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

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: http://10.xx.xxx:9300/p2pd/glossary.jsp *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

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 idea• Security and Administration guide:

Configure Business Glossary