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Changing Global Settings 

You change global settings

By default, Cognos 8 components ensure that all locales, which may come from different sources and in various formats, use a normalized form. That means that all expanded locales conform to a language and regional code setting.

Each computer has a default system locale and one user locale per user. The user locales may be different from the default system locale.

Important: If you change global settings on one Content Manager computer, you must make the same changes on the other Content Manager computers.

Customize Language Support to the User Interface

Use the Product Locales table to add or remove the user interface language support. For example, if you do not require a German user interface, you can remove the language from the list.

If you change the user interface language of the product, data is not affected.

Before you can add language support to the user interface, you must install the language files on all computers in your distributed installation. For more information, contact your Cognos support representative.

Adding languages to the Cognos environment does not guarantee that your computer has a font that can display Web pages in your preferred languages. Ensure that you install the appropriate language packs to support the character sets you use. For information about installing language packs, see the Cognos Supplementary Languages Installation and Configuration Guide.

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the Product Locales tab.

  4. Click Add.

    Tip: To remove support, select the check box next to the Supported Locale and then click Remove.

  5. In the second column, type the language portion of a locale.

  6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for other language support that you want to add.

  7. Click OK.

  8. From the File menu, click Save.

Customizing Currency Support

If you require additional currencies or want to remove some from the user interface, you can update the list of supported currencies in the Currencies table. If you use Japanese or Korean currencies, you must configure support so that Japanese Yan and Korean Won characters display correctly.

Add Currencies to Cognos 8

You can add supported or unsupported currencies to the user interface. You add supported currencies in Cognos Configuration. You add unsupported currencies to the i18n_res.xml file that is provided in Cognos 8.

By default Cognos 8 components show only a subset of supported currencies in the user interface. Currencies are identified by their ISO 4217 currency code. The complete list of supported currencies that can be added are listed in the i18n_res.xml file in the c8_location\bin directory.

If you add a currency code that is not supported by Cognos, you must manually add it to the i18n_res.xml file in the c8_location\bin directory. Copy this file to each Cognos computer in your installation.

Adding currencies to the Cognos environment does not guarantee that your computer has a font with the required characters to display the currency. Ensure that you install the appropriate language packs to the support currency symbols you use. For example, to display the Indian currency symbol (rupee) correctly, you must run a Japanese operating system or install a Japanese language. For information about installing language packs, see the Cognos Supplementary Languages Installation and Configuration Guide.

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the Currencies tab.

  4. Click Add.

    Tip: To remove support, select the check box next to the supported item and then click Remove.

  5. In the second column, type an appropriate value.

    The value you add must comply with ISO 4217 codes for the representation of currencies and formats. Usually the value you add is a three-letter alphabetic code. The first two characters are letters representing the ISO 3166 country code for the country the currency is from. The additional letter represents the first letter of the currency.

  6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for other types of support that you want to add.

  7. From the File menu, click Save.

Configure Support for Japanese Yen and Korean Won Characters

The Japanese Yen and Korean Won characters are stored as U+00A5 and U+20A9, respectively, in the Unicode standard character map. However, the usage of these values is not universal and U+005C is often used for the Yen character in Japan and the Won character in Korea. Depending on the fonts you have available, the character stored as U+005C can appear as a backslash rather than a Yen or Won character. For example, if the server does not have the appropriate language font and uses the standard fallback font provided by Cognos, Andale WT, the U+005C value is used as a backslash.

Cognos also provides an Andale WT Japanese and Andale WT Korean font. These fonts map the U+005C value as a Yen or Won character. The Andale WT Japanese and Andale WT Korean fonts are available on the Cognos 8 Supplementary Languages CD. To use these fonts, you must install them from the Cognos 8 Supplementary Languages CD and then modify the GlobalReportStyles.css file.

Steps to Install the Fonts for Yen and Won Characters

  1. Use the installation wizard on the Supplementary Languages CD on each computer that contains Application Tier components.

    For more information, see the Cognos 8 Supplementary Languages Installation and Configuration Guide.

  2. On the Component Selection page of the installation wizard, expand the Additional Language Fonts option, and select the font you want to install.

  3. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard to complete the installation.

    The fonts are copied to the c8_location\bin\fonts directory. This font location is defined in the Physical fonts location value in Cognos Configuration under Local Configuration, Environment. If you move the fonts to another location, ensure that the new location is added to the Physical fonts location value.

Steps to Update the Style Sheet

  1. Open the GlobalReportStyles.css style sheet in a text editor.

    The GlobalReportStyles.css style sheet is located in the c8_location\bin directory.

