Individual and collaborative

user experience
In this chapter, we introduce IBM Cognos Business Insight, the web-based
interface that allows you to build sophisticated, interactive dashboards that
provide insight and that facilitate collaborative decision making.
In this chapter, we discuss the following topics:
_ Dashboard overview
_ Introduction to IBM Cognos Business Insight
_ Interaction with the dashboard components
_ Collaborative business intelligence

6
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6.1 Dashboard overview
Dashboard is a term that is used commonly in the context of business analytics
and that is a popular way of presenting important information. Different users
have different understandings of what a dashboard is and how it should look,
based on their business needs. Nevertheless, properties that are in common for
all dashboards can be summarized in following key features:
_ At-a-glace view of business performance
A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information about
business performance. For business users, a dashboard is the key to
understanding trends or spotting anomalies in performance. Information is
consolidated and arranged in a way that makes it easy to monitor.
_ Interactivity and personalization
A dashboard is more than just a static set of reports. It has to be intuitive and
interactive to allow business users to personalize content to fit their needs.
Business users can use a free-form layout to add dashboard elements such
as reports, images, RSS feeds, textual objects, or slider filters. In addition,
they can interact with reports to sort or filter data, to add additional
calculation, and to change list or crosstab reports to a chart or vice versa.
_ Pro activity and collaboration
Business users can take action directly from within the dashboard using
collaboration and workflow integration. They can collaborate with team
members to make decisions.
_ Assembling information from various different sources
Dashboards combine data from various different data sources (enterprise
resource planning systems, customer relationship management, data
warehouses, different data marts, and so forth) to give users a complete view
on business performance.
_ Visibility on non-business intelligence content
In addition to a variety of reports, dashboards can contain non-business
intelligence data, such as websites or RSS feeds.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 163
6.2 Introduction to IBM Cognos Business Insight
IBM Cognos Business Insight is a web-based user interface that allows you to
open or edit a dashboard or to create a dashboard.
You can launch IBM Cognos Business Insight using one of the following
methods:
_ From the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) Welcome page
_ From IBM Cognos Connection by clicking New dashboard or by clicking the
hyperlink of an existing dashboard object
_ From the Launch menu in IBM Cognos Connection and IBM Cognos
Administration
_ Directly in web browser by entering a URL using the following format:
http://machinename/ibmcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=icd
You can open an IBM Cognos Business Insight interface in two modes:
_ Chrome mode
_ Chromeless mode
Chrome mode includes the toolbars and menus of a web browser, and
chromeless mode does not these elements.
When you launch IBM Cognos Business Insight directly in a web browser by
entering a URL, it opens in chrome mode. If you use any of the other options to
launch IBM Cognos Business Insight, it opens in chromeless mode.
No read-only dashboards: You cannot create a read-only version of a
dashboard. If a business user has permission to access a particular
dashboard, that user can also make changes to it.
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Figure 6-1 shows the user interface.
Figure 6-1 Business Insight user interface
The user interface has the following components:
_ A Getting Started page that displays when you launch IBM Cognos Business
Insight
_ An application bar
_ A dashboard layout area
_ A content pane that includes the Content and Toolbox tabs
_ Widgets and filters
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 165
6.2.1 The Getting Started page
Figure 6-2 shows the page that opens when you launch IBM Cognos Business
Insight.
Figure 6-2 The Getting Started page
You can complete the following activities from this page:
_ Create a new dashboard
_ Open an existing dashboard
_ View and open favorite dashboards from Favorites
_ View how-to videos that provide an overview to Business Insight
When you select any of the options on the Getting Started page, the page closes.
If you do not want this page to display when you launch IBM Cognos Business
Insight, disable it using the My Preferences menu option.
6.2.2 Application bar
The application bar displays the name of the current dashboard and contains the
icons for different actions that you can perform in the dashboard layout area. For
example, you can access the Action Menu, create a dashboard, open an existing
dashboard, send an email or collaboration, change the layout, or search for
content. In the following examples, we demonstrate the features of some of these
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icons. For the complete list of available icons, refer to IBM Cognos Business
Insight User Guide.
6.2.3 Dashboard layout area
The dashboard layout area is the workspace on which you can combine data
from different sources to gain insight into your business. You can add various
widgets with BI content (lists, crosstabs, or chart reports), non-BI content (text,
images, HTML pages, and RSS feeds), or you can add filters to narrow the scope
of the data (sliders or select value filters).
