Add a Business Intelligence Data Source

You can define an IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence as one of your data source, allowing you to refresh IBM Cognos for Microsoft™ Office data, such as cross-tabs, charts, lists, and images, in your Excel report objects.

You must have a valid URL that connects to the Cognos Business Intelligence server where your Cognos® for Microsoft Office data is stored.

The Cognos for Microsoft Office add-in is used for placing Cognos Business Intelligence data into Excel report objects. Excel report objects can be created in CDM, or they can be Excel files that already have Cognos Business Intelligence data in them and are imported into CDM.

Global Refresh of Data from Cognos for Microsoft Office

A global refresh of all Cognos for Microsoft Office data in your Excel report objects occurs when:

• The expiration policy you choose for the data source has expired.
• You perform a global refresh of the data at any time using Full Refresh Report (not Quick Refresh Report) when working with a report.
• You lock or unlock a report object.
• You generate a report, if the Perform Full Refresh option is selected.

When a global refresh occurs, the Cognos Business Intelligence data is refreshed similar to when you use the Cognos for Microsoft Office Refresh Data and Format option. Floating Cognos Business Intelligence content (for example, images such as charts displayed as images) is refreshed similar to the Cognos for Microsoft Office Refresh Data option.

Note: If one Excel report object has data from two different Cognos Business Intelligence servers and one of the expiration policies triggers a refresh, the data from the second server (where the expiration policy is yet to expire) is also refreshed.

Use Business Intelligence Without Using Excel Add-in

An extra option, IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, is available when adding a BI data source and does not require the use of an Excel add-in. This option supports regular CAM authentication only. When creating a BI data source with a specific target (IBM Cognos Business Intelligence or IBM Cognos for Go! Office), the target cannot be modified when editing the data source later. Data queries, containing unformatted (raw) data, are created to pull BI content, after which they are inserted into Excel objects. BI reports are supported only (no workspace). When creating a BI data query, you can use query variables in the report path. This allows for pulling different data using the same query. When pulling chart reports, only the data is brought into CDM.

Users can refresh the Cognos for Microsoft Office content in their Excel report objects or, if the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence option is used, create Business Intelligence data queries to insert and refresh BI data in Excel report objects.

Add a BI Data Source

1. In CDM, do either of the following to open the Data Source Connectivity tab in the work area:
   • Click the File tab, then navigate to Administration > External Data > Data Source Connectivity.
   • Click the Home tab, then in the Navigation Pane, click Administration and double-click Data Source Connectivity under External Data.
2. Click Home > Add > Business Intelligence Data Source, or right-click any existing data source in the work area and click Add > Business Intelligence Data Source.
3. Specify the connection parameters.
4. Click Test Connection.
   • If the connection succeeds, the Connection successful icon is displayed.
   • If the connection fails, the Connection test failed icon is displayed. Check with the Cognos Business Intelligence server administrator to ensure that the server is running and that you have the correct parameters. You can also expand the error message to see further details to help you troubleshoot the connection.
5. Click OK.

Connection Parameters for BI Data Source

To connect to BI as one of your data sources in CDM, use the following parameters: