Questions Log: Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors

TIPS FOR INTERMEDIATE COGNOS REPORT
STUDIO AUTHORS
Questions Log from Webinar

Resource Library
Senturus’ whole purpose is to make you
successful with Business Analytics. Thus,
we offer a series of technology-neutral
webinars, training on specific software,
demonstrations, and no-holds-barred
reviews of new software releases. We
host dozens of live webinars every year
and we offer a comprehensive library of
recorded webinars, demos, white papers,
presentations and case studies on our
website--a wealth of learning resources.
Most of our content is custom created
and constantly updated, so visit us often
to see what’s new in the industry.
www.senturus.com/resources/
2Copyright 2015 Senturus, Inc. All Rights Reserved

*Custom, tailored training also available*
Cognos and Tableau Training Options

Resource Library
Senturus’ whole purpose is to make you
successful with Business Analytics. Thus,
we offer a series of technology-neutral
webinars, training on specific software,
demonstrations, and no-holds-barred
reviews of new software releases. We
host dozens of live webinars every year
and we offer a comprehensive library of
recorded webinars, demos, white papers,
presentations and case studies on our
website--a wealth of learning resources.
Most of our content is custom created
and constantly updated, so visit us often
to see what’s new in the industry.
www.senturus.com/resources/

This slide deck is part of the “Tips for Intermediate
Cognos Report Studio Authors” recorded webinar. To
view the FREE recording of the entire presentation and
download the slide deck, go to:
http://www.senturus.com/resources/tips-for-
intermediate-cognos-report-studio-authors/
Senturus’ comprehensive library of recorded webinars,
demos, white papers, presentations and case studies is
available on our website:
www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Demos of Techniques, Tips and Tricks
QUESTIONS LOG:
TIPS FOR INTERMEDIATE COGNOS
REPORT STUDIO AUTHORS

Q: Will this approach work with using TM1 or
PowerPlay cube data as source?
A: Yes, these techniques are data source agnostic.
Q: If you have time can you give a little more time on
how to make the student-product relationship table
driven?
A: This is a simple as setting up a lookup table in your
database the stores the student (User) ID’s in one
column and the associated Product Code (or whatever
key) in the second column.
Questions Log:
Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors

Q: Why can’t you pick from real members for the
Prompt Object’s Default Selections, rather than having
to type them in?
A: Always nice to get questions on “why” the tool
doesn’t do something! We don’t really know why the
product developers choose to implement certain
features and exclude others. It certainly would be nice
if we could select values from a pick list to populate the
Default Selections, but that is just not there.
Q: Does dynamic filter only work when running the
report as HTML format?
A: No, this technique will work with any of the available
output formats.
Questions Log:

www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Can non-Cognos items be added to the report book,
such as Excel, Word, etc.?
A: No, not in any straightforward sort of way. However I
would imagine you could embed some HTML code that
could call these external objects off of a web server via
a Hyperlink or something.
Q: To use Report References, do all of the reports
need to be built from the same package?
A: As we discovered in the live demonstration, the
answer is NO! You can reference reports for different
packages using this technique, which is very exciting!
Questions Log:

Q: In regards to Report References, what if some of
the original reports have required prompts?
A: Think of a Report Reference simply as a call to the
reports being referenced, so calling a report with an
embedded prompt would then trigger that prompt to be
displayed and require a response once you navigate to
the page in the master report that references the
prompted report.
Questions Log:

Q: Does Cognos provide a Data integration tool? As I
understand it, the Framework Manager model is built
based on a Data Warehouse?
A: IBM does offer an entire Information Management
portfolio, and included are several data integration, as
well as classic ETL solutions. To be clearer, Cognos does
not REQUIRE a Data Warehouse, as Framework Manager
is extremely flexible in its ability to deliver metadata
regardless of the underlying database structure.
However, we strongly recommend that you consider
robust data architecture as part of your analytics
strategy, and a resulting data warehouse, or mart, will
go a long way in empowering analytics for years,
regardless of your choice of front-end solution.
Questions Log:

www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: Do you recommend using SSIS (MS SQL Server
Integration Services) or other tools to create a Data
Warehouse?
A: Yes, we have found over the years that building a
solid data foundation using an ETL tool like SSIS lowers
the long-term cost of business analytics. We have
several recorded webinars on our Resources page that
provide more detail, but we'll be happy to set up a call
so you can bend the ear of some of our consultants. Let
us know if you are interested in discussing further.
Questions Log:

Q: When using Report References, can you show the 3
(referenced reports) in report tabs instead of having
to page down through the various reports?
A: In testing, the report tabs feature (new to version
10.2.2) does not seem to work with report references,
only physical report pages.
Q: Can bursting using directory entry use a
distribution list instead of 1 user (CAMID)?
A: Sure, the recipient could be an email address that
goes to a central mailbox.
Questions Log:

Q: Can you explain how to do Report Bursting based
on user e-mail where one user could get multiple
reports grouped into single e-mail (i.e., how to avoid
sending multiple e-mails to the same user with
different reports)?
A: I would consider using Event Studio to manage this.
Questions Log:

www.senturus.com
Hear the Recording

Q: If you save the Office Document, does the Office
User who opens the Word or Excel saved output have
to be a licensed Cognos user?
A: In this scenario, once the report output is rendered to
a format that is consumable outside of Cognos, there is
no requirement for the consumer to have a Cognos
license. You would have to manage the delivery of these
objects outside of Cognos.
Questions Log:

Who we are
SENTURUS INTRODUCTION

Technology Depth + Business Acumen
Senturus: Business Architects
for Business Analytics
C-Level
Business
Acumen
Technical/To
ol Expertise
Deep Data
Experience
Project
Management
Rigor
Business
Intelligence
Enterprise
Planning
Predictive
Analytics

A Few of Our 900+ Clients

Thank You!
www.senturus.com
888-601-6010
info@senturus.com
Copyright 2015 by Senturus, Inc.
This entire presentation is copyrighted and may not be
reused or distributed without the written consent of
Senturus, Inc.

Questions Log: Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to Questions Log: Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors

Similar to Questions Log: Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors (20)

More from Senturus

More from Senturus (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Questions Log: Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors