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I'm sure I'm missing somming very small here, but this is really getting to me now.

I have used the SDK to save a report to HTML (and XML), but when I try a format like XLS or PDF, I get text, but not the data I need to write the file and read it in excel or Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If I use the reportrunner sample in the SDK I get the same issue.

My testing code (I know it's messy) below (strongly based on SDK)...




    public bool GetReportSDK(string inCogID, string inSaveAs, ExportFormat inExpForm, string inUserName, string inPassword, string inNamespace)
    {
      bool retVal = false;
      string strFormat = "";

      if(inExpForm == ExportFormat.PDF)
      {
        strFormat = "PDF";
        inSaveAs += ".pdf";
      }
      else if(inExpForm == ExportFormat.XLS)
      {
        strFormat = "singleXLS";
        inSaveAs += ".xls";
      }


      try
      {
        CognosConnection cogConn = new CognosConnection(this.strCogSerrverPath, inNamespace, inUserName, inPassword);

        cogConn.Connect();


        asynchReply executeReportResponse = null;
        option[] arrRunOpts = new option[4];

        parameterValue[] arrParm = new parameterValue[] { };

        runOptionBoolean blnPromptOption = new runOptionBoolean();
        runOptionStringArray outputFormat = new runOptionStringArray();
        asynchOptionInt primaryWait = new asynchOptionInt();   // primary wait threshold
        string[] strarrFmt = new string[1];
        runOptionBoolean blnSaveOption = new runOptionBoolean();

        // Specify do not save the output
        blnSaveOption.name = runOptionEnum.saveOutput;
        blnSaveOption.value = false;

        // execute the report in selected format
        strarrFmt[0] = strFormat;
        outputFormat.name = runOptionEnum.outputFormat;
        outputFormat.value = strarrFmt;

        // Specify do not prompt for parameters (being passed)
        blnPromptOption.name = runOptionEnum.prompt;
        blnPromptOption.value = false;

        // set the primary wait threshold to 0 seconds - wait indefinitely
        primaryWait.name = asynchOptionEnum.primaryWaitThreshold;
        primaryWait.value = 0;

        // fill the array with the run options
        arrRunOpts[0] = blnPromptOption;
        arrRunOpts[1] = outputFormat;
        arrRunOpts[2] = primaryWait;
        arrRunOpts[3] = blnSaveOption;

        searchPathSingleObject cmReportPath = new searchPathSingleObject();
        cmReportPath.Value = "storeID(\""+ inCogID +"\")";

        // execute the report
        executeReportResponse = cogConn.C8RS.run(cmReportPath, arrParm, arrRunOpts);

        // If response is not immediately complete, call wait until complete
        if(!executeReportResponse.status.Equals(asynchReplyStatusEnum.complete))
        {
          while(!executeReportResponse.status.Equals(asynchReplyStatusEnum.complete))
          {
            //before calling wait, double check that it is okay
            if(!hasSecondaryRequest(executeReportResponse, "wait"))
              retVal = false;

            executeReportResponse = cogConn.C8RS.wait(executeReportResponse.primaryRequest, new parameterValue[] { }, new option[] { });
          }

          //After calling wait() it is necessary to check to make sure
          //the output is ready before retrieving it
          if(outputIsReady(executeReportResponse))
          {
            executeReportResponse = cogConn.C8RS.getOutput(executeReportResponse.primaryRequest, new parameterValue[] { }, new option[] { });
          }
          else
            retVal = false;
        }



        executeReportResponse = cogConn.C8RS.render(executeReportResponse.primaryRequest, new parameterValue[] { }, new option[] { });

        object objTemp = (object)(asynchDetail)executeReportResponse.details[0];

        string strOutputPage = getOutputPage(executeReportResponse);

        strLocal = new FileStream(inSaveAs, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None);

        byte[] btData = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strOutputPage);

        strLocal.Write(btData, 0, btData.Length);
        retVal = true;
      }
      catch(Exception excp)
      {
        throw excp;
      }
      finally
      {
        if(strLocal != null)
          strLocal.Close();
      }

      return (retVal);
    }


Thanks in advance

OK - seems all I needed was to sleep on it. Here's the solution if anyone faces the same problem.

Further reading in the SDK docs, stated something I missed "Base64 encoded"!!!

So, instead of writing the response directly to file, we need to decode it first

Change
byte[] btData = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(strOutputPage);

To
byte[] btData = Convert.FromBase64String(strOutputPage);


Now I can go neaten things up  :)