Report is not executing consistently

[Daljith]

One report have many filters. Few users when select few filters and try to run the report, it flashes the message "report is running" and then the message will disappear immediately.
But generally it does not happen. I mean the message remains there till the final output an excel sheet opens up.
Any suggestion why is this happening and how to correct it?

[BigChris]

I'm not quite sure what you want to correct - I'd have thought that the message should be there until the report is rendered...

[Daljith]

Yes Chris. The message should be there till the report is rendered. But the thing is it just flashes once and then report does not run.
Tried log out and login again but nothing is helping out.
Any suggestion what could be the reason?

[Michael75]

Sorry Ana, your reply to Chris doesn't make your problem that much clearer. The relevance of the "many filters" bit of your first mail remains a mystery...

Maybe you should note the precise time when your "report is running" message disappears (followed by the report not running), then look in your cogserver.log, where you might find a clue...

[Daljith]

Hi Michael,

The strange thing is when I try the same report with some other users's id and also with my userid  BUT from a different laptop, it runs fine without any issue.
It looks like there is some Internet Explore setting.
If you are aware of any specific Internet Explore setting that is required for cognos.

[BigChris]

Ahhh...that makes things a bit clearer. There are a few things that could be causing that, the first one to check is the pop-up blocker, since it's running directly as Excel. I wrote a check list to use a while back so it might be a bit out of date, but it might give you a few starters:

Cognos must be accessed through IE (Internet Explorer). Other Web Browsers are not supported; e.g.
FireFox, Chrome,etc.
When selecting a report to run out to excel
 If a Pop up window appears that says
'The web page you are viewing is trying to close the window
Do you want to close this window?'
And, when you click yes, it closes but the Excel doesn't open, then follow these steps
o Open Internet Explorer browser, go to Tools > Internet Options
o Go to Security tab
o In 'Security level for this zone' (probably Intranet Zone for you but check) section,
click [Custom level...] button
o Security Settings dialogue window should have popped up; scroll to 'Downloads'
section
o First item under Downloads should be 'Automatic prompting for file downloads'; tick the "Enable" button
o Click OK button to save/close Security Settings dialogue window
o Click OK button to save/close Internet Options dialogue window
o Log out of any web applications, save any open files and close all programs
 If the Cognos portal Sign-on window appears then sign on again and this will open the excel.
 If the report is presented as a web page through Internet Explorer not in Excel.
o Right click on 'Start'
o Select Explore
o Click the Tools tab
o Select Folder Options
o Select the File Types tab
o Roll down the 'Registered file types' list and select Extension MHT
o Click the Change button
o Select Microsoft Excel from the list of programs
o Click OK to accept the change
o Rerun the report
 Pop up blocker - report running, but won't export to Excel. The problem may be caused by the pop-up blocker being enabled in Internet Explorer.
o Different versions of IE look slightly different, but essentially to disable the pop-up blocker go to Tool and Internet Options
o Then go to the Privacy tab and untick the box for "Turn on Pop-up Blocker"
o For that change to take effect you need to close Internet Explorer and open it up again.

[Daljith]

Hi Chris,

I checked the internet explore settings on that particular laptop. Everything is exactly the same as you mentioned.
The strange thing, there are almost 20 filters, when no filter is selected, the report will run............. :)
but as all the filters are deselected and a few are chosen, again the "report is running" screen will flash and would not appear again.
Its a little weird behavior. Not sure what else can be checked or verified to reach to the bottom of the issue.

[richiearora]

Does the prompts use Java Script?

So may be you can look at Java Version on both computers.

[bdbits]

A minor clarification, but you most certainly do not need IE to use Cognos. Firefox is officially supported for everything, and Chrome for viewing content just not authoring it. I can export to Excel from both of these as well. And settings for MHT files only apply to Active Reports, not standard HTML reports.

Cognos is increasingly browser agnostic (thank God) with each version update. Eventually, hopefully, it may not matter what browser you use, even for authoring.

[Daljith]

Hi Richi,
Thanks for the inputs. Yes, the report is using Java script. I checked Java Versions and unfortunately, its same on the both the systems.  :(

@bbit,
I checked the report in firefox and it seems working fine. Thanks for this suggestion....... :)
But I am still wondering whats wrong with IE because I did not understand what is the issue with the report. Since it was only one user who was facing this issue, I told her to use chrome. But I would like to keep my search on to understand this strange behaviour.

If I get to know something else, would post here. And thanks to all those who have provided their valuable inputs.

[BigChris]

Thanks bdbits - as i said I wrote those notes a while back so things are likely to have moved on. I just thought I'd share in case there was anything in there that was useful.

[Daljith]

Got the solution. To access cognos we are using two different links. One goes through a security layer of Netscaler-webseal, and the other link that I used, was hitting the cognos envrionment directly.
So the users who used the first link that goes through webseal, they were facing issue as there was some security settings done that was prohibiting them to execute the report and as I was using the link that does not go through webseal, so I was able to run the report without any issue. My bad, even I was not aware that the user was using a different link and the one I was using was a different link, until I sat with her to see at her desktop how she was executing the report.... :(

So for next time a lesson for me,  very first thing that I need to check is what link the user is using................... :)

[MFGF]

Got the solution. To access cognos we are using two different links. One goes through a security layer of Netscaler-webseal, and the other link that I used, was hitting the cognos envrionment directly.
So the users who used the first link that goes through webseal, they were facing issue as there was some security settings done that was prohibiting them to execute the report and as I was using the link that does not go through webseal, so I was able to run the report without any issue. My bad, even I was not aware that the user was using a different link and the one I was using was a different link, until I sat with her to see at her desktop how she was executing the report.... :(

So for next time a lesson for me,  very first thing that I need to check is what link the user is using................... :)

Great work! I'm glad you managed to figure out the problem. Thanks for sharing the solution with us - it could possibly help someone in future facing a similar issue. That earns you a heartfelt "Thanks" from me! :)

MF.

[Daljith]

Thanks to you also MF and also the whole group "cognoise".

When I joined this group, I did not know anything about cognos. I kept on posting all my queries even the silliest questions. And I have seen how enthusiastically the cognoisers reply to these queries to help fix the issues. And now I have started feeling comfortable with the application................. :)

Thanks a lot once again.