- support for unbalanced and ragged hierarchies
- undo / redo
- conditional formatting
- ...
check out the full list at the URL below :
IBM Cognos Insight 10.2.2 is there...
With the advent of the new TM1 version 10.2.2, a new version of IBM Cognos Insight is shipped. It contains a lot of bugfixes along with a few new features such as
Disallow a user to send reports by e-mail
A frequently asked question is to handle situations whereby users start sending report to themselves by e-mail. There are situations where some reports take some time to run, and the user wants to run the report for a number of prompt values, for example : a report per customer, etc...
Typically, the user will not wait for the output to come, and run the report with "run with options", and go and send the report to himself by e-mail. He does this for every customer in sequence, and just waits for the mails. Great solution from his point of view. For an administrator, this is hell. Not only will it clog up the Cognos servers, it will also stress the mail servers, having to send a large number of mails with large attachments.
One way of avoiding such situations is disallowing users to send reports to themselves by e-mail.
There are a few ways to do this, none of which is really 100%, but we'll come a long way.
The first way is obviously to remove the notification settings in Cognos Configuration. That's really straight forward, but is usually not an option. It means that nothing will be able to send anything, even jobs that are meant to send e-mail.
There are a few options for a user to send himself a report.
When a users starts Cognos Connection, he will effectively lose the option to "Run with options".
The solution above has one big disadvantage : the user will also no longer be able to select one of the other options, such as running in a specific format, or a specific language.
When a user runs a report, he has the option to send the report to himself using the "Keep this version" option.
You can hide this option, but it isn't done in the interface. Instead you need to edit the "system.xml" file, which is located in your installation directory under \templates\ps\portal.
The only thing you need to do is add the following tags, and restart the server :
<param name="ui_hide">!
! <RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_KEEP_THIS_VERSION show="Administrators"/>!
</param>!
The configuration above will only show the option to administrators and effectively hide the option in the Cognos Viewer for all other users. You can also use another group to restrict things, but that's a bit more complicated. The link below gives you a good explanation on how to do this :
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cfpm/v10r1m0/index.jsp?topic=
%2Fcom.ibm.swg.im.cognos.ug_cra.10.1.0.doc
%2Fug_cra_id36310CustomizetheUserInterfaceBasedonGroupandR.html
A quick tip: please make a backup of the original file, just to make sure.
The last thing a user can do is select a different delivery method when waiting for a report. Removing this option is really quite tricky, and not so neat.
In essence, you'll be telling cognos that the actual text to display on this dialog is "empty". By doing so, hiding the option. The steps on how to do this are neatly explained in the URL below.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21344292
A big disadvantage here, is that the solution applies to everyone. This means, also administrators won't be able to do so anymore.
Hope this helps!
Typically, the user will not wait for the output to come, and run the report with "run with options", and go and send the report to himself by e-mail. He does this for every customer in sequence, and just waits for the mails. Great solution from his point of view. For an administrator, this is hell. Not only will it clog up the Cognos servers, it will also stress the mail servers, having to send a large number of mails with large attachments.
One way of avoiding such situations is disallowing users to send reports to themselves by e-mail.
There are a few ways to do this, none of which is really 100%, but we'll come a long way.
The first way is obviously to remove the notification settings in Cognos Configuration. That's really straight forward, but is usually not an option. It means that nothing will be able to send anything, even jobs that are meant to send e-mail.
There are a few options for a user to send himself a report.
- Using "run with options" from Cognos Connection
- Choosing "keep this version" in the Cognos Viewer after running a report
- Selecting a different delivery method when the report is running, and the dialog with the hourglass is showing.
Click the "Properties" option, and in the dialog that follows, click the "Permissions" tab. In the screenshot below, all permissions are revoked from non-administrative users, but you can choose to create you own group, and explicitly deny all rights for users in that group.
When a users starts Cognos Connection, he will effectively lose the option to "Run with options".
When a user runs a report, he has the option to send the report to himself using the "Keep this version" option.
You can hide this option, but it isn't done in the interface. Instead you need to edit the "system.xml" file, which is located in your installation directory under \templates\ps\portal.
The only thing you need to do is add the following tags, and restart the server :
<param name="ui_hide">!
! <RV_TOOLBAR_BUTTONS_KEEP_THIS_VERSION show="Administrators"/>!
</param>!
