Skip to Main Content
IBM Data and AI Ideas Portal for Customers


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against products and services offered by the IBM Data & AI organization. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:


Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,


Post your ideas

Post ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted and upvote them if they matter to you,

  1. Post an idea

  2. Upvote ideas that matter most to you

  3. Get feedback from the IBM team to refine your idea


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

IBM Employees should enter Ideas at https://ideas.ibm.com


Status Not under consideration
Workspace Cognos Analytics
Components Other
Created by Guest
Created on Apr 20, 2022

Fix Custom Calculation validation error

We recently created a Case to ask about a validation error that occurs in Cognos' "Create Calculation" editor. Those error details are summarized below, and in this linked Case: https://www.ibm.com/mysupport/s/case/5003p00002b4qa4AAA/on-custom-calculation-validation-xqeds0009-data-source-was-not-found-in-content-manager?language=en_US From the Case description: "Cognos allows you to create custom calculations using your database fields, as described on these pages: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.1.0?topic=calculations-creating-custom https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/create-custom-calculation-dashboard-cognos-analytics-11xx https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.1.0?topic=calculations-creating-custom In the "Create Calculation" editor, there is a "Validate" button that is supposed to validate the expression. However, when I create my expression using our database fields and click Validate, it gives me this error: 'The expression is not valid. XQE-DS-0009 Data source "" was not found in Content Manager.'" As you can read in the Case history, we eventually determined that this error occurs for us because we use a macro in the Content Manager Data Source to dynamically assign a Data Source based on the specific client that is using Cognos. We need to do that because we're using Cognos as a multi-tenant solution, and the Data Source is going to vary based on the office key (6-digit number) of the client. Unfortunately, it appears that this macro takes time to evaluate, and it usually doesn't evaluate quickly enough to allow the validation function in the "Create Calculation" editor to work. IBM attempted to replicate this error on their side, but were unable to do so. Nevertheless, the error continues to occur in our environment, so we want to submit this as an Idea for the future. Can the validation functionality be changed in such a way that it doesn't run into a timing problem when a macro is used in the Content Manager Data Source?