  2. Enable one of the following sections and modify it as shown below:

    The PDF generator uses the first available font on the server and includes all the characters in the string to be displayed. If you prefer to use other fonts on your server, you can insert them into the list.

  3. Save the GlobalReportStyles.css file.

  4. Restart the Cognos 8 server.

Any changes that you make to the style sheet are overwritten if you upgrade Cognos 8. You must repeat this procedure following an upgrade.

Customize Content Locale Support

To ensure users see reports, data or metadata in their preferred language, or specific to their region, you can add partial locales (language) or complete locales (language-region) to the Content Locales table. This way, if content is available in different languages, or in different locales, it is rendered to users based on their user locale. By default, content locale overrides product locale in the portal for some content.

If you view reports in Thai language, digits are not supported.

If a locale is not required, you can remove it from the list. You must leave at least one content locale in the list for the report server to operate.

Adding incomplete locales (languages) to the Cognos environment does not guarantee that your computer has a font that can display Web pages in your preferred languages. Ensure that you install the appropriate language packs to support the character sets you use. For information about installing language packs, see the Cognos Supplementary Languages Installation and Configuration Guide.

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the Content Locales tab.

  4. Click Add.

    Tip: To remove support, select the check box next to the supported item and then click Remove.

  5. In the second column, type an appropriate value.

  6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for each additional locale that you want to support.

  7. From the File menu, click Save.

Map Content Locales

Use the Content Locale Mappings table to map user locales to a complete (language-region) or partial (language) locale. You can also map a user’s preferred language to another language if content is not available in the user’s preferred language.

For example, if a report or scorecard is not available in a preferred language, for example Vietnamese, but is available in French and German, you can use the Content Mappings table to map the preferred language (Vietnamese) to another language (French or German). This way, you see the report or scorecard in the mapped language.

By default, the Content Locale Mappings table includes locales that do not contain the region. This allows you to use only the language portion of the locale when you specify locale settings and ensures that you always see the correct information. For example, in a multilingual database, data is usually available in different languages, such as French (fr), Spanish (es) and English (en), rather than being available in different locales, such as English Canada (en-ca), English United States (en-us), or French France (fr-fr).

The following examples show the method that Cognos 8 components use to determine which report or scorecard the user sees if the multiple language versions are available.

Example 1

A report is available in Content Manager in two locales, such as en-us (English-United States) and fr-fr (French-France), but the user locale is set to fr-ca (French-Canadian). Cognos 8 uses the locale mapping to determine which report the user sees.

First, Cognos 8 checks to see if the report is available in Content Manager in the user’s locale. If it is not available in the user’s locale, Cognos 8 maps the user’s locale to a normalized locale configured on the Content Locale Mapping tab. Because the user’s locale is fr-ca, it is mapped to fr. Cognos 8 uses the mapped value to see if the report is available in fr. In this case, the report is available in en-us and fr-fr, not fr.

Next, Cognos 8 maps each of the available reports to a normalized locale. Therefore, en-us becomes en and fr-fr becomes fr.

Because both report and the user locale maps to fr, the user having the user locale fr-ca will see the report saved with the locale fr-fr.

Example 2

The user’s locale and the report locales all map to the same language. Cognos 8 chooses which locale to use. For example, if a user’s locale is en-ca (English-Canada) and the reports are available in en-us (English-United States) and en-gb (English-United Kingdom), Cognos 8 maps each locale to en. The user will see the report in the locale setting that Cognos 8 chooses.

Example 3

The report and the user locales do not map to a common language. Cognos 8 chooses the language. In this case, you may want to configure a mapping. For example, if a report is available in en-us (English-United States) and fr-fr (French-France), but the user locale is es-es (Spanish-Spain), Cognos 8 chooses the language.

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the Content Locale Mapping tab.

  4. Click Add.

  5. In the Key box, type the user locale:

    Tip: To specify the locale to use for a range of keys, use the wildcard character (*) with the Key value and then, in the Locale Mapping box, type the locale. For example, if you want all the German keys to use the German locale, type de* in the Key box and type de in the Locale Mapping box.

  6. In the Locale Mapping box, type the language portion of the locale.

    User locales specified in the Key box will see content in this language.

  7. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for other mappings you want to do.

  8. Click OK.

  9. From the File menu, click Save.

Map Product Locales

Use the Product Locale Mappings table to specify the language used in the user interface when the language specified in the user’s locale is not available.

You can ensure that all regions for a locale use the same language, or that a specific, complete locale (language-region) uses a particular language.