The configuration above will only show the option to administrators and effectively hide the option in the Cognos Viewer for all other users. You can also use another group to restrict things, but that's a bit more complicated. The link below gives you a good explanation on how to do this :
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cfpm/v10r1m0/index.jsp?topic=
%2Fcom.ibm.swg.im.cognos.ug_cra.10.1.0.doc
%2Fug_cra_id36310CustomizetheUserInterfaceBasedonGroupandR.html
A quick tip: please make a backup of the original file, just to make sure.
The last thing a user can do is select a different delivery method when waiting for a report. Removing this option is really quite tricky, and not so neat.
In essence, you'll be telling cognos that the actual text to display on this dialog is "empty". By doing so, hiding the option. The steps on how to do this are neatly explained in the URL below.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21344292
A big disadvantage here, is that the solution applies to everyone. This means, also administrators won't be able to do so anymore.
Hope this helps!
Which OLAP technology to choose
IBM currently offers 4 different OLAP technologies, all of which offer a specific range of applications :
A transformer power cube is a technology that has been around for a long time. It served it purpose back in the times of Powerplay, but still does today. Administrators are still able to create transformer cubes, and create a package on them in Framework Manager. Transformer are very fast, but have a few drawbacks however. The most important ones are the sizing (2GB is really the maximum, so not too many members is the message), the fact that the cube has to be processed overnight and the missing feature on member attributes.
DMR (Dimensionally modeled relation) is a technology that allows a Framework Manager modeler to create a dimensional model above a relational model created in Framework Manager. This is especially useful if your data contains too many distinct members (so a power cube would grow too large), but not too much data (as all queries are translated into SQL statements).
TM1 is a product that has been acquired by IBM some time ago already. It's an in-memory tool that allows you to write back data to the cube. IBM doesn't really advise doing a lot of reporting on top of a TM1 cube, but it's great to make a planning application for example. Dit you know that IBM Cognos Insight makes a simple TM1 cube underneath the hood when you drag an excel file into the application?
Dynamic Cubes are the most recent addition to the OLAP repertoire of IBM. This is also an in-memory technology that focusses on analysis of really large datasets. I'm talking TB's here. There are of course some hardware requirements involved here, but it's well worth the investment. Creating dynamic cubes on small datasets is overkill, for small sets of data you'd be better of creating a power cube or DMR model.
Hope this helps in making your choice.
Cheers!
- Transformer Power Cube
- DMR model via Framework Manager
- TM1
- Dynamic Cubes
A transformer power cube is a technology that has been around for a long time. It served it purpose back in the times of Powerplay, but still does today. Administrators are still able to create transformer cubes, and create a package on them in Framework Manager. Transformer are very fast, but have a few drawbacks however. The most important ones are the sizing (2GB is really the maximum, so not too many members is the message), the fact that the cube has to be processed overnight and the missing feature on member attributes.
DMR (Dimensionally modeled relation) is a technology that allows a Framework Manager modeler to create a dimensional model above a relational model created in Framework Manager. This is especially useful if your data contains too many distinct members (so a power cube would grow too large), but not too much data (as all queries are translated into SQL statements).
TM1 is a product that has been acquired by IBM some time ago already. It's an in-memory tool that allows you to write back data to the cube. IBM doesn't really advise doing a lot of reporting on top of a TM1 cube, but it's great to make a planning application for example. Dit you know that IBM Cognos Insight makes a simple TM1 cube underneath the hood when you drag an excel file into the application?
Dynamic Cubes are the most recent addition to the OLAP repertoire of IBM. This is also an in-memory technology that focusses on analysis of really large datasets. I'm talking TB's here. There are of course some hardware requirements involved here, but it's well worth the investment. Creating dynamic cubes on small datasets is overkill, for small sets of data you'd be better of creating a power cube or DMR model.
Hope this helps in making your choice.
Cheers!
Hiding the buttons in Cognos Viewer
Remember the buttons in Cognos Viewer that let you change the format, or save a report when a report is run? In some cases it's better to hide these buttons. For security reasons for example, or when integrating in another application.
First get the URL of the report from Cognos Connection. It's that URL that you wanna use to integrate in the external application. You can do this by clicking the properties in the report, and choosing "View the path, ID & URL" in the right top corner. Copy out the URL.
Next you want to edit the URL in order to hide the header and toolbar.
