Cognos 10 Prompts - New Features

As has been pointed out by Ziegenbart in his comments, with Cognos 10, you needn't use any Javascript to modify the value prompt title line. Cognos 10 provides properties through which you can control the first 2 lines of the prompts.

User Contribution [Ziegenbart]:

I've been using the properties of the value prompt itself to either customize or remove the header text. Super simple and no need to use javascript with the disclaimer that there is no guarantee it will work or won't break. (I'm using Cognos 10 btw).

The default selection for the "Header Text" under "Prompt Text" for the value prompt is "Automatic".

Click on the ellipsis to the right of "Automatic" in the "Header Text" property. Change the selection to "Specified text" and leave the text field empty.

The first two lines of the Value Prompt are now removed.

You can also use this to customize what the first line says to meet business needs by entering some text (e.g. "Please make selection")

You can manipulate many of the presentation elements of a value prompt using the properties menu.

-ve Numbers Weird Issue for ALL Static Choice in Value Prompt

You must have used a static ALL value in your prompts to handle the "1000 Values in the In Clause" in Oracle issue. Now if you had set the use value for this to be -9999 or any -ve number in order to set this to a value that will never be available in your table Cognos seems to be behaving weirdly.

It throws error RSV-VAL-004 Unable to find query information for XYZ. Change the case statement to a numeric value and the report validates perfectly.

Using -ve numbers seem to be causing weird issues.

Removing Parameter Name from Value Prompts

This has been covered in numerous mails, sites and posts. I am including the same here for the benefit of those who visit and use the site for all their JavaScript needs.

By default Single Select Value Prompts, display the Query Item Name as the first item in the drop down and the second item is a dotted line.



To remove the first 2 lines of value prompts follow the steps below:

Name the value prompt as PL.

Insert an HTML item below the prompt and include the below script:

<script>
var fW = (typeof getFormWarpRequest == "function" ?getFormWarpRequest() : document.forms["formWarpRequest"]);
if ( !fW || fW == undefined)
{ fW = ( formWarpRequest_THIS_ ?formWarpRequest_THIS_ : formWarpRequest_NS_ );
}

var objProductLine = fW._oLstChoicesPL;

objProductLine .remove(1);
objProductLine .remove(0);
objProductLine .removeAttribute('hasLabel');

</script>

The first 2 lines in the value prompt are now removed.

Note: This technique uses JavaScript against underlying report objects in a IBM Cognos 8 BI report. For this reason, there is no guarantee that reports created using this technique will migrate or upgrade successfully to future versions without requiring modifications. Any such modifications are the responsibility of the report designer.