6.2.4 Content pane
The content pane contains all that objects that you can add to a workspace. It is
includes the following tabs:
_ The Content tab displays IBM Cognos content in a hierarchy of folders and
subfolders with dashboards that you can open and reports that you can add to
a workspace. This content is the same content as in IBM Cognos Connection
with My Folders (personal content and dashboards) and Public Folders
(content that is of interest for many business users).
Within the Content tab, you can enable or disable the display of information
cards and refresh the display to get the current content. You can display
content in thumbnail, list, or tree view.
In addition, you can filter the entire content using one of the following criteria:
– All Content (default): Displays all the content that is available and that is
supported in IBM Cognos Business Insight
– My Favorites: Displays dashboards and reports that are marked as
Favorite
– My Folders: Displays the contents only from My Folders
– Search: Displays the result of the search after a search is performed;
otherwise, this view is unavailable
_ The Toolbox tab includes the following types of widgets that are provided by
IBM Cognos Business Insight:
– Widgets that can add additional content to a business user’s workspace,
such as images, HTML content, or RSS feeds
– Widgets that allow you to filter already added content, sliders, and select
value filters
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 167
6.2.5 Widgets
Widgets are containers for all objects that you can add to the workspace. For
business users, widgets allow the interaction and manipulation with the content
that they contain, whether it is a report or a filter.
When you select a widget or it is in focus, an on demand toolbar displays, as
shown in Figure 6-3. Depending on the type and content of a widget, a variety of
toolbar options are available.
Figure 6-3 A widget with the on demand toolbar
Widgets can communicate with other widgets. For example, you can use the
slider filter to filter the data dynamically in one or more report widgets.
Alternatively, if you have two report widgets that are created on the same
dimensionally-modelled data source, when the data in one report is changed, the
second report is updated based on user interactions in the first report.
You can change the manner in which content displays in a widget. You can
specify the title, language, top-level location where the navigation begins,
summarized or detailed view, how the links in a widget are opened, and so forth.
Big Rock Campaign
Canyon Mule Campaign
Course Pro Campaign
EverGlow Campaign
Extreme Campaign
Hibernator Campaign
Outdoor Protection Campaign
Rising Star Campaign
Seeker Campaign
TrailChef Campaign
0 40,000,000 80,000,000
Revenue
Gross profit
Campaign name
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There are two types of widgets inside IBM Cognos Business Insight:
_ Content widgets
_ Toolbox widgets
In the following sections, we discuss each of these widgets and when and how
you can use them.
Content widgets
You can use content widgets when adding IBM Cognos content to the Content
tab of a workspace. This section describes the content widgets.
Report widget
Business users use the report widget to add reports or individual report parts (for
example list, crosstab, or chart) to a workspace. A report widget includes the
following reports:
_ IBM Cognos Report Studio
_ IBM Cognos Query Studio
_ IBM Cognos Analysis Studio
_ IBM Cognos Metric Studio
_ Report views and saved report output versions
Reports objects that contain prompts, drill through, and navigation are
supported.
It is leading practice to use report parts whenever possible instead of entire
reports to improve the layout and usability of dashboards. Reports parts are
smaller and provide consolidated information for business users. If you add the
entire report with several report parts to a dashboard, all report parts that include
the header and the footer are added to a single widget, which is not the best
choice for a dashboard.
If IBM Cognos Metric Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM
Cognos BI environment, you can navigate to IBM Cognos Metric Studio content
in the Content tab and add the following IBM Cognos Metric Studio content to a
dashboard:
_ Watch lists
_ Scorecards
_ Strategies
_ Metric types
_ Individual metrics
When you add an individual metric to the dashboard, historical data for the metric
displays in a form of a bar chart. For any other IBM Cognos Metric Studio content
that you add, the content displays as a list of metrics for the selected item. Each
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 169
metric in the list has a hyperlink that opens the individual metric in IBM Cognos
Metric Studio.
If business users do not have a need for the most current data in some reports,
they can use report output versions in report widgets. Users can choose to view
the saved report output versions (by default, it is the latest saved output version)
or the live version of the report. Users can also create watch rules based on
specific conditions and thresholds for a given report version (see 6.3.6, “Work
with report versions and watch rules” on page 207).
You can change several properties of a report widget using the widget Actions
Menu button. For example, you can change the title of a widget, the maximum
number of rows per page, the location, or the report specification. We use some
of these actions in examples later in this chapter. For details about all properties
that are available refer to the IBM Cognos Business Insight User Guide.
PowerPlay widget
If IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM
Cognos BI environment, you can navigate to IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio
content in the Content tab and add IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio reports to a
dashboard using this widget.
When added to a workspace, a IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio report displays in
HTML format, but you can also view the report in PDF format.
Support for reports in HTML format: IBM Cognos Business Insight supports
only report versions that are saved in HTML format.
