Manage External Data issues

[bdbits]

Just thought I'd pass this along so others can avoid bumps and bruises from hitting their heads against the wall.

If you are not familiar with Manage External Data, it lets you create a package that marries an external file (xls, csv, etc) to an existing Cognos package. You need to make sure the user has permission to Report Studio > Allow External Data, and permission for "Allow External Data" on the capability tab on the existing Cognos package properties (I think only admins see that tab). This gives the user a new option in both Report Studio and Business Insight Advanced under Tools > Manage External Data.

We had looked at this some time ago, after we had updated to v10, and it had worked for us at the time. We had not been using it, however, and updated to the 10.1.1 service pack in March. So we are now on Cognos version 10.1.1, with IE9 on Windows 7 desktops; this is a supported environment. (Recent versions of Firefox don't really work well at all for Cognos.) A user asked about using external data a few weeks ago, and when we re-tested it appeared to be broken. You can get to the point where you select a file, but at soon as Cognos tries to read the file to determine the data fields for mapping, you get an error like the one shown below.

To make a long story short, I eventually found there is an open APAR that identifies IE9 as the problem. Sure enough, I found a box that still had XP and IE7 on it, and it works fine on there. APAR PM56228  is at https://www-304.ibm.com/support/entdocview.wss?uid=swg1PM56228.

IBM - can we get a browser-agnostic version of the studios? Please? Thanks.

---------------------------
Message from webpage
---------------------------
Error! - <output>
- <pdSpec>
- <dataSet type="Excel2003">
  <name>test</name>
  <sourcePath>C:\fakepath\test.xls</sourcePath>
  </dataSet>
- <personalData name="test" ID="[test]">
  <item name="Dept" ID="[test].[Dept]" datatype="characterLength16" precision="256" length="514" usage="attribute" regularAggregate="unsupported" semiAggregate="unsupported" />
  <item name="Value" ID="[test].[Value]" datatype="characterLength16" precision="256" length="514" usage="attribute" regularAggregate="unsupported" semiAggregate="unsupported" />
  </personalData>
  </pdSpec>
  </output>
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

[wyconian]

Thanks for the heads up  :)

[Tara]

If i want to import an external data file (excel sheet) consisting of more than 1000 rows it asks to get permission. this is installed on my desktop. could you please let me know how to set permission so that i can use this excel sheet with more than 1000 rows?

[bdbits]

At what point are you getting prompted for permission? Since I never see this I think it is likely due to an Internet Explorer security setting. What IE zone is your Cognos Connection web site in? Usually it is "Local intranet" or "Trusted Sites". If it is already in one of these zones, you may have custom settings that are causing the prompts. If you can, reset it to defaults and see if that resolves it, or browse through looking at items set to "Prompt". (You can find all of these things in Internet options on the Security tab.)

[Tara]

Hi,

I managed to resole it. I just reset the governors in FM (external data properties) and republished the package. This is now resolved.

I have another issue now. One of the columns in the external data excel sheet is date/time stamp data type. Cognos however is pulling up only the date and not the time stamp. Please advice

Thanks... :)

[adam_mc]

Don't mean to hijack this thread (so let me know if I should start a new one).

I am having an issue trying to run a scheduled report (created in Report Studio) that contains an external data source.
I am getting the following message:
QE-DEF-0285 The logon failed.  QE-DEF-0514 Personal data needs to be uploaded from a user file.  RQP-DEF-0068 Unable to connect to at least one database.

I'd appreciate any feedback/thoughts.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.

[phillipk]

I am importing an external file in report studio - everything works and runs fine from within the application, but I cannot save output in cognos connection for some reason.  Getting a strange yellow error in administration "CNC-MON-0024 Monitor Service paging error"

[MFGF]

I am importing an external file in report studio - everything works and runs fine from within the application, but I cannot save output in cognos connection for some reason.  Getting a strange yellow error in administration "CNC-MON-0024 Monitor Service paging error"

Hi,

Might be this:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21499572

Do you have a multi-server architecture?

MF.

[Bandit69330]

Hi gurus,

I have the same issue :
adam_mc  wrote : "I am getting the following message:
QE-DEF-0285 The logon failed.  QE-DEF-0514 Personal data needs to be uploaded from a user file.  RQP-DEF-0068 Unable to connect to at least one database."

Has anyone find a solution for that issue ?
adam_mc have you got a solution ?

Thanks for your help !

Bandit69330

[Lynn]

Have you created your external data package by specifying the fully qualified path name and not a drive letter mapping? Have you placed a check mark in the box to automatically load the file?