IBM Cognos Analytics - Getting Started with Data Modules:

Data Modeling and Data Preparation

Duration: 2 Hours (estimate)

Instructions Update:
This demo has been updated to use IBM Cognos Analytics on the Cloud version 11.2.

Prepared By: Dennis Buttera, Technology Advocate, Center for Advanced Studies, IBM Canada
(Ottawa)

With Cognos Analytics, users are not restricted to existing enterprise data sources. The data
blending and modeling capabilities in Cognos Analytics allows the business user to include
external data sources without requiring assistance from IT. This does not replace IT, it simply
augments the user experience to allow the user to work with personal data sets and analyze
that data in conjunction with the enterprise data.

Users can import external data from files on-premise, data sources and cloud data sources into
Cognos Analytics. Multiple data sources may be shaped, blended, cleansed and joined together
to create a custom, reusable and shareable data module for use in dashboards and reports.

In this workshop, you will explore the following capabilities in IBM Cognos Analytics:

• Upload Data Files

• Create a data module
• Testing the Data Module

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Step 1. Start Cognos Analytics for your Tutorial
From your desktop, open Chrome (this is the preferred browser, however, you can also use:
Firefox, or Safari).

Navigate to the Cognos Analytics launch page: https://www.ibm.com/products/cognos-

analytics

Enter your IBM ID sign-in credentials to launch IBM Cognos Analytics. You will land on the
welcome page.

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Part 1. Business Use Case for This Workshop
You have just received the following email asking for your assistance:

With Cognos Analytics’ Data Module capabilities, you can blend data from multiple disparate
systems such as uploaded files, databases, etc. You’ll start with uploading the data files, so you
may build out a data module to have a single source of integrated data to work with for
analysis.

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Part 2. Uploading External Data Files
The ability for Business Users to leverage their personal/external data for discovery
dramatically broadens the landscape of users who can make new data available for analysis.
Users may upload an external data file and immediately begin self-service data discovery, ad
hoc analysis and building dashboards, data modules and reports.

For this exercise you wish to combine existing Customer Loyalty Program information with
Customer Churn information and Customer Claim analysis. You have this information in various
files which you can upload directly into Cognos Analytics and blend, cleanse and model for use
in your analysis. For the first upload, you want to include your Customer Churn information for
customers who had, or currently have, cell phone plans that are part of your Loyal customers
program.

The files you will use for this tutorial are Customer Churn.xlsx, Customer Claim Analysis.xlsx,
and CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full.csv.

Select Upload Data

Select the file “CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full.csv”.

Select Upload to load the file.

TECH TIP: If you have completed our workshop

“Introduction to Dashboards”, this file will already be
loaded on your instance, and you may see it on in the
recent section of your homepage. If it exists in your
My Content folder already, you will be prompted
that it exists. You may continue to upload the file to
refresh it, or, skip ahead to the next section of this
tutorial.

As the file uploads, notice that under the Switcher Menu, a series of status bars will be
visible as the upload process reads and analyzes the data being brought in.

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Once it completes, the status bar will update to show the successful completion before closing.

The uploaded file will now show in the Recent content on your homepage.

For the next upload you want to include Customer Churn information. Repeat the upload steps
for the “Customer Churn.xlsx”

For the last upload, you want to include Customer Claim Analysis data. Repeat the upload steps
for the “Customer Claim Analysis.xlsx”

Once the uploads are complete, the files are available in the Recent area of the main home
page and saved in your My Content folder which you can access from the navigation bar.

TECH TIP: You can also perform the uploads directly from the Data Module user interface or by
using the drop zone at the bottom of the home screen.

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Part 3. Create a Data Module

Click on Prepare Data

The Select sources dialog box will appear.

From here you may use search and filtering options

to locate different source types and recently
accessed files to select content to include in the
data module.

In the Filter by panel under Type, select ‘Files’.

Under My content, Control + Click to multi-select
the three (3) files just uploaded from and click OK.

TECH TIP: The Select sources window allows users to filter by Type and Modified date. Data
modules, data sets, data servers, framework manager packages, and uploaded files can be
included in the data module.

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The new Data module will open with the Data Source panel on the left, and the canvas on the
right. At the top left of the canvas, you will see that there are two views available with data
modules:

o Grid shows the data values.

o Relationships provides a visual representation of how the tables are
related.

o Custom Tables can also be created from tables in the data module.

By default, Cognos Analytics starts with the Grid view of the data. Click on Customer churn.xlsx
to preview the data.

Click the Relationships view. You will now see a diagram showing each of the three data files
you brought into the data module. Notice that Customer Churn is highlighted as it is the one
that is currently in focus.

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You may click on each table and move it around the screen to modify the layout to your
preference.

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Click on the tables and drag them into the configuration shown below:

TECH TIP: To move the entire diagram at once, you may click in the whitespace and move while
holding down the left mouse button. You may also zoom in/out on the diagram using the zoom
buttons on the lower right of the canvas.