Communication note: IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio report content does
not interact with the slider filter and select value filter widgets.
Widget-to-widget communication is also not supported.
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You can take the following standard IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio actions on
this widget:
_ Switch between crosstab and indent crosstab display
_ Select a chart to display data
_ Swap rows and columns
_ Hide and show categories
_ Create a calculation by using rows or columns
_ Rank categories
_ Zero suppression
_ 80/20 suppression
_ Custom exception highlighting
_ Custom subsets
_ Drill through
TM1 widget
If IBM Cognos TM1 is installed and configured as part of your IBM Cognos BI
environment, you can add applications that are developed in TM1 to a
workspace.
You can add the following TM1 content to a dashboard:
_ TM1 Websheet: Displays a spreadsheet with the TM1 data that you can view
in a web browser
_ TM1 Cube View: Displays a view of a TM1 cube
_ IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor: Displays a web page with a URL that points to
a TM1 Contributor Web Client
Communication note: TM1 widgets do not interact with the slider filter and
select value filter widgets. By default, TM1 Cube Viewer widgets listen to each
other.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 171
TM1 objects are displayed in HTML format in a dedicated TM1 Viewer widget
with TM1 toolbar buttons on top of the widget, as shown in Figure 6-4.
Figure 6-4 TM1 widget
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TM1 Navigation Viewer is incorporated in the Content pane and is not available
as separate widget. Entire TM1 content is located in a folder in the Content pane
with two main folder at the highest level of the tree, which is Applications and
Views, as shown in Figure 6-5. The Views folder contains original TM1 Cubes
and TM1 Cube views objects, and the Applications folder has more sub-folders,
TM1 Websheet objects, or TM1 Cube Views® objects.
Figure 6-5 Example of TM1 Navigation Viewer
You can add only the individual TM1 content objects to a workspace (that is, TM1
Websheets, Cube Views, or TM1 Contributors), not the entire folders.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 173
IBM Cognos Navigator
The IBM Cognos Navigator is a navigation browser that displays IBM Cognos BI
content such as folders, packages, and reports, as shown in Figure 6-6.
Figure 6-6 Navigator widget
Toolbox widgets
You can use toolbox widgets when adding non-Cognos content to a workspace,
either to add additional information or to filter the content of existing widgets in
the workspace.
In this section, we describe the toolbox widgets.
Web page widget
This widget displays HTML based content such as a Web page on a dashboard.
Image widget
This widget displays the image on the dashboard. The image must be a single
file that is accessible by a URL.
The image can also be used as a link. For example, you can configure the image
widget to broadcast a specified URL in the web page widget or a new browser
window when the image is clicked.
Using the web page widget: You must add the web page URL to the trusted
domain list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.
Using the image widget: You must add the image URL to the trusted domain
list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.
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My Inbox widget
This widget displays an RSS feed of a user’s secure approval requests, ad-hoc
tasks, and notification requests from My Inbox in IBM Cognos Connection.
Text widget
You can use this widget to display text on the dashboard.
RSS feed widget
This widget displays the content of a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or an
Atom news feed that is specified by a URL address.
The specified URL must point to a valid RSS or Atom feed and not a web page,
because the valid RSS feed link opens an XML file, not a web page.
The RSS or Atom channel includes a list of links to specific web pages. You can
specify how these links open in the web page widget or whether the web page
widget listens to broadcasts from the RSS feed widget automatically.
Select value filter widget
You can use this widget to filter report data dynamically on the report widgets that
you added to a workspace previously. For example, you can filter on the product
line or region, as shown in Figure 6-7.
Figure 6-7 Select value filter widget
Select value filter widgets are useful in a situation when you have several reports
on a dashboard that show data by a variety of locations, product lines,
subsidiaries, or customers. With these filters, you can narrow the scope of data,
which makes reports easier to read.
Using the RSS feed widget: You must add the RSS or Atom feed URL to the
trusted domain list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 175
When adding a select value filter, you can select data items that you can filter
with the corresponding report widget to which the items belong.
You can also filter the reports on data items that are not shown in the report. The
report must be authored in a way that allows this type of filtering. You must
include the data item or items based on the items that you want to filter in the
report query, and you must name the filter _BusinessInsight_. Therefore,
additional data items must exist in the initial query (but do not have to display on
the chart or crosstab) and in this separate query.
For example, a bar chart shows returned quantity by product lines. However, you
can filter the chart by years, as shown in Figure 6-8, because the report was
authored in the manner that we described previously.
Figure 6-8 Filter report based on data that is not displayed
You can specify the list of values that you want in a select value filter, for example
just some specific product lines or years. In addition, you can choose whether
users can select single or multiple values in the filter widget.
