The System Architect - IBM Cognos integration provides users the ability to author, generate and manage IBM Cognos Business Intelligence reports, from System Architect. The integration is based on the System Architect – Cognos Bridge, which IBM Cognos Administrators use to configure SQL Server encyclopedias as data sources in IBM Cognos.
The System Architect - Cognos Bridge provides a Schema Generator to create a schema for an Operational Data Source database that is used by the IBM Cognos Framework Manager to create packages for reports. It also provides a SA Data Retriever executable to populate the ODS database with encyclopedia data. You can run the SA Data Retriever from a command line or schedule it to run through the Windows Task Scheduler.
You can download System Architect – IBM Cognos report templates from:
Starting with System Architect 11.4.1, you can use versions of IBM Cognos 8.4.1 or 10.1. The functionality of System Architect and IBM Cognos integration remains unchanged. You generate an operational data store in the same way as before and you can point to the operational data store to create or run reports.
If you use a previous version of System Architect with IBM Cognos 8.4.1, you can continue using IBM Cognos 8.4.1 with System Architect 11.4.1. You do not need to make any changes. For example, if you were using out-of-box or user-defined reports, you can point the reports to the new operational data store generated from System Architect 11.4.1 and continue using them seamlessly, as long as the properties used by reports have not been changed by customization (this precaution is independent of your IBM Cognos version). You can also create new reports.
If you use System Architect with IBM Cognos 8.4.1 and need information on upgrading to IBM Cognos 10.1, for example, if you need to change anything or recreate your IBM Cognos reports, view the upgrade guidelines in the following document:
If you upgrade, your IBM Cognos 8.4.1 reports can be used automatically in IBM Cognos 10.1. You do not need to modify them to use IBM Cognos 10.1 capabilities. You can also create new reports to use the new IBM Cognos 10.1 capabilities, such as Active Reports. This provides easy report access, enhanced interactivity and an improved user interface.
Note This documentation is intended for IBM Cognos Administrators who run the SA Schema Generator and the SA Data Retriever. It also contains information for System Architect users, who enable encyclopedias with SAEM SQL Server, to run IBM Cognos reports from System Architect.
The ODS database
The ODS database is created by SA Schema Generator and data is populated by the SA Data Retriever with encyclopedia data. The ODS table contains relationships between encyclopedia metamodel objects on which you can report. At the highest level, the encyclopedia metamodel describes three basic “major types”: diagrams, symbols, and definitions, and within each, many “minor types”. For example, a diagram of type BPMN Process is a “minor type”. Diagram “minor types” and symbol “minor types”.
The System Architect and IBM Cognos integration is based on an architecture that allows various users performing different roles on different systems to generate business intelligence reports from data in a System Architect encyclopedia. The architecture includes one or more System Architect client machines from which users run Cognos Reports. On another machine, the IBM Cognos server is installed and then configured to retrieve encyclopedia data. Additionally, on the same IBM Cognos computer, or on a different computer, the System Architect Cognos Bridge is installed. Framework Manager is used to create the packages that will hold System Architect data.