how to schedule a report

8/3/2019 How to Schedule a Report

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Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

How to Schedule a Cognos Report

A Cognos report can be set up so that it runs unattended at a later time and saves the output.The output is attached to the report object and can be viewed by clicking on the stack of papersicon which will appear when the report is finished. You must first create a copy (report view) ofthe report in your ‘My Folders’ since the output can only be saved there (since you do not havepermission to ‘write’ to the Public Folder). Instructions for creating a report view are included atthe end of this tutorial.

You can set up a report to run a single time or you can set it up to run on a repeating daily,weekly, or monthly basis. Part I details the one-time method and Part II details the repeatingmethod.

Part I: How to Set Up a One-Time Report Schedule

You must first create a report view of the report that you want to schedule. In this example, theGL211 Cost Center Summary (Expenses) will be used.

To create a report view, click on ‘More’ beside the report, click on ‘Create a report view…’, andthen save the report view in a folder in your ‘My Folders’ tab. More detailed instructions areavailable at the end of this tutorial.

Step 1: Once you have the report view created, click on ‘More’.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

The next series of steps involves pre-setting the prompt values so that the report can rununattended.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Report’ tab.

Step 3: Click on the ‘Default action’ and change this to ‘Run the report’. Click on ‘Set’ inthe ‘Prompt values’ section to bring up the report’s prompt page so you canselect the values that will be used when the report runs.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Step 4: Select the values that you want to use in the report and then click on ‘Finish’, asif you would normally do to run the report. Note that, in this report, if you want toget a report of everything that you can access, just click ‘Finish’ after selecting

the fiscal year and period without selecting an organization.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Note that, after you click on ‘Finish’, the text in the ‘Prompt values’ section has changed (seebelow).

You can click on ‘Edit’ to modify the values that you selected on the prompt page.

You can click on ‘View all’ to see the values that w ill be used when you run the report.

Step 5: Uncheck the ‘Prompt for values’ box since we want to run the report on anunattended basis.

Click on OK.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

The report view in its current state can be run simply by clicking on it. The report will run withthe values that have been selected and will be displayed in HTML format since we have not

changed any of the other options of the report.

The next set of steps is intended to set up the general options to be applied when the reportview is run: what format will the report have, what will happen to the output after it is run, andwhen will it be run.

Step 6: Click on ‘More’ and then click on ‘Run with options’.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

The report options could be set on this screen. That is, we could select a format, click on the‘Save the report’ radio button, and click on ‘Run’. This would run the report immediately and theoutput would be saved with the report view. However, since we are going to set up a one-time

schedule, we can do all of this within the ‘advanced options’.

Step 7: Click on ‘advanced options’.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Step 8: Click on the radio button to ‘Run in the background’. After you click on this radio button, the bottom of the screen will transform and various options will be

presented.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Step 9: To enter a one-time only schedule, click on the ‘Later’ radio button and select thedate and time when you want the report to run. In this example, since the data in

the reporting database are refreshed around 4AM and it’s best to leave sometime for this process to complete, 6AM is selected.

Note: Remember, the data is refreshed only once a day in the morning so the data will be the same until the next refresh process. Use Self Service Banner to access live data that changes immediately to reflect new Banner INB transactions entered throughout the day

Step 10: Select ‘Save the report’.

Step 11: Select the format of the report output. Multiple formats can be selected.

Click on ‘Run’ at the bottom of the screen.

A screen will appear that recaps all of your selections. If these are as you intended them to be,click on ‘OK’.

The report will run at 6AM on the morning of March 11 and the output will be saved.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

When you arrive in the morning of March 11 and sign into the TUportal and Cognos, you willnotice a new icon in the Actions area associated with the report view. This indicates that outputhas been saved and is available. Click on this icon to see the output.

The next section looks at how to set up a repeating schedule.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Part II: How to Set Up a Repeating Schedule

A repeating schedule can be set up so that a report runs on a periodic basis. The report canrun every day, week, month, or year. Running a report based on a ‘trigger’ is not yet supported.

