"View the Most Recent Report" option in drill through navigation

[Newb]

Hi all,

I have a next page and previous page customized button that goes to next page and previous page. The client wants it customized and doesn't really like the default page up and page down buttons at the bottom.

The customized button was initially an embedded image with drill through action set as 'Run the Report'. The report is scheduled to run daily and saved output in HTML. When the report is opened (with report name + HTML suffix), the first page is displayed very quickly because the output was saved to content store and opening the report is just retrieving the saved output. But when the customized next page button is clicked, it actually fires up another page inside the drop down and runs the second page (takes longer), if the default page up and page down button is used then there's no problem surfing through the pages.

Then, I tried changing the drill through action to 'View the Most Recent Report', did the report run, and tried clicking on the customized button, but nothing happens (doesn't go to second page or fire up another report). Is this the expected behavior?

What can be done here to make sure the pages can be navigated quickly from page to page?

Also, there are navigation buttons that are customized to open up another report, and it takes >40 seconds to open that target report, is there any way to optimize this?

Thank you.

[MFGF]

Hi all,

I have a next page and previous page customized button that goes to next page and previous page. The client wants it customized and doesn't really like the default page up and page down buttons at the bottom.

The customized button was initially an embedded image with drill through action set as 'Run the Report'. The report is scheduled to run daily and saved output in HTML. When the report is opened (with report name + HTML suffix), the first page is displayed very quickly because the output was saved to content store and opening the report is just retrieving the saved output. But when the customized next page button is clicked, it actually fires up another page inside the drop down and runs the second page (takes longer), if the default page up and page down button is used then there's no problem surfing through the pages.

Then, I tried changing the drill through action to 'View the Most Recent Report', did the report run, and tried clicking on the customized button, but nothing happens (doesn't go to second page or fire up another report). Is this the expected behavior?

What can be done here to make sure the pages can be navigated quickly from page to page?

Also, there are navigation buttons that are customized to open up another report, and it takes >40 seconds to open that target report, is there any way to optimize this?

Thank you.

Hi,

As the report is being pre-run, and the output saved, you just need a way of scrolling within the saved output, rather than executing the report "live" to navigate between pages. Have you looked at adding bookmarks within the report, and drilling through to the bookmarks?

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.0.0?topic=pages-add-bookmark

Cheers!

MF.

[Newb]

Yes MF,

I have tried using bookmark but it will only work in PDF output. For saved report output in HTML format, clicking on the button which uses bookmark to land to other page yield no response at all.

Best Regards

[MFGF]

Yes MF,

I have tried using bookmark but it will only work in PDF output. For saved report output in HTML format, clicking on the button which uses bookmark to land to other page yield no response at all.

Best Regards

Hi,

Bookmarks should work for both HTML and PDF rendered reports. When you are testing, you need to make sure that you are running and saving the HTML output first, then viewing that saved output. If your testing is running the report interactively, only the first page gets rendered, so bookmarks do nothing.

Cheers!

MF.

[Newb]

Hi MF,

I'm using 11.2.1. and these are the steps taken:
1. Right click on the report, then select run as
2. Select Run in Background, ticked PDF and HTML
3. Click run button
4. Once the report finishes running, click on the report

The report when navigating using default page up and down button, URL doesn't change (this means that the report is not interactive correct?)

Best regards.

[MFGF]

Hi MF,

I'm using 11.2.1. and these are the steps taken:
1. Right click on the report, then select run as
2. Select Run in Background, ticked PDF and HTML
3. Click run button
4. Once the report finishes running, click on the report

The report when navigating using default page up and down button, URL doesn't change (this means that the report is not interactive correct?)

Best regards.

Hi,

Are you rendering the report as HTML or XHTML? It should show the report name, date and format in the switcher at the top. If just regular HTML, I wouldn't expect there to be Page Up and Page Down buttons - just a long output you can scroll through?

Cheers!

MF.

[Newb]

Hi MF,

The mouse scrolling through pages only work for PDF output. For HTML I have not experienced all pages loaded as one and with mouse scrolling through pages working, even though I used 'Run in background' which saves the report into content store.

Maybe it's a little confusing or we are not on the same page now. Let me try to put everything in order:
1. We want the customized prev/next button to perform like the default page down/up button in terms of speed, and not needing to rerun reports
2. Hence we tried to change the action to 'View last saved report' in drill through definition, instead of 'run the report'
3. Run the report in normal mode (not run in background), open the report (no date and format suffix) and the customized button works going back and forth pages but no obvious improvement in speed
4. Run the report in background mode, open the report (with date and format suffix) and the customized button does not work (there is a loading interface) and does not navigate to next page
5. For customized button in page that are has configuration 'run the report' instead of 'view last saved report', clicking on it will open another report in switcher, so here it seems that customized buttons for navigation isn't compatible with run in background report, because we if we save an output version, we don't want Cognos to open another report when customized button is clicked
6. Tried using bookmark and it is only working for PDF


What is the difference between running report in background vs running the report when delivery options are both 'Save'?

Thank you again

[MFGF]

Hi MF,

The mouse scrolling through pages only work for PDF output. For HTML I have not experienced all pages loaded as one and with mouse scrolling through pages working, even though I used 'Run in background' which saves the report into content store.

Maybe it's a little confusing or we are not on the same page now. Let me try to put everything in order:
1. We want the customized prev/next button to perform like the default page down/up button in terms of speed, and not needing to rerun reports
2. Hence we tried to change the action to 'View last saved report' in drill through definition, instead of 'run the report'
3. Run the report in normal mode (not run in background), open the report (no date and format suffix) and the customized button works going back and forth pages but no obvious improvement in speed
4. Run the report in background mode, open the report (with date and format suffix) and the customized button does not work (there is a loading interface) and does not navigate to next page
5. For customized button in page that are has configuration 'run the report' instead of 'view last saved report', clicking on it will open another report in switcher, so here it seems that customized buttons for navigation isn't compatible with run in background report, because we if we save an output version, we don't want Cognos to open another report when customized button is clicked
6. Tried using bookmark and it is only working for PDF


What is the difference between running report in background vs running the report when delivery options are both 'Save'?

Thank you again

Hi,

There is something odd going on for you here. When you run a report in the background and save the output, then entire output gets saved as one long document (which is what you are seeing with PDF). This should be the same with HTML also. Page formatting still occurs, but it's like viewing a Word document - you just scroll through the entire list of pages. There should be no Previous/Next, just one long scroll.

Maybe try this. Open the report in Edit mode, and navigate to the top (Report) level in the breadcrumbs trail at the top. In the properties of the report, turn off the "Run with full interactivity" property then save the report.
Now run the report in the background and save the output. Make sure you are saving as HTML not XHTML (under Advanced).

After this, view the saved output. Hopefully it will be one long document with no Next/Previous. Once you get this far, you can then build in bookmarks and set up drill-throughs to the bookmarks.

Cheers!

MF.

[Newb]

Thanks MF.

I will try this out immediately