Cognos 8.3 No Data Content issues

Question

Upgrading from 8.2 to 8.3 and testing out the new No Data Content functionality. Report looks in order if results are returned. The No Data message does not appear. However if we test the report (pass in parameters expecting no results), we are returned a blank page (pdf, html, excel output). Not even the header or footer appear on the page. And the No Data Content message does not appear as well.

We have very complex reports using Oracle SQL and in most cases the Header content is linked to a SQL statement to render output from the database as well as list the parameters passed in. The issue seems to be related to embedded data objects, i.e. we have a list object embedded within a table object. I've tried stripping out the extra layers with no success thus far.

In 8.2 we used style variables, i.e. RowNumber()=0 or RowNumber() is null to conditionally hide data objects in the body of the report. We've never used any conditions to hide or display the header or the footer and in 8.3 now this seems to be an issue.

This seemed like such a useful enhancement in 8.3 but we haven't gotten it working yet. Any thoughts or suggestions to try?

Thanks for reading this. I appreciate any advice.

Joe

Answer 1

We ran into this same problem when upgrading reports from 8.2 => 8.4. We reported it to Cognos as a bug -- Not sure if they've assigned a bug tracker id to it, but we got the impression it wasn't going to be fixed soon. (Obviously, if it exists in 8.3 and it has been carried forward to the next version, it's not a high priority.)

I'm sorry I don't have an answer at the moment on how to fix it, but I was planning to look into work arounds next week. I'll edit this post with any ideas I come up with.

UPDATE:

Not sure if this is an available feature of 8.3, but in 8.4 there is a new "No Data Contents" property for data containers (lists, blocks, etc.). Setting this value to yes creates two tabs at the top of the page, one for a page to be displayed if data is returned, and another for instances when no records are found. You can customize a message to be displayed using that second page. Pretty cool, actually, but buried in the documentation.

Hope that helps. If you still have problems, check out the Index topic "no data > specify what appears for a data container."

Answer 2

yea it appears that a blank pdf is returned... but in fact the cognos viewer bugs out at the second prompt page if there is no data. Headers and footers and items in which didnt need data to render ... as not showing up as well.

This existed in 8.2 and we were always able to do some sort of work around to get it to atleast show. Seems much more prevalent in 8.3 now.

Id like a solution on this as well! halp! >_<

Edit: seems a slight work around is to create a new report in 8.3 and copy each component starting with queries... then variables.. then objects on the page.. followed by page sets and master detail relationships. in that order for simplicity. Essentially recreating the report from scratch in 8.3 seems to fix the problem.

This works for about 90% of our reports.