The Portal Visibility Filter defines a set of rules that determine which content, reports, folders and so on, are visible to users. Generally, this means content the user cannot access is not shown in the portal (i.e. not visible) and content the user can access is shown.
The default visibility filter is: read, write, execute, traverses, setPolicy meaning that any user with any of these permissions on a given content item will see that item.
Note: While visibility filter rules work in tandem with permissions, they are not the same and should never be confused as such. Permissions determine access. The visibility filter determine if the user sees the item.
There are some use cases where the default visibility filter rules are insufficient to meet the business need. For example, some customers have reports that must only be run as drill through targets . To run the report as a drill through target, the users need (at least) run security permission. The default visibility filter rules would allow the users to see the all reports they can run. This would allow the user to run the report directly, rather than as a drill through target, thus failing to meet the business need.
In Cognos BI 10.x, the portal visibility rules could be customized by editing the C:\Program Files\IBM\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal\system.xml file.
In Cognos Analytics 11 Release 11, the portal visibility filter rules can be customized using the ConfigSetter utility.
As with Cognos BI 10.x, visibility rules are global. However, in Cognos Analytics 11 R11, the configuration is centralized and does not require changes to each server nor a server restart.
Invoke the ConfigSetter utility
To invoke the ConfigSetter utility:
1. Open your browser
2. Go to Cognos Analytics 11 Release 11 (or later) with a URL such as
• http://server:9300/bi
3. Login as a System Administrator user
4. Invoke the ConfigSetter utility:
• http://server:9300/bi/utils/ConfigSetter.html
5. You will see a web page like this:
Note: There is no need to restart servers/services after making the change. On the other hand, it may take longer than 10 seconds before changes take effect.
Set the Visibility Filter Rule
To set the Visibility Filter Rule, change the parameter: Content_Service.permissionsFilter
By default the parameter is set to all valid values: read,write,execute,traverse,setPolicy
The parameter can be customized with any subset of these values such as: read,write,setPolicy
To change the parameter value, enter the parameter name and new value such as:
Press the Submit button.
Wait 20 seconds.
Log out of the system administrator user.
Login as a user with more limited content permissions to see the change take effect.
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