Adding Custom Report Templates for Report Studio

Report Studio has predefined report templates that you select from when you create a new report. You can create your own custom report templates and make them available too.

To add a custom report template, you must

	create a report specification for the template
	add a custom report template to the templates.xml file
	provide an icon for the template
	add template information to the Resources.xml file

Note: When you reinstall or upgrade Cognos 8, the changes associated with the custom report templates are not migrated. You may need to redo the above steps .

Create a Report Specification for a Custom Report Template

There is no template object in Cognos 8. Instead, you can use any report specification as a report template. You can create the report specification for your custom report template by using Report Studio, an XML editor, or a text editor.

Steps for Report Studio

Open Report Studio.
Create a new report.
For more information, see the Report Studio User Guide.
From the File menu, click Convert to Template.
From the Tools menu, click Copy Report to Clipboard to save the report specification XML.
Paste the report specification into an XML editor or text editor.
Delete the following information, which Report Studio adds to the XML file and which is not necessary for the template:
Add a new template element as a parent of the report element.
Add a name attribute for the template element.
The name you enter appears as the name of the template in the new report dialog box.
Save the report specification.

Here is an example of the initial part of a report specification created in Report Studio. The portions to delete appear in bold.

 <template name="CognosList"> 
   ...
   <report xmlns="http://developer.cognos.com/schemas/report/4.0/" 
expressionLocale="en" template="true"><!--RS:8.2-->
  <queries>
   <query name="Query1">
     <source>
        <model/>
     </source>
     <selection/>
   </query>
 </queries>
 <layouts>
   <layout>
    <reportPages>
      <page class="pg" name="Page1">
        <pageBody class="pb">
          <contents>
            <list class="ls" refQuery="Query1"> 
              <style>
                <CSS value="border-collapse:collapse"/>
              </style>
             </list>
               .................
   </report>
  </template>

Attribute	Description
idsLabel	Specifies an ID that refers to a Report Studio string resource file located in the c8_location/webcontent/pat/res directory, and a label for the template that appears in the new report dialog box. Use this attribute when you want to add the ID and label for your custom template in the string resource file. You use the string resource file when you want the label to appear in multiple languages.
label	Specifies a label for the template that appears in the new report dialog box. Use this attribute instead of the idsLabel attribute for the custom template when you do not want the label to appear in multiple languages, which eliminates the need to use the string resource file.
icon	Specifies an image file associated with the template, located in the c8_location/webcontent/pat/images directory. The image appears as an icon in the new report dialog box. Use a previously created image file for the custom report template.

Steps

Open the Resources.xml.
This file is located in the c8_location/webcontent/pat/res.

Add a new listItem element using the label or idsLabel attribute for the custom report template.

Here is an example of the edited file:

<listView id="text-align">
		<listItems>
			<listItem value="" idsLabel="IDS_PROPVAL_DEFAULT"
			 smallIcon="default_prop_value.gif"/>
			<listItem value="left" idsLabel="IDS_PROPVAL_TALIGN_LEFT"
			 smallIcon="hal/images/btn_align_left.gif"/>
			<listItem value="center" idsLabel="IDS_PROPVAL_TALIGN_CENTER"
			 smallIcon="hal/images/btn_align_center.gif"/>
			<listItem value="right" idsLabel="IDS_PROPVAL_TALIGN_RIGHT"
			 smallIcon="hal/images/btn_align_right.gif"/>
			<listItem value="justify" idsLabel="IDS_PROPVAL_TALIGN_JUSTIFY"
			 smallIcon="hal/images/btn_align_justify.gif"/>
		</listItems>
	</listView>

Save and close the file.

You must now restart Report Studio for the custom report template to appear in the new report dialog box.