Group on a Hyperlink Column in Cognos PDF report

Question

I am using Cognos 10 report studio. I need to group a report on a Hyperlink column... or add a hyperlink to the Grouped column without redundantly displaying any data.

I have a Grouped Column, TicketNo. Each TicketNo has multiple lines. I only want the TicketNo (and my Hyperlink) to appear once per Ticket.

Edit: With ElectricLlama's help, I solved the issue. Here is the steps I went through.

Initial Attempt:

Grouped on TicketNo, with HTML Text Item included

I originally used an HTML Text Item so that I could add a custom link which did the 'Open in New Page' automatically. I Unlocked the Report, then I put a 1 column x 2 row table inside the TicketNo column to arrange the two items together in the same Report Column. This works great in HTML reports:

Grouped on TicketNo with HTML Text Item, result in HTML report

The HTML Item does not show up in PDF output versions of the report:

Grouped on TicketNo with HTML Text Item, result in PDF report

I need a version of this which works in PDF. For that I tried the 'Hyperlink' Column instead of HTML Item:

Grouped on TicketNo with Hyperlink Column

The result creates a Hyperlink that works in PDF:

Grouped on TicketNo, with Hyperlink Column result in PDF report

There are multiple redundant links per Ticket. I only want One link per ticket, like we had with the Hyperlink Column. I tried removing the TicketNo column and then Grouping on the Hyperlink column, but Hyperlink columns cannot be grouped on.

If you are left with redundant values in the column, unlock it and delete them. — Nick.McDermaid
I am referring to having the same Field twice in the same report, once for grouping, once for Hyper-linking. Not redundant within a single field. — Damienknight
It's difficult to understand without a picture but can you set the box type to none to hide what you don't want? — Nick.McDermaid
Setting the TicketNo column to Grouped, then unlocking and inserting the Hyperlink into the same column as the TicketNo, then clicking inside the TicketNo data item's individual Box and selecting 'Box Type' -> None did the trick. The Report is grouped on the ticketNo, the hyperlink only displays once per ticket number, but the ticket number does not appear in the report. The solution was a combination of your suggestions ElectricLlama. Post a formal answer and I will accept/Upvote it. — Damienknight
Excellent effort to document and post your answer, that will be most helpful to all. Are you able to accept your own answer? — Nick.McDermaid

Damienknight Damienknight · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-22T19:11:41

I unlocked the report again (so I could move items around inside the table cells) and moved the Hyperlink into the TicketNo Column. (make sure you select the inner box in the hyperlink when dragging):

TicketNo and Hyperlink in the same column

And achieved a usable result in PDF:

enter image description here

The final issue was, I only want to see the Hyperlink. Seeing the TicketNo and the TicketNo named hyperlink together seemed redundant. I clicked inside the TicketNo item's Table Cell and selected 'Box Type' -> 'None'.

This hid the TicketNo field, but its Grouping is still in effect:

TicketNo BoxType = Hidden with Hyperlink in same Column

The result in PDF was exactly what I was looking for:

Hyperlink in same column as TicketNo, grouped on TicketNo

The Hyperlink appears to be grouped on!

Group on a Hyperlink Column in Cognos PDF report

1 Answers