Product:
Cognos BI 10.2.1 fix pack 2
Windows 2008 R2 Server
Problem:
How to make new portal tabs for existing users?
Possible workaround:
When you setup Cognos BI for the first time, create 10 hidden portal tabs that you later can use.
Create some common portal tabs:
Create a folder called portal under Public Folder in Cognos Connection.
Set that all users have read/execute/traverse rights to the folder portal.
This is done by click on MORE to the right of the folder in Cognos Connection.
Click on SET PROPERTIES and select PERMISSIONS tab.
Ensure that the Override the access permissions acquired from the parent entry is NOT marked.
Ensure that the Cognos group that the users belongs to are listed with read/execute/traverse rights. If not, click on ADD to add that user group.
Click OK to get back to Cognos Connection.
Click on the PORTAL folder to go down a level and create the portal pages.
Click on icon NEW PAGE
Enter a name for the portal page, like PORTAL ONE.
Click FINISH.
Repeat this for TEN pages.
Click on the SET PROPERTIES icon for the PORTAL ONE page.
Go to the PERMISSION tab.
Mark Override the access permissions acquired from the parent entry.
Mark all user group and click on REMOVE.
Add/leave only user group for SystemAdministrators here.
Only The SystemAdministrators should have read/write/execute/set policy/traverse on the portal page.
You can create a template folder and create the portal page under that template folder, and then you can copy that template portal page to the portal folder and only rename it. This is much faster to create more portals with the same settings.
Add the portals to the default profile in Cognos Connection:
Go to LAUNCH – IBM COGNOS ADMINISTRATION
Click on SECURITY tab and select Users, Groups, and Roles.
Click on the Cognos namespace.
Click on the EDIT DEFAULT USER PROFILE icon.
Click on the PORTAL TABS tab.
Click ADD.
Go to the Portal folder and mark all the new PORTAL PAGES you created.
Click on the Arrow icon and click OK.
Now all the portals pages are ready for the new users.
To make the tabs not visible, you have to change the system.xml file in folder
C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal\
Log on to the Cognos BI server (this change must be done on all Cognos BI servers)
Copy the C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal\system.xml file to a backup folder like d:\temp\backup
Open the C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal\system.xml in notepad.
Change the =”hideInaccessibleTabs” from false to true, so it looks like this:
true Save the system.xml file to the desktop.
Drag the system.xml file from desktop to the windows explorer window, showing you the folder C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal\
Replace the system.xml file.
Repeat on the Others Cognos BI servers.
Stop all Cognos BI windows services.
Start the Cognos BI service that run the Content Manager function first.
Start the other Cognos BI services on the Microsoft Windows servers.
Log in as an other user that is not System Administrator and he should not see the tabs.
This will only work for new users; users that have already accessed Cognos Connection are not affected by this setup.
This is how you erase a user profile in Cognos Connection:
Go to Administer IBM Cognos content
Click on SECURITY tab
Click on the AD namespace (the company namespace – not the Cognos)
Click on SEARCH icon
Select to search in “Name or description field”
Enter the name of the user and click SEARCH
Click on MARK for that user
Click on action “Delete this user’s profile”
Click OK on the question if you are sure you want to delete the user profile.
Logout from Cognos Connection ( close Internet Explorer ).
Login as the new user to Cognos Connection.
Go to MY HOME.
Check how many portal pages you see.
This is how to add users to the tabs (portal page), so they show up for the user in Cognos Connection:
Go to the template – portal folder.
Click on SET PROPERTIES icon for the portal you want to be visible for the user.
Click on PERMISSIONS tab.
Click on ADD
Click on AD ( the name of the company namespace )
Click on SEARCH
Enter the name of the user and click SEARCH.
When you find him, mark and click on the ARROW icon to add him to the list.
Click OK.
Mark the new user, and select so he gets read/execute/traverse rights on the portal page.
Click OK.
Close Internet Explorer and login as the new user to test if the PORTAL PAGE is visible.
Now you control what PORTAL TABS the users see by adding and removing the Cognos Security groups that the user belong to the pre-created portal tabs.
If the user goes into the Set preferences – portals tab he can see the names of the portal tabs – but there is an icon saying “cannot access page” for the portals he have no access to.
If you are a System Administrator in Cognos Connection, then you see all the tabs.
But you cannot add the tabs to a person who have already logged in to Cognos Connection. Then you have to erase his profile in Cognos Connection and he has to login again – or that you use a Cognos SDK script to copy a PORTAL TAB to his profile in Cognos.
More information:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cfpm/v10r1m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.swg.im.cognos.ug_cra.10.1.0.doc%2Fug_cra_id36310CustomizetheUserInterfaceBasedonGroupandR.html
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21351056
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21504740