Validate a Report

Validate your report to ensure that it contains no errors.

When you open a report created in a previous version of IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence, it is automatically upgraded and validated. For more information, see Upgrading Reports.

Procedure

  1. From the Tools menu, click Validate Report validate report icon.

    A message box appears indicating whether any errors were found in the report.

  2. If you require more detail from the validation process, from the Tools menu, click Validate Options and do the following:
    • Click one of the following validation levels.

      Validation level

      Description

      Error

      Retrieves all errors returned from the query.

      Warning

      Retrieves all errors and warnings returned from the query. This is the default validation level.

      Key Transformation

      In addition to errors and warnings, retrieves informational messages describing important transformation steps from the report specification to the native query sent to the data source.

      These messages can show the cause of errors and warnings returned from the query.

      Information

      Retrieves errors, warnings, key transformations, and other information related to query planning and execution.

      Tip: Your administrator can change the default validation level. For more information, see the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide.
    • Select the Interactive data check box to specify that no query optimization is to be used.

      The Interactive data check box controls how queries will be processed during validation.

      Clear the Interactive data check box to set the Execution Optimization property to All Rows.

      Tip: For more information about the Execution Optimization property, see Execution Optimization in Report Studio Object and Property Reference.

      A message box appears indicating whether any errors were found in the report.

    • To view messages that result from the conversion of your report to use the dynamic query mode instead of the compatible query mode, select the Dynamic Query Migration check box.

      For more information about using the dynamic query mode, see the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Dynamic Query Guide. For more information about managing the migration from the compatible query mode to the dynamic query mode, see the IBM Cognos Lifecycle Manager Installation and User Guide.

    • Revalidate your report.
  3. If you encounter validation errors and want IBM Cognos Report Studio to identify incorrect objects in your report, from the Tools menu, click Auto Correct.

    Report Studio provides a list of such objects that you can remove individually to successfully run your report.

    In some cases, the information or error message is linked to the location of the issue in your report. To go to the location of the issue, click the message, and then click Select. If only warnings and information appear in the dialog box, these will disappear when you click OK.