One of the most exciting enhancements to Deltek Cobra came with the introduction of Microsoft Excel based reporting templates when Cobra version 5.0 hit the market back in 2009. Without doubt, this has made Deltek Cobra the most flexible EV reporting tool out there. It allows boneheads like me to modify any report to the needs of my customer without having to retake Computer Programming 101 at my local college.
Anyone with a good grasp of Excel formatting and basic formulae can modify a Deltek Cobra report. However, a default server installation of Cobra with all the security trimmings of a well-functioning IT department may require a little workaround before you can create your first true masterpiece. This article discusses this latter challenge.
So there you are, all inspired and ready to try modifying a few Deltek Cobra 5 reporting templates and save yourself hours every month formatting reports, only to discover your IT department has put the kibosh on the whole idea by locking you out of the ReportingTemplates directory.
Don’t feel bad, I run in to this little “gotcha” frequently. The ReportingTemplates directory sits under Deltek Cobra’s install directory, and for some reason IT folks don’t want people messing around with the install directories on their servers. I can’t imagine why. So what can budding Cobra report developers do about this? If you can’t convince your IT department to give you read/write access to that directory, then here are a couple of suggestions.
Suggestion 1 – Change the default Deltek Cobra Reporting Templates director
The first step is to create a new directory on a file server that is accessible to both Deltek Cobra’s application server and to any folks that may need to modify reporting templates. Once you’ve created this directory, copy all the current reporting template .xls files into it from the original ReportTemplates directory.
Once you’ve done that, click on the Tools | Configure… menu option to access the Configure dialog. In the General tab you will find a field named Report Template Location.
Now set the Report Template Location field to point to your new report templates directory.
Keep in mind that this is a global change. All of the Cobra reports will assume their templates can be found in this location. Alternatively, if you only wish to modify a couple of reports and don’t want to mess with the entire reporting template structure, there’s another approach you can take.
Suggestion 2 – Specify the Template Location in the Report Definition
This next option requires that you place a copy of a report’s template into a location where you can edit it. You can then set the template path in the Report Definition directory using the TemplateFile property string, located near the bottom of the tab window.
In this example, the TemplateFile property string has been modified with the full path to the template for the selected report. You can just type the path and file name into the Report Definitions window and click the Apply button to save the change. Assuming the new template directory was named C:\My Cobra Templates, the following string would apply.
<Property Name=”TemplateFile” DataType=”String” ReadOnly=”0” xml:space=”preserve”>c:\my cobra templates\cpr format 1 mod.xls</Property
From here on, the selected report will be looking for its template in this location, regardless of the defaults for the rest of the reports.
If you’re dealing with server directories, you can use a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) address in this property string, such as \\servername\serverdirectory\cpr format 1 mod.xls to save your mapping drives on Deltek Cobra’s application server.
Tip: You could use a combination of the above techniques to prevent unwanted changes being made to the standard report templates. By creating a copy of the template .xls files in a directory that IT does allow you to edit, you can modify existing templates there and use the TemplateFile property string to point directly at them; leaving all the other reports to their own devises.
Special thanks and much credit go to the wonderful folks who attended my Deltek Cobra training course in Westford, MA this week. Your superb questions, insights and shared experiences made for a very enjoyable class and also inspired much of the content in this blog. It was a pleasure to work with you all and I wish you continued success for the future.