I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

Robert,

Thanks for the response! I just tried that and unfortunately it didn't work - I get a 404 on a GET request to the session endpoint. At this point I'm not sure the Cognos server is set up properly for the API.

I did find some other information on API authentication in v11 in the meantime. I found this documentation and it doesn't mention authenticating via an API Key

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

I am able to generate a key though, so I'm a little confused. I'll keep digging in case I can find something.

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

HI Matt,

I think this is what you are looking for:

{
  "parameters": [
    {
      "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",
      "value": "yourapikey"
    }
  ]
}

Robert,

Thanks for the response! I just tried that and unfortunately it didn't work - I get a 404 on a GET request to the session endpoint. At this point I'm not sure the Cognos server is set up properly for the API.

I did find some other information on API authentication in v11 in the meantime. I found this documentation and it doesn't mention authenticating via an API Key

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

I am able to generate a key though, so I'm a little confused. I'll keep digging in case I can find something.

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

Hi Matt,

I searched our 11.2.4 documentation and cannot find it but this is the Doc link.  this should apply to 11.2.4.   This was the first release that we exposed this feature so I feel that this is just a documentation issue.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.0.x?topic=api-getting-started-rest#c_ca_api_rest_getstarted__title__2

Greg

HI Matt,

I think this is what you are looking for:

{
  "parameters": [
    {
      "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",
      "value": "yourapikey"
    }
  ]
}

Robert,

Thanks for the response! I just tried that and unfortunately it didn't work - I get a 404 on a GET request to the session endpoint. At this point I'm not sure the Cognos server is set up properly for the API.

I did find some other information on API authentication in v11 in the meantime. I found this documentation and it doesn't mention authenticating via an API Key

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

I am able to generate a key though, so I'm a little confused. I'll keep digging in case I can find something.

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

Greg,

I had read through the v12 documentation and started there, but to no avail. Any PUT requests to the /api/v1/sessions endpoint returns a 401 unauthorized error from the server. I tried both with password auth and with API key auth as shown in that document. I should note that we have SSO set up with Cognos, and there are no native Cognos accounts on the system. Based on the docs I believe API key auth is the correct path for our scenario.

It's also worth mentioning that our Cognos software is provided as part of another software package through a software vendor. In other words, I didn't perform the installation and don't have a ton of insight into how it was configured. Is it possible that further configuration is required to make our API functional? If so, is there guidance on that? I am able to investigate our configuration, so at the least with that knowledge in hand I could work with our vendor to get the API set up.

The good news is that with a bit of study we were able to address our immediate needs without the use of the API, and further investigation into the API is now just for my own curiosity. I'd like to see what additional capabilities it will provide us in the future.

Thanks all!

Hi Matt,

I searched our 11.2.4 documentation and cannot find it but this is the Doc link.  this should apply to 11.2.4.   This was the first release that we exposed this feature so I feel that this is just a documentation issue.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.0.x?topic=api-getting-started-rest#c_ca_api_rest_getstarted__title__2

Greg

HI Matt,

I think this is what you are looking for:

{
  "parameters": [
    {
      "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",
      "value": "yourapikey"
    }
  ]
}

Robert,

Thanks for the response! I just tried that and unfortunately it didn't work - I get a 404 on a GET request to the session endpoint. At this point I'm not sure the Cognos server is set up properly for the API.

I did find some other information on API authentication in v11 in the meantime. I found this documentation and it doesn't mention authenticating via an API Key

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

I am able to generate a key though, so I'm a little confused. I'll keep digging in case I can find something.

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!

Greg,

I had read through the v12 documentation and started there, but to no avail. Any PUT requests to the /api/v1/sessions endpoint returns a 401 unauthorized error from the server. I tried both with password auth and with API key auth as shown in that document. I should note that we have SSO set up with Cognos, and there are no native Cognos accounts on the system. Based on the docs I believe API key auth is the correct path for our scenario.

It's also worth mentioning that our Cognos software is provided as part of another software package through a software vendor. In other words, I didn't perform the installation and don't have a ton of insight into how it was configured. Is it possible that further configuration is required to make our API functional? If so, is there guidance on that? I am able to investigate our configuration, so at the least with that knowledge in hand I could work with our vendor to get the API set up.

The good news is that with a bit of study we were able to address our immediate needs without the use of the API, and further investigation into the API is now just for my own curiosity. I'd like to see what additional capabilities it will provide us in the future.

Thanks all!

Hi Matt,

I searched our 11.2.4 documentation and cannot find it but this is the Doc link.  this should apply to 11.2.4.   This was the first release that we exposed this feature so I feel that this is just a documentation issue.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.0.x?topic=api-getting-started-rest#c_ca_api_rest_getstarted__title__2

Greg

HI Matt,

I think this is what you are looking for:

{
  "parameters": [
    {
      "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",
      "value": "yourapikey"
    }
  ]
}

Robert,

Thanks for the response! I just tried that and unfortunately it didn't work - I get a 404 on a GET request to the session endpoint. At this point I'm not sure the Cognos server is set up properly for the API.

I did find some other information on API authentication in v11 in the meantime. I found this documentation and it doesn't mention authenticating via an API Key

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

I am able to generate a key though, so I'm a little confused. I'll keep digging in case I can find something.

Matt,

I thought this change was new to v12 but I recently noticed a similar issue in 12.0.4 so perhaps it was a change introduced with a recent fix pack in 11.2.4 even. Anyway, what I found out is you cannot initiate the authentication anymore without first having an XSRF token. The way to get that is to first send a GET request to /api/v1/session without a payload and capture the cookie. Include that then on your PUT request to actually authenticate (and of course all subsequent requests). Try that and see if it works.

I'm attempting to use the REST Api with Cognos Analytics 11.2.4, and am having trouble authenticating. I've used the reference here:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.x?topic=api-rest-sample

but so far no dice. I'm creating a body like this:

{  "credentials": {    "parameters": [      {        "name": "CAMNamespace",        "value": "<Namespace>"      },      {        "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",        "value": "<API Key>"      }    ]  }}

I continually get a 401 - Unauthorized error. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this?

If it helps, my goal is to use the REST API to automatically update a data module from an Excel sheet.

Thanks!