Cognos 12.x

I took an existing report that prompts for: 

Company, Year, From Period, To Period, From GL Account and To GL Account (all required)

I changed the two GL Account prompts to Cascading dropdowns (Company is the parent).  All was fine.

I then used an expression to provide default values to the Year, From and To periods.  

When a user runs the report and clicks the "Finish" button, they are prompted for the From and To GL Accounts again.

No idea why?

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

Do you have CogBox installed? If so, on that page can you open the edit parameters screen and paste in a screenshot? It should show the active parameters at that point. 

If you don't, open the browser's developer toolbar and paste this in:
__glassAppController.glassContext.getCurrentContentView().getAuthoringApplication().GetParameterValues().map(x=>{x.value.map((y,z)=>{console.log("Parameter Name: " + x.name + " - use value " + z + ": " + y.use + " - display value: " + y.display)})})

It will show all of the active parameters. 

One idea does come to mind though, is it possible that the selected GL Accounts don't appear in the dropdowns? Or maybe the data types don't match? If the prompt is defined as a prompt alias (e.g. [Acct] >= ?pFromAcct?) there are some validations that are performed on the selected values.

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare
------------------------------

We are new to Cognos - never heard of Cogbox.  Using the dev tools and the command, I can see 4 of the 6 parameters.  But I do not see the parameters listed for the GL Accounts.  The dropdown is on the screen and it is populated with data.  It may be easier just to delete and recreate the prompts?

Not sure what this is

The parameters are used in the query like this:

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 05:01 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

Do you have CogBox installed? If so, on that page can you open the edit parameters screen and paste in a screenshot? It should show the active parameters at that point. 

If you don't, open the browser's developer toolbar and paste this in:
__glassAppController.glassContext.getCurrentContentView().getAuthoringApplication().GetParameterValues().map(x=>{x.value.map((y,z)=>{console.log("Parameter Name: " + x.name + " - use value " + z + ": " + y.use + " - display value: " + y.display)})})

It will show all of the active parameters. 

One idea does come to mind though, is it possible that the selected GL Accounts don't appear in the dropdowns? Or maybe the data types don't match? If the prompt is defined as a prompt alias (e.g. [Acct] >= ?pFromAcct?) there are some validations that are performed on the selected values.

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare
------------------------------

After deleting and recreating the prompts, it was working as expected.  That is until I changed the prompt text (Header Text) to blank - so the user doesn't see the parameter name.  After doing so, I am now getting prompted again for the GL Account values.

This seems like some sort of bug.  I'm new to Cognos, but I've used a lot of web development tools.  This is by far the most quirky that I've encountered.

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time on something that should be rather simple.

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

Out of curiosity, are you using any JavaScript to select the first value? Is the user actually selecting the value?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 09:26 AM
From: Greg Wilburn
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

After deleting and recreating the prompts, it was working as expected.  That is until I changed the prompt text (Header Text) to blank - so the user doesn't see the parameter name.  After doing so, I am now getting prompted again for the GL Account values.

This seems like some sort of bug.  I'm new to Cognos, but I've used a lot of web development tools.  This is by far the most quirky that I've encountered.

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time on something that should be rather simple.

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

I am using a default value on the parameter

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 11:24 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

Out of curiosity, are you using any JavaScript to select the first value? Is the user actually selecting the value?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 09:26 AM
From: Greg Wilburn
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

After deleting and recreating the prompts, it was working as expected.  That is until I changed the prompt text (Header Text) to blank - so the user doesn't see the parameter name.  After doing so, I am now getting prompted again for the GL Account values.

This seems like some sort of bug.  I'm new to Cognos, but I've used a lot of web development tools.  This is by far the most quirky that I've encountered.

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time on something that should be rather simple.

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD

I see what's happening here. You have all the other parameters being populated here, but not pFromAcct or pToAcct. Try creating parameters for each. I recommend setting row limit to 1, since the parameters are singles. Honestly, I think the bug here is that the prompts are populating default values at all. 

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 02:58 PM
From: Greg Wilburn
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

I am using a default value on the parameter

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 11:24 AM
From: Paul Mendelson
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

Out of curiosity, are you using any JavaScript to select the first value? Is the user actually selecting the value?

------------------------------
Paul Mendelson Product Manager
Product Manager
PMsquare


Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 09:26 AM
From: Greg Wilburn
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

After deleting and recreating the prompts, it was working as expected.  That is until I changed the prompt text (Header Text) to blank - so the user doesn't see the parameter name.  After doing so, I am now getting prompted again for the GL Account values.

This seems like some sort of bug.  I'm new to Cognos, but I've used a lot of web development tools.  This is by far the most quirky that I've encountered.

I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time on something that should be rather simple.

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD

Hello Greg, 

Check the prompt names on your prompt page matches with the names you used in the queries. Sometimes if the names are different this appears.

Thank you,

Uday. 

------------------------------
Udaya Rani Palli
------------------------------

Hey Udaya!  Hope you're doing well..

The prompt names match exactly to the names in the query.  I've deleted and recreated the prompts several times.  Each time, the prompts work as expected until I change the Header Text for the prompt to blank.  AFTER doing that is when I am prompted again for the GL Acct Numbers.  

Even if I change it back to "default", the double prompting continues.  I have to delete the prompt and recreate to correct.

------------------------------
Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
Total Biz Fulfillment
Grantsville MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu January 23, 2025 10:13 AM
From: Udaya Rani Palli
Subject: Getting Prompted Twice

Hello Greg, 

Check the prompt names on your prompt page matches with the names you used in the queries. Sometimes if the names are different this appears.

Thank you,

Uday. 

------------------------------
Udaya Rani Palli
------------------------------

Hi Greg,

Did you use the new Defining default parameter values feature? I've played with this feature and I've been prompted twice in some case.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Patrick Neveu
Collaboration Betters The World (CBTW)
IBM Champion
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 1/24/2025 3:49:00 AM
From: Patrick Neveu
Subject: RE: Getting Prompted Twice

Hi Greg,

Did you use the new Defining default parameter values feature? I've played with this feature and I've been prompted twice in some case.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Patrick Neveu
Collaboration Betters The World (CBTW)
IBM Champion
------------------------------