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  • 1.  Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Tue October 08, 2019 05:50 AM

    Hi All,

     

    THIS IS COGNOS 11.1.3 Release:

     

        Ok, is there any current documentation out there that talks about exact steps in moving forward with a Custom Welcome extension.  I down all the downloads, modified the required .json files, added images, and still playing around a little bit.  It puts everything out here in this file structure:  

     

    So main issues are 1. If you search for Google the use, of the area, it comes up and says, it is a location that Cognos Analytis uses to store information it needs to run and can change. 2. The master folder contains 1 file, the master.json copy attached, I have put a few things in bold you can see my custom images that I have added and see in reports/dashboards/etc without a problem, however the section of the file at the bottom where use my Aegon_Logo.svg, (instead of IBM Bee) as well as section that would contain "sample Welcome", changed to "Aegon Analytics". Those 2 items changes the dropdown menu:    problem is when services are restarted on the box, those 2 entries revert back to their default, and my .svg image is removed from the images folder.  One must assume 3 things, obviously, I don't want to continue to use the Sample_Welcome, naming convention, I want my own, next is that does it have to stay in the temp\extensions still, and last why would it

    change my changes every time on a restart services.  I can only find 1 (one)  master.json anywhere in the installation location. 

     

    There must be some documentation out there other than what I have read, and videos I have viewed, and tell you everything that needs to change, (i.e. naming, locations of the many different files.)

     

    1 other issue I have is that I was playing with just themes before, and occasionally when I log in theme will display instead of the extension, but if I log out and back in the extension will display as it should, I have even got to View section when it happens, and my sample_Welcome extension is set as the default: 

     

    Maybe I am confusing it buy using the default names, but since I am un-able to find any documentation, out there telling exactly how to do it, and most of the videos are showing they are changing just like I am, and some have file locations blurred out, and other shows things you can't do anymore, like actually type/edit the name for the view. 

     

    So at a loss right now, any suggestions would be great!

     

    Kind Regards,

     

     

    Kurt A. Blevins

    Senior Finance Systems Developer

    Finance Solutions | Finance | Aegon UK

    Tel: 0131 549 6825

    kurt.blevins@aegon.co.uk

     

    image001.jpg@01D558E4.A7C5E610

     

    https://www.aegon.co.uk/index.html

     



    Aegon is a brand name of Scottish Equitable plc, Aegon UK plc and Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd. Scottish Equitable plc, registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC144517. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Financial Services Register number 165548. Aegon Investment Solutions Limited, Registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC394519. Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register number 543123. Aegon UK plc, registered office: The Leadenhall building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AB, Registered in England, company number 03679296. All are Aegon companies.
    © 2013 Aegon UK plc

    DISCLAIMER

    If you email us, we may keep a record of your name and email address. We protect our system from malicious software and viruses and recommend you do the same.

    #CognosAnalyticswithWatson

    Attachment(s)

    rtf
    master.json copy.rtf   4 KB 1 version


  • 2.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Wed October 09, 2019 04:16 AM
      |   view attached
    Just added a file : 
    spec.json locationsSeems all the documentation/videos talk about the spec.json, but why are they only located in either samples, or temp directories, seems there would have to be some documentation out there about putting them in something like the old fashion "skins" folder.  The folder structure, just does not make and sense, you don't save your picts or videos, in a temp or sample folder, on your home computer... do you?


    ------------------------------
    Kurt A. Blevins
    Senior Finance Systems Developer
    Finance Solutions | Finance | Aegon UK
    Edinburgh Scotland
    Tel: 0131 549 6825
    kurt.blevins@aegon.co.uk

    https://www.aegon.co.uk/index.html
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Wed October 09, 2019 05:06 AM
    Hi Kurt,


    Could it be that you manually unzipped the Sample_Welcome.zip file into the /temp folder?


    Sample_Welcome.zip is an extension, and on the extension tab, you can upload it. Once you do that, you can select the sampleWelcome page, and after a restart, Cognos does not wipe your files.



    ------------------------------
    Reinier Battenberg
    https://github.com/CognosExt
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Wed October 09, 2019 05:15 AM

    Yes, you need to unzip the file to make you changes, then zip back up and update it.  Once the file is uploaded it moves things over to the temp folder( I know I would never move anything to temp on my own.  It does not 'wipe'  most  .json files or any other types, however, it does, overwrite any changes to the master.json file, and remove images from the location.  If the master.json file is so important, why would it be sitting in temp??

