CA 11: Custom Navigation Bar Entries

Many users have asked, “can I create a starting point other than Team Content?” Well, the simple answer is “Yes.” This allows users to access a folder that may be nested many level deep in the Cognos folder structure right from the welcome area. Adding additional entries to the navigation bar on the left can be achieved using extensions. Additional extensions can be found in the ../Samples/Extensions directory of your install. This posts highlights the modifications that would need to be made to the SampleExtensionButtonFolder.zip folder. Below are the steps you will need to take to modify the JSON file as well as the implementation into Cognos.

Let’s start by defining that we want the folder, New Folder, to display on the Navigation bar on the left.

Save your own version of the SampleExtensionButtonFolder.zip to your desktop or other development location.

Unzip the SampleExtensionButtonFolder.zip folder.

Open the SampleExtensionButtonFolder folder.

Open the JSON file in your preferred editor.

On line 2, change the property for the name field.

On line 9, change the property for the ID field by adding a “.” followed by the folder name to the end of the existing name. EX: samples.button.openFolder.FolderName

On line 13, change the property for the ID field by adding a “.” followed by the folder name.

On line 15, change the property for the label field to be the name you’d like to display in the Navigation bar.

On line 18, change the property for the weight field to be the position where you’d like the new entry to appear on the Navigation bar. NOTE that 0 is at the bottom of the upper-left list. 700 or greater is at the top of the list.

On line 22, change the property for the path field to be the path of the folder. Even though CA 11 calls the main content folder “Team Content,” the code behind the scenes still recognizes it as “public_folders.” EX: .public_folders/FolderPath

Save the new JSON file.

Change the name of the SampleExtensionButtonFolder folder to be more applicable.

ZIP the folder ensuring that no additional compression is selected.

Place the ZIP folder in a place where Cognos can access.

Navigate to your Cognos instance and log in. You’ll need to have system administrator rights to implement this extension.

Go to the Manage menu on the navigation bar, and select Customization.

At the top of the Customization menu, select Extensions.

In the upper right corner of the Extensions menu, select the Upload extension icon.

Navigate to where your ZIP file is located and select open.

It is worth noting that these extensions are implemented in sequential order. If there are multiple extensions that can affect the same item(s), the last one uploaded with be the one executed last.