Another Impromptu (7.3) prompt date format question

[andyfick]

I've just read through all the topics I can find (including the FAQ) that discuss the format of the date that Impromptu displays in Prompt Manager. I've tried all the suggestions in those posts to no avail. So here's my problem:

Ideally what I want is for my report to prompt the user for a date in the format d/m/yy, however ...

I'm in the UK, and my PC's regional settings are for the UK locale. Date formats in the Control Panel are all the correct British format (dd/mm/yyyy).

I have created a report in Impromtu Administrator, which includes a Type-In prompt for a date. In the Prompt Manager, my default date is shown as 2005-03-11. However, when I run the report, my default date appears as dd/mm/yyyy (i.e. 11/03/2005) - yes, obliques not dashes. Fair enough - the important thing is that it's asking me in the right order.

Now, if I run this report on a second PC (also set for UK locale), which has Impromptu _User_ installed, it prompts me for the date as a M/d/yyyy, showing my default date as 3/11/2005.

In all the posts I've read on this forum, there hasn't been any mention of anyone getting the default to appear as anything other than yyyy-mm-dd, never mind M/d/yyyy.

I am completely confused! As I say, all I want is for the user to be able to enter the date as d/m/yy. Anyone have any ideas?

andy

 

[DoubleD]

There is a locale.tab file which defines your prompt settings. You'll need to modify this on each machine the report would be run on.

I am what I am based on the decisions I have made.

DoubleD

 

[andyfick]

Thanks for this pointer, but I'd already looked at this.

My machines are all set up for the UK (date, keyboard layout, short date, etc), so I am assuming that my locale as far as Cognos is concerned is en-gb.

The en-gb settings in locale.tab are all set correctly for british format dates, but I am still being prompted in my report for M/d/yyyy.

 

[DoubleD]

Alright, here are some things to verify on your machine:

Verify that you find the following lines in the files listed:
In the cer3.ini file
[locale]
localekey=en-gb

In the Impromptu.ini file
format data via regional settings=1

Let me know what you find.

I am what I am based on the decisions I have made.

DoubleD

 

[andyfick]

I think I've sussed it.

On my machine, I have a cer3 folder and a cer4 folder, with a locale.tab in the cer3/bin folder. My machine is OK by the way - displaying the prompt dates correctly. Also to note - my machine had a previous version of Impromtu on it prior to me installing 7.3.

On the Impromtu Administrator machine I mention above, there is no cer3 folder, and no locale.tab file anywhere. This machine prompts me as yyyy-MM-dd. I copied the locale file from my machine to the cer4/bin folder on this one and hey presto! I now get prompted in the correct format.

On the Impromptu User machine it's the same - there's no cer3 folder, just a cer4 folder. Again, copying my locale file into cer4/bin solves the problem.

Both of the 'problem' machines were a brand new install of 7.3 - no prior versions of Impromtu had ever been on the machines.

Have I omitted to do something during install to only get the one folder on each of these machines? I run a minimal install with default values for everything.

 

[DoubleD]

Not sure about the install piece, but it sounds like you've got it working now.

I am what I am based on the decisions I have made.

DoubleD

 

[andyfick]

Yeah it seems to be OK now. Thanks for your assistance though - much appreciated.