On the top right of the canvas is the Diagram settings dialog box. Here, you may set the
Degrees of separation. This box will remain greyed out until the joins between the tables have
been defined.

At the top left of the window, click on the down arrow next to the Save icon on the main
toolbar. Click Save As. Navigate to My Content and save as “Customer Analytics DM”.

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Part 4. Working with Joins
You will create two join-relationships between the imported objects.

The first relationship you will define is between CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full and Customer
Claim Analysis.

From the Relationships diagram, click

CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full and then
control-click on Customer Claim Analysis.
Both tables will be highlighted to indicate
they are in focus.

Right-click and select Relationship.

The Create relationship window will

appear. The window is neatly organized
to step you through the join definition.
The window shows each table in the join
and columns/fields available for the join.
Below, a preview of the data will appear
once the join has been set.

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At the top of the window, it shows the selections made for setting up the join relationship.

For the instructions in this exercise, we are working with the CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full on
the left and the Customer Claim Analysis on the right. Use the Switch left and right tables
toggle button to place your tables in this order.

From the Create relationship window, you can see that the common data between the files is
the Loyalty#/LoyaltyId. Using the pick lists, from CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full, select
Loyalty# and from Customer Claim Analysis, select LoyaltyID.

Click the Match Selected Columns button, and then the Refresh button to update the viewer to
show the joined tables. Use the scroll bar to see that the common fields used for the join are
now highlighted.

The Matched columns indicates the number of relationship joins defined for these two tables.

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The relationship definition in the lower left corner shows the rules (logic) setup for the join
behavior (Inner join, 1-to-many, No filtering). Click on the join settings to open the join
definitions.

There are many ways to join data between files. The goal of the join is to ensure that the
relationship between the two files creates a unique record.

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 For Relationship Type, this join is set to Inner
Join. This will Include matching rows only
between the two files, meaning that it will
only return records that exist in both files.
Make no changes to the Relationship Type.

Cardinality refers to number of

occurrences of the data item in each of
the data sets. For this join, each of these
tables is a master list of products and
names respectively, so each record is
unique. Click on the radial button next to
“1-to-1” to change the cardinality.

Optimization provides automated filtering options

based on the values between the tables. Make no
changes to the Optimization.

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 Your relationship definitions/join settings should now appear as
shown.

Click Refresh to update the preview of the joined data and then
click OK.

TECH TIP: If multiple joins are needed to create a unique record,

the User may add joins repeating the process above of selecting
the data items to join on and selecting match to complete the
join.

You can now see a 1 to 1 relationship is built between the two files.

The next relationship you will define is between CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full and Customer
Churn.

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Select CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full and then control-click Customer Churn. Both tables will
be highlighted to indicate that they are in focus. Right-click and select New and then
Relationship.

Repeat the previous steps to create a join.

With the CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full table

on the left and Customer Churn table on the
right, set the relationship settings as follows:

• Create a join relationship using the

CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full “Loyalty#”
and the Customer Churn “LoyaltyId”
• Set Relationship type to “Inner Join”.
• Set Cardinality to “1-to-1”.
• Make no changes to Optimization

Once your join relationship appears as shown,

click OK to return to the diagram.

Click the Match Selected Columns button, and then the Refresh button to update the viewer.
Then click OK.

Your resulting diagram should now appear as follows:

Save the Data module.

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Part 5. Working with Table Properties
You can modify the Properties of the data tables for better usability for your business users
working with the data module, such as: table names; adding comments and screen tips; data
usage type, etc.

Right-click on the
CustomerLoyaltyProgram_Full table in the
Relationships diagram to open the options
and then select Properties.

You can see we could also create

relationships from this interface, as well as
many more actions which are covered later in
the workshop.

The Properties panel is displayed to the right-side

of the display and the General tab is shown.

From here you can change the table name (label),

choose to show/hide the table to users, add
comments and screen tips for the table.

Change the Label to “Customer Loyalty

Program”. Notice that as you change the Label,
the name shown in the Data Module diagram to
the left is dynamically updating to reflect the new
label.

You can also enter Comments or ScreenTips if

needed.

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 Click the down arrow next to Advanced to
expand the list of advanced features for this
table. This section shows you: the table
Identifier; allows you to set the table usage
and data cache; the data source for the table
(in this case the original file name); and
clicking “i” provides additional detail on the
folder containing the data file, and the name
of the table created in the data module.

Usage: Allows you to set the Usage for the

table:

• Automatic. Specifies that the query

engine will detect if the query subject is a
dimension or a fact.
• Bridge. Specifies that the query subject
refers to a bridge table.
• Summary. Specifies that the query
subject will be treated as a summary
query.

Data Cache: Use the

rules to enable or disable
data caching and specify
the cache expiry options.

Source. This provides the user with lineage

information.

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For the purposes of this workshop, you will make no changes to the Properties settings at this
time. You will work more with Properties later in the workshop.