     



    Aegon is a brand name of Scottish Equitable plc, Aegon UK plc and Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd. Scottish Equitable plc, registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC144517. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Financial Services Register number 165548. Aegon Investment Solutions Limited, Registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC394519. Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register number 543123. Aegon UK plc, registered office: The Leadenhall building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AB, Registered in England, company number 03679296. All are Aegon companies.
    © 2013 Aegon UK plc

    DISCLAIMER

    If you email us, we may keep a record of your name and email address. We protect our system from malicious software and viruses and recommend you do the same.



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Wed October 09, 2019 09:11 AM

    Hi Reiner,

        I can confirm that when you upload any of the Sample Extensions, it will unzip it, and place the contents here:  Program Files\ibm\cognos\analytics\temp\extensions in an folder with the same name as the original zip.  I can also confirm that this portion of the master.json file is also modified:

     

    From this: "options":{"info":{"icon":"v1\/ext\/Sample_Welcome\/images\/AEGON_Logo.svg","title":"Aegon Anayltics"}},"type":"v1\/ext\/Sample_Welcome\/js\/views\/SampleWelcomeView"}}],"perspective":"sampleWelcome","label":null,"type":"home"}]}

     

    To this: "options":{"info":{"icon":"v1\/ext\/Sample_Welcome\/images\/bee_blue.svg","title":"Sample welcome "}},"type":"v1\/ext\/Sample_Welcome\/js\/views\/SampleWelcomeView"}}],"perspective":"sampleWelcome","label":null,"type":"home"}]}

     

    I can also confirm that the image file that I am using AEGON_Logo.svg, is also being deleted from the image directory.

     

    I am not saying I may not be doing something correctly, I am saying, that IBM apparently has no documentation on this, or they are not willing to share.

     

     

    Kind Regards,

     

    Kurt

     



    Aegon is a brand name of Scottish Equitable plc, Aegon UK plc and Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd. Scottish Equitable plc, registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC144517. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Financial Services Register number 165548. Aegon Investment Solutions Limited, Registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC394519. Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register number 543123. Aegon UK plc, registered office: The Leadenhall building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AB, Registered in England, company number 03679296. All are Aegon companies.
    © 2013 Aegon UK plc

    DISCLAIMER

    If you email us, we may keep a record of your name and email address. We protect our system from malicious software and viruses and recommend you do the same.



    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Thu October 10, 2019 11:14 AM
    Hi Kurt,

    Have you tried the following:

    - on your client, unzip Sample_Welcome.zip
    - copy your aegon image into the images folder
    - in the spec.json file, replace the path to the bee image to yours (and perhaps the title)
    - zip the whole folder again
    - upload the zipfile (just to be sure, delete the current extension first)

    To do it properly, you could rename the whole Sample_Welcome extension to Aegon_Welcome (or Kurt_Welcome) to make sure you do not get confused in the future.




    ------------------------------
    Reinier Battenberg
    https://github.com/CognosExt
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Custom Splash Screen Creation COGNOS 11.1.3 Release

    Posted Fri October 11, 2019 08:05 AM

    Hi Reinier,

        Thanks for the information.   Yesterday, I did some more work, nothing from Cognos, but everything you read, and every video you watch, just talks about uploading the extensions, and basically what each does.  They NEVER mention anything about a MASTER.JSON file being kept in the TEMP folder.  The master.json file get's updated each time you load and extension, and each time you update an extension, and if you have changed things in other extensions, and even renamed to your own name, if that new extension, you are adding, if it references ANYTHING, that you may have customized as images or text, and you don't change that before you upload that new shiny extension you want, it will update, the master.json file.  I had heard about the master.json file at one point, when I had stumbled across a very great presentation that was recorded (over 1 hour), by the team that built the extension part in the US and Canada, I had even downloaded to my laptop, but sadly, my laptop crashed and I lost the video, and doing some digging, found the video had been removed, guess you were not supposed to see it in the first place. 

        Why there is actually no information out there for a production environment, or why it does this, I could not tell you, but you can waste an awful lot of time learning from the school of hard knocks vs. proper documentation.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Kurt

     

     



    Aegon is a brand name of Scottish Equitable plc, Aegon UK plc and Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd. Scottish Equitable plc, registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC144517. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Financial Services Register number 165548. Aegon Investment Solutions Limited, Registered office: Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9SE, Registered in Scotland, company number SC394519. Aegon Investment Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register number 543123. Aegon UK plc, registered office: The Leadenhall building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AB, Registered in England, company number 03679296. All are Aegon companies.
    © 2013 Aegon UK plc

    DISCLAIMER

    If you email us, we may keep a record of your name and email address. We protect our system from malicious software and viruses and recommend you do the same.



    Original Message


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