Adding and Removing Ui Sections in Cognos Connection

Guideline

How to Add and Hide UI Elements in IBM Cognos Connection

Product(s): IBM Cognos 8

Area of Interest: Infrastructure


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Cognos Proprietary Information

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 Cognos ULC (formerly Cognos Incorporated). Cognos ULC is an IBM Company. 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. Cognos does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. This document shows the publication date. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Any improvements or changes to the information contained in this document will be documented in subsequent editions. This document contains proprietary information of Cognos. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, or translated into another language without the prior written consent of Cognos. Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks of Cognos ULC (formerly Cognos Incorporated) in the United States and/or other countries. IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, or other countries, or both. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Information about Cognos products can be found at www.cognos.com

This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology team. You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to [email protected] .


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Contents

1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 4

2 IBM COGNOS CONNECTION ....................................................................................................... 4

3 USING THE SYSTEM.XML FILE.................................................................................................... 4

4 HOW TO REMOVE A CUSTOM SECTION IN IBM COGNOS CONNECTION FOR ALL USERS........... 5

5 HOW TO REMOVE A CUSTOM SECTION IN IBM COGNOS CONNECTION FOR SPECIFIC USERS, GROUPS, AND ROLES................................................................................................................................ 5

6 ADDING A NEW SECTION IN IBM COGNOS CONNECTION .........................................................7

7 HOW TO REMOVE A CUSTOM SECTION IN IBM COGNOS CONNECTION USING URLS ............... 8

8 APPENDIX A................................................................................................................................ 9

8.1 LIST OF SECTION THAT CAN BE HIDDEN........................................................................................................ 9


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1 Introduction

This document describes how administrators can add and hide specific sections within the IBM Cognos Connection UI. Using the system.xml file, parameters can be added to add or remove UI components for all users or for specific users, groups, and roles.

2 IBM Cognos Connection

IBM Cognos Connection provides some easy and quick ways to add custom sections and to remove particular areas in the UI. Removing sections is especially popular –

as it allows administrators to simplify the end user interface. For example, in the screenshot below, specific sections in the headers were removed providing this much simpler UI for consumers.

The functionality does not end here. A fine level of granularity is available – allowing administrators to removing specific links and buttons and replacing them with their links. Finally, an administrator can assign these custom sections to particular users, groups, and roles.

3 Using the System.xml File

The system.xml file provides a lot of flexibility and control over how administrators can customize the IBM Cognos Connection UI. In this document, we will look at how


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to add and remove sections of the UI using this file. The system.xml file is located in

the <install-dir>/c8/templates/ps/portal directory.

4 How to Remove a Custom Section in IBM Cognos Connection for all Users

To remove a specific section in IBM Cognos Connection: Backup the system.xml file – located in the <install-dir>/c8/templates/ps/portal

directory. Edit the system.xml file. To remove a specific section, append the following parameter. <param name="ui_hide"> <CC_HEADER_MENU_home/> </param> In this case, CC_HEADER_MENU_home is the right-hand side of the IBM Cognos Connection main header. See the following section for a complete list of all of the sections that can be hidden. Note: This setting removes the section of the UI for all users. Refer to the

subsequent section for more information on how to do this on a user, group, or role basis.

In addition to removing this header, suppose that want to remove all headers, except the portal tabs and the main logo header.

Restart the IBM Cognos 8 service for the changes to take effect.

5 How to Remove a Custom Section in IBM Cognos Connection for Specific Users, Groups, and Roles

It is possible to remove specific sections of the IBM Cognos Connection, but only remove them for specific users, groups, or roles. For example, suppose that I want to remove the “Excel” button for a particular group of users that I don’t want viewing reports in Excel. To do this: In IBM Cognos Connection, browse to a particular user, group, or role.

Click on “Set Properties” for this particular user, group, or role.


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Click on the “View Search Path” link. A pop-up window will appear with an ID. The object ID will appear in this window. In the screenshot below, the ID for this group is: xOkNvbnN1bWVycw_.

