Using Random images from web or Network PC (VPN) within Report Studio

[screwdrive]

Problem:Using Random images from web within Report Studio
Cognos version: 10.2.2 FP4 RHEL 7
Problem: Trying to use an image saved on network PC which is on VPN at this location: "http://XXX10-pc/Images/api/images/getimages? id=231XXXX" by putting in 'Image URL' properties of the image object within report. When report is run in HTML, image shows up but not in PDF or Excel 2007 etc. Same happens when an image address from web is used. P.S. we do not want to use WEBDAV as certain report authors want flexibility to use any image and to surpass the step to save those images in the images folder on gateway.

[prikala]

You need to make sure that your cognos server can access the URL of the image.
When generating PDF, it is the server that is accessing the image. When using HTML, the workstation fetches the image.