Schedule and save report output

[esar]

Hi Experts,

I am not sure if this topic was already discussed. I need to remove the write access for all users in cognos to prevent create/delete/move reports or folders.

But I would need to give them the ability to schedule and save report outputs. But schedule and save report output fails without write permission.

Is there a way around?

[cognos810]

Hello esar,
This is the expected behavior. To overcome this, as per IBM's recommendations, we ask our users to create a report view of the report in their own My Folders area, and schedule the reports and save the outputs there.
If there is a standard set of prompt values that frequently get used by the users, then you can schedule the report as administrator and save the outputs.

-Cognos810

[esar]

Good option Cognos810. But I cannot ask my users to move reprots to My folders Area to schedule reports.

One interesting option that I got was to give users write access, and remove cut, delete, properties and add folders icons from cognos connection toolbox using system.xml. But the only issue is that I cannot restrict this removal only to Public Folders and not to My folders area. They would ofcourse want delete acess in My folders Area.

Any Thoughts???

[esar]

Found a way to remove cut and delete icons from Public Folders alone and not in My Folders.

Thank you

[Karti]

You could always give them an area within Public Folders where they can save the report views. An open area where everyone can see the reports (as long as they have the security to do so).

[Andrew Weiss]

We're actually working with a customer to solve a very similar problem.  Basically they want their end users to be able to add or remove themselves from report schedules but they don't want the user's to touch anything else, or even have write access to the objects.  To do this we used the MetaManager Server API which can add custom screens in Cognos.  The user's have the ability to perform only the actions on the custom screen, which looks and feels like Cognos and is accessible from Cognos Connection.  The work is actually done using a service account which has the write access to the object.  Now user's can perform selective operations without getting themselves into to much trouble. 

I would be happy to show off the solution we built if you think this is a route that you may want to go.

You can also read more about the MetaManager API here:
http://www.bspsoftware.com/Products/MetaManager/API

Thank you,
Andrew Weiss
Avnet BSP Software