Cognos output. Issues with MHT and Excel

[erics]

I'm new to Cognos 10. Been playing with it since yesterday and having issues with my outputs. I'm working with an active report. Dunno if that's the right one to use, but I haven't used Cognos in 3-4 versions.

First, the only output available is MHT. Is it no longer possible to output to excel or PDF? Especially excel?

Second, I can't open my MHT files. I've tried in excel, IE, and Chrome. All three say Starting, have a loading icon, and just stay that way. Is it trying to pull data from Cognos dynamically? And if so, how do I stop it from doing so?

Thanks! Eric

[MFGF]

I'm new to Cognos 10. Been playing with it since yesterday and having issues with my outputs. I'm working with an active report. Dunno if that's the right one to use, but I haven't used Cognos in 3-4 versions.

First, the only output available is MHT. Is it no longer possible to output to excel or PDF? Especially excel?

Second, I can't open my MHT files. I've tried in excel, IE, and Chrome. All three say Starting, have a loading icon, and just stay that way. Is it trying to pull data from Cognos dynamically? And if so, how do I stop it from doing so?

Thanks! Eric

An Active Report is a report rendered as MHT and allowing interaction within the rendered output. If you want a report that renders as HTML, PDF, Excel etc, you need a normal report (ie not an active report).

Rendering MHT is a function of the browser, usually. Internet Explorer renders MHT files natively, with Firefox you need an addin (UnMHT) and Chrome has no ability to render them currently. How much data are you including in the MHT? What size is it?

Cheers!

MF.

[Lynn]

Do a google search for the active report cookbook and read up about it. It creates a report that is highly interactive and can be consumed while disconnected from Cognos and your network. This is only going to create an MHT format which can be opened in a browser or consumed on a mobile device.

To get PDF, Excel, HTML etc you need to just create a regular report, not an active report, using one of the report authoring tools such as Report Studio.

When you say you haven't used Cognos in 3-4 versions it sounds like you are referring to the old series 7 products? I suspect you will find that the world has changed rather dramatically since then. You would do well to find and read a good overview of the Cognos 10 suite of tools before diving headlong into it.