Storing and reporting on IBM Cognos Workspace comments

Storing comments

Comments are stored within their own database tables which can be either in the same database as the content store or in a separate database. The Human Task and Annotation Services property in IBM® Cognos Configuration defines the database connection to the database where the annotation tables are stored. If a database connection for Human task service and Annotation service property is not specified, the annotation tables are created in the content store database.

The Human Task and Annotation Services property also defines the database connection for the Human task service tables. However, although the human task service and Annotation service share a database connection, the annotation and human task tables are separate. Annotation tables are prefixed with ANS_ and human task service tables are prefixed with HTS_.

Users are provided scripts to export and import annotation and human task data from the tables to the destination IBM Cognos server. The scripts facilitate activities such as, backing up and restoring comments, and deploying comments between servers.

Reporting on comments

In IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, there is no view or IBM Cognos Framework Manager model representation of Cognos Workspace comments included out of the box. However, you can create a model based on the Annotation service database tables in Framework Manager. The tables, which are simple, can be used to find the comment or annotation text, the person who created the comment, the date that the comment was created, and the report with which the comment is associated. You can also report on the context of a comment by creating a report model or query for the schema where the comments are stored. The dimensions, dimension members, metadata items, and data items would constitute the context of the annotation in the report.

For information about creating a report from the annotation database, you can enter the search keywords, reporting from annotation database, on Cognos Proven Practices (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/cognosprovenpractices.html).