IBM Cognos

Connecting IBM Cognos to bit.io

Cognos works well with bit.io, but does require some setup. We've put together this guide to help you get setup.

1) Setup The Data Server Connection

This guide walks you through the steps of connecting to bit.io using IBM Cognos using the PostgreSQL connector.

Go to the menu in the upper left corner and select Manage and then select "Data server connections".

Click + and click PostgreSQL.

Change the name of the connection (Congnos requires you do this). Change the authentication method to Use the following signon. Go to bit.io and click on the connect button. Copy your username and password and enter them into the "User ID," "Password," and "Confirm password" fields.

Click Edit next to connection details, and for the JDBC url put in jdbc:postgresql://db.bit.io:5432/{your_database_name}. Please note that you can't copy the database name directly from your bit.io connection details page: you need to replace the / in the database name with a ., otherwise the connection won't work.

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Database Name Format

Cognos will not be able to connect to bit.io if the database name in the JDBC URL is formatted as username/dbname as it is in the bit.io Connect menu. Instead, use username.dbname. That is, the following works: jdbc:postgresql://db.bit.io:5432/GettingStarted.MyDatabase while this does not: jdbc:postgresql://db.bit.io:5432/GettingStarted/MyDatabase.

2) Load The Schema Metadata

In the same window, click Schemas. For any schema you are interested in, click the ... that appears when you hover over the schema name, and click Load metadata. This will populate the data module, and let you use the data in your reports. Once the metadata is loaded, you can close this window.

3) Use The Data!

Let's create a data module. First, click on the upper left menu and click Content

Click New and Data Module

On the left hand side select Data server (the fifth option down), and click on the data source you just created.

Click on the server, then click on the schema we loaded the metadata for, and click OK. Click Select Tables and pick the tables you want to work with. You're done!

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Make Sure you Loaded Metadata

If no schemas are visible at this stage, you may have forgotten to load metadata for any schemas in the prior step. If you aren't sure which schema your tables are in, they're probably in the "public" schema!