Cognos Extended Applications

Cognos Extended Applications, a set of JSP tags that enable the development of custom “portlets” that can be hosted by a number of “portal” applications, including IBM’s Websphere portal and SAP’s Enterprise Portal (as well as Cognos Connection, of course.)
JSP technology includes the ability to create custom tags that contain back-end code. Just as a set of tags like means something specific to the browser, and <%> are used to demarcate code that will be executed on the server side (but is contained within the JSP page) the user can create tags of their own that will call code when the page is rendered but exists in a java class the user has created.
The Cognos SDK includes several tags libraries that can be used to create JSP pages that can then be registered with a portal. Once again, these libraries enable the user to essentially perform any task that can be performed through the normal interface, but extended or combined as the user wants. Once registered the JSP portlet will be available to users of the existing corporate portal. The details of registering a JSP page with the portal vary with the portal being used.
The Extended Applications approach is ideal for the development of content you want to present within an existing portal, but it is complex, and requires the use of the JSP portion of the J2EE stack.
The C8 SDK is a powerful tool for organizations that want to extend the power of Cognos 8 within the enterprise, and provides a number of tools to do so. The BI Bus API provides a set of classes that can be used to build applications that interact with C8 “from the ground up”. The URL API provides an easy, ‘lightweight” way of calling methods to interact with C8 via a correctly formatted URL, or from JavaScript within a client. Finally, Extended Applications provides a set of custom JSP tags within libraries that can be used to create JSP pages that can then be registered as portlets within an enterprise portal.

Where can the SDK Developer Guide be found in Cognos 8?

 You can go to http://bicentresdkguide.blogspot.com or stay right here to learn more!

five axis jars in the IBM Cognos 8 SDK java lib

http://cognos8help.blogspot.com/2011/02/five-axis-jars-in-ibm-cognos-8-sdk-java.html

If you would like to see more examples of Cognos 8 SDK code then the full Cognos 8 SDK Guide by BI Centre and supporting source code be purchased from http://bicentre.blogspot.com for only $7.00 USD.

Have you seen the latest Cognos jobs?

If you need to refresh your Business Intelligence skills then be sure to check out the educational training materials that are available at BI Centre e-Books today.


If you're looking for diagnostic tools to validate or troubleshoot your IBM Cognos 8 environment then don't forget to download the utilities found here.

Cognos 8 Diagnostic: Cognos 8 Diagnostic tools are coming soon...Be s...

Cognos 8 Diagnostic: Cognos 8 Diagnostic tools are coming soon...

Be s...: "Cognos 8 Diagnostic tools are coming soon... Be sure to visit: http://bicentre.blogspot.com/ http://bicentresdkguide.blogspot.com/ http:..."

New BI Resource Available 20100427-001

http://cognosconsulting.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-bi-resource-available-20100427-001.html

Does your Cognos 8 SDK solution need to follow Section 508?

http://cognos8help.blogspot.com/2010/04/section-508-compliance-guide-now.html

Do you have Cognos 8 SDK issues?

Hello, you can let us know what your Cognos 8 SDK issues and we'll be more than happy to assist you. We offer short or long term remote consulting services to help you with your Cognos 8 SDK project.

Do you need support with your Cognos 8 SDK project? If so, then email us today at businessintelligencecentre@gmail.com.

Cognos 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-6Leuvu0GU&feature=related
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BI CENTRE
http://bicentre.blogspot.com

Unleashing the Power of IBM Cognos SDK By Deepesh K. Shrivastava, Wipro Technologies

With increasing use of BI, users want quick access to information. BI is increasingly becoming pervasive across the organization. This demands BI capabilities embedded across different business functions and delivery portals. It also requires intuitive, easy to use user interfaces. In such cases, when deployment of BI capabilities is not just limited to trained analytical or power users; and BI offering require better usability, adherence to corporate branding look & feel standards, or integration along with other business functions like ordering, IBM Cognos SDK capabilities comes to rescue.

IBM Cognos SDK is a very powerful toolset to extend capabilities of the Cognos platform and for providing different integration & deployment options. Cognos SDK is built using industry standard protocols SOAP, WSDL.

Wipro's 'Customer Self-Service BI' framework has been built over the IBM Cognos SDK and provides simplified interface to SDK services as façade. This framework also integrates other Web 2.0 functions including AJAX.

When it comes to customer facing applications, organizations have elaborate set of branding look & feel requirements and any customer facing BI is not exception to it. Such solutions also require high level of scalability and intuitive usability. Organizations also wants any such BI offering to be made available within their e-commerce portal and at times, wants BI functions to be embedded alongside other business functions.

'Customer Self-Service BI' framework leveraging IBM Cognos SDK offers seamless integration possibility and leverages organizations existing investment into any branded e-commerce portal. Following are the key components of such integration –

• Corporate portal or web application
• 'Customer Self-Service BI' framework
• IBM Cognos SDK
• IBM Cognos BI platform

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BI CENTRE
http://bicentre.blogspot.com

ITIL templates

http://www.myitiltemplates.com/

http://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/ITIL-Checklists

http://www.itil4free.com/
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BI CENTRE
http://bicentre.blogspot.com

Remote Cognos Development Opportunity

Does your organization require temporary support doing Cognos development? If so, then the BI Centre can give you that short term, or long term, support to help you meet your deliverable.

