CCL_ASSERT(m_nodeImpl != NULL) errors

I was getting this error when trying to execute a newly developed Report Studio report.  The knowledge base article below gives a great hint to why you are getting this error.   In my case, I had the ‘#’ character in the ’prompt text’ property inside of a query macro.

Description:

I have a query with Tabular SQL/SQL objects and everytime I execute or validate the report I get a RSV-SVR-0040 error.

Error Message:

RSV-SVR-0040

RSVP 1346 3 Audit.RTUsage.RSVP Validate Report  Failure <Exception Name=”CCLAssertError” Error=”0″ Severity=”Fatal”><Messages><MessageText>CCL_ASSERT(m_nodeImpl != NULL);</MessageText></Messages><TraceInfo><Trace Text=”RSReportService.cpp(654): CCLAssertError: CCL_CAUGHT: RSReportService::process()”/><Trace Text=”RSReportServiceMethod.cpp(177): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSReportServiceMethod::process(): reportValidateSpecification_Request”/><Trace Text=”RSASyncExecutionThread.cpp(520): CCLAssertError: RSASyncExecutionThread::checkException”/><Trace Text=”RSASyncExecutionThread.cpp(173): CCLAssertError: CCL_CAUGHT: RSASyncExecutionThread::run(): reportValidateSpecification_Request”/><Trace Text=”RSASyncExecutionThread.cpp(570): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSASyncExecutionThread::processCommand(): reportValidateSpecification_Request”/><Trace Text=”ExecutionContextImpl/RSReportValidateExecutionContext.cpp(97): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSReportValidateExecutionContext::run()”/><Trace Text=”Execution/RSRenderExecution.cpp(514): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSRenderExecution::execute”/><Trace Text=”Execution/RSRenderExecution.cpp(784): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSRenderExecution::processActiveDocuments”/><Trace Text=”Assembly/RSDocAssemblyDispatch.cpp(235): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSDocAssemblyDispatch::dispatchAssembly”/><Trace Text=”RSQueryMgr.cpp(779): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSQueryMgr::getListIterator”/><Trace Text=”RSQueryMgr.cpp(844): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSQueryMgr::getResultSetIterator”/><Trace Text=”RSQueryMgr.cpp(996): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSQueryMgr::createIterator”/><Trace Text=”RSQueryMgr.cpp(1626): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: RSQueryMgr::executeRsapiCommand”/><Trace Text=”QFSSession.cpp(1430): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QFSSession::ProcessDoRequest()”/><Trace Text=”QFSSession.cpp(1428): CCLAssertError: CCL_CAUGHT: QFSSession::ProcessDoRequest()”/><Trace Text=”QFSSession.cpp(1393): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QFSSession::ProcessDoRequest()”/><Trace Text=”QFSConnection.cpp(663): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QFSConnection::Validate”/><Trace Text=”QFSQuery.cpp(208): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QFSQuery::Validate2″/><Trace Text=”CoordinationQFSQuery.cpp(1460): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QE”/><Trace Text=”QFSQuery.cpp(238): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QFSQuery::Validate v3″/><Trace Text=”Source/QE_RsApi.cpp(3743): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QE”/><Trace Text=”Source/QE_RsApi.cpp(3618): CCLAssertError: CCL_RETHROW: QE”/><Trace Text=”CCLIDOM_Node.cpp(210): CCLAssertError: CCL_THROW: “/></TraceInfo></Exception> <parameters><item name=”model”><![CDATA[]]></item></parameters>
Root Cause:

There were characters in the SQL that Cognos recognizes as special characters such as #, which usually used to represent Macros.

Solution:

Either,

1. Do not use special characters in your SQL objects

2. Escape special characters using ” (double single-quotes)

Bulk Load Screen Tips in Framework Manager

I found this article on bulk loading screen tips in the Cognos Knowledge base.  I find it a lot faster than typing in each individual box in Cognos Framework Manager. 

Overview:
Providing screen tips when modeling in Framework Manager is a good practice to ensure that report authors understand and properly interpret data. The quality of the screen tips is generally better if you have your business sponsors or business analysts write these (let’s face it, we developers are not generally known for our writing skills…).
The easiest way to accomplish this is to provide a spreadsheet to the person who will be writing the screen tips and then bulk load them back into the model. FM language translation utilities that are really intended to make multi-lingual modeling easier can be used to bulk load screen tips.
The basic approach is to create a second language in the project and fake things out to make it seem as if you are providing English translations for items in another language. 