For example, the steps below will set up a report to run every Sunday so that the report outputwould be available as soon as we arrive at our desk on Monday.

Step 12: Click on the ‘More’ link associated with a report view that you want to schedule.Click on ‘New schedule’.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

You can set up the start date and time. You can also set an end date and time after which thereport schedule will be disabled.

If the schedule was left as it is below, the report would run every Sunday at 2:16PM forever.

This is what we intend so it will be left as is.

Step 13: Click on the ‘Week’ tab and check the Sunday box. Uncheck other boxes if necessary.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

Note in the screen above, you can check the ‘Disable the schedule’ if you don’t want theschedule to run.

You can limit how many versions of output are saved by adjusting the settings in the ‘Report

output versions’ section of the Properties tab of the report view.

Click on ‘More’ and then click on ‘Set properties’.

Setting the ‘Number of occurrences’ to zero will allow limitless copies to be saved. Otherwise,when the limit is reached, the oldest version is replaced with the new version.

You can alternatively set the limit by specifying how long each version of report output shouldbe retained.

Renewing Your AccessNet Credentials When Your Password Changes:

A final note: When you save a schedule, your AccessNet password is saved with it. If youchange your password (as you will need to do periodically), the new password does notautomatically replace the credentials previously saved with your schedule. As a result, whenthe schedule attempts to run a report, Cognos will refuse the request since the password nolonger matches the one on record.

To fix this, go into ‘My Preferences’ (the little person icon at the top of the viewer screen) andselect the ‘Personal’ tab. In the ‘Credentials’ section in the middle of the screen, click on‘Renew the credentials’.



Cognos Connection

3/15/2010

How to Create a Cognos ‘Report View’ – Cheat Sheet

A ‘report view’ is a copy of a report that is stored in your personal folders. A production report can becopied into a report view in a personal folder. A report view can be set up so that associated promptvalues can be pre-selected and saved with the report view. The report view can then be scheduled andrun unattended using those values.

Step A: Create a report view of the report and copy it into one of your folders

1. From Cognos Connection, click on ‘More…’ beside the report that you want to copy. 2. Click on ‘Create a report view of this report…’ 3. Optional: Give the report a new name. (You can do this later once the report view has been set

up by adjusting the ‘properties’ for the report view – see Step B, below.)4. Click on ‘My Folders’, or click on ‘Select another location’ and navigate to a folder where you

have permission to store a report.5. Click on ‘Finish’

Step B: Set up the defaults for the report

6. Navigate to the folder where you stored your report view.7. Click on ‘More…’8. Click on ‘Set properties’ 9. Click on the ‘Report view’ tab 10. Click on ‘Set’ to select the default prompt values 11. For each required prompt, select the desired values12. Click ‘Finish’

The default number of ‘versions’ of the report is set to 1. New versions of the report output willreplace older versions that have already been saved. If you want to keep multiple versions includingolder output, change the ‘number of occurrences’ to a higher number.

If you take away the check mark in the ‘Prompt for values’ box in the Set Properties screen, the reportcan be run unattended on a predefined schedule and will use the values that you selected in theabove steps. If you leave the ‘Prompt for values’ box checked, the report will run interactively and theprompt page will appear and you will be given the opportunity to change the values that you selectedin Step B.

13. Click on ‘OK’ to save the selected options.

Now you can schedule the report view to run in the background or you can click on the report view torun it interactively (if you set the prompting option appropriately).

Step C: Select other options

14. Click on the ‘Run with options’ icon (blue triangle) and then click on ‘advanced options’ in theupper right of the screen.

15. Click on ‘Run in the background’ radio button and many options will be displayed such as runningthe report directly to Excel or PDF. Click on ‘Run’ after you select the desired options.

If you want to change the prompt values that are used in the report view, repeat the steps in Step B,above.

Note that you can create multiple report views of a single report each with its own separate report options.

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