What is the best practice to read from external file ?

[SupCog]

hi all,

i need to know what is the best practice to read from external file and use its data with existing cognos report. notice that the external file set by bussness users and they can change the data each time.

i read about using Cognos feature called Manage External Data. unfortunately, while trying to test this feature i notice that it is very slow with my report and recently i have got errors  :o

i read about Data Sets but as i remember that this feature need to be from ADMIN side to upload the external file and what i need is to read the external file from business side.

thanks.

[MFGF]

hi all,

i need to know what is the best practice to read from external file and use its data with existing cognos report. notice that the external file set by bussness users and they can change the data each time.

i read about using Cognos feature called Manage External Data. unfortunately, while trying to test this feature i notice that it is very slow with my report and recently i have got errors  :o

i read about Data Sets but as i remember that this feature need to be from ADMIN side to upload the external file and what i need is to read the external file from business side.

thanks.

Hi,

The "Manage External Data" feature creates a new package that links to the spreadsheet/text file and optionally includes other query subjects (linking to the file or not - the choice is made by the user). Because the data is sitting in the original file on-disk, it's not ideal for larger data sets - you can get performance issues.

The "My Data Sets" feature in 10.2.2 is a little different. Users can upload data files to a database on the Cognos server (DB2), and a new package is created for each, spanning just the data in that one file. There is no option for business users to link this to other data - that would need to be done by someone with Framework Manager.

I believe the upcoming IBM Cognos Analytics release allows users to upload one or more files to a columnar data store on the Cognos server and link them to other data in a Data Module (via their browser). That's not confirmed, though, and it's not released currently.

Cheers!

MF.

[SupCog]

hello,

I hope they do it cause we really need it!

Well, I have error when I'm trying to import the external file as the following:

DPR-ERR-2014 Unable to load balance the request because no nodes in the cluster are available, or no nodes are configured for the service: null

would you help me with this?

Best regards,

[MFGF]

hello,

I hope they do it cause we really need it!

Well, I have error when I'm trying to import the external file as the following:

DPR-ERR-2014 Unable to load balance the request because no nodes in the cluster are available, or no nodes are configured for the service: null

would you help me with this?

Best regards,

Perhaps you could tell us if you are using the Manage External Data method or the My Data Sets method? :)

MF.

[SupCog]

hey,

i'm using the Manage External Data and when i tried to import the external file i've got the previous error. after closing the wizard and click on Manage External Data again many times i found some times that the external file can be fetched\recognized by cognos. Unfortunately, when i choose from existing report which has a native SQL query that fetched too much rows i received a timeout error.

please advise.

[MFGF]

hey,

i'm using the Manage External Data and when i tried to import the external file i've got the previous error. after closing the wizard and click on Manage External Data again many times i found some times that the external file can be fetched\recognized by cognos. Unfortunately, when i choose from existing report which has a native SQL query that fetched too much rows i received a timeout error.

please advise.

The issue here is you're not importing the file - you're simply linking to it in-place. Have you defined the name and path as a unc filename (ie \\servername\filename rather than C:\folder\filename)

I am not following what you are saying about a report with a native SQL query. How does this relate to linking to an external file?

MF.

[SupCog]

hi,

when i choose Manage external data, wizerd started asking to choose the path of the file and i chose it by browsing it so sometimes cognos recognize the file after closing and reopening the wizard more than one time otherwise i got an error. after the file has been recognized by cognos i press on Next in the wizard to the mapping step where the external file at the left side of the wizard and the right side i should choose from one of (stored query or existing report). i have a native query in one of my existing reports that returns huge data and when i chose this existing report i got the timeout error.

how to solve this error? :o

thanks 

[MFGF]

hi,

when i choose Manage external data, wizerd started asking to choose the path of the file and i chose it by browsing it so sometimes cognos recognize the file after closing and reopening the wizard more than one time otherwise i got an error. after the file has been recognized by cognos i press on Next in the wizard to the mapping step where the external file at the left side of the wizard and the right side i should choose from one of (stored query or existing report). i have a native query in one of my existing reports that returns huge data and when i chose this existing report i got the timeout error.

how to solve this error? :o

thanks

When you browse to the file, you should enter a UNC filename and not rely on a name with a drive letter in it.

You didn't indicate you were trying to link the file to something else. If you do this, it will be done locally on the Cognos server, and of course this means retrieving ALL the data locally to the Cognos server. You really shouldn't be using this as a robust solution.

I'm not even going to start to ask about why you would create a report containing a hand-coded SQL query...

MF.