ICS

Production Introduction

ICS is located under My Area Options in IBM Cognos Analytics.  This is designed to give non-administrators more functionality within Integrated Control Suite™.
ICS currently has six pages: Search, Recycle Bin, Report Documenter, Deploy, Active Users, and Administration. Only Administrators can access the administration page, as discussed in the administration guide.

Activity Feed

The Activity Feed provides an overview of recent modifications within your Cognos environment.

Search

Search allows the user to search for objects, based on the version number and comments.

Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin content can be accessed by any IBM Cognos Analytics users by selecting ICS > Recycle Bin.  Without Admin Rights, when viewing “Recycle Bin”, the user will only be able to view, recover or permanently delete content that was deleted by them.  It is not possible for users to access another user’s Recycle Bin from this user interface.  Administrators will have access to the filter icon in the Toolbar that will allow them to select deleted objects for different users.

Actions

When viewing the Recycle Bin, the user has the ability to restore, restore to…, or delete objects in their Recycle Bin.  The user can shift click or Ctrl click, objects to restore or delete multiple objects from the available toolbar buttons.

Deployment

Deploy provides Authors the ability to deploy objects in bulk to a target IBM Cognos Analytics environment from directly within the source IBM Cognos Analytics environment.  Authors can deploy a variety of objects, including Packages, Folders, Reports, Jobs and URLs.  When coupled with Integrated Version Control™, Administrators can opt to allow Authors to tag reports onto the deploy project.  This integration provides collaboration between Authors and Administrators so that as work is completed, it can be queued for deployment.

Active Users

The Active Users option from the ICS slide-out provides access to the Integrated Control Suite^TM messaging features.  The active users is used for several purposes including 1) enforcing and notifying users about object check-ins, 2) alerting concurrent editing, 3) broadcast messaging users, and 4) monitoring logged on users and activity. The Messaging features can reach users anywhere in IBM Cognos Analytics including all authoring pages, and ICS areas such as the Recycle bin and the Revision History.

The Active Users section provides a listing of each active user in the IBM Cognos Analytics system.  Each user session is accompanied by the user’s name and their active location.  Each entry represents a browser window or tab. 

The Broadcast and Private Messaging features provide a mechanism for blasting a message to all current users in the system as well as new users who log in within the specified period of time.  Users will receive a broadcast message that must be dismissed.  This ensures the user has seen the message and they are free to click around while this message appears.

The Private Messaging section allows the administrator to select which users will receive the message.  With this option there is no expiry time for the message. The user will see the pop-up and need to close out of it, so we know they received the message.

Administration

The Administration panel provides the ability to configure and adjust the Integrated Control Suite Installation.  More details regarding the Administration panel are available in the ICS Administration Guide.

Version Viewer

The Version Viewer provides Revision History for all objects versioned in your Cognos Environment and provides a way to access the Revision History screen to revert, compare, and deploy these objects between environments.