Title: What to expect in a upgrade from Cognos ReportNet or Cognos 8

Created: Jul 20, 2006

Applies To: Cognos 8 BI Cognos Connection - 8.1
Cognos 8 BI Cognos Viewer - 8.1
Cognos 8 BI Install and Config - 8.1
Cognos 8 BI Report Studio - 8.1
Cognos 8 Software Dev. Kit - 8.1
Cognos ReportNet - 1.1MR2
Cognos ReportNet - 1.1MR3
 Description:
This KB document describes what a client should consider when planning an upgrade of existing
reports to Cognos 8. It describes the following:
- Areas that require special attention to re-validate after an upgrade. Some customizations may
not be carried forward as expected from one release to the next.
- Feature changes introduced because of client feedback that may change the behavior of
existing reports. These should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis since it depends upon
the nature of the change and how the client uses the feature. Most clients will welcome these
changes and some may be unaffected by the changes.
You should use this KB under following upgrade situations.
1. upgrading from Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR1, MR2 and MR3 to Cognos 8.1 MR1 and MR2
2. upgrading from Cognos 8.1 MR1 to Cognos 8.1 MR2

For an overview of known product issues in the upgraded version, search for the Cognos 8 Readme
available
on the Cognos support web site under the Documentation link.

General

1. Sort Order

What to Reports that do not have a sort order imposed within the reports
expect or within the underlying model may have data appear in a
different order after the upgrade. The actual data returned
should be unaffected.

Reports that include a sort order will retain that order after the
upgrade.

When to Upon every upgrade to a newer version

consider it

Why Unless explicitly ordered, the resulting data order sent by the
database is arbitrary. Any small change in the query (e.g. to
optimize) may affect the order of returned data.

What should If the sort order is important, modify the report or the model to
you do define the required sort order. Thereafter, those reports will
consistently adhere to the imposed sort order after every
upgrade.

2. Customized database .ini files

What to After an upgrade, the installed cogdm*.ini files will be the out-of-
expect the-box supported versions. Modifications to settings in the pre-
 upgrade files are not carried forward.

Where there have been modifications in the pre-upgrade

environment, upgraded reports that depend on the modified files
may not run or behave as before with the out-of-the box .ini
files nor if the modifications are carried forward to the upgraded
environment.

When to Upon every upgrade to a newer version

consider it

Why Cognos ensures constant behavior between releases of the

supported database configurations. However, the behavior of
individual undocumented cogdm*.ini settings may change
between releases. As such, Cognos cannot offer unconditional
support for client directed modifications.

What should If a supported configuration does not meet your needs, the
you do options are:

- Register an enhancement request to add support to your

specific configuration.

- If the settings are modified in the upgraded

environment, the client is responsible for the maintaining the
modifications and ensuring the dependent reports continue to
meet their requirements. Clients should validate dependent
reports in the upgraded environment.

Review the Cognos support policy regarding unsupported

environments posted on the Cognos web site.

ReportStudio
3. 516525 - Embedded JavaScript customizations

What to Reports containing JavaScript that reference undocumented

expect HTML objects may not run as expected after an upgrade.

When to Upon every upgrade to a newer version

consider it

Why Cognos has no control over JavaScript execution.

Undocumented features in the Cognos application may change
between releases without notice.

What should Re-validate reports after upgraded. For affected reports, recode
you do or remove the JavaScript as necessary.

4. 521165 - Reports with invalid report layout expressions fail execution

 What to Some reports that run without error in CRN will signal layout
expect errors in Cognos 8. Examples are "Metadata Objects are
missing" and "Test Results Window Contains No Data"

When to Upgrading from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it

Why ReportNet suppressed the errors while Cognos 8 does not.

This change was made because users found suppressing the
errors made reports difficult to author and debug.

What should Correct or remove the report layout expressions that are
you do producing the errors.

5. Upgraded Reports Default Format Selection

What to After an upgrade to Cognos 8, Report Studio reports upgraded

expect from Cognos ReportNet will inherit the ReportNet default
formatting. However, new reports authored in Cognos 8 adopt
the new Cognos 8 format by default.

When to Upgrading from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it

Why Cognos 8 has a new look. Cognos 8 maintains separate

format stylesheets for reports created in Cognos 8 and for
reports upgraded from ReportNet 1.x. ReportNet reports
upgraded to Cognos 8 maintain the ReportNet look by default.

What should If you wish to use a consistent format style in Report Studio
you do reports, you can align to the Cognos 8 style or retain the
ReportNet style.
To do so, in each report you must edit the ReportNet 1.x styles
property in the /File/Report properties menu option selecting or
de-select the Use 1.x report styles option as appropriate.

