How can i use a common header in Cognos among many report pages?

Question

I have a Cognos report and i have created 3 pages and 1 common prompt page. According to a radio selection in the prompt page i show the appropriate among these 3 pages.

In each page i have a block that is the header and there i just show title, current date and the selected values of the prompt controls (parameter values).

This header is the same among all pages and i want to find a way to create only 1 header section and then assign it on the top of each page. So if later i want to change anything in the header i will do it in one place.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Re-using parts of a report (either from the report or other report in Cognos Connection) can be achieved with the help of layout component refenrences which are inserted into your report page and which refer to other existing components.

To use them proceed as follows:

1. Indentify the layout component(s) to be re-used (e.g. a table or a text or more or less anything less).
2. In the property list of that component go to the name and give it a unique name.
3. In the report page that is supposed to re-use the component drag an instance of the layout component reference to the appropriate location in the page.
4. Specify the target of the reference by choosing the report and within the report the named component (same name as given above).

Example

A block component (which could be incorporated into a header) is to be re-used. Give the block a name, e.g. my_block:

From the toolbox drag the layout component reference

to the report page. A dialog box opens which permits choosing the target component: