Listed below are changes to features since the last release. Links to directly-related topics are included.
In the previous release, the installation wizard showed the name Cognos 8 Go! Office and used a default installation directory of Cognos Office. In the new release, the installation wizard shows the name Cognos 8 for Microsoft Office and uses the default installation directory of Cognos 8 for Microsoft Office. The wizard is used for a family of Cognos products that work with Microsoft Office. For more information, see Deploying Cognos 8 Go! Office Client.
In the previous release, you could configure security for Microsoft .NET Framework using a Smart client or a COM add-in. Cognos 8 Go! Office now use the COM add-in only, and no action is required to configure it. In addition, the previous release required that you set custom properties in Microsoft Office templates. In the new release, the custom properties are no longer required. For more information, see Configuring Cognos 8 Go! Office.
When you upgrade from Cognos 8 BI version 8.2 to version 8.3, some features in Cognos 8 may behave differently after the upgrade. When you upgrade reports, for example, changes in behavior may cause validation errors. Documentation is available about the behavior changes. This documentation includes examples of the changed behavior and solutions for issues that may occur during the upgrade. For more information, see Upgrading to Cognos 8 BI 8.3: Changes in Product Behavior on the Global Customer Services Web site (http://support.cognos.com/go/docs/cognos8_bi/8.3/changes_productbehavior.html).
In previous releases, you could not install Cognos Series 7 Transformer and Cognos 8 Transformer 7.x on the same computer. With Cognos 8 Transformer 8.3, you can install it on a computer that has Cognos Series 7 Transformer, with no conflicts.
In previous releases of Transformer, the installation location was a cern directory, where n represented the Transformer 7.x rendition number. The Transformer 8.3 installation location is the same c8 directory used by all other Cognos 8 products.
The Transformer 8.3 executable name (on Windows and UNIX) and .ini file names are now cogtr.
Note: When Transformer 8.3 is installed on Windows Vista, if you do not have Administrator privileges on the computer and you make changes to the cogtr.xml file, the updated file is saved by default to a Virtual Store directory and not to the c8_location/configuration directory.
Model-, PowerCube- and Log files for Transformer 8.3 are maintained in the ..\My Documents\Transformer\ directory, in an appropriate subdirectory. Data Source and Temp file directories are stored in the default locations that are specified in Cognos Configuration. To store them in a separate location, you can specify new locations in Transformer.
For more information, see Install Cognos 8 Transformer.
Unlike previous versions of Transformer, which used Cognos Series 7 Configuration Manager, Transformer 8.3 uses Cognos Configuration for product configuration. This allows for complete integration with all Cognos 8 Business Intelligence products.
For more information, see Configure Cognos 8 Transformer Computers.
In previous versions of Cognos 8, the samples were installed automatically with the server components. Now the samples are on a separate CD in your Cognos 8 product. If you want to use the samples, you must install them from the Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Samples 8.3 CD. For more information, see Install the Cognos 8 Samples.