6. Custom Report Format Stylesheet Modifications ?

ReportNet to Cognos 8

What to If you have modified the default report stylesheet

expect (default_layout.css) in ReportNet to systematically change the
format of all reports, the upgraded reports will not inherit these
changes.

When to Upgrading from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it
 Why To optimize the rendered HTML, Cognos 8 has reduced the
length of class names in the stylesheets. Cognos 8 has a
stylesheet for reports created within Cognos 8 and a stylesheet
for reports upgraded from ReportNet to maintain the default
ReportNet format.
The upgrade process from ReportNet 1.x assigns the
ReportNet 1.x stylesheet to all upgraded reports.

What should If you wish to retain look and feel as defined in ReportNet, you
you do must modify the Cognos 8 base stylesheets. The style sheets
Cognos 8 uses are:
- globalreportstyles.css is used to provide default report
formatting using the new Cognos 8 styles.
- globalreportstyles_1.css is used to provide ReportNet 1.x
compatible default report styles. It maintains the same
behavior as ReportNet 1.x, but the size of the class name has
been reduced.
There are 2 copies of each file and are used when rendering
reports in the browser and when rendering PDF documents and
charts. These are installed on the web server
(..\c8\webcontent\schemas) and on the Cognos 8 server
(..\c8\bin).
Each copy should be kept in sync to ensure consistent results.
In a distributed environment with multiple web servers
(ReportNet gateways) or ReportNet server, you must ensure
that the modified style sheet is copied to all server
environments.

7. 522329 - PDF Layout Changes on Upgrade

What to Some reports rendered in PDF may appear to have different

expect column or data word wrapping of font size

When to Upgrading from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it

Why Significant user feedback requesting to have PDF rendering

behave closer in behavior to HTML rendering

What should Where strict PDF layout is required, review PDF output from
you do upgraded reports to ensure that they still render acceptably.
Where the resultant layout does not meet the needs, 2 options
are :
- modify the default font in the stylesheet affecting all
upgraded reports. globalreportstyles_1.css is used by
default for reports upgraded from ReportNet 1.x to ensure
they use the same styles they have used all along.
- modify each affected report.
8. Custom Report Format Stylesheet Modifications ?
Cognos 8 to Cognos 8

What to If you have modified the default report stylesheets in Cognos

expect 8.1 MR1 to provide a standard look and feel to all reports, the
formats will be restored to the Cognos 8 standard after
upgrading to MR2.

When to Upgrading from Cognos 8.1 MR1 to Cognos 8.1 MRx

consider it

Why These customizations are not transferred automatically

What should From your backup copy of your Cognos 8.1 MR1 installation,
you do copy the current stylesheets (globalreportstyles.css and
globalreportstyles_1.css) to the upgraded Cognos 8 servers in
the following locations - on the web server
(..\c8\webcontent\schemas) and on the Cognos 8 server
(..\c8\bin).
Each copy should be kept in sync to ensure consistent results.
In a distributed environment with multiple web servers
(ReportNet gateways) or ReportNet server, you must ensure
that the modified style sheet is copied to all server
environments.

CognosConnection
9. URLs JavaScript in Cognos Connection

What to only well formed HTTP URLs are permitted; JavaScript

expect embedded in URLs will not work

When to Upgrade from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it

Why removed for security reason to prevent malicious XSS

What should Remove the Javascript in the URL.

you do
Where JavaScript was used to force a new browser window an
alternative is to invoke through "My Pages". You can place the
"Cognos Navigator" on a "My Page". The "Cognos Navigator"
has different default actions to take when an object is clicked on.
One action is to have the object open in a new window. This
means that all objects, including URLs, will open in a new window
when clicked on
SDK

10. SDK applications

What to If you have SDK applications that were developed in ReportNet,

expect they must be recompiled to run in the Cognos 8 environment and
will require minor modifications.

When to Upgrading from Cognos ReportNet to Cognos 8

consider it

Why Cognos 8 has made changes in some dependencies, made

improvements to the SDK and has deprecated some calls.

What should Review the following documents:

you do
- Cognos 8 SDK Developer Guide - see section titled
"Upgrading ReportNet SDK Applications".

- Upgrading SDK Applications to Cognos 8 Proven Practice

(available at http://www.cognos.com/techtalkinsider/. Select
link to Cognos Proven Practices then link to Development)

Related documents:
1. Framework Manager - Guidelines for Modeling Metadata. Of special note is "Upgrading a Best
Practices Model from ReportNet 1.x"
Keywords:
Upgrade Cognos8 ReportNet