Moving ReportNet from Development to Production 1

[footyref]

We are new to ReportNet and are used to the file-based components of Cognos (Impromptu and PowerPlay) and are looking looking for some guidance on how to move work from Development through Testing to Production. For example, we have created a catalog and an IMR in the Source folder within the Development directory structure on a Windows server and have a directory structure like the following:

K:
- Child Welfare
- Development
- Backup
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Model
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Publish
- Childe Welfare - DEV (Report Set)
- Source
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Child Welfare.cat
- Child Welfare.imr
- Production
- Backup
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Model
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Publish
- Child Welfare - PRD (Report Set)
- Source
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Testing
- Backup
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Model
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART
- Publish
Child Welfare - TST (Report Set)
- Source
- Child Welfare Data Mart
- DART

Once we publish the report set and see that the report works fine in the Child Welfare Development newsbox, we copy the catalog and the IMR from the K:\Child Welfare\Development\Source folder to the K:\Child Welfare\Testing\Source folder and publish the report set with the new directory as the source. Once the testing group has verified that the report is what they want, the catalog and IMR are copied to the K:\Child Welfare\Production\Source folder from the K:\Child Welfare\Testing\Source folder and the report set is published. The process is the same with models, IQDs, etc.

I have only been to the ReportNet FastTrack class and there is a lot of info covered in the class, but the one thing I got out of it is that everything in ReportNet is based in the metadata repository. I know in Framework Manager you start with a file, but my question is how do I get the work in ReportNet pushed from Development through Testing and into Production the same way we did with files? I have asked Cognos, both in class and tech support, and have not been given an answer yet. I see that there are a lot of ReportNet folks out here and I am sure that you all go through the same sort of process that I am trying to understand, so please offer some advice, tips, techniques, best practices, lessons learned and all of the other industry buzzwords so I can do the same thing in our environment, OK? Cool.

Please feel free to call me if you would rather not type lengthy replies, but other folks might benefit from your knowledge, so why not share it?

Also, what's up, Rory?

Scott Gaffney
Information Technology Consultant

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Management Information Systems
Bureau of Strategic Systems Development
Information Delivery Section
Client Delivery Unit

4200 East 5th Avenue
L403
Columbus, OH 43219
(614) 387-8718

 

[Draoued]

we had the same problem.

we have 2 reportnet server ( 1 dev and 1 prod ).
I have installed 2 FrameWork Manager (FM) in my PC , one in /CRN and another one in /CRNPROD folder. This way in each Cognos Configuration you can define the Server address for publishing , and define the Crypto file if needed and so on.

Then I design the package using FM dev, pointing to our Development database, publish , create reports ....

When moving to production this package to Production
Take backup of the development package
Open in NOTEPAD the CUSTOMDATA.XML and the MODEL.XML , and search-Replace the Dev database name by the Production database name
( In order to do that properly you should avoid using same name in your fields names...)
Open the new package in FM prod , and publish it to production server.

I m quite sure that this process is not documented or even supported by Cognos , but it works , at least for me.

 

[stacybost]

Scott,

Do you have separate development/test/prod environments?