Important Set-Up Changes

With the introduction of the Vantage CGI gateway component and the retiring of the ISAPI Redirector, the gateway installation instructions have changed. Please review Section  9 of the SpotOn-Vantage-Inst-Config-Admin-Guide.pdf and section 3 of the SpotOn-Vantage-Map-Studio-Admin-Guide for further instructions.

The upgrade guide for Vantage 4.3 is available at http://support.spotonsystems.com/entries/21214976-vantage-4-3-upgra... The guide includes instructions to upgrade existing reports.

Core Vantage

Features

• Introduction of the Vantage CGI Script

Improvements

• Simplified Vantage Administration workflow
• Reduced dependance on Unique Data Source Names to improve authoring workflow. Data Source Names are now only used with Vantage Exchange
• Retired isapi_redirect.dll and replaced with vantage.cgi
• Reset functionality in Vantage Administration now completely clears Vantage components from report specifications
• Reports can freely be copied using standard copy/paste functionality in Cognos Connection
• No restrictions on the promotion of reports from one environment to the other
  
• Improved error reporting for incorrectly configured visualizations   

Bug Fixes

• Resolved special character issues within Report Queries

Special Notes

• Support for IBM Cognos 8.3 has been depricated.

Vantage Maps

Features

• Support for Server ID's, which allows different GIS Server instances in dev/test/prod without updating map specifications
• Allow Configuration of Color of Broadcast related graphics
• Changes to allow for Vantage CGI Script

Bug Fixes

• Tooltips on the transparecy Sliders in MapStudio
• On Load Client Side Shape Layer Icon is not showing Green
• Updated screen capture options when printing to PDF of using Map Export.
• Removed WMS version tag from non WMS layer XML.   
  

Vantage Charts

New Feature

• Changes to allow for Vantage CGI Script

For compatibility with IBM Cognos 10.1.1 please install Vantage 4.1+ for IBM Cognos 10 (launchInstallerC10.bat/sh) and apply the attached hotfix.

To apply the hotfix, unzip the contents into the Vantage application root folder on EACH install in which you've installed the Vantage Server component.

One Dedicated Query per Layer

Every layer in the map that is joined with Cognos data should have its own query.  For example if the map will have a Point Layer, a Heatmap and a Cognos Spatial Layer (States, Postal Areas, etc) the report should have three queries to drive the map.  

Maintainability

Having one separate query for each layer improves maintainability of reports.  When looking at a query report authors will only need to consider what fields a single layer requires.  The number of fields per query will also be reduced.

Performance

Using a single query for each map layer will improve the performance of reports.  To optimize map queries report authors should remove all columns that are not required by the map layer, especially columns that will preform joins and add additional rows to the table.  

For example suppose there is a Cognos Spatial Layer visualizing Revenue by State.  Adding a "Country" column will increase the amount of data by adding one additional field onto every row.  This is reasonable. 

Adding a "Zip Code/Postal Code" column will increase the number of rows in the table dramatically.  For a map of the United States the table would go from 50 rows (number of states) to roughly 43,000 rows (number of zip codes).  Since the report author is symbolizing on State, the Zip data is not necessary.  Adding Zip data causes additional aggregation and processing.  This should be avoided when possible.  

Parameters

When putting a filter in a Map Query the filter should meet at least one of the following conditions:

• The filter does not use a parameter and is set to a static value.  For example: 

• [Sales (query)].[Retailer site].[Retailer country] =  'United States'

• The parameter in the filter is set via a prompt page.  For example if the filter below is used then the parameter: StateParameter should be set in a prompt page

• [Sales (query)].[Retailer site].[Retailer Province-State] in (?StateParameter?) 

If neither condition is met Esri Viewer should function properly but Map Studio may not recognize the query.

Sample Report

A sample report is included demonstrating query best practices.  Open the report from XML in Report Studio (Tools -> Open Report From Clipboard).   

MapServiceIDs

EsriViewer Map Specifications usually contains a link to a specific ArcGIS server.  Using the MapServiceIDs.txt file administrators can replace the link with an easily changeable alias.  

Prior to EsriViewer 4.3 Map Specifications looked like this:

<mapConfig version="1.1">
 ... 
 <mapServiceLayer url="{PROTOCOL}://arcgisDev/ArcGIS/rest/services/NatGeo_World_Map/MapServer" ...>
 ...
 </mapConfig>

Now in EsriViewer 4.3 Map Specifications can contain IDs:

<mapConfig version="1.1">
 ... 
 <mapServiceLayer url="{PROTOCOL}://[ID:ESRI_RESOURCE_CENTER]/ArcGIS/rest/services/NatGeo_World_Map/MapServer" ...>
 ...
 </mapConfig>

The MapServiceID will be looked up a runtime and replaced with the corresponding URL in MapServiceIDs.txt.

To Configure

1) Enter all domains into MapServiceIDs.txt ([webapps_Root]\esriViewer) with a unique identifier. For example:

 UNIQUE_ID_ARCGIS_SERVER
 server.myCompany.com

2) Replace the domains in the MapServices.txt file with the ids. The id must be enclosed in square brackets and be prefixed by "ID:". For example:

 My Companies Resource Center
 http://[ID:UNIQUE_ID_ARCGIS_SERVER]/ArcGIS/rest/services

Note:  The MapServiceIDs in MapServices.txt and MapServiceIDs are case-sensitive.  The string "[ID:" in the MapServiceIDs.txt file must be uppercase.  

Best Practices

• It is recommended that all MapServices in the MapServices.txt file contain an ID
• It is recommended that the default geometry service specified in config-default.xml ([webapps_Root]\esriViewer\esriConfig\) contains an ID.  (See "Section 5 - Alternate Geometry Service URL" of the SpotOn-Vantage-Map-Studio-Admin-Guide for more info on the default geometry service.)

This allows an administrator to change the domain name of the ArcGIS Server without having to update every report manually.

Sample Use Case

One common use case for this feature is when an organization has a Cognos Development environment with a corresponding ArcGIS server and a Cognos Production environment with a different ArcGIS server.  

If a report is migrated from Development to Production and MapServiceIDs are not used this situation will occur:

Using MapServiceIDs will easily resolve this issue.  Use the same MapServices.txt file on both Cognos environments but change the value in MapServiceIDs.txt to point to the appropriate ArcGIS server.  For example:

MapServices.txt

 My Companies Resource Center
 http://[ID:ARCGIS_SERVER]/ArcGIS/rest/services

MapServiceIDs.txt on Cognos Development Environment

 ARCGIS_SERVER
developmentServer.myCompany.com

MapServiceIDs.txt on Cognos Production Environment

 ARCGIS_SERVER
 server.myCompany.com