"Seamless User Experience" is the theme for this blog - we are committed to delivering what our customers ask for!!
We are thrilled to announce an extremely intuitive method for integrating custom controls into reports. With this latest release, native custom controls are accessible as a collection in the toolbar, allowing report authors to effortlessly drag and drop them into any report for immediate use.
Custom controls empower report authors to enhance and personalize reports by seamlessly integrating their own functionalities through custom javascript. Prior to the 12.0.3 release, report authors needed to know the exact path of the java script control and the details of JSON specifications. However, with the latest release, authors do not need to know details of the scripts and configuration. These are already specified in the collection of files incorportated into the extension by the developer of these controls.
The process of adding these native custom controls as extensions onto the server is managed by a Cognos Administrator. Once uploaded, they are available in the toolbox, ensuring easy access for report authors. Report authors do not require any programming skills to consume them.
The developer has an ability to define a new grouping within the toolbox for the library of custom controls or choose to integrate it into an existing toolbox grouping. The developer has control to customize configuration options for the user interface and provide a set of properties, allowing for personalized content. Any per-existing custom controls developed by customers can be converted into Native custom controls, ensuring easy accessibility for all report authors within an organization. Our team has created extensive documentation outlining the detailed process for custom control developers, including a sample available via this link to get you started.
A perfect example of the effective use of custom controls within Cognos Reports is IBM's Accelerator Catalog. This catalog serves as a repository of assets designed to demonstrate and share expertise within our user community. It contains a diverse selection of accelerator types spread across IBM products and services. This catalog also features static assets including Best Practice Guides and Industry Use Cases, to help users maximizing their IBM Analytics experience. Moreover, it holds sample custom controls provided by our team and shared by users, so they can be downloaded and customized to meet individual needs.
We would love to hear from you. Share your Cognos Analytics experience and give us a review on Gartner Peer Insights and help us shape the product that empowers you to enable analytics with confidence!