Evan RossPrincipal Automating Security in IBM Cognos 8
Transformer
IBM Services PartnerExpertise in the BI platform for more than
12 yearsCognos BIDashboardingReportingAnalysisScorecardingData
Manager
Some of our Cognos Clients
Cognos securityGreat Active Directory integration for Framework
ManagerFunctionality added in Transformer 8.3 for Custom Views
The problem:Hospital ERP systemComplex security by
departmentSecurity table available in SQLFramework Manager can
easily connect to the SQL tableHard to maintain in
TransformerSecurity ConcernsTimeliness
Standard hierarchies are easy
Complex Hierarchies are not!
Transformer viewsExcludeNot in cubeCloakIn totals, not
visibleSuppressHide levelSummarizeHide lower levelsApexHide upper
levels
The manual method
What does the user see?Two options:Supress all categories at the
lowest level and then unsuppress applicable categoriesApex on
applicable categories
What is the difference?
The solutionCognos 8.3 and higher allows for OLE automation of
Transformer ModelRead SQL database and create User Views for each
classTools needed:TransformerVisual Studio free Express version is
fineDoes NOT need Cognos SDK!
The next problem Active Directory names!Security tables uses
login nameRossECognos expects full nameRoss, EvanThe answer link
directly to Active Directory
Connecting to Active DirectorySQL Server supports linking
directly to AD
Once connected, its a simple queryInsert Into L_activedirectory
Select Cn, Samaccountname From Openquery(adsi, 'Select Cn,
Samaccountname From ''Ldap:// Dc1'' Where Objectclass = ''User''
And Objectcategory = ''Person' Order By Givenname') End
Process model to update security
VB.NET code what does it do?For intX = 1 To
dimension.DrillDowns.Item(1). Categories.CountDim category As
Category = dimension.DrillDowns.Item(1).Categories(intX)If
category.Name = deptName
Thenview.SetViewStatus(category,xtrViewStatus.trViewStatusApexAncestor)End
IfNext intX
The end resultNo manual maintenance of Transformer
securitySecurity preserved in all Cognos tools relational,
dimensionally modeled relational (DRM), and cubesNo more headaches
for BI team!
