In this recipe, we will go through the basic user interface provided with IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced.
A working IBM Cognos 10 BI setup is necessary for this recipe. Install and configure the GO Sales and GO Data Warehouse samples shipped with the product.
To explore IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced User Interface, perform the following steps:
1. Navigate to Cognos Connection using the URI, as stated earlier.
2. Navigate to Public Folders | Samples | Models | Interactive Samples, as shown in the following screenshot:
3. Click on the
icon on the extreme right of the Top 10 Retailers for 2005 entry. It will show multiple actions that can be performed on the report entry. Click on the Open with Business Insight Advanced option to open the report in Business Insight Advanced.4. By clicking on the
icon, it will open the report in Cognos Report Studio. This report has been created using Cognos Report Studio, which is evident from the icon besides the report name. We want to open this report in Cognos Business Insight Advanced, hence we have clicked on the More... icon.
5. This will open the report in Business Insight Advanced, as shown in the following figure. Important sections are labeled accordingly:
6. The Application bar area contains options to manage reports (for instance to create, open, and save a report). General options, for instance to cut, copy, paste, and delete are also provided in the same area. Specific options, which help the user to author and modify reports, are also present in the Application bar area. The same options are provided as icons on Toolbar.
7. The Insertable Objects pane displays the metadata model package used to author the report. Components can be dragged-and-dropped from the package to the Report Authoring area.
8. The Toolbox tab has a list of static objects, which can be used to format the report in a certain way. For instance, a crosstab can be selected, dragged, and dropped to the Report Authoring area to build on the layout of the report.
9. The Properties window displays all the properties of the object that is currently selected in the Report Authoring area. The user can change properties of the report objects as required.
10. Click on the
icon from the Toolbar area to execute the report. The report will be rendered as HTML, in a new window called IBM Cognos Viewer, as shown in the following screenshot:
11. Dashboard pages can be designed so that URIs of such reports can be placed in the left-hand side pane. Configurations can be done to display the corresponding output on the right-hand side pane if a user clicks on the corresponding URI on the left-hand side pane.
12. Such reports can also be directly used while creating dashboards in Cognos Business Insight.
Cognos Report Studio has a similar interface to the preceding one, but is used to author more complex reports. Such reports created using Business Insight Advanced and Report Studio can be saved on Cognos Connection. These reports can be distributed to users as dashboards or as management reports.
Individual objects defined in these reports can be used independently in Business Insight to create more sophisticated dashboards. The advantage of such dashboards is that the summary data from various domains and functional areas, which is ready to be viewed in a user-friendly manner, can be collected and presented to users as one executive dashboard.
Going forward, we will focus more on creating the dashboards in the most efficient ways. Tips and relevant information about other related components will be shared throughout the book as and when required.
The next chapter will focus on Cognos Business Insight and some of the best practices in presenting business data to business users.