IBM Cognos Open Mic Cognos Analytics 11 Part 2 22 nd June, 2016
IBM Cognos Open MIC Team Deepak Giri Presenter Subhash Kothari Technical Panel Member Chakravarthi Mannava Technical Panel Member 2
Agenda Ø Reporting Ø Dashboards Ø Modeling 3
Ibm.biz/cognosanalytics.com 4 4
Reporting Ø Intuitive User Interface Ø Authoring environment Ø Data Pane Ø Toolbox Pane Ø Navigate Pane Ø Subscription Ø Notify me Ø Interactive Mode Ø Properties Ø Page views 5
Intuitive User Interface Ø Cognos Analytics provides a new unified user experience. Ø Similar flow between Modeling, Authoring and Consumption. Ø New Authoring environment replaces Cognos Workspace Advanced and Report Studio. It also replaces Cognos viewer as well. Ø New popup tools provide a more interactive experience. Ø Integrated Search to locate content. Search Recent Ø Recent menu provides quick access to recent content. 6
Authoring environment Ø New à Report Ø Combination of profiles of Report Studio & Workspace Advanced. Ø Underlying report specification same as 10.2.2. Ø New interactive mode. Ø Clicking on NewàReport goes to screen where Template and Theme needs to be selected. Ø Selecting template and theme, opens up a new authoring environment. Ø Not mandatory to select package before opening report. Ø Preview mode access on Page views icon. Page views New 7
Data Pane Ø Reports support Data Modules and Framework Manager packages. Ø Shows metadata layer and individual queries that are being used in a specific report. Ø Simplified and improved navigation. 8
Toolbox Pane Toolbox Ø Tools are context aware Available items are relevant to the object selected on the report. Ø Use Search to quickly find insertable objects. 9
Toolbox Pane contd. Ø New icon available, that on clicking pops up a circular menu to add favorite toolbox items to the report template. Ø Can alter the circular menu by pinning a new item or modifying the sequence of item in the PINNED list. Ø Only top 6 from pinned items visible in circular menu and in clockwise direction. 10
Navigate Pane Ø Use the navigate pane to change between different types of explorer: Ø Page Explorer Ø Query Explorer Ø Conditions Explorer Ø Active Report Controls Ø Active Report Variables Navigate Ø Report is the topmost object in the explorer pane that shows the overview of the report. 11
Navigate Pane - Contd. Ø Query explorer shows referenced report objects means selecting the query item will shift control to the respective object in the report page along with context sensitive toolbar. Ø If Property pane is already open, then it shows the property of the report object as well. 12
Subscription Ø Subscription enables users to receive report WHEN they want to and HOW (in which format) they want to. Ø It creates a personalized Schedule, puts a report view in a hidden folder(called Subscriptions) and schedules that view. Ø Differs from scheduling as subscription is on a Report View instead of on a report. Ø Subscription option available on report output page. Ø Can only be created after you save your reports. 13
Notify me Ø Notify me button available when viewing saved output version of the report. Ø It alerts user through Notifications, when a report is updated. Ø Notifications are automatically added when a subscription is created. Ø Can Add/Remove a notification from saved report. Notifications 14
Interactive mode Ø Set to No provides Cognos 10 behavior. Ø Includes Javascript, Drill up/down, Drill through and prompt API support. Ø Set to Yes provides full interactivity Ø New behavior includes new toolbars. Ø Strips non supported attributes from report specification. Ø Drill up/down supported but not drill through. Ø Javascript is removed when report is run. Ø Prompt APIs not supported. Ø Ø More resources required to support the full interactive UI. No automation available to set all reports to Fully Interactive. 15
Properties Ø New Report object at the top of Ancestors list. Selecting it changes the view to show up the Report Overview. Ø Can set various properties at Report object level like Ø Run options Ø Validate options Ø Burst options Ø Interactive Mode Ø More options at Report object level: Ø Use to collect Report specification Ø Generate SQL/MDX 16
Page views Page Design View Default view in Reporting Page Preview View shows live data Page Structure View Overview of all report objects. Page views 17
Dashboard Ø Intent Driven Ø Designing Dashboards Ø Properties Ø Interactivity 18
Intent Driven Ø Intent driven is a way to create dashboards that enables you to type in some topics (in the intent field) that you want to build the analysis on. Ø Dashboard created easily in minutes. Ø Finds data source using search. Ø Defaults initial visualization to represent data. Intent Field 19