By default, the user sees the product interface in the language that matches the language setting of the user locale.

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the Product Locale Mappings tab.

  4. Click Add.

  5. In the Key box, type the user locale:

    Tip: To specify which locale to use as the default, use the wildcard character (*) for the Key value and then, in the Locale Mapping box type the locale.

  6. In the Locale Mapping box, type the language portion of the locale.

    User locales specified in the Key box will see content in this language.

  7. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for other mappings you want to do.

  8. Click OK.

  9. From the File menu, click Save.

Customize the Server Time Zone

You can customize the time zone used by Content Manager by selecting a different server time zone in Cognos Configuration.

For UNIX installations that do not support a Java-based graphical user interface, you can view the list of acceptable time zones by opening Cognos Configuration on the Windows computer where Framework Manager is installed.

Content Manager is configured to use the time zone of your operating system by default. All scheduled activities in Cognos 8 are set using this time zone. In addition, users in Cognos Connection use this time zone if they set their preferences for the default time zone. For more information about setting user preferences in Cognos Connection, see the Administration and Security Guide.

Steps

  1. Start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. In the Global Configuration window, click the General tab.

  4. Click the Value column for Server time zone and select another time zone from the list.

  5. From the File menu, click Save.

Change Encoding for Email Messages

By default, Cognos 8 components use UTF-8 encoding in emails. This value sets the default encoding used by the delivery service in this instance for all email messages. You may have older email clients or send email from Cognos 8 to cell phones and PDAs that do not recognize UTF-8. If so, you can change the email encoding to a value that works on all your email clients (for example, ISO-8859-1, Shift-JIS). Each instance of Cognos 8 that has an available delivery service must be changed.

The specified encoding affects the entire message, including the subject, attachments, attachment names, and plain or HTML body text.

Character set

Supported encoding value

UTF-8

utf-8

Western European (ISO 8859-1)

iso-8859-1

Western European (ISO 8859-15)

iso-8859-15

Western European (Windows-1252)

windows-1252

Central and Eastern European(ISO 8859-2)

iso-8859-2

Central and Eastern European (Windows-1250)

windows-1250

Cyrillic (ISO 8859-5)

iso-8859-5

Cyrillic (Windows-1251)

windows-1251

Turkish (ISO 8859-9)

iso-8859-9

Turkish (Windows-1254)

windows-1254

Greek (ISO 8859-7)

iso-8859-7

Greek (Windows-1253)

windows-1253

Japanese (EUC-JP)

euc-jp

Japanese (ISO-2022-JP)

iso-2202-jp

Japanese (Shift-JIS)

shift_jis

Traditional Chinese (Big5)

big5

Simplified Chinese (GB-2312)

gb2312

Korean (EUC-KR)

euc-kr

Korean (ISO 2022-KR)

ISO 2022-KR

Korean (KSC-5601)

ksc_5601

Thai (Windows-874)

windows-874

Thai (TIS-620)

tis-620

Steps

  1. Start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. In the Global Configuration window, click the General tab.

  4. Click the Value column for the Email Encoding property.

  5. Scroll to the desired setting and click it.

  6. From the File menu, click Save.

Customize Cookie Settings 

Based on the requirements of your Cognos environment, you may need to modify the settings that Cognos 8 components use to create cookies. You can use Cognos Configuration to customize the cookie domain, path, and secure flag.

Cognos 8 components determine the cookie domain from the HTTP request submitted by the client, which is typically a Web browser. In most network configurations, HTTP requests pass through intermediaries such as proxy servers and firewalls as they travel from the browser to Cognos 8 components. Some intermediaries modify the information that Cognos 8 components use to calculate the cookie domain, and Cognos 8 components then cannot set cookies. The usual symptom of this problem is that users are repeatedly prompted to log on. To avoid this problem, configure the cookie domain.

To set the correct value for the cookie domain, use the format and value that represents the widest coverage for the host.

Host

Format for domain

Example

computer or server

computer or server name (no dots)

mycompany

suffix is .com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, or .org

.name.suffix

(two dots)

.mycompany.com

other

.name1.name2.suffix

(three dots)

.travelinfo.co.nz

Steps

  1. On each Content Manager computer, start Cognos Configuration.

  2. From the Actions menu, click Edit Global Configuration.

  3. Click the General tab.

  4. Click in the Value column under Cookie Settings for each property that you want to change and specify the new value.

    If you leave the Domain property blank, the dispatcher derives the domain from the host name of the request.

  5. Click OK.