Introduction

IBM Cognos Analytics is an enterprise-grade business analytics solution that continues to evolve with modern capabilities. While it introduces powerful features such as the Cognos REST API, Data Modules, and even integration with Cognos Jupyter Notebooks, some areas remain tied to older tooling.
One example is event-based triggering—traditionally handled with batch scripts, Java integrations, or Cognos Event Studio. However, these methods don’t fully align with modern organizational needs, especially when applications communicate through REST APIs.
In this blog, I’ll show you how to modernize event-based triggering in Cognos by leveraging the REST API to dynamically schedule jobs and reports when external events occur.

Why Not Event Studio?

Cognos Event Studio is a legacy tool designed for data-driven triggers (e.g., “run a report when margins fall below 10%”). However:

- It only works with Framework Manager packages, not with Data Modules.
- It lacks flexibility for integration with external applications.
- It feels outdated compared to REST-driven automation.

To overcome this, we can use a simple REST API trick: updating a schedule object dynamically to execute a job or report within a few minutes.

I used Python in Cognos Jupyter Notebook, however, it can be used from an external triggering program as long it has the capability to use REST API.

Step-by-Step Guide

Prepare the Object (Job or Report) for Triggering

a.       Create a new schedule for the job or report.

b.      Set a past date for Period

c.       Capture the StoreID of the object

Rest API (Retrieve)

a.       Use the store ID to get the object you would like to trigger

b.      Retrieve the Schedule’s StoreID from the result

                                                                        i.       Use GET /content/{id}/items to fetch object items.

                                                                      ii.       Look for the object of type schedule and record its id

Rest API Update

a.       Update the Schedule using the captured ID
- Use PUT /content/{id} with the startDate and endDate values (in UTC, case-sensitive).
request body example:
{“type”:”schedule”,”startDate”:”2025-09-09T21:45:17.000Z”,”endDate”: ”2025-09-09T21:55:17.000Z”}

     Validating in Cognos

Once updated, verify in the Cognos interface that the schedule has been created. The job or report will be executed within the interval you set.

Conclusion

By taking advantage of Cognos REST API, we can modernize event-based triggering without relying on outdated tools like Event Studio. With just the StoreID and authentication token, you can trigger jobs when external events occur, for example, after an ETL process completes.

This approach bridges the gap between Cognos and modern applications, ensuring automation workflows remain flexible, API-driven, and future-ready.

#Automation     #RESTAPI           #Scheduling      #triggering              #Cognos             #administration            #BestPractices         #ETL       #IBM