Creative uses for the Business Glossary functionality in Cognos IBM Cognos Rocky Mountain Users Group August 5,2011

Presentation Requests Please turn off your cell phone/beeper If you must leave the early, please do so as discretely as possible Please avoid side conversation during the presentation Thank you for your cooperation!

Introduction Angela Hooper, Sr. Business Intelligence Consultant with Infolink Consulting. This presentation focuses on redirecting the IBM business glossary functionality in Cognos 10 to an external website for a low cost data dictionary solution.

Topics of Discussion Client’s Business Need Infolink’s solution Technical components Take home points Links of interest

Business Need Utilize a publically hosted online data dictionary Provide direct link between Client’s data elements and data dictionary. Boundaries and limitations: –Redesign/renaming of FM Query items not Possible –Do not spend any money

Solution Use Business Glossary and redirect to appropriate webpage Create a crosswalk database table to handle naming differences Create custom JSP to read the crosswalk and redirect to new URL

Solution Example

Technical Components Enable Business Glossary Install Database drivers ** Database table to handle crosswalk JSP Code

Technical Components Configure the business glossary URI following the steps outlined in the IBM Cognos 8.4/10 Security and Administration Guide Edit the IBM Business Glossary URI to read: *Where the ip is Cognos BI server. Place the glossary.jsp file into the following Cognos BI server location:../ibm/cognos/c10/webapps/p2pd/

Technical Components

Deal with Database drivers and Connectivity Oracle –Create a copy of the Oracle JDBC drivers and place into the webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib/ directory –On the Cognos BI server append the CLASSPATH with $ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib/ojdbc6.jar Restart the Cognos Services!

Technical Components Database table to handle crosswalk –SearchText –Crosswalked value –URL

Technical Components JSP Code Walk through See file glossary.jsp

Take Home points Database/Driver connectivity was the hardest part. Could use ASP/PHP what works for you? Start small, redirect to main data dictionary page for every element

Links of Use Infolink Consulting IBM InfoSphere Business Glossary Ironside Group – Original ideaIronside Group Security and Administration guide: Configure Business Glossary Configure Business Glossary