Cognos Tips

Adding to Internet Favorites

It is highly recommended to NOT add Cognos to your favorites, but rather add www.apscn.org to your favorites - then always visit www.apscn.org and select Cognos from the menu on the APSCN website.

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Excel Reports Not Opening

Follow the steps below to assist when Excel reports are not opening correctly in Cognos.  Because Excel is capable of running macros on execution, this is a “Pop Up” issue and not a Cognos issue.  The steps below will ‘help’ but you may need the assistance of your Technology department as new pop up blocking software comes out daily – for example Google Toolbar includes a pop up blocker, as do many other pieces of software such as Norton’s, etc.  QuickView can also prevent Excel from opening.

Internet Explorer 6 & Higher

 Step1:
   Tools
      Internet Options
         Security
            Trusted Sites – click the ‘Sites’ button
               Uncheck “Require Server Verification”
               Add site *.arkansas.gov

Step2:
   Tools
      Internet Options
         Security – click the “Custom Level” button
         Download – Automatic Prompting for file downloads – enable
         Download – File Download – enable

Step 3:
  Tools
     Pop Up Blocker
          Pop Up Blocker Settings
               Add site *.arkansas.gov

Step 4
  Add site *.arkansas.gov to any additional Pop Up Blocker software installed on your machine.
 

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Reports - Hour Glass Spinning

Often while running reports, especially while creating in Query Studio, the hour glass spins without results.

One suggestion is to clear your Internet Explorer history.  Remember that non-compliant browsers are not supported.  Internet Explorer is the only supported browser.  See the link above for more information concerning supported browsers.

To clear history:
On the Internet Explorer menu select "Tools > Internet Options"

Select "Delete" in the "Browsing history" section.  Your screen may look different on out-of-date versions of IE.

Note that there is a place to select "Delete browsing history on exit".  When this is selected temporary files, history, and cookies are cleared each time IE closes, allowing for a much cleaner system and less problems.  It is suggested that this be selected, but you may want to speak with your technology coordinator before doing so.

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Scheduled Reports Not Running

User may need to do the following:

 Click "My Area" > My Preferences > Personal > Renew The Credentials

This happens because Cognos has no users, but rather assigns 'permissions' to existing Pentamation (UNIX) accounts – an example is when the password changes in Pentamation, you ‘may’ periodically need to renew your credentials in Cognos to pull in that new password.
 

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Supported Browsers

User logged in with Internet Explorer.

Same user logged in with FireFox.

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