3d%27
PSM%20Example%27%5d&ui.name=PSM%20Example&run.outputFormat=&run.prompt=true
• PSM url with IBM Cognos search path
–
•
http://dcpcognos2/promptsetmanager/Default.aspx?username=gcadamc&format=PDF&formats=PDF&title=PSM
Example&searchpath=/content/package[@name='UAP DW']/folder[@name='Sales and Margin']/folder[@name='Pre Production
Testing']/report[@name='PSM Example']
The IBM Cognos report Search Path is appended to the Prompt Set Manager Website URL
Database
•
•
MS SQL Server tables and Store Procedures
Dynamic table creation and minimal maintenance
Data Access Layer
• Flow
IBM Cognos report with a
Set of Selected Prompts
.aspx calls
and POST
MS SQL
PSM DB
User Interface
• Components
– HTML file containing a toolbar and Iframe
– The Iframe houses the actual report prompt page
and strips the prompt values and display values
from the page.
– But how is this done?
Client Scripts
• JavaScript Components in PSM
– General Layout Requirements
– Finish button
– HTML Items
• JAVASCRIPT
• Surrounding ParameterDisplayValue DIV tags
General Layout Requirements
• At CPS we have a lot going on with our prompt pages
• However PSM only requires a few of the HTML Items seen
above
General Layout Components
Finish Button
• The Finish Button is actually an HTML item with a
button tag.
• onclick this button calls a function.
Finish Button Function
• Onclick runReport() function
– Parent.Runreport();
» This method activates PSM, saves the prompts and runs
the report.
– promptButtonFinish();
» This method is an embedded IBM Cognos function that
is the standard function that cognos uses when a regular
button is clicked. It runs the report if PSM is not found.
Other Functions
• runPageFunctions()
– If PSM and a previously saved prompt set is found
outside the Iframe, this function updates the
parameters on the prompt page on page load
Surrounding ParameterDisplayValue DIV tags
• To have the previously selected Prompt Set’s
values appear, surround paramdisplayvalues in
div tags with a distinct ID.
– PSM recognizes the ID and displays the Prompt Sets on
Saved Prompt Set load.
Questions?