We can assist with model development, report development, SDK coding, testing, QA, technical documentation and even project management.

Feel free to contact us today to discuss your needs.

email: businessintelligencecentre@gmail.com

SDK - SSO for Series 7 gateway namespace using CSharp

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web.Services;
using cognosdotnet_2_0;


namespace SetCredential
{

///

/// Summary description for Class1.
///

class SetCredential
{
private cognosdotnet_2_0.CognosReportNetBinding oCrn = null;

propEnum [] props = {propEnum.defaultName, propEnum.searchPath};

public SetCredential(string endPoint)
{
oCrn = new CognosReportNetBinding();
oCrn.Url = endPoint;
oCrn.Credentials= System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
}


//
// get a list of the packages for the logged in user
//
public void getPackageList()
{
try
{
baseClass [] objInMyFolders = oCrn.query("//package",
props, new sort[]{}, new queryOptions());

int temp = 1; // If you've made it to here, SSO is working. Examine objInMyFolders to see the packages
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.Write("\n" +e.GetBaseException());

}
}

///

/// The main entry point for the application.
///

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
String endPoint = "http://localhost/c84GA/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi";
SetCredential packageList = new SetCredential(endPoint);
packageList.getPackageList();
}
}
}

SDK - Bad version number in .class file

http://bicentre.blogspot.com/2008/11/sdk-bad-version-number-in-class-file.html

Project Management Templates

http://bicentre.blogspot.com/2008/10/project-management-templates.html

Access Manager LDAP -- add new user

Authenticator2.Application _AuthApp = new Authenticator2.Application(); Authenticator2.Document _AuthDoc; Authenticator2.DSConfigurations objDSConfigs; Authenticator2.Configuration objConfig; objDSConfigs = ((Authenticator2.DSConfigurations)_AuthApp.DSConfigurations); objConfig = ((Authenticator2.Configuration)objDSConfigs.Add("cognosserver",389,"dc=dev",0)); objConfig.DefaultSecuritySource = true; _AuthDoc = ((Authenticator2.Document)((Authenticator2.AuthenticatorDocuments)_AuthApp.Documents).OpenWithBasicSignon("default","administrator","mypassword","Root User Class")); Authenticator2.User objUser; objUser = ((Authenticator2.User)((Authenticator2.Users)((Authenticator2.Folder)_AuthDoc.UserFolder).Users).Add("MyNewUser")); //clean up System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(_AuthDoc); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(_AuthApp);

New C8 SDK Utility --- Cognos 8 Modification Check

The BI Centre C8 Modification Check provides a Cognos SDK developer with a workable C# solution that will allow you to:

· Search the Content Store for items that have been modified after a selected date value

For example, if you were looking for all reports that were modified on June 3rd, 2008 then you would select the date June 2nd, 2008. The code will search for all items that have been modified after the selected date value from the date control.

The results of the search are then rendered to a text box control.

next Cognos SDK utility

We are currently working on a Cognos SDK utility that will return query a namespace to return all of the groups, users and their assigned privileges. The results will be added to .txt file.

Email us today if you would like to be notified when this utility has been completed.

Cognos 8 SDK -- ContentManagerService passing authentication

If the logon was successful, the ContentManagerService becomes an authenticated service and a string known as a CAM Passport will be sent back to the SDK application in the BiBusHeader. When an SDK application creates an object to represent a Cognos 8 service, that object will contain a property called BIBusHeader. The BIBusHeader represents the SOAP header that is used to communicate with the Cognos 8 server. Within the BIBusHeader, is a property named CAM which in turn contains a property named CAMPassport. The CAM Passport returned by the logon() method is stored in the
CAMPassport property.

In an SDK application, the CAM Passport does not automatically propagate to other services that might be used within the application. Since the ContentManagerService is the only service than can logon and logoff, there needs to be ability to assign the CAM Passport to other services that the SDK application might require (such as the ReportService). This assignment is done simply by copying the BIBusHeader of the ContentManagerService to the BIBusHeader of the other service, thereby making that service an authenticated service.

Cognos 8 SDK -- Logging on

Unless Anonymous access is allowed, when a Cognos 8 SDK application is connected to the Cognos 8 server the application has no implied rights or access permissions. The Cognos 8 SDK application needs to login just as a general user would login to the Cognos portal.

If anonymous access is allowed, the Cognos 8 SDK application will be granted the same rights and permissions as the Anonymous user from the Cognos namespace. If anonymous access is not allowed and a Cognos 8 SDK application does not login, an exception will occur when the SDK application tries to perform an action such as querying the content store or running a report.

All logons and logoffs are performed through the ContentManagerService using the logon() and logoff() methods. None of the other Cognos 8 services can perform a logon or logoff operation.