Uncategorized

Chrome 150 causing significant errors in Cognos

| cognospaul

The latest version of Chrome is currently completely messing up Cognos reports. Report Studio is completely unusable. So far I’ve seen the following:

  1. Data item expressions are all missing
  2. text items are empty
  3. data source is missing
  4. errors when running reports

I stopped testing at this point. What’s the point in testing more? RS is completely FUBAR in Chrome.

For end users it’s not as bad. The reports run but there are some issues:

  1. C11 graphs are not rendering
  2. interactive features, like sorting and filtering fails
  3. Rerunning reports with the toolbar run or refresh buttons fail
  4. Changing format with the dropdown fails
  5. Custom controls fail

For the custom controls issue there is a fix. The issue stems from the configuration object in oControlHost is null, but we can identify the configuration from the xmlElement:

let config = oControlHost.configuration??JSON.parse(oControlHost.xmlElement.querySelector('configuration').text);

So what can we do? Well, there are two options, neither I like very much.

Rollback to Chrome 149. Easier said that done, Google doesn’t offer a 149 download. You have to use a third-party site. Enterprise environments might not even allow it. Good luck.

Use a different browser. Firefox and Edge both still work well with Cognos.

So the next question, what does IBM have to say about it? At the moment I have not seen a public announcement, but when asked in a support ticket I received this official statement:

While Cognos is designed to work with supported third-party applications, changes introduced by those vendors can occasionally impact existing integrations or functionality. Our expectation is that updates maintain backward compatibility; however, significant behavioral changes in a third-party application may result in unexpected issues.

We are aware of the issue introduced following the recent Google Chrome Version 150 update and are actively investigating the root cause to determine the impact on Cognos and identify a permanent resolution.

As a temporary workaround, affected users can either use other browsers (Mozilla Firefox and/or Microsoft Edge) or downgrade Chrome to Version 149 should Chrome be the only approved browser.

To prevent Chrome from automatically upgrading back to Version 150, we recommend disabling the GoogleUpdaterService and GoogleUpdaterInternalService through the Windows Services console.

We appreciate your patience while we continue our investigation and work toward identifying the underlying cause of this issue.

Very diplomatic, and yeah, Chrome broke backward compatibility without warning. Not cool, Chrome!

IBM has issued a Known Issue for this, DT475269. It’s not public yet, so you can’t subscribe to it. Once it does become public, or once the issue is resolved, I’ll post here again. You don’t need to post more tickets, I am sure IBM support is swamped.

And thanks to the IBM Support dude Ian Bishop! Keep up the good work!

Uncategorized

Brushing in reports

| cognospaul

Back in the Cognos 10 days, IBM introduced Active Reports. They were revolutionary, in that it allowed interactive functionality with saved outputs. Since then IBM pretty much ignored it. Fortunately it’s back! And in regular interactive reports!

So let’s go over the basics.

Pretty much every data container, except for repeaters and singletons, now have two new buttons in the toolbar.

Interactive Behavior should be a welcome sight to anyone familiar with Active Reports, but let’s go through a basic example, the second is Create a New Connection which we’ll talk about in a moment.

The image above has a table showing the parameter and it’s value, a simple list with only Product line, and interactive behavior defined. When the user clicks on a product line, the report will refresh and set the Product line parameter. When the report submits, the container will automatically highlight the specified row. This is great, as we can now quickly and easily set parameters.

There’s a third section in the Interactive Behavior. When that’s defined, the output is filtered without needing to refresh the report! There are a few limitations to this. Crosstabs, lists, and repeater tables don’t support local filtering. Only the JS containers, like the 11.1 graphs and data tables work.

When we create a connection, we can select the source container, the target container, and how it affects it. For lists, crosstabs, and the older Cognos 10 graphs, we can only select the Highlight behavior. But for Data Tables and the 11.1 (and 11.0) Visualizations we can filter. The Create a Connection button is really just a wizard, we can also define the same thing using the interactive behavior button.

Disabling the auto-submit on the product line list and we get the following:

You also don’t need to have the Product line visible in the container. Simply having Product line in the Extra Data is enough. The data table and JS graphs will aggregate the measure based on the aggregation type. Make sure the Category Range is set to “Filtered Data”, or only the measure will be filtered.

The best thing is that all of this still works in saved HTML outputs! Set all of the parameters and behavior as needed, then schedule the report to save.

Now we come to the areas of improvement.

  • We can only set parameters on included items.

I would expect that I would be able to set parameters on items defined in the list properties.

  • Setting parameters only sets the use value.

I would love to be able to set the use and display values at the same time.

  • We can only set one value at a time.

A mechanism to set multiple values would be awesome.

  • Deselecting parameters is a pain.

We should be able to define the interactivity on a per object level. This would let us deselect the Product line parameter by setting it on the list header. Giving us granular control over the brushing would let us make incredible reports.

  • We shouldn’t need to use query items

We should be able to just type in the values we want. Combined with the previous idea, this would let us do basically anything in the report.

And speaking of which, everyone should go and vote on this RFE: https://ideas.ibm.com/ideas/CA-I-4824

And while we’re on the subject of what everyone should do, I’m going to be giving a session at the New England Cognos User Group. We’re doing hybrid this year, in person and remote!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-england-cognos-user-group-tickets-1987102460952

Session topics include:
• watsonx in Sports
• What’s New in Cognos 12
• Cognos Tips & Tricks <— That’s me this time!
• Meet IBM Bob
• IBM Experts Roundtable

Hope to see you all!