[AccessD] ODBC - COGNOS

Mon Jun 14 15:26:11 CDT 2004

>> Good guess, this is exactly how we do it. <<

I guess I'm having trouble with the terms.  Cube, catalog, database...
Currently I use Cognos Impromptu which connects to a catalog, then runs the
report.  How does "catalog" relate to a "cube" or "going directly against
the database".  Forgive me if these are simplistic questions...I don't work
in data warehousing.  Since my only experience with getting data out of
Cognos has been with running Cognos reports, can you elaborate on "exactly
how (you) do it"?  As I said, my end goal would be to try and connect from
Access to "something" directly and return the records, rather than the
two-step process I described earlier.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Hale, Jim [mailto:Jim.Hale at fleetpride.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 4:00 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] ODBC - COGNOS

<My guess is, if you don't want to go against a cube, you're probably
better off going directly against the database.>
Good guess, this is exactly how we do it.
Jim Hale

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Hooper [mailto:fahooper at trapo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 1:40 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] ODBC - COGNOS

Mark,

If you want to use a report, Impromptu (the program that writes the
catalogs), has an interface. You'd have to consult it's documentation to
find out if you can return a recordset. I haven't used it but almost took a
project automating report builds using Access and I checked that there was
an interface to permit doing so at that time.

If you want to get data from a cube, PowerPlay has an interface that allows
it.

If the report is long or complex, you may want to go directly against the
database. (I once needed 5,000 cross tab reports on 80 tabs in one
spreadsheet. Testing indicated a 3 week run time against the cube and
writing individual cross tabs. It takes an hour directly against Sql Server
using its "runsql" command and Excell's CopyFromRecordset once for each
tab.) My guess is, if you don't want to go against a cube, you're probably
better off going directly against the database.

If you check the proper Cognos reference, Access is an ideal environment to
manipulate Cognos' programs from because of the ease of checking local
tables to determine what to do. VB also works well (e.g. I use it to copy
cubes, stopping and starting various Cognos services to enable the copy even
though the cube is in use.) The IDE is a vast improvement over Cognos' macro
facility.

Fred

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