Password/Encrypt Excel Files

[dud987]

Hi All,

I have to burst an Excel file and it should be password Protected.
I tried the following Option with PDF and it worked but don't know how to implement in Excel
Steps followed for implementing in PDF
1. Open the Report Properties page in the Connection Page, Click on the report tab and then Override Default Options
2. Then under PDF options, Click set and click on Requires a password to open the report.

Then you enter the password and schedule it and when opening the pdf it asks for a password and not with Excel?
Don't know how to do it in Excel.

Appreciate your response.

Thanks,
Dud

[dud987]

I checked with IBM and here is their reply..

Thank you for contacting IBM Cognos Support.  I have been researching your question and I found that quite some time ago a request for enhancement was submitted to development requesting the capability to password protect Excel report output files.  This request was rejected at that time.  So there is currently no way to password protect Excel output when generated from a Cognos burst report. As an alternative, you could:

1) Burst the report to directory/users and then the users would only 'see' the Excel report which they have been given access to.
2) Save the report to a file system and then setup authorization on the file system location to only allow specific users access.
3) Run the report as PDF instead.  You can password protect a PDF report and you have already stated that you know how to do this.

If you are interested, you can now submit a Request for Enhancement to the Offering Manager and you can request that the password functionality be added for Excel output in a future release of Cognos.  Here are instructions for submitting a request.


You can submit a request for an enhancement directly to the Development team and Offering Manager by going to the Request for Enhancement (RFE) Community at:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=changeRequestLanding

For the Brand choose: Business Analytics
For the Product choose: Cognos Analytics

The following is a technote to explain the process to submit an enhancement using the RFE link above:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21692679