Within a system.xml file, define this group. For example, the following syntax shows how I can define multiple groups within this file: <param name="ui_groups"> <group id="g1">xOkNvbnN1bWVycw_</group> <group id="g2">xOm5ldyBncm91cHM6dWlfUjI_</group> <group id="55">xOf5ldyBnc4htcHM6dAlfUjI_</group>

</param>

Note: If you are using one of the following five groups, you do not need to create a new group.

User Description ID

Anonymous Users who can access IBM Cognos 8 without being Anonymous


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prompted for authentication

Administrators Users who have the administration capability Administrators

Authenticated Users

All authenticated users, which includes Administrators, Query Studio Users, and Report Studio Users

Consumers

Query Studio

Users

Users who have the Query Studio capability QSUsers

Report Studio

Users

Users who have the Report Studio capability RSUsers

Within the same section of the system.xml file, add the following parameters:

<param name="ui_hide"> <RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLS show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/>

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_CSV show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/>

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLS show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/> <RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_CSV show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/> <RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLWA show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/>

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_singleXLS show="Administrators g1 g2 RSUsers"/> </param>

Where the “show = “ are exceptions. More specifically, the users and groups listed above are those users that will see these options. This means that Administrators, g1, g2, and RSUsers will see these options, but all other users will not see these

options.

6 Adding a New Section in IBM Cognos Connection

In addition to removing specific sections of IBM Cognos Connection, custom links and buttons can be added in a similar manner. To do this: Edit the system.xml file. To add a custom section to the top right header, add the following parameter: <param name="ui_add"> <CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS>

“Cognos Viewer” toolbar for all other Users

“Cognos Viewer” toolbar for: Administrators, g1, g2, and RSUsers


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<item>

<url>http://www.google.com</url> <target>_blank</target> <label xml:lang="en">Google</label>

<tooltip xml:lang="en">Google</tooltip> <icon>action_search.gif</icon> </item>

</CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS> </param>

Where CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS is the section where this custom link will appear. Additionally, tooltips, language specific links, and buttons can be added in addition to the links. Restart the IBM Cognos 8 service for these changes to take effect.

7 How to Remove a Custom Section in IBM Cognos Connection using URLs

In addition to making these changes through the system.xml file, users can remove

these headers and toolbars using URLs. In particular, the following URL parameter, “&ui=<list of header to list>”, can be used to selectively hide any or all of the following header items. For example, to remove all of the headers and toolbars, append &ui=h1h2h3h4 to the end of a IBM Cognos Connection URL. Any combination of titles (t1, t2, t3, t4), menus (m1, m2, m3, m4), and headers (h1, h2, h3, h4), shown below, can be used.

Notes: This only applies within IBM Cognos Connection or IBM Cognos Viewer. A header contains both a title and a menu. For example, &ui=h1 will perform the same actions as &ui=t1m1. When viewing a report, to remove all headers and toolbars, simply append this parameter to the end of the URL:

h1

h2

h3

t

t

t

th4

m1

m2

m3

m4


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http://server-name/Cognos8/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=xts.run&m=portal/launch.xts&ui.tool=CognosViewer&ui.action=run&ui.object=/content/package[@name='GO Sales and

Retailers']/folder[@name='Report Studio Report Samples']/report[@name='Banded Report']&ui=h1h2h3h4

8 Appendix A

8.1 List of Section That Can be Hidden

User Interface Element Description

<CRN_HEADER/> The IBM Cognos Connection top header

(h1)

<CRN_HEADER_TITLE/> Left-hand side of the IBM Cognos Connection top

header (h1)

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS/> Right-hand side of the IBM

Cognos Connection top

header (h1)

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_rs/> Report Studio link

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_qs/> Query Studio link

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_mm/> Metric Studio link

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_ags/> Event Studio link

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_ps/> Analysis Studio link

<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS_cc/> IBM Cognos Connection

link (IBM Cognos Viewer only)

<CC_HEADER/> IBM Cognos Connection

header (h2)

<CC_HEADER_TITLE/> Left-hand side of the IBM Cognos Connection header

(h2)

<CC_HEADER_MENU/> Right-hand side of the IBM

Cognos Connection header

(h2)

