Problem: Save As

In Cognos Analytics, the Save As operation results in a new object ID.

To make changes to an existing report, report authors often make a copy of the existing report, and work on the copy in another folder location.  

When the author uses Save As to replace the original report with a new version, Cognos Analytics saves the report with a new object ID. The original report and ID has been replaced, so any existing user report views become"orphaned" or unlinked to the source report because it no longer exists. 

TIP: If you are concerned you created orphaned report views, contact the Business Intelligence (BI) team. They can provide a list of affected users to follow up with and/or help with user communication to relink the source report (it's easy to do in the report view properties).

Result

Orphaned report views have the following negative consequences for the end user:

• The report view appears greyed out and the user cannot run it.
• If the report view had a schedule the schedule begins failing with an error like the following:
  RSV-BBP-0024 The report view '[ID, folder path, and report name]' has no source report.        
• The user doesn't understand why their report view and/or schedule suddenly stopped working. It may not be apparent how to relink it to the source report. The user may assume they did something wrong.

Solution: Use "Move + Overwrite" to Publish Report Changes

Instead of using Save As, use the Move action to replace the original report with the new one.

1. Ensure both the original and new report have the same name.
2. In the new report folder location, from the report Action menu, select Copy or Move to.
3. Navigate to the folder of original report, and then click Move.
   
4. On the prompt that appears, click Overwrite.
   The object ID is retained and a confirmation appears that Cognos Analytics successfully overwrote the object. 
   

NOTE: Alternative to the procedure above, authors can develop the report in Cognos Analytics QA (or develop it in Production and move the ready to implement version to QA), and then submit a ticket for the BI Team to migrate the report for you. The BI Team migration process does not change the object ID in Production. 

Additional Reading

• Relink a Cognos Analytics Report View to the Source Report
• IBM | Report views get broken when replacing a report: Source report unavailable