There's a simple way to hide this. Just add the following string at the end of the URL :
&cv.header=false&cv.toolbar=false
Simple as that!
First get the URL of the report from Cognos Connection. It's that URL that you wanna use to integrate in the external application. You can do this by clicking the properties in the report, and choosing "View the path, ID & URL" in the right top corner. Copy out the URL.
Next you want to edit the URL in order to hide the header and toolbar.
There's a simple way to hide this. Just add the following string at the end of the URL :
&cv.header=false&cv.toolbar=false
Simple as that!
Tip : avoiding a line drops to the bottom in a combination chart with missing data
Sometimes, when creating a combination chart, you've got columns combined with a line chart. When setting out the x-axis as a timeline with years or months for example, it sometimes happens that there's no data for a certain time period, for example in the future.
In that case, the column disappears, but the line suddenly drops to the bottom, as in the screenshot below.
That isn't so pretty. Things get worse when there are even more years or months in the future where you see a flat line at the bottom of the graph.
Wouldn't it be good to let the line stop all together just as the column does, thereby losing the drop.
Turns out that's easy. Just make sure that the value isn't 0, but "null" using an expression kind of like the following :
In that case, the column disappears, but the line suddenly drops to the bottom, as in the screenshot below.
That isn't so pretty. Things get worse when there are even more years or months in the future where you see a flat line at the bottom of the graph.
Wouldn't it be good to let the line stop all together just as the column does, thereby losing the drop.
Turns out that's easy. Just make sure that the value isn't 0, but "null" using an expression kind of like the following :
The result is something like this :
Did you know... it's easy to install Cognos Express and its modules
IBM Cognos Express is a solution for the mid-market which offers a full range of features such as reporting, dash boarding, planning, what-if-analysis, etc...
Installing IBM Cognos Express is very easy. Just follow the "next-next-finish" wizard. It automatically creates all of the necessary components in order to get started.
In essence, IBM Cognos Express consists out of 4 modules :
After installation, however, no modules are installed by default. The administrator can choose to install them from the "IBM Cognos Express Manager", an web-based administration module, other than the standard Administration module in Cognos Connection. Installing a module is as easy as clicking the "install" button on each of the separate modules, as depicted below.
Installing IBM Cognos Express is very easy. Just follow the "next-next-finish" wizard. It automatically creates all of the necessary components in order to get started.
In essence, IBM Cognos Express consists out of 4 modules :
- Advisor (which is deprecated from version 10.2.1)
- Planner
- Reporter
- Xcelerator
After installation, however, no modules are installed by default. The administrator can choose to install them from the "IBM Cognos Express Manager", an web-based administration module, other than the standard Administration module in Cognos Connection. Installing a module is as easy as clicking the "install" button on each of the separate modules, as depicted below.
Cognos Sharepoint integration
When deploying IBM Cognos in large or mid-sized companies often means it replaces an existing BI solution. Companies of that size often already have intranet or document management solutions, and in some cases that might be the Microsoft solution : Sharepoint.
As part of the Microsoft BI suite, Sharepoint might be very well integrated in the company, and users are often reluctant to be relying on more than 1 portal to get the information they want.
In an effort to combine both technologies, IBM Cognos provides so called "Web Parts" for Microsoft Sharepoints. These web parts can be deployed to the Sharepoint server, and can be integrated in the existing portal solution.
Implementing the integration is not so straight-forward. There are several steps to follow such as
As part of the Microsoft BI suite, Sharepoint might be very well integrated in the company, and users are often reluctant to be relying on more than 1 portal to get the information they want.
In an effort to combine both technologies, IBM Cognos provides so called "Web Parts" for Microsoft Sharepoints. These web parts can be deployed to the Sharepoint server, and can be integrated in the existing portal solution.
Implementing the integration is not so straight-forward. There are several steps to follow such as
- Setting up IIS
- Copying the web parts found in the IBM Cognos installation directory
- Setting up a security trust
- Modifying a web.config file
- Edit the web parts catalog file
- Implementing SSO in IBM Cognos
- Configuring the portal services
- Setting up the Cognos Application Firewall (CAF)
- Deploying the solution on Sharepoint
- And finally, adding a port let to Sharepoint page
Quite a tall order, but luckily IBM provides an excellent walk-through on DeveloperWorks. The link to the walk-through can be found below.
Good luck!
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