<CC_HEADER_MENU_home/> "home" link


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<CC_HEADER_MENU_return/> "return" link (Cognos

Viewer only)

<CC_HEADER_MENU_preferences/> "preferences" link

<CC_HEADER_MENU_logon/> "logon" link

<CC_HEADER_MENU_logoff/> "logoff" link

<CC_HEADER_MENU_about/> "about" link (Cognos Viewer only)

<CC_HEADER_MENU_help/> "help" link

<CC_VIEW/> Cognos Connection header

(h3)

<CC_VIEW_TABS/> Left-hand side of the

Cognos Connection header (h3) that includes the tabs

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS/> Right-hand side of the

Cognos Connection header (h3) that includes the

tools

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_directory/> "directory" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_capabilities/> "capabilities" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_schedule/> "schedule" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_administration/> "administration" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_csadministration/> "content administration" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_portal/> "portal administration" link

<CC_VIEW_TOOLS_drillthru/> "drill-through definition"

link

<CC_TOOLBAR/> Cognos Connection header (h4) that includes the path

navigation and toolbar

<CC_TOOLBAR_PATH/> Path navigation

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS/> Toolbar buttons

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newjobDefinition/> New Job

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newfolder/> New Folder


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<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newURL/> New URL

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newconfigurationFolder/> New Configuration Folder

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newrole/> New Role

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newgroup/> New Group

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newnamespaceFolder/> New Namespace Folder

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newdataSource/> New Data Source

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newdataSourceConnection/> New Connection

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newdataSourceSignon/> New Data Source Signon

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newcontact/> New Contact

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newdistributionList/> New Distribution List

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newprinter/> New Printer

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newimportDeploymentFolder/> New import deployment folder

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newexportDeploymentFolder/> New export deployment folder

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_import/> New import specification

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_export/> New export Specification

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_cut/> Cut

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_copy/> Copy

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_paste/> Paste

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_delete/> Delete

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_refresh/> Refresh

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_selectall/> Select all

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_deselectall/> Deselect All

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_list/> List view mode

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_detail/> Detailed view mode

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_properties/> Current folder properties

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_configuration_properties/> Configuration folder

properties

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_order/> Order


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<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_enable_schedule/> Enable Schedule

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_disable_schedule/> Disable Schedule

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_view_events/> View Events

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_page_sizes/> Page sizes option in

configuration tool

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_search/> Search

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_newpagelet/> Add a new portal page

<CC_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_edit_pagelet/> Edit a page

<CC_DIALOG_HEADER/> Not supported

<CC_DIALOG_HEADER_help/> "Help" link

<CC_RUN_OPTIONS_email_attachment/> "Include the report" check box

<RV_HEADER/> Cognos Viewer header

<RV_HEADER_TITLE/> Left hand side of the

Cognos Viewer header

<RV_HEADER_MENU/> Right hand side of the

Cognos Viewer header

<RV_HEADER_MENU_return/> "return" link

<RV_HEADER_MENU_about/> "about" link

<RV_TOOLBAR/> Not applicable

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS/> Toolbar options in Cognos Viewer

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_Download/> Download toolbar button.

Applies when download is enabled.

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_Save/> Save toolbar button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_ReportViewSave/> Save As toolbar button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_Send/> Email toolbar button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_Run/> Run toolbar button


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<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_HTML/> HTML format view button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_PDF/> PDF format view button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLS/> XLS format view button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_CSV/> CSV format view button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XML/> XML format view button

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLWA/> Excel 2002 format view

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_XLS/> Excel 2000 format view

<RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_singleXLS/> Excel 2000 single sheet format view

<SMT_SCOPE_any/> ‘Any’ choice from the Scope selection in the

Schedule Management tool.

<SMT_SCOPE_entries_i_own/> ‘Entries I Own’ choice from the Scope selection in the Schedule Management

tool.

<SMT_SCOPE_public_folders/> ‘Public Folders’ choice from

the Scope selection in the Schedule Management

tool.

Documents

Adding and Removing Ui Sections in Cognos Connection