Overview
This article provides an introduction to the types of folders in Cognos and guidance on the management and organization of folders and reports.
Folder Types
The four most commonly used folder types include Enterprise, Departmental, User Acceptance Testing, and the My Content folder. These folders are intended to assist with organizing reports by purpose, user group, and report type. With the exception of My Content, each of these folders contains subfolders for additional organization.
The Cognos User Interface and Navigation Basics article provides an overview on navigating folders and finding reports.
Enterprise Report folders
Enterprise report folders include Finance, HR, and Student. The reports in these folders are developed, managed, and updated by their respective subject matter experts in collaboration with the IDR Team to meet campus-wide reporting needs.
See UO Enterprise Reports for a complete list of available enterprise reports.
Departmental folders
Departmental folders are subfolders of Team Content and used for storage of custom reports unique to departments, colleges, and groups. These reports are backed up on a nightly basis.
- As they are not enterprise reports, they are not maintained by the IDR Team.
- The owner of each departmental folder can manage the permissions of the folder and its contents.
- A list of departmental folders and the current manager of each folder is available in the article Departmental Folders.
- Additionally, individual reports can be owned and managed independent of the departmental folder delegate.
See How to Apply Departmental Folder Permissions in Cognos (for Folder Delegates) for instructions on granting access to a folder and its contents.
Tip: It is recommended to perform a regular audit of reports in your Departmental folder to identify duplicate or outdated reports that can be deleted.
User Acceptance Testing folder
The User Acceptance Testing (UAT) folder is a subfolder of Team Content and is intended for temporary storage of reports in development. Once reports are working as intended, they need to be moved, not copied, to a permanent location in a Departmental folder.
My Content folder
The My Content folder can be used for temporary storage of a report during development. Content in this folder is not visible to others and cannot be shared from this location. Consider using UAT or Departmental folders for developing reports.
Please Note: The IDR Team does not recommend the My Content folder as a permanent location for reports.
Alternatives to Custom Reports
Favorites
You can favorite a report by clicking the heart icon to the right of the report. This allows quick access reports from many different folders by grouping them in your Favorites tab. The Cognos User Interface and Navigation Basics article also describes this feature.
Figure 1. The main Content screen, highlighting the Favorites .
Create a Report View
Creating a report view allows you to save, schedule, and run an existing report with set prompt values and reporting properties. You can create a report view of an existing report by following the instructions in How to Schedule a Report in Cognos.
Need Help?
For general questions, please submit a ticket to Integrated Data & Reporting (IDR) - Cognos Help.