Cognos Connection and Cognos Portal Services

Cognos Connection and Cognos Portal Services

11  

Workshop 1: Administer the Portal

Purpose:
In this session we will introduce you to new Portal Administration capabilities in Cognos 8. In this workshop, we will cover:

·  Securing the environment

·  Creating pages

·  Importing external portlets

·  Adding portlets to a page

·  Modifying user profiles

·  Personalizing the portal

Note: Some of these tasks are optional and can only be completed by the instructor if the instructor’s machine is connected to the Internet.

Task 1. Creating Pages

We will create a new folder within the Public Folders called
User Pages.

1.  In Cognos Connection, click the New Folder icon.

2.  Type User Pages as the Name, and ensure that Public Folders is set as the location.

3.  Click Finish.

4.  Click on the New Page icon in the toolbar.

5.  Type All Users Page for the name and This Page is designed for All Users for the description.

6.  Click Click another location and point to the User Pages folder within Public Folders.

7.  Click OK, and then click Next.

8.  When the Set columns and layout page appears, for the number of columns, select 3.

The graphical layout of the page will display 3 separate columns.

9.  Click Finish.

Prior to adding portlets to the page, we will need to import them first.

Task 2. Importing Portlets.

Before adding content to the newly created pages, we need to import the portlets first. This requires Portal Administration privileges.

1.  In Cognos Connection from the Tools menu, select Portal Administration.

In the Portal Administration page, we can see the existing Cognos portlets that are shipped with Cognos 8. We will now import some external Portlets.

2.  In the Portal Administration page, select the Import Portlets icon in the toolbar.

There are two ways to import portlets. You can either insert the URL wrapper that contains all 4 requirements for the portlets, or you can insert individual URLs to represents the requirements. The individual URLs are for the following:

·  Markup Interface: Generates markup and processes interaction requests

·  Service Description: Provides metadata of itself and the list of portlets it offers

·  Registration: Allows the Producer to customize its behavior for each Consumer based on the registration information

·  Portlet Management: Allows Consumers to clone/destroy portlets, and also customize portlets by changing any associated properties

Note: In this example, we will include a single URL that includes all 4 properties. If you do not have a connection to the Internet you will not be able to add the portals in step 3 and task 3 steps 13-16.

3.  Ensure that you are connected to the Internet, and in the Web Service Description, insert the following URL, and then click Next.

http://portalstandards.oracle.com/wsrp/jaxrpc?WSDL

4.  Click Next.

After a few moments, the list of available Oracle portlets will appear.

5.  In the Name text box, type Oracle Portlets, and for the Screen tip, type These portlets are being accessed from Oracle.

6.  Leave all of the portlets selected, and then click Finish.

Task 3. Adding Portlets to a Page.

Now that we have added portlets, we can include these on a page.

1.  Click the Home button in the toolbar.

2.  Click the User Pages link, and then click the Set Properties icon for the All Users Page.

3.  Click the Layout and Content tab.

4.  Under the first column, click Add.

5.  Click Cognos Content.

By default, with a standard install, both the Cognos Content and Cognos Utility portlets are available.

6.  Click the checkbox beside Cognos Navigator, Cognos Search, and Cognos Viewer, and then click Add to put them in to the Selected Entries area.

7.  Click OK.

8.  Under the second column click Add.

The available portlets will appear.

9.  Click Cognos Utility.

10.  Click the check box beside Bookmarks Viewer, HTML Viewer, Image Viewer, and RSS Viewer and click Add to bring them over to the Selected Entries area.

11.  Click OK.

12.  Under the third column, click Add.

13.  Click Oracle Portlets.

14.  Click the check box beside Form Submission Portlet, Lottery Portlet, and Session Portlet and click Add to bring them over to the Selected Entries area.

15.  Click OK.

16.  Click OK again to go back to Cognos Connection, and then click All Users Page to view the content.

We will now examine and make some modifications to the Cognos Content and Cognos Utility portlets.

Task 4. Edit the Bookmark Viewer.

