Requirements for uploaded files

Your data files must meet size, structure, and data requirements.

Important: Your administrator determines how uploaded files are stored:
  • They can be stored as Parquet files in the Content Manager database or external Content Manager store. This is the default setting.
  • They can be stored as relational tables in a Db2 database that is managed by a Data sets server connection.

Depending on the storage method that your administrator specifies, in addition to the requirements listed below, uploaded files must meet the requirements of the database where they are stored. For more information, see Differences between Parquet and Db2 storage.

Supported data elements

The data in uploaded files can contain only certain elements.

What is supported?
  • Tabular data, consisting of simple columns with headers
    Note: Column headers must appear in the first row.
What is not supported?
  • Pivot tables
  • Crosstabs
  • Images
  • Charts
  • Merged cells
  • Tables inside tables

Supported formats for date and time values

IBM® Cognos® Analytics supports the ISO 8601 standard formats for date and time.

The following date formats are supported:
  • M/d/yy
  • MMM d, y
  • MMMM d, y
  • dd-MM-yy
  • dd-MMM-yy
  • yyyy-MM-dd
The following time formats are supported:
  • h:mm a
  • h:mm:ss a
  • h:mm:ss a z
  • HH:mm
  • HH:mm z
  • HH:mm:ss
  • HH:mm:ss.SS
  • HH:mm:ss z
  • HH:mm:ss.SS z

Size limits

The size limits for uploaded files are configured by administrators in Manage > Configuration > System > Data. The settings that need to be modified are Size limit per upload of data (MB) and Size limit of stored data per user (MB).

The following file size limitations apply to individual users:
  • Maximum size of each individual file. The default is 100 MB.
  • Maximum size of all uploaded files. The default is 500 MB.

The administrator can set size limits on uploaded files that apply to all users. For more information, see Setting limits for data file uploads.