end user commentry to the report developed in report studio

[ramkumarbi]

Can end user enter comments to reports developed in report studio. User want to enter comments to the individual data containers (list,crosstab,chart) or on whole. is it possible in Cognos 10.2. We know that it is achievable in workspace by default add comment function. also we know that add comment is available only to saved version of report output. but we are looking for other optima solutions.

[Lynn]

I think you need to be careful about letting users mess around in professionally authored reports. Having said that, the XML specification for Report Studio is the same as the spec for Cognos Workspace Advanced (aka Business Insight Advanced).

If you dare to give users write access, then they could open it CWA/BIA and add text objects containing comments. Users can only see the first page layout in CWA/BIA. If the comments are not intended to appear on the output then you'd need to provide them with a block that is set to never render (e.g., using a variable with an expression like 1=2 and then attaching that variable as a render variable on the block). You can create this block and render variable in RS and then they can use it in CWA/BIA, but they couldn't create it themselves in that tool.

It is also possible to put comments into report expressions like this: #/* This is a comment */#.

I instruct users on these techniques for reports THEY develop in CWA/BIA, but would never let them mess around in reports developed by IT.

[calson33]

You could use a text prompt which is sent to a database function to be saved. The function would need to return something like 'Comment Added'.