DSXchange

We have just hooked Cognos up to Business Glossary and are having a few challenges. Hooking Cognos to Business Glossary was an easy configuration entry change (other posts here describe that process). When you do this, a consumer viewing a report can right click on a report label and then select the 'Glossary' menu option. That performs a search in Business Glossary for that report label as a term and returns a list of relevant terms.

This works well unless the term contains a % sign. Does anyone know if special characters are not allowed in Cognos report labels if they will be used as a search parameter to Business Glossary? What is that list not allowed?

More specifics for those still interested: I have 'Grant %' and 'Grant Funded Amt' as terms in Business Glossary. However, from a report whe I selet Glossary for 'Grant Funded Amt' it works and shows a list of terms. Grant Funded Amt is at the top of that list but Grant % is also within the list (because it does an advanced search - somthing else I'd love to change!). However, when I select Glossary for 'Grant %' directly - a blank screen is returned. When a term is not in the Glossary it will return a screen with a message saying 'no items met the search criteria'. So I think there is something about the percent sign that is messing it up.


Thanks much!

I think so too. What does your official support provider advise?

I haven't found a way to change the search logic that is inside of cognos.....but some accounts have chosen to write their own search widgets for their browser using the REST API, to customize the search to anything they want.

Ernie

There is a Developerworks article about writing your own term finder widget that can be used from Cognos:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0909infosphererest/.

I did log a Service Request with IBM. They have agreed this as a problem and are looking at what needs to be done. Either the documentation for 8.7 needs to say not to use special characters (it doesn't now) or the % sign needs to not throw a wrench.

I believe you can track the progress on this as well if you have access to the IBM Service Request system. The # is:

Service request number
44403 550 000

Hey - Was just notified by IBM regarding my PMR 44536,550,000.
The engineering team has completed the patch and they gave me the URL for download. If you are having this same problem - where the call from Cognos to the BG won't return the term if it contains a special character (like a % in my situation) - you should contact IBM to request the patch.

So, resolved now? Not too bad a turnaround time to produce a patch.

[quote="ray.wurlod"]So, resolved now? Not too bad a turnaround time to produce a patch.[/quote]

I know! A bit under 2 months. I feel really honored to have gotten that level of service.

I'm glad that was turned around as quickly as it was and that it is working for you. BG is experiencing a very strong adoption rate and that is reflected in this kind of activity. Governance is catching! [it's been fun, too]. Lots of opportunities for everyone out there.....as an extension of your DataStage work, or just for new endeavors...

Ernie

Took us a while to install the patch and test it. And even longer for me to get around to updating this posting.

The patch did fix the problem of having special characters as part of term names. I'm still recommending that we try to avoid using special characters in term names but % is the most common and doesn't cause problems anymore!