Running reports and retrieving output in IBM Cognos Viewer formats

You can run reports and retrieve outputs in the formats used by IBM® Cognos® Viewer (such as PDF, CSV, Microsoft Excel).

You can use the outputFormats resource type (REST applications) or the getOutputFormats method (SOAP applications) to retrieve a list of supported output formats for a report. The list is contained in a GetOutputFormatsResponse element. You can then use the outputFormat resource type (REST applications) or the getOutputFormat method (SOAP applications) to obtain the report output in a specified format.

REST example

The following URL requests a list of the supported output formats for the sample report Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Data Warehouse (analysis) > Reporting Report Samples > Employee Satisfaction 2012.

http://localhost/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp/rds/outputFormats/report/i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F?v=3

The response from the IBM Cognos Analytics Server is shown here:

<rds:GetOutputFormatsResponse>
 	<rds:supportedFormats>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>CSV</rds:outputFormatName>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>MHT</rds:outputFormatName>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>PDF</rds:outputFormatName>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>spreadsheetML</rds:outputFormatName>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>XLWA</rds:outputFormatName>
 		<rds:outputFormatName>XML</rds:outputFormatName>
		 <rds:outputFormatName>xlsxData</rds:outputFormatName>
 	</rds:supportedFormats>
</rds:GetOutputFormatsResponse>

To run the report and retrieve the output for the Crosstab1 report part in PDF format, submit the following URL to the BI Server:

http://localhost/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp/rds/outputFormat/report/i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F/PDF?v=3&selection=Crosstab1

SOAP example

The following code snippets shows how to perform the same actions as in the REST example.

C# sample

rds.ReportDataService svc = new rds.ReportDataService();
rds.GetOutputFormatsRequest formatsreq = new rds.GetOutputFormatsRequest();

formatsreq.sourceID = "i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F";
formatsreq.sourceType = rds.SourceTypeEnum.report;
rds.GetOutputFormatsResponse formats = svc.getOutputFormats(formatsreq);
foreach (String format in formats.supportedFormats.outputFormatName)
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("Supporting: " + format);
}

rds.GetOutputFormatRequest formatreq = new rds.GetOutputFormatRequest();

rds.Filter report_part = new rds.Filter();
report_part.filterType = rds.FilterTypeEnum.OBJECT_ID;

report_part.filterValue = "Crosstab1";

formatreq.sourceID = "i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F";
formatreq.sourceType = rds.SourceTypeEnum.report;
formatreq.outputFormatName = "PDF";
formatreq.filters = new rds.Filter[] { report_part };

rds.GetOutputFormatResponse formatresp = svc.getOutputFormat(formatreq);

System.Console.WriteLine("URL: " + formatresp.outputFormatURL);

Java™ sample

ReportDataServiceLocator rdslocator = new ReportDataServiceLocator();
ReportDataServicePort rdsservice =
        rdslocator.getReportDataServiceBinding(new URL(url));

GetOutputFormatsRequest formatsreq = new GetOutputFormatsRequest();
formatsreq.setSourceID("i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F");
formatsreq.setSourceType(SourceTypeEnum.report);

GetOutputFormatsResponse formatsresp =
          rdsservice.getOutputFormats(formatsreq);

for (String str : formatsresp.getSupportedFormats().getOutputFormatName())
            { System.out.println("Supporting: " + str);
}

GetOutputFormatRequest req = new GetOutputFormatRequest();
req.setSourceID("i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F");
req.setSourceType(SourceTypeEnum.report);
req.setOutputFormatName("PDF");

Filter[] filters = {new Filter("Crosstab1", FilterTypeEnum.OBJECT_ID, null)};
req.setFilters(filters);

GetOutputFormatResponse resp = rdsservice.getOutputFormat(req);

System.out.println("URL: " + resp.getOutputFormatURL());

The response from the BI server from either of these programs is shown here:

Supporting: CSV
Supporting: MHT
Supporting: PDF
Supporting: spreadsheetML
Supporting: XLWA
Supporting: XML
Supporting: xlsxData
URL: http://localhost:80/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp/rds/
outputformat/report/i1AD695527913442D92D07DDB3425740F/PDF
?selection=Crosstab1