If you’re responsible for doing more coding and development around Cognos 8, such as using the Cognos 8 SDK or utilizing web services, then you should check out their sample test package that is available for download off of their Support site. The url is http://support.cognos.com/supported/tti/public/index.html under Development/Utilities.
Download their sample files for c8ReportRequestService which is designed for Cognos 8 and allows you to work with the SDK to communicate with the Cognos components.
Cognos defines it as: “This application provides the facility for a calling application to provide the data (in XML format) alongside the request. The application will save that data against a unique identifier and will pass this identifier to Cognos 8, allowing Cognos 8 to retrieve that data from the web service using either Composite or the built in XML data source support.”
TIP: You may have to modify your port references from the default 8080 depending upon your development environment.