Selecting data for the filter: It is not possible to select one data item for more
than one filter.
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Slider filter widget
You can use this widget, which is similar to the select value filter, to filter report
data dynamically. Depending on the settings of the slider filter, this widget can
filter single values or value range. This type of filtering is especially useful when
filtering on a data range (see Figure 6-9) or numeric items, such as revenue and
quantity.
Figure 6-9 Slider filter widget
As with a select value filter, you can also choose the data items on which to filter
reports. In addition, you can filter data based on values that are not displayed on
report widgets.
6.3 Interaction with the dashboard components
Dashboards created with IBM Cognos Business Insight allow business users an
integrated business intelligence experience together with collaborative decision
making. Users can complete a wide variety of tasks quickly and easily. For
example, you can view and interact with reports, sort data or perform additional
calculations, or share information with the other members of the team. Users
have different needs for reports and data, so they can make use of the free-form
layout and can rearrange reports or add new reports.
6.3.1 Personalize content
When launching IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can choose whether to open
an existing dashboard or create a dashboard. Regardless of your selection, in
the workspace that opens (either an empty dashboard or a dashboard that
contains widgets), you can add and rearrange new widgets. All dashboards are
editable. Thus, if business users have permission to access a particular
dashboard, they can also change it.
Advanced business users or report authors can create reports and basic
dashboards for a group of business users to include all information that is
necessary for that group of users to work. Then, business users can personalize
the dashboards to fit specific needs. These needs might include rearranging the
layout, changing a pie chart to a bar chart, sorting data easily to see how
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 177
measures are ranked from highest to lowest values, and searching for an
additional report and adding it to a workspace.
We demonstrate the unified business experience that IBM Cognos Business
Insight provides to using the fictional Great Outdoors (GO) company scenario
that we introduced in Chapter 3, “Business scenario and personas used in this
book” on page 21.
Our goal is to create a dashboard for Great Outdoors company executives and
business users that combines all the relevant information that is needed to gain
better insight into business performance of the company. The dashboard must
include data about sales performance as well as product returns, sales
forecasting, marketing data, and external data.
In this scenario, Lynn Cope is an Advanced Business User in the Great Outdoors
company. Her role is to enable senior management to have access to all relevant
information in a dashboard. She uses the IBM Cognos Business Insight interface
to create and change dashboards, including data that is relevant for the users,
but is missing in the current version of a dashboard. Later, she interacts with the
reports, creates additional calculations, and adds filters to allow users to narrow
the scope of data. She begins by opening the current version of the GO Sales
Dashboard, making some changes on the layout, and removing reports that are
redundant.
To begin this scenario:
1. Open the IBM Cognos Connection using the following URL:
http://machinename/ibmcognos
2. On the My Actions pane click Create my dashboards to open a Getting
Started Page of IBM Cognos Business Insight.
On this page, you can create a new existing dashboard. Open an existing
dashboard to change it by clicking Open Existing and navigating to the folder
where you imported the deployment archive that is provided in the additional
material that is supplied with this book. Open the Business Insight folder,
and click GO Sales Initial Dashboard, as shown in Figure 6-10.
178 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
Figure 6-10 Getting Started Page: Open an existing dashboard
3. Click Open. The GO Sales Initial Dashboard opens, shown in Figure 6-11.
Figure 6-11 GO Sales Initial Dashboard opens in Business Insight
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 179
4. To better understand the information shown in each report, turn on the titles
on the widgets. You usually want titles hidden so they do not take much space
on a dashboard.
To show titles:
a. On the Application bar, click Layout and Style, and then click Edit
Dashboard Style.
b. In the Edit Dashboard Style window, click Show Titles as shown in
Figure 6-12.
Figure 6-12 Turning on the titles
5. By taking a closer look at data in a report, you can rearrange the layout of a
dashboard. Change the places of the Gross profit by Region and Revenue
Planned versus Actual widgets. To move a widget, select it. Then, while
hovering over the Application bar, you should see the cursor in a shape
shown in Figure 6-13 on page 180. Right-click, and drag the widget to another
Showing titles: It is not possible to show the titles of just selected widgets.
You can show or hide the titles of all widgets on a dashboard. By default,
the titles are hidden.
180 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
location on the dashboard. Dotted guidelines display on the dashboard when
you insert, move, or resize widgets. These lines provide a visual aid to assist
you in aligning widgets.