Designing Dashboards Ø Select a template: Ø Provides drop zones. Ø Template cannot be changed once template selected. Ø Select Sources / Use Intent Driven: Ø Find is for searching data items within the data source selected. Ø Only support uploaded files and data modules. Ø Does not support FM packages. Ø Can be assembled from multiple data modules. Sources Intent Driven 20
Designing Dashboards - contd. Ø Add visualizations: Order Ø Selected Data items drive the creation of default visualization. Ø Can modify the default visualization. Ø Can create a specific visualization and drag data items onto it. Ø Ability to control layering when multiple visualizations used. 21
Designing Dashboards - contd. Ø Filter, sort, aggregation Ø Automatic filters applied by default on visualizations, if correlated data sets. Ø Modification on Visualization is quite easy. Ø Sorting, filtering and aggregation options shown according to the type of data items selected-like sort option available for categories and aggregate option available for measures. Ø Global filter for visualizations from different data sources not possible. 22
Designing Dashboards - contd. Ø Other Objects Ø Media Ø Videos Ø Webpage (https) Ø Image Ø Shapes Ø Text Ø Change of Mode Ø View Mode Ø Can change filters. Ø Can change sort. Ø Can change the visualization type. Ø Video can be played only in this mode. Ø Edit Mode Can modify all objects. Media Shapes Text 23
Properties Ø Dashboard Properties Enables user to change the entire view of the dashboard. Ø Themes Ø Default Ø Light Ø Dark Ø General Style Ø Background color gets changed 24
Properties- Contd. Ø Data Asset Properties Enables user to change property of the visualization object. Ø General style Ø Can change background color of Visualization. Ø Can change border color of visualization. Ø Can change opacity as well. Ø Visualization details Ø Can change the parameters other than background and borders like hiding legends, hiding axis title labels. 25
Interactivity Filters Ø Filters Ø Filters created and applied between correlated data items automatically. Ø Can view the filters that are automatically applied on visualization. Ø Local filters are used for those data items which are not present on visualization object. Data Player Ø Data Player - Used to animate the dashboard by cycling through the data values. Ø Data Tray Ø Can be used to preview data even before it has been dragged to the dashboard. Ø Filters, sorts can also be applied on it. Data Tray 26
Modeling Ø Data Modules Ø Intent driven modeling Ø Snapshot 27
Data Modules Ø Data Modules are source objects containing data from data servers, uploaded files or existing data modules as well. Ø New -> Data module Ø 3 types of input sources: Ø Uploaded files Ø Data servers Ø Data Modules. Ø Web based modeling. Ø Framework Manager Packages still available as before for complex modeling. Ø Should not be confused with Packages as it is similar in use but differs in terms of technology and creation. Ø Does not require any IT assistance. Ø All queries are Dynamic Query Mode. Ø Existing data sources can be used only if Allow web-based modeling option is selected. Ø Supports both Report and Dashboard creation. 28
Data Modules Contd. Ø Data modules can be set to Live mode or Snapshot mode. Ø Live mode - Queries go directly to underlying data sources(latest data). Ø Snapshot mode - High speed columnar store within Cognos system. Ø Purpose is NOT to create a large data model. Live Ø Small, focused modules. Ø Combined as needed. Ø Data modules are not published-no overhead of publishing. Just simply save and start working. Ø Common refinements can be easily added. Ø Renaming, calculations, grouping, default summarization, etc. Snapshot 29
Intent Driven Modeling Ø Intent-driven modeling proposes tables to include in the module, based on matches between the keyword you supply and metadata in underlying data sources. 30
Intent driven modeling - contd. Ø At any point during modeling, you can use Try it icon which redirects you to an authoring environment(in a new tab), where you can just drag in the data items you want and immediately run the report to test it. Ø Option to easily and quickly see the cardinality in data module. 31
Snapshot Ø Can be referred to as a feature which allows users to create slices of historic data in the file system on Cognos Analytics server. Ø Advantages of snapshot: Ø Improves query performance if database is slow. Ø Reduces database load, especially during peak periods. Ø Retains a point in time view of your data. Ø Don t copy the entire database into snapshot, instead use filters in data module to limit the amount of data stored in snapshot. Ø When snapshot mode is enabled, icon for saved data module changes from to 32
Reference Links: Cognos Analytics 11 Introduction Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvru3rrhq6u Cognos Analytics 11 Product Documentation: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27047187 33
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