Report formats

In IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence, you can view reports in a browser, or depending on your permissions, you can generate reports in formats that can be imported into other applications. Administrators can restrict access to the capabilities that are required to run reports in delimited text (CSV), PDF, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (XLS), or XML formats.

By default, all users have permissions for the following capabilities:

Generate CSV Output
Generate PDF Output
Generate XLS Output
Generate XML Output

These separately secured functions support the management of system resources. To control the formats options that users can see and run in the user interface, set access permissions for these capabilities. For more information, see Setting Access to Secured Functions or Features.

If your access to a format is restricted, you can view content in the restricted format, and specify the restricted format in the properties of a report.

To perform the following actions, you must have execute and traverse permissions for the appropriate capability:

Run reports in a restricted format.
Set schedules or jobs for reports that run in a restricted format.
Drill to targets that run in a restricted format.
Print PDF reports in Cognos Metric Studio.
Print a PDF report in a Cognos Workspace widget.

When you run a report, you see only the format options for which you have the generate output capability. The HTML format is not a secured function.

The generate output capabilities do not apply to PowerPlay or active reports.

To specify the report format, you must also have read and write permissions for the report and traverse permissions for the folder that contains the report.

You can specify the default format to be used when a report is run Set Default Report Options. All shortcuts to a report acquire the default format from the source entry.

You can specify the report format in the run options page Set Report Options for the Current Run, in the report properties Entry Properties, or in your preferences Personalize the Portal.

XHTML and some PDF formats are only available when you set advanced run options Setting advanced report options for the current run. You can also select multiple formats when you set advanced run options.