Retaining target object ID when copying objects

In IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, in some situations, you can change the default behavior for copying objects. You might change the default for example, to maintain a job that is scheduled to run a report.

About this task

By default, when you copy objects to a new location, the copied object completely overwrites the existing object, including any links for the object. This behavior ensures that reports reference packages properly. However, you can change the default copying behavior in some situations. For example, you can change the copying behavior if you are overwriting reports that do not reference packages, and you want to maintain a job schedule to run the reports.

You can edit the system.xml file so that when you copy objects, the content of the target object is overwritten, but the ID of the target object is retained. You can then refresh a report by copying a newly authored or modified report and overwriting the target report; the job continues to run the report successfully.

Tip: Do not change the default behavior if the objects you are copying are reports that reference packages. To include a new report in a job schedule, edit the job.

Procedure

  1. Open the system.xml file in an XML editor.

    This file is in the c10_location/templates/ps directory.

  2. Add the following string: 
    <param name="updateTargetObjectWhenOverwrite">true</param>
  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Restart the IBM® Cognos® service.
Parent topic: Customizing IBM Cognos Connection