1.  Click the Edit icon for the Bookmark Viewer.

2.  In the Title text box type My Favorite URLs and Bookmarks for the title.

3.  Insert the following URLs:

Note: If you are not currently connected to the Internet, insert the name of your IIS start page. For example, URL=http://localhost/iishelp/iis/misc/default.asp,
Alias =Internet Information Services.

·  URL=http://www.cognos.com, Alias= Cognos

·  http://www.google.ca, Alias= Google

·  URL=http://www.microsoft.com, Alias= Microsoft

·  URL=http://www.oracle.com, Alias= Oracle

·  URL=http://www.ibm.com, Alias= IBM

4.  Click OK, and test the links.

Note: By default, selecting any of the links will open up a new window and display the contents. We will modify this so that the contents will appear in a destination portlet that we will configure.

5.  Click the Edit icon for the Bookmark Viewer.

6.  In the properties of the Bookmarks Viewer, under the Open Links section, select In a destination portlet.

7.  In the channel name textbox type Bookmark, and then click OK.

8.  Click the Edit icon for the HTML Viewer.

9.  In the Title text box type Bookmark and URL Launcher.

10.  In the Channel name text box type Bookmark.

This name must be identical to the name that was specified as the channel name earlier.

11.  Click OK.

12.  Verify the destination portlet by clicking Cognos in the
My Favorite URLs and Bookmarks Viewer.

Note: If not connected to the Web use the Internet Information Services link from within the Bookmarks Viewer.

Note: If you receive an Internet Explorer Privacy Setting pop-up, click OK.

Task 5. Edit the properties for Cognos Navigator.

1.  In the Cognos Navigator portlet, click Public Folders, and then the Go Sales and Retailers package.

2.  Open the Report Studio Report Samples folder.

3.  Click the Edit icon for the Cognos Navigator.

4.  In the Title text box type Cognos Reports, and then under the Open Links section, select In a destination portlet and type Reports as the channel name.

5.  Click OK.

6.  Click the Edit icon for the Cognos Viewer portlet.

7.  In the Title text box type Cognos Report Viewer as the name.

8.  In the Channel name, type Reports, and in the Portlet Action section click Show a run action.

9.  Click OK.

10.  Within the Cognos Reports (we renamed this from Cognos Navigator to Cognos Reports), select the Product Summary report.

11.  Scroll down to the Cognos Report Viewer.

Note: Within the Cognos Report Viewer portlet a run action icon appears.

12.  Click the Run now icon.

13.  When the report runs, select Camping Equipment as the Product line and Tents as the Product type.

14.  Click Finish.

Note: The Product Summary report will run and will be displayed within the Cognos Report Viewer portlet.

Note: There are a number of modifications that can be made to the portlets. For the most part, they can be customized to display only certain data, however this will be dependent upon the creator of the portlets themselves.

15.  After viewing the result set, go back to Cognos Connection by selecting the home icon.

Task 6. Modifying User Profiles.

In this task, we will work with the User Profiles for Cognos 8 with no security set. However, specific users will exist within the NTLM Namespace that we will create.

1. Launch Cognos Configuration, and expand Security, right-click Authentication, select New resource, and choose Namespace.
2. For the name, type Cognos NTLM, and for the Type select NTLM from the drop-down. Click OK.
3. In the properties pane, click Namespace ID text box, and type Cognos NTLM.
4. Click Save, and then restart the Cognos 8 service.
5. When the service has restarted, close Cognos Configuration, and then start Cognos Connection.

You will now notice the Log On link will appear.

1. In Cognos Connection, from the Tools menu select Directory.

Notice that Cognos NTLM appears, but it cannot be selected. This is because no user belonging to the NTLM namespace has logged in.

1. Click the Log On link.
2. Insert the username of admin with the password of Education1! and click OK.
3. From the Tools menu select Directory again and this time notice that the Cognos NTLM appears as a link.
4. Click Cognos NTLM namespace link a list of users will appear.

1. Click the Log Off link, and then click Log On Again.
2. Type wrightc as the username and Education1! as the password, and then click OK.
3. Launch Cognos Connection, and from the Tools menu select Directory.
4. Click the Cognos NTLM namespace link.

Notice now that both users, admin and wrightc, have a link (profile).

Note: If a link appears for a user, it means that the user has already logged on previously to Cognos 8, and has a profile.

1. Click the More link for the Admin Person user, and click Delete this user's Profile.

16.  Click OK when the message box appears.

Notice that the Admin Person no longer has a profile assigned to it.

We will now set up the default profile for users that have not yet logged into Cognos 8.

Task 7. Setup default profiles for new users.

1.  Within the Users, Groups, and Roles tab, select the Directory link.

2.  Click the Cognos Namespace.

3.  Click the Edit Default User Profile button in the toolbar.

The Set Properties – User Template page appears.

4.  Set the Language within the General tab to German.

5.  Click the Preferences tab and make the following changes:

·  Style = Contemporary

·  Default View = Details

·  Product Language = German

·  Content Language = German

6.  Click the Portal Tabs tab, and then click the Add link.

7.  Click User Pages, place a check beside All Users Page, and insert it into the Selected entries section.

8.  Click OK to return to the Portals Tab, and then click OK to accept all the changes and return to the Cognos namespace within the Users, Groups, and Roles section.

Task 8. Test the User Profiles.

1.  Click Log Off, and then click Log on again.

2.  Type admin as the User ID and Education1! as the Password.

3.  Click OK.

Notice that the UI has changed to reflect the new user profile settings we performed in task 7.

·  The style has changed

·  The language is German

·  Objects appear in Detail

4.  Click the Cognos Connection link, and notice the All Users Page appears as a portal tab for the default user.

5.  Click the Abmelden (Log off) link.

6.  Click the Melden Sie sich erneut an…. (Log on again) link.

7.  Type wrightc as the User ID and Education1! as the password.

8.  Click OK.

9.  Once the Welcome Screen appears, click the Cognos Connection link.

10.  From the Tools menu, select Directory.

11.  From the Users, Groups, and Roles, select the Cognos NTLM namespace link.

12.  Review the users in the list.

Note: Notice that the admin person user no longer has the Create this users profile icon beside the name .

Task 9. Personalizing Cognos Connection.

Modifying the appearance of Cognos Connection through the different editable files for the Cognos Connection splash screen as well as the Cognos Connection page.

1.  Click the Log off link and then click Open a session as an anonymous user.

2.  Click the Cognos Connection link from the Welcome Page.

3.  From the Tools menu click Portal Administration.

4.  Click the Styles tab.

5.  Click the New Style icon in the toolbar

The New Style wizard appears.

6.  For the name, insert Cognos 8, and then click Next.

7.  For the Style location name, type Cognos8, and for the Preview resource URL, type ../skins/cognos8/preview.htm.

8.  Click Finish, the new style appears in the list.

Now that the style has been created within the Content Store, we need to create the directory structure.

Task 10. Create the Cognos 8 style directory structure.

1.  Launch Windows Explorer, and view the contents of the <install location>:\Program Files\cognos\c8\webcontent\skins directory.

2.  Copy the default style corporate and paste within the same directory.

3.  Rename this directory to cognos8.

4.  Go back into Cognos Connection, and select the Preferences link in the toolbar.

5.  From the Style dropdown click Cognos 8 and click Preview - the preview will appear, identical to the corporate style.

6.  Click Close.

7.  In the Preferences, deselect the Show the Welcome page at startup, and click OK.

8.  Close the browser and re-launch Cognos 8. (http://localhost/cognos8).

Note: Notice that the welcome page no longer appears. To view the welcome page again at startup, place the check back beside the Show the Welcome page at startup option within Preferences.

Task 11. Set the All Users Page as the Cognos 8 home view.

It is possible to set any view with Cognos Connection as the home view. This includes any additional pages that have been created.

Note: The page must appear as a tab in Cognos Connection in order for this to occur.

1.  Click the Public Folders tab, and then select the User Pages folder link.