Is there a way to manually enter data after report generation?

[JoelR]

Is there a way to manually choose or enter a result that is not in the database after the report has been ran, so that the printed version displays the manually entered result?  For instance, a report that is going to be posted to show all the workers who will performing a job; the person generating the report wants to manually enter which workers will be working day or night.  Thanks

[Suraj]

One simple workaround is to add a textbox prompt on the report page and type in.
Then set a paramdisplay to display the entered value anywhere in the report page.
You also have to reprompt to see the display after entering text.
If nothing is entered, it won't show when printed.

[JoelR]

Thanks, that's pretty cool, but what do you mean by reprompt?  The text prompt worked but nothing shows when printed, so how do I reprompt?

[JoelR]

I appreciate your suggestion, but I am still unclear on how to implement.  Thanks!

[Suraj]

Right next to the text box prompt, drop a prompt button and set it as 'Reprompt'.
Then on your report page where you want to show what's entered, put a report expression to display the text box parameter, ex: ParamDisplayValue('My Textbox Prompt').
When users want to add notes to the output, they'll enter the text in the textbox prompt and hit reprompt so that it displays on the page.

[JoelR]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[JoelR]

A new related problem... my text prompt allows me to enter day or night for different employees, however, the change is not isolated to individual work orders.  The text prompt changes the day or night COLUMN for ALL employee(s) 1,2,3, etc... for ALL of the work orders? Please help, thank you.

[Suraj]

It's hard to see what you are doing.
If you are trying to change the data depending upon that textbox prompt value, then the report depends upon how you are using those values. It may not be the prompt values that are causing issues, instead it could be how the columns are calculated to reflect changes from the prompt values.

[JoelR]

Thanks for your help.  I have been working on this for  a while and Im just getting more frustrated.  Help?  :) This is what is happening:

work order employee (night or day text prompt)
  1                 joe               day
  2                 steve           night
  3                 john             night

results:

work order employee          Parameter Display
  1                 joe              day
  2                 steve           day
  3                 john             day

[almeids]

Export your report to Excel and your users can put whatever they want wherever they want.  Report Studio is not a data entry tool.

[JoelR]

This report is to take us away from excel.  Suraj's help worked, which is what I need, but all of a sudden it turned into this problem?

[Suraj]

Hmmm.... so which one is correct?
I assume that your textbox prompt is to input day or night values and depending on that value you want to change a column? or just one row?
if just one row, you can't do that as shown.
when you create a data item and drop in column, it is for whole column.
I'm not sure how you are using the prompt.

Thanks for your help.  I have been working on this for  a while and Im just getting more frustrated.  Help?  :) This is what is happening:

work order employee (night or day text prompt)
  1                 joe               day
  2                 steve           night
  3                 john             night

results:

work order employee          Parameter Display
  1                 joe              day
  2                 steve           day
  3                 john             day

[almeids]

If you put a value in a single text prompt, and then display that value on every line of the report, why are you surprised that it's the same throughout?  That's not a "problem", it's how it works!  How would Cognos know which lines you want to display it on?
If you want something different on every line, put the text box prompt into your list as a column...this will only work for html output, though...

[JoelR]

Sorry about the confusion. The text box prompt is in my list as a column.  I wish I would have sent a screen shot earlier.  Please look.

[JoelR]

Thanks for all of the help, but I think I'm just going to make some custom fields to enter "night" and "day" into the database and pull them into the report.  Sorry for the frustration.

[Suraj]

If your objective was just to add notes on the report output as comments explaining things, this works.
But for your purpose, it is best to add a column next to employee indicating whether they work at night or day.
Also, from my experience, a lot of things can be done in Cognos that seemed impossible initially if time and patience is given.

[almeids]

No problem.  Not to beat a dead horse, but if you remove the "Day or Night" column and replace the text "Text Box Prompt" with "Day or Night", isn't the first screen shot what you wanted?  Can't you just print that?  I'll shut up now - getting it into the database is generally a better idea.