Figure 6-13 Moving a widget
6. Rearrange the widgets so that they do not overlap.
7. Notice that you have reports that show almost the same data and that you
need space on the dashboard for additional reports. To make room for
additional reports, remove the Return Quantity by Products and Order
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 181
Methods report. Click the widget, click Widgets Action, and then click
Remove from Dashboard. When prompted, click Remove, as shown in
Figure 6-14.
Figure 6-14 Deleting a widget
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8. Next, change the display type for the Return Quantity by Product Lines report.
Using a column chart instead of a pie chart makes it easier to compare values
for different product lines. Right-click the widget, and select Change Display
Type Column Chart, as shown in Figure 6-15.
Figure 6-15 Changing the display type
9. Turn off the widget titles in the same way as described in Step 4 on page 179.
Clear the “Show titles” option.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 183
The dashboard should now look as shown in Figure 6-16.
Figure 6-16 Modified dashboard
6.3.2 Add new content to broaden the scope
You can add new widgets to a dashboard by dragging them from the Content or
Toolbox tabs. Using the same method, you can add reports, report parts, metric
lists or individual metrics, TM1 objects, or in fact, any object described in 6.2.5,
“Widgets” on page 167.
You can use the IBM Cognos Business Insight enhanced search feature to find
and add relevant content to the dashboard. This feature is a full-text search
similar to popular search engines.
Index note: IBM Cognos content must be indexed before you perform a
search.
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When using the search capability, keep in mind the following rules:
_ Search results include only the entries for which you have permission to
access at the time of the last index update.
_ Searches look for matching prompts, titles, headings, column names, row
names, and other key fields.
_ Searches are not case-sensitive. For example, searching for report and
Report returns the same result.
_ Searches include word variations automatically. For example, if you enter
camp, results also include camps and camping.
_ When using more than one word in a search, the result includes entries that
contain all of the search keywords and entries that contain only one of the
search keywords. To modify this type of search, use the following operators as
you use them in other search engines:
– A plus sign (+)
– A minus sign (-)
– Double quotation marks (“ ”)
_ If a search term matches a specific item on a dashboard, the dashboard is
included in the search results, but the individual item is not included.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 185
When the search is complete, the results are ranked according to the search
term match relevance, as shown in Figure 6-17.
Figure 6-17 Result of the search in IBM Cognos Business Insight
Search note: In addition to the IBM Cognos content, you can search
annotations and IBM Lotus Connections dashboard activities.
186 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
After a search is complete you can refine search results using the following filters
(see Figure 6-18):
Result Shows only report parts or hides report parts
Type The type of IBM Cognos object, such as dashboards, reports, or
queries
Part The type of report part, such as crosstab, list, or pie chart
Date The year of creation
Owner The owner of the object
Metadata The metadata or packages that were used for to create this object
Figure 6-18 Refine search option
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 187
Now, back to our scenario. Lynn Cope made changes to a dashboard, and it now
looks as shown in Figure 6-16 on page 183. She wants to add a report that
contains marketing data for the Great Outdoors company promotions, including
gross profit information.
To add this report:
1. Locate the Search window in the upper-right corner of the IBM Cognos
Business Insight user interface, type promotion revenue, and press Enter.
2. Refine the search by clicking Refine Search, as shown in Figure 6-19.
Figure 6-19 Search for objects containing “promotion revenue”
3. A window opens next to the search results. Go to the Metadata section, and
click GO Data Warehouse (query) to narrow the result set.
4. Among the search results, locate a Promotion Data (Revenue vs Gross Profit)
report, and drag it onto a dashboard.
5. To close a search and return to the standard Content view, click Search
Results for “promotion revenue” All Content as you shown in
Figure 6-20.
Figure 6-20 Closing a search
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6. To change the color palette of the report, click Change color palette Jazz
on the widget toolbar, as shown in Figure 6-21.
Figure 6-21 Changing the color palette of the widget
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 189
The dashboard now looks as shown in Figure 6-22.
Figure 6-22 Modified dashboard
6.3.3 Sort and filter data and perform calculations
Apart from changes in the visual display of data in reports, you can interact with
report widgets and apply custom sorting. In addition, you can add basic
calculations using data in the report, and you can filter data. We describe these
features in this section.
Sorting data
Sorting organizes data in either ascending or descending order, based on an
alphabetical or numeric value. Sorting is useful when you want to see, for
example, the ranking. You can sort on a column that lists revenue in descending
order to view revenue data from the highest to the lowest.
In IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can sort lists, crosstabs, and charts.
190 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
When sorting data, consider the following rules:
_ For crosstab reports with sorting applied in IBM Cognos Report Studio, IBM
Cognos Business Insight Advanced, or IBM Cognos Query Studio, the sorted
information displays in the information bar in the report widget. However, with
IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, sorted information for crosstabs does not
displays in the information bar in the report widget.
_ Sorting by label is not available in crosstab reports for summary rows or
columns, nested measures, calculations, or rows and columns based on
single dimensional members.
_ Sorting by value is not supported on the outer edges of a nested crosstab or
in relational crosstabs.
In this scenario, Lynn Cope wants to use the possibility to sort the data in the
report on a dashboard. For the Revenue and sales target by region report, she
sorts the Revenue column to display the regions with the highest revenue at the
top of the report. This sorting makes it easier for senior management to identify
the best performing regions.
To sort this data:
1. On the Revenue and sales target by region report, click the information bar to
see the current sorting on the report (as shown in Figure 6-23). Notice that
the report is sorted in ascending order by the label Branch region.
Figure 6-23 Information bar with current sorting status
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 191
2. To sort the report on the Revenue column in descending order, click the
Revenue column. Then, click Sort Descending on the toolbar, as shown in
Figure 6-24.
Figure 6-24 Sorting column in a report
The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-25.
Figure 6-25 Report with sorted column
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Adding simple calculations
In IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can perform basic calculations for list and
crosstab reports using data from one or more report items (for example, to divide
the values from two columns).
IBM Cognos Business Insight includes the following calculations:
_ Sum (+)
_ Difference (-)
_ Multiplication (*)
_ Division (/)
_ Difference (%)
Lynn Cope wants to modify the Promotion Data (Revenue vs Gross Profit) report
to convert the report to a list report, to add one additional column (Gross Profit
Margin=Gross Profit/Promotional Revenue), and to filter the report to obtain only
the campaigns that are the most profitable.
To modify the report:
1. First, convert the chart to a list report. Go to the Promotion Data (Revenue vs
Gross Profit) report, and click Change Display Type List Table.
2. Next, add a column by clicking the “Promotion revenue” column, pressing the
Ctrl key on keyboard, and clicking the “Gross Profit” column. On the widget
toolbar, follow these steps:
a. Click Calculate Gross Profit/Promotion Revenue, as shown in
Figure 6-26, to insert an additional column with a default name of Gross
profit/Promotion revenue.
Calculation results: The results of calculation are not stored in the
underlying data source. Instead, IBM Cognos Business Insight reruns the
calculation each time the report is refreshed. The results are always based on
the current data in the data source.
Performing more complete calculations: If you need to perform more
complex calculations, click Do More to open the report in IBM Cognos
Business Insight Advanced.
Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience 193
Figure 6-26 Perform simple calculation
b. To move the newly created column to the last position in a list report,
right-click the column, and click Move Right on the menu.
The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-27.
Figure 6-27 Report with added calculated column
c. To rename a column, right-click it, and click Rename. Enter Gross Profit
Margin as the name.
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3. Next, narrow the data in a report and display only the campaigns with the high
Gross Profit Margin (for example >0.4). Right-click the Gross Profit Margin
for Extreme Campaign (value 0.41119418). Click Filter =0.41119418.
You can only filter data by selecting values from a report. You cannot type the
value manually.
4. Resize the report widget. The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-28.
Figure 6-28 Promotion Data report after filtering
5. Click Actions Menu, and click Save to save this version of the dashboard.
Note that the changes that you made are saved with the dashboard when you
save it, but the original reports are not changed. When you save a dashboard
for the first time, a copy of each report widget is created for the saved
dashboard. After you open and change the report (for example, you apply a
sort or add a calculation), the changes are saved in this copy. If you want to
revert to the original report, use the Reset option on the widget Actions Menu
button.
Filtering
Filtering is a way to narrow the scope of data in reports by removing unwanted
data. As shown in the previous example, only the data that meets the criteria of
the filter displays.
Applying more detailed filtering: To apply more detailed filtering to the
report, click Do More to open the report in IBM Cognos Business Insight
Advanced.
Using the Reset option: The Reset option is not available for saved
output reports or for the reports where the original report was deleted or
disabled. When the report content is reset, any changes that you made to
the content are lost.
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You can find the information about all the filters that are applied to the report on
the information bar. In the case of our previous example, the applied filters look
as shown in Figure 6-29.
Figure 6-29 Information bar displaying applied filters
Note that if you apply a filter or sort to data in a table report that is changed to a
chart, the information bar displays the filter and sort information in the chart.
However, you cannot filter on chart data in the report widget by using the filter
actions from the report widget toolbar or context menu.
User can filter the data on reports using one of the following options:
_ Prompt
_ Filter in individual report widget using filter actions
_ Slider or select value filter
You receive prompts to select the parameter values before the report runs.
