Downloads from Cognos support site (WAS: PowerHouse WEB)

[Whittall, Conrad]

I thought that I should jump in to explain why all registered primary
and secondary users of the http://support.cognos.com site might appear
to be able to download all of the available products.

This is due to the fact that the web pages that list what product
downloads are available are all static pages...not ones generated
dynamically based on a customer's current support and maintenance
contract (and hence their entitlement to specific product downloads).
Everyone signed in to the site, not just primary and secondary users,
can see these pages. However, when a particular download package is
selected and the 'Download Now' button is clicked the request is then
sent to an application, which verifies that the user is a primary or
secondary contact and that the chosen product is actually covered by one
of the customer's current support contracts. Only if these conditions
are met is a unique URL generated to our Akamai download service for the
user to access the chosen product.

Now, if they ever let me get back to doing some coding it wouldn't take
me too long using PowerHouse Web to build an app to verify a user's
rights to access the product downloads, and then dynamically generate a
list of downloads available to that user based on their current support
contract (we already have all of the necessary data in an Oracle 9i
database...the same one used for the Documentation & Utilities Library
PHWeb app). But for now I'm working to try to improve the search
capability on the support site...

Best regards,
Conrad

Conrad Whittall
Senior Solutions Architect, Global Customer Services, Cognos
Incorporated
3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 4K9, Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com] On Behalf Of Deskin, Bob
Sent: Saturday 9 October 2004 10:59
To: markstewart@consultantsclub.biz; powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
Subject: RE: PowerHouse WEB

The products available for download from the Cognos support web site are
there for supported customers who are already licensed to use the
product. The intent is to provide a supported customer with the ability
to download a new version instead of waiting for a shipment. This will
become more important when we issue our upcoming maintenance release.
This will be an on-request release meaning that we will not
automatically ship it to all supported customers. We will notify our
customers of its availability and they will have the option of
downloading it or receiving a shipment or both.

These are not "demo" or "trial" versions. They will not function without
an appropriate license key. Just because a customer has our BI products
does not mean that they are entitled to the PowerHouse products.

All that said, as we all know, PowerHouse is excellent for the small,
one-off, utility type programs. Whether a screen or a simple update via
QTP. A single user development license on Windows or UNIX is, relatively
speaking, not very expensive compared to other tools and a developer's
time. For example, using the PowerHouse typical 10:1 productivity
improvement, a Java/C++ program that would take 10 hours to write would
take 1 hour in PowerHouse. At that rate, it doesn't take very long to
recover whatever you spent on the PowerHouse license.

Bob Deskin              
Senior Product Manager, Application Development Tools Cognos Inc. 3755
Riverside Drive, Ottawa ON K1G 4K9 CANADA bob.deskin@cognos.com (613)
738-1338 ext 7268

-----Original Message-----
From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com]On Behalf Of Mark Stewart
Sent: October 9, 2004 9:18 AM
To: powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
Subject: PowerHouse WEB


Hello,

I was curious about the use of Cognos products.  A company in Michigan I
started doing some work use a lot of Cognos software.  Mostly Impromptu
and PowerPlay.  A memeber of our production staff the other day kicking
around the idea of writing a little application to make quicks fixes on
some Oracle tables.  Then they started looking for a Java guy. 
The users are not very technical so we don't want them going into Toad
or Sql Navigator.  

I was wondering about the download section on the customer support
section that has PowerHouse WEB.  You need to be a Secondary support
person who is created by the Primary support person.  Could the
Secondary support person just download PowerHouse Web and through
together some quicky Quick screens?  I'm sure this company already pays
Cognos big bucks for BI stuff so is the PowerHouse Web stuff
automatically covered under the current payment arrangment or would we
have to fork over more money in addition to the BI bill?  Is there is a
reason the Secondary support person can download PowerHouse WEB?  Is it
to use it?

Thanks,

Mark Stewart
Consultants Club Corp.
Windsor, Ontario

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