Cognos

Cognos is a business intelligence (BI) solution that integrates reporting, analysis, dashboards, stories, explorations, modeling, and other functionality. This document describes how to connect IBM watsonx Orchestrate to Cognos and use its skills on watsonx Orchestrate.

Connecting to Cognos

Important:
- A credential type must be set for apps that are a part of team skill sets and AI assistants. Skill-based actions in AI assistants support only shared credentials.
- If a credential type of an app is not specified, an error message is displayed when users attempt to run the skills of the app. To resolve the error, an admin must set the credential type for the app. For more information, see Managing connections.

An app can be connected either through the skill catalog or through the watsonx Orchestrate chat. Use the method that suits you to connect to an app.

Connect to the app through the skill catalog when you add that skill to your skill set:

  1. On the watsonx Orchestrate chat page, click Add skills from the catalog.
  2. Search and click the app tile.
  3. Click Connect app.
  4. Configure the connection. For more information, see Configuring the connection.
  5. Click Connect app.

Otherwise, connect to that app through the watsonx Orchestrate chat when you use the skill:

  1. Open the watsonx Orchestrate chat.
  2. On the chat, start the skill.
  3. Click Connect app.
  4. Configure the connection. For more information, see Configuring the connection.
  5. Click Connect app.

Configuring the connection

To connect watsonx Orchestrate to Cognos, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Connect app.
  2. You are prompted to enter the following connection details:
    • API key: If the service instance uses legacy credentials for authentication, provide the API key.
  3. Click Connect app.
Note: The icon A green check icon appears to show that the app is connected. indicates that the connection was successfully established.

Retrieving the API key

To retrieve the API key:

  1. Log in to the Cognos portal.

  2. Click Profile and settings > My API keys.

  3. Click Generate API key.

  4. Enter a name and description for the key and then click Next.

  5. The encrypted key appears.

  6. Click Copy to clipboard and then paste the key into a text file. Click Done.

  7. Next, create a session key using the generated API key.

  8. Run the following API with login details as Authorization and then enter the generated API key in the CAMAPILoginKey field in the request body.

    curl --location --request PUT 'https://example.ca.analytics.ibm.com/api/v1/session' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic xxxexamplexx' \
--data-raw '{
    "parameters": [
        {
            "name": "CAMNamespace",
            "value": "LDAP"
        },
        {
            "name": "CAMUsername",
            "value": "rsxxxn.mxxxan@partner.ibm.com"
        },
        {
            "name": "CAMAPILoginKey",
            "value": "AWkyMENBREQ4QzZCM0I0NDc4QjJDN0FENkMyRDRBRjEyNwdZIKtlnYBr+L3gPm2R5dxKJMFG"
        }
    ]
}'

  9. Obtain the session_key from the API response and use it as the API key to connect to watsonx Orchestrate.

What to do next

After you connect to the app, you can use the Cognos skills. For more information see, Using the chat.

To learn about the available skills, see List of prebuilt apps, skills and skill flows.

Parent topic:

→ Connecting to apps