Based on the parameter values that you select, the report is filtered.
You can filter the individual report widget using filter actions on numeric and
non-numeric values. When filtering on values that are non-numeric in a list or in
crosstab reports, for example the name of the campaign as shown in Figure 6-30
on page 196, you can use the Include or Exclude conditions. You can select
multiple non-numeric values (in list reports within the same column and in
crosstabs in column or row headings) on which to filter. All values are included in
the condition.
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Figure 6-30 Filtering non-numeric data
For numeric data you can use conditions (for example >, >=, <, >=) if only one
value is selected, or you can use Between and Not Between if two values are
selected (see Figure 6-31).
Figure 6-31 Filtering numeric data
In case of compound reports that consist of more report parts, if all parts share
the same query, a filter applied to one report part is also applied to the other. If
the query is not shared, the filter is applied only to the selected report part within
the report widget.
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If you want to remove a filter from a report widget on the information bar, click the
delete icon next to the filter that you want to remove, as shown in Figure 6-32.
Figure 6-32 Removing filter
Note that you can delete only filters that are created using one of the following
methods:
_ The filter button
_ The filter context menu
_ The slider filter
_ The select value filter
You cannot remove filters applied in IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, IBM Cognos
Query Studio, or IBM Cognos Report Studio in this manner.
We discuss advanced filtering using slider filters and select value filters in the
next section.
6.3.4 Use advanced filtering
Filtering data in the report widget using a slider widget or a select value filter
widget filters data in all reports that communicate with that particular filter. Thus,
if you have a select value filter for regions, it filters all reports that have regions as
a data item. Also, it filters data only on those reports that communicate with that
filter. When you select a value on a filter widget, the report widget refreshes to
display the filtered data items that you selected.
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Widget communication
Communication between widgets in IBM Cognos Business Insight has an
important role in understanding how filter widgets work. By default, widgets
communicate with each other. For example, report widgets can interact with each
other and with filter widgets. Based on the type of interaction, the following types
of widgets are available:
_ A source widget is a widget that is broadcasting information.
_ A target widget is a widget that is listening to other widgets.
The results of actions in the source widgets are shown in the associated target
widgets. Filter widgets broadcast the information (sending the data based on
your input or selection). Report widgets can be both source and target widgets.
Image and RSS feed widgets are also source widgets. For example, an image
widget can broadcast a specified URL in a web page widget when the image is
clicked.
By default, two report widgets listen to each other. If they are based on the same
dimensionally-modelled data source and if the report contains items from the
same hierarchy, drilling in one report widget affects a drill in the other report
widget.
If you do not want a target widget to receive information from any or all source
widgets, you must disable the communication in the target widget. You can also
choose to disable some widget events while leaving other widget events enabled.
For example, you might want a widget to listen to filter events and to not listen to
drill events from another widget.
Using filter widgets
Filter widgets are especially useful if you have several reports on a dashboard
that share the same data items.
In our business scenario, Lynn Cope wants to add a select value filter for regions
to make filtering easier for the users of the dashboard. This filtering allows
business users to narrow the scope of data and to focus on analyzing data for a
specific region or to have a global overview on all regions.
After adding a select value filter, Lynn notices that the filter is impacting one
report that she does not want to filter. She needs to modify the communication
between these widgets to change this behavior.
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The Great Outdoor company Sales Dashboard currently looks as shown in
Figure 6-33.
Figure 6-33 Dashboard before adding filter widget
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To modify the dashboard to change the communication between widgets:
1. Drag Select Value Filter from the Toolbox tab to the dashboard. The
Properties - Select Value Filter window opens, as shown in Figure 6-34. You
can filter on the Region data item for reports Revenue Planned versus Actual
and Gross Profit by Region. Select Region. Leave the default setting for the
remainder of the options, and click OK.
Figure 6-34 Select Value Filter properties window
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The widget opens on the dashboard (see Figure 6-35).
Figure 6-35 Select a value filter widget by region
2. Select values for Central Europe, Northern Europe, and Southern Europe,
and click Apply. Note that the Revenue Planned versus Actual and Gross
Profit by Region refresh and now display data just for the selected regions, as
shown in Figure 6-36.
Figure 6-36 Dashboard with filter applied for the region
3. You do not want to filter the data on the Revenue Planned versus Actual
report, so you can remove filtering on that report widget. Click Action, and
then click Listen to Widget Events.
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4. Scroll down to Select Value Filter, and clear that option as shown in
Figure 6-37. Now, this widget will not communicate with the select value filter
widget.
