IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

Overview of this book

IBM Cognos Report Studio is widely used for creating and managing business reports in medium to large companies. It is simple enough for any business analyst, power user, or developer to pick up and start developing basic reports. However, this book is designed to take the reader beyond the basics and into the world of creating more sophisticated, functional business reports.IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition helps you understand and use all the features provided by Report Studio to generate impressive deliverables. It will take you from being a beginner to a professional report author. It bridges the gap between basic training provided by manuals or trainers and the practical techniques learned over years of practice.Written in a recipe style, this book offers step-by-step instructions for IBM Cognos Report Studio users to author reports effectively, allowing a reader to dip in and out of the chapters as they desire. You will see a new fictional business case in each recipe that will relate to a real-life problem and then you will learn how to crack it in Report Studio. This book covers all the basic and advanced features of Report Authoring. It introduces the fundamental features useful across any level of reporting. Then it ascends to advanced techniques and tricks to overcome Studio limitations. Develop excellent reports using dimensional data sources by following best practices that development work requires in Report Studio. You will also learn about editing the report outside the Studio by directly editing the XML specifications. You will discover how to build and use Cognos Active Reports, a new addition in IBM Cognos 10. Provide richness to the user interface by adding JavaScript and HTML tags and using the different chart types introduced in IBM Cognos 10. The main focus is on the practical use of various powerful features that Report Studio has to offer to suit your business requirements. Learn numerous techniques and hacks that will allow you to make the best out of your IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio.

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook Second Edition

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

Report Authoring Basic Concepts

Introduction

Summary filters and detail filters

Sorting grouped values

Aggregation and rollup aggregation

Implementing if-then-else in filters

Formatting data – dates, numbers, and percentages

Creating sections

Hiding columns in crosstabs

Prompts – display value versus use value

Advanced Report Authoring

Introduction

Adding cascaded prompts

Creating a nested report – defining the master-detail relationship

Writing back to the database

Adding conditional formatting

Formatting negative values

Playing with conditional styles

Using conditional blocks – many reports in one

Defining drill-through from crosstab intersection

Overriding crosstab intersection drill-through definitions

Using JavaScript Files – Tips and Tricks

Introduction

Defining dynamic default values for prompts

Changing the title of the value prompt

Validating textbox prompts

Showing/hiding prompt controls at runtime

Selecting and submitting values automatically

Manipulating the Date Time control

Creating a variable width bar chart using JavaScript

The Report Page – Tips and Tricks

Introduction

Showing images dynamically (traffic light report)

Handling the missing image issue

Dynamic links to an external website (a Google Maps example)

Alternating drill links

Showing tooltips on reports

Merged cells in Excel output

Worksheet name in Excel output

Conditional column titles

Working with XML

Introduction

Changing drill targets quickly

Copying and pasting drill links

Removing references to old packages or items

A hidden gem in XML – row level formatting

Writing Printable Reports

Introduction

Controlling the container size and rows per page

Eliminating orphan rows

Defining page orientation and size (and overriding them for one page)

Avoiding page title repetition

Horizontal pagination

Page numbering with horizontal pagination

Choosing the output format from a prompt

Choosing the right colors

Defining page sets

Cautions about HTML items and JavaScript files

Displaying the report name in a footer

Working with Dimensional Models

Introduction

List report or crosstab report

Filtering rows or columns

Filtering a whole report

Adding a prompt into Slicer and its limitations

Achieving zero suppression

Aggregation versus preaggregated values

The roleValue() function

Swapping dimensions using MUN manipulation

Working with Macros

Introduction

Adding data-level security using the CSVIdentityMap macro

Using the Prompt macro in native SQL

Making prompts optional

Adding a token using macros

Using the prompt() and promptmany() macros in query subjects

Showing the prompt values in a report based on security

String operations to get it right

Showing a username in the footer

Using Report Studio Efficiently

Introduction

Using Report Studio's environmental options

Copying and pasting partial or full reports

Upgrading report specifications

Setting the execution timeout

Setting the maximum row limit

Handling slow report validation

Capturing a query

Browsing values from the data expression window

Viewing the page structure

Picking up and applying styles

Using the "grab them all" practice

Using Default Data Formats

Working with Active Reports

Introduction

Building tabbed reports

Working with Decks

Working with the Data Deck

Filtering data using Data Check Box Group

Charts and New Chart Features

Introduction

Chart formatting options

Converting a chart to another chart type

Working with pie charts

Getting started with bullet charts

Getting started with scatter charts

More Useful Recipes

Introduction

Timing report execution

Missing values versus zero values

Overriding data formatting using patterns

Setting up conditional drill-throughs

Dynamically switching between reports using an iFrame

Freezing column titles

Best Practices

Introduction

Reducing the number of query items

Highlighting hidden items

Using relative paths for images

Controlling JavaScript file execution

Customizing classes for report-wide effect

Creating templates

Regression testing

Commenting the code

Naming data containers (lists, crosstabs, and charts) for use in Cognos Workspace

Enabling a larger worksheet size for Excel 2007

Recommendations and References

Introduction

Version controlling

Recommendations for prompt types

Cognos Mashup Service

SDK and third-party tools for Cognos

IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE)

IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office

IBM Cognos Workspace

IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced

IBM Cognos Cloud

Index

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE)

IBM's Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE) tool is quickly becoming popular among business and financial analysts. This Excel add-in is separately sold by IBM (doesn't ship with BI installation) and needs to be installed on the users' machines. It enables users to directly perform analysis in Excel with Cognos sitting as a layer between the data source and Excel.

Cognos Framework Model works as the modeling and security layer here. It allows multiple data sources to be pulled together into one business layer that is exposed in Excel using CAFE. Users can directly perform drag-and-drop, slice-and-dice operations to analyze the data.

They can put Excel calculations such as forecast on top of the figures and also create Excel charts. This brings the benefits of Cognos and Excel together and makes CAFE a killer application.

I would strongly recommend CAFE if your organization has data analysts who need to perform ad hoc analysis over data from warehouse and various other sources. You would need strong data modeling skills and this logic will sit in the Framework Model. IBM CAFE is suitable for dimensional models and Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) schemas.

You can see how CAFE looks in the following screenshot:

More information about CAFE can be found on the IBM website: http://www-142.ibm.com/software/products/us/en/cognos-analysis-ms-excel.

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

Overview of this book

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IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE)