IBM Cognos Analytics Extensions Support and Upgrade Troubleshooting

Overview of Cognos Analytics Extensions

IBM Cognos Analytics provides the ability for developers to write their own custom extensions, which when imported into the Cognos interface, can add unique customizations and controls to the Cognos experience. Available to developers is core documentation on Creating extensions along with sample extensions that ship with the product. There is also a large marketplace of extensions available for download which we call the Accelerator Catalog. Examples of available extensions include adding circle and free form selection gestures for the map visualization, or optimizing the dashboard layout for mobile devices.

What is Supported by IBM Support?

Sample Extensions Shipped with Cognos Analytics

Only sample extensions shipped with the product are supported by IBM Support. If one of the provided sample extensions does not behave as expected and you have support entitlement, you may open a case for the extension so that an APAR can be logged for the identified defect. IBM Support will not assist with troubleshooting the extension code.

Accelerator Catalog Extensions

Any Accelerator Catalog assets are not covered by IBM Support under any contract or agreement and are provided “as is”. Extensions published to the Accelerator Catalog will indicate which release(s) the extensions were written for.

The extensions found in the catalog fall into 2 categories, those developed by IBM and those developed by third parties.

• For support with IBM developed assets, please reach out to accelerator@ca.ibm.com and allow up to 5 business days for a response.
• For help with any non-IBM extensions, please reach out to the author through their contact information on the details page of the asset in question.

You can use these assets “as is”, or you can modify/extend these samples to suit your own business needs. IBM can not support or troubleshoot these samples for all possible customer environments and configurations.

Third-Party Developed Extensions

For extensions developed outside of the Accelerator Catalog, please go back to the source provider for any support.

Troubleshooting Extensions after an Upgrade

If an install on top is conducted during an upgrade to a next major release, unsupported or older versions of extensions can result in odd behaviour for users such as dashboards not opening.

You can quickly determine if extensions are the cause of any add behaviour by using a factory default mode URL to bypass all extensions.

https://<YourServerNameAndDomainHere>/bi/?factoryMode=true

If the odd behaviour is resolved when bypassing the extensions, ensure when you review your extensions that they apply to or have been updated to adhere to your version of Cognos Analytics and test thoroughly.

If you conduct a fresh install during an upgrade, again ensure you have the correct version of the extensions and/or have updated custom developed extensions to adhere to the version of Cognos Analytics you are upgrading to and test thoroughly.