How to expose cognos reports as web service

Question

please let me know what are the API’s available in Cognos?

what are the API's required to expose cognos reports as web services for mobile apps?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There are a handfull of APIs for orchestrating activities or retrieving data in Cognos

1. Cognos exposes a "URL" interface for some of the most common activities. This includes running a report, viewing saved report output, opening a report in report studio, etc.
2. You can use the Cognos SDK. This is the most powerful way to orchestrate things in Cognos. It has a large surface area and a fairly steep learning curve, but if you're willing to invest the time in it, the possibilities are endless
3. You can use the Cognos Mashup service - this is kind of like "SDK Lite". Its much easier to use but exposes a much smaller surface area. As the name implies, its useful for mashup type scenarios.

Here's an article which describes Cognos Mashup vs. Cognos SDK, and provides some heuristics for when you would choose one over the other :

http://www.motio.com/blog/2010/11/01/cognos-sdk-vs-cognos-mashup.do