Instructions:
Below are step-by-step instructions.
1. Within FM, you must first create a screen tip for each item. In the screen tip property, type ST and then copy/paste the item name to identify it as a screen tip (e.g., ST Year). Properties without a value are not included in the export, so this step is necessary.
2. Add a second language to the project. Project -> Languages -> Define Languages. Pick another language such as French to add to the project.
3. Change the active language to French.
4. Select the query subject for which screen tips are to be provided. It might be easiest to do one query subject at a time (e.g., select Product, continue with steps below, and then come back to this step for the next query subject). All the text items in the export file come out alphabetically arranged, so doing them one subject at a time gives better context for what the tip refers to. Try exporting a bunch of subjects at once and you’ll see what I mean.
5. Export a translation file containing both languages. Project -> Languages -> Export Translation File. In the dialog, export both languages. Specify selected objects (rather than all objects) and keep the Include Children check box checked. Navigate to a location where the file will go, provide a file name, and save as type CSV.
6. Open the file in Excel, update values in the English (en) column. Only those with the ST prefix need to be modified and replaced with a business description. Save and close the file. It might be convenient to show the published package to the business user so they can refer to the actual data as they are writing tips.
7. With the completed spreadsheet, go back in FM and select the same query subject that was used for the export. The active language should still be French (or whatever you selected in step 2).
8. Import the translation file. -> Languages -> Import Translation File. Specify translation from French to English. Specify selected objects and navigate to the updated CSV file, then click OK.
9. Change the active language back to English and review the screen tips.
10. Go back to step 4 and repeat for the next query subject.
11. When all tips are loaded, remove the additional language using Project -> Languages -> Define Languages.

Writing Effective Screen Tips:
I often see descriptions where the item being described is something like “Price” and the description is “The product price.” Does this shed much light on this item? Is it the price per item or case? Price as of when? In terms of which currency? Think of the following things when writing to help improve the usefulness of screen tips.
* Try to avoid using the name of the item in the description. I recall reading that Daniel Webster described a good definition as one that could be written without using the word itself. If you have a measure for profit, you could describe what elements are part of (or not part of) the calculation instead of simply saying that it is the profit.
* Remember that screen tips display with the query item name itself as the prefix. An item called “Product Name” with a description of “Product Name” will appear as “Product Name – Product Name”. If you really can’t say anything more, don’t say anything at all.
* Describe how the item is formatted. For example: The name of the salesperson formatted as Last, First MI.
* Include default formatting defined in the model. If a date is formatted as DD-MON-YYYY, then say so. Measures with a default decimal display might also be worth noting.
* Include examples that give a sense of the domain of values. If you have something like currency code, you could write “The ISO currency code indicating how a transaction was settled (e.g., USD, GBP, EUR, etc.)”
* Identify relevant timing information. In a data warehouse environment, different elements may be current as of different points of time. Helping users understand how fresh their data is can improve its usefulness.
* Identify relevant sourcing information. If a corporation has multiple stores of master data such as for pricing information, indicate from which source your model is drawing its data.
* Keep them brief! This may sound contradictory if you include all the elements described above, but generally only one or two will apply to any one item. Avoid extraneous words. Screen tips only appear briefly on mouse-over, so if one is too long, it may disappear before the user has a chance to read it. 

 

Restoring Project Viewer and Properties Panes

Last week I helped a coleague restore her properties pane in Framework Manager.  The process is not as simple as you may think.  I found in the Cognos knowledge base (Document# 1027649.1) how to accomplish this.  Make sure you shut down Framework Manager before changing the “bmt.ini” file.  Closing after changing will cause the “bmt.ini” file to be overwritten to the bad settings.

Applies To:
 Cognos 8 BI Framework Manager 8.1 | Cognos 8 BI Install and Config 8.2

 
SRs:
 8

 
Collection:
 KB

 

——————————————————————————–
 

Description:

While moving around the different panes within the Framework Manager GUI, if the Project Viewer pane is accidently moved outside of the main Framework Manager frame, it disappears and there is no way to make it appear again from the GUI.

Root Cause:

The fact that Framework Manager GUI lets the user to move its different panes outside of the main frame of the application, and that there is no ‘Restore Default View’ type of button to put everything back in their default location.

Solution:

 

Modify the “bmt.ini” file by changing the “floating” values for the location of the pane that is misplaced to its default value. (e.g. left, right, or bottom)

Steps:

Locate the file called “bmt.ini” under “<c8-installation-path>\configuration” folder.
Open it up in any text editor and go the section that is called  “<Section Name “BMTUI_VIEWSTATE”>.
Change any of the Location values that show up as “floating” to the desired ones. (The following entries are the default values):
<Preference Name=”explorerLocation”>left</Preference>
<Preference Name=”propertiesLocation”>bottom</Preference>
<Preference Name=”toolsLocation”>right</Preference>

The start of my Blog :)

I have been thinking of creating a blog for the last couple of years and finally took the initiative.  Acutally, our database is down for updating, so I thought this would fill some down time.  There are several reasons why I decided to create a blog.  First, I would like to educate/inform others of what I know professionally as well as un-professional knowledge. 

I have been a Business Intelligence developer for the last 5 years and have learned much from others as well as my own research.  As other who work in the field know, there is no cookie cutter approach to BI, so the sharing of knowledge is important.  Over the next few months, I would like to start to build a network of others in the field.  In addition, I will be posting daily challenges and victories to inform others facing the same issues.

What?  You say all work and no play?  Not exactlly   In addition to the professional information I hope to include on this blog, I also will blog about some of my personal life.  My interests in life include mountain biking, auto detailing, watching movies and watching UFC/MMA. Ooops I forgot to include my girlfriend Maria

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back,

Scott