Figure 6-37 Listen for Widget Events window
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5. Go to the filter widget, and select Americas and Asia Pacific. Click Apply.
The Gross Profit by Region report is filtered again and now shows data for
these two regions. However, the Revenue Planned versus Actual report
remains the same, because it is not listening to the filter widget anymore (see
Figure 6-38).
Figure 6-38 Filtering report after changes in Listening for Widget Events properties
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6. You want the Revenue Planned versus Actual report to display data for all
regions, so you remove filtering that was applied previously with the select
filter widget. Go to the information bar, and remove the filter as shown in
Figure 6-39.
Figure 6-39 Removing filter from a report widget
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The dashboard now looks as shown in Figure 6-40.
Figure 6-40 Modified dashboard
6.3.5 Add non-BI content to a dashboard
In addition to IBM Cognos BI content, you can add non-BI content, such as
images, text, web pages, or RSS feeds, to a dashboard. In our business
scenario, Lynn Cope wants to include stock exchange reports and news from
various websites.
To add non-BI content:
1. Assure that the Atom feed URL (*.ibm.com in this case) is added to the
trusted domain list that is defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.
2. Drag the RSS Feed widget from the Toolbox pane to the dashboard. In the
Properties RSS Feed window, shown in Figure 6-41, enter the following URL:
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/rssfeed.wss?keyword=null&maxFeed=&
feedType=RSS&topic=80
3. Click OK.
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Figure 6-41 Add RSS Feed to a dashboard
The widget is added to a dashboard (see Figure 6-42).
Figure 6-42 RSS Feed widget
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6.3.6 Work with report versions and watch rules
Usually, reports are run directly against the underlying data source so that they
reflect the latest data. However, at time, reports can use older data for
comparisons. For example, you might want to see older data to compare monthly
revenue for a region before and after features are added. Alternatively, if reports
are running against a data warehouse that is refreshed once daily, you do not
need reports that are executed multiple times during working hours on the same
data set. In this types of scenarios, you can use the report output versions in
report widgets. Report outputs are saved when the report runs in the
background.
You can choose to view the saved report output versions (by default, it is the
latest saved output version) or to view the live version of the report, as illustrated
in Figure 6-43.
Figure 6-43 Report version options
For the output versions of the reports, you can define the watch rules to monitor
events of interest. Watch rules are based on event conditions that are evaluated
when the report is saved. The watch rule sends an alert when a specific
condition in a saved report is satisfied.
Reports in HTML format: Only report versions saved in HTML format are
supported in IBM Cognos Business Insight.
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Watch rules can generate one of the following types of alerts:
_ Send the report by email
_ Publish a news item
_ Send a notification to the task inbox
The next example shows how to use the watch rules in the business use case of
the Great Outdoors company. Lynn Cope created a list report with the campaigns
by product lines and the gross profit. She noticed the negative Gross Profit in
case of the Extreme Campaign for Outdoor Protection product lines. To enable
other users to monitor that result and to take measures if necessary, she wants to
add a watch rule to that value.
To add a watch rule:
1. Open IBM Cognos Business Insight, select the Create New option, and
navigate to the folder where you imported the deployment archive that we
provided with the additional materials accompanying this book. Open the
Business Insight Source Reports folder, and add the Campaigns by product
lines report to the dashboard.
2. Click Actions Menu, click Versions, and inspect the options that are
available.
Enabling watch rules: The report owner must enable watch rules for the
report to allow users to add a watch rule for the report. For the details, refer to
IBM Cognos Connection User Guide.
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3. To add a watch rule to the negative Gross Profit value for Extreme Campaign,
right-click the intersection of Gross Profit and Outdoor Protection -
Extreme Campaign, and click Alert Using New Watch Rule as shown in
Figure 6-44.
Figure 6-44 Add new watch rule
4. A window opens where you can specify the rule. Select the “Send an alert
based on a thresholds” option. Leave the performance pattern as “High
values are good.”
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5. Enter the value 10000 in the first box and 0 in the second (see Figure 6-45).
Click Next.
Figure 6-45 Watch rule specification
6. A window opens where you can specify an alert type. You can set up a watch
rule to send different alerts depending on the performance status of a
condition (good, average, and poor). Set the alert to send an email in the case
of average performance and to publish a news item in case of good
performance. Make a selection as shown in Figure 6-46.
Figure 6-46 Alert type specification
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7. Define the headline and text of the news item by clicking Edit the options for
Publish a news item.
8. Define the list of users that you want to receive the email by clicking Edit the
options for Send a notification.
9. Click Next. Enter the following text as the name for a watch rule:
Gross Profit for Outdoor Protection has met a threshold condition
10.Click Finish.