Close the Properties panel by clicking the ‘X’ in the upper right corner of the panel. Save the
Data module.

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Part 6. Create Table Folders
The Customer Loyalty Program table contains a lot of great information regarding customer
information, location, demographics and purchase history. The goal is to organize this
information into folders for each of these areas.

Right click on “Customer Loyalty Program”. Under New, select “Folder”. The new folder is
added to the top of the data item list, just under the table name.

Rename the new folder to “Customer Identification”.

Repeat these steps to create the following

folders:

• "Customer Location"
• "Customer Demographics"
• "Loyalty Program Details and Measures"

You can reorder the tables and folders to display in your preferred order. To reorder, just drag
and drop them into your preferred placement order.

Reorder the newly created folders by

dragging and dropping them into the
following order (a blue bar will indicate
the drop zone): Customer
Identification, Customer Location,
Customer Demographics, Loyalty

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 Program Details and Measures. This is
the final result.

From the Customer Loyalty Program table,

use control + click to multi-select columns
"Loyalty#", "First Name", "Last Name", and
"Customer Name".

Drag them into the Customer Identification

folder. Blue bars above and below the table
name will indicate the drop zone.

From the Customer Loyalty Program table,

multi-select columns "Country", "Province or
State", "City", "Latitude", "Longitude",
"Postal code" and "Location Code".

Drag them into the Customer Location

folder. Blue bars above and below the table
name will indicate the drop zone.

From the Customer Loyalty Program table,

multi-select columns "Gender", "Education",
"Income" and "Marital Status".

Drag them into the “Customer

Demographics” folder.

From the Customer Loyalty table, multi-select all remaining data items and drag them into the
“Loyalty Program Details and Measures” folder.

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 Notice that as the data items were organized
into the folders, they no longer appeared in
the original table list.

Save the Data Module.

Part 7. Working with Data Properties

If needed, use the down arrow next the Customer Loyalty Program table and each of the
folders you created, to expand and view the data items available for analysis. As you look at the
data items listed, you will notice that the fields have been easily identified for rendering and
type.

Hidden fields. Notice Row id is greyed out. This indicates the item is hidden from the report
authors view.

Usage Type. The icons next to the field names indicate the data type setting.

• Numeric fields. The ‘#’ sign next to an item indicates it’s a Numeric field used as an
identifier.

• Alpha-numeric fields. The ‘abc’ sign next an item indicates it’s an Alpha numeric field
used as an identifier or attribute.

• Location. The pin indicates the field is a location dimension which may be used for
geospatial mapping.

• Measures. The ‘ruler’ next to an item indicates it’s a measure.

• Time. The clock indicates the field is a time dimension.

Similar to the options you saw earlier for tables, data items also have many options to modify
their properties.

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 Expand the Loyalty Program Details and
Measures folder if needed. Click on Unit
Sale Price, then the ellipse (…) and select
Format data…

Notice that the Format Type shows

Currency. The Format type setting is based
on Cognos Analytics having recognized a
data format previously set in the uploaded
file.

A list of additional formatting settings for

Currency are presented.

For this workshop, we will not make any

changes to the currency settings. Click
Cancel.

This will maintain the default format of a leading currency symbol and two decimal places.

Repeat these steps to and verify Unit Cost and Revenue are set to Currency.

Save the Data module.

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Part 8. Create a Calculation
Your data has Unit Sales Price and Unit Cost, but it would be helpful to have the margin
calculated so that it is available for analysis. Cognos Analytics provides both simple and complex
calculation capabilities.

By adding this calculation to the data module, it will be reusable anywhere in the analysis. Users
will not need to rebuild the calculation each time they need them in their dashboards, reports,
etc. - they simply use the calculated measure.

You will start with a simple

calculation. Multi-select Unit Sales
Price and Unit Cost.

Right-click to bring up the options list.

Select Create Calculation.

The create Calculation dialog box

appears.

This dialog box allows the user to

create a simple calculation. Users
can select two fields and select from
the basic operators for addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division,
percentage and percentage change
calculations.

Rename the calculation Name

(defaulted to Unit Sale Price + Unit
Cost) to Margin. Use the pull-down
arrow to select the Subtraction (-)
operator.

At this point, Cognos Analytics will create the underlying calculation.

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Optionally, users can create more complex calculations using the calculation editor.

Select “Use calculation editor” to open the full calculation dialog box.

You can now see the Expression that

Cognos Analytics created for you from the
previous dialog box.

The Expression editor provides many capabilities that make it easy for you to create, document,
evaluate, and test your expressions. At the far top-right of the window, you will find the
following options:

Information. Provides the User with additional context and assistance.

Preview. Provides a sample rendering of the calculation results along with the
Execution time to run. Click Preview. Results appear in the lower right window.

Validate. Validation allows Users to test their calculation to ensure no errors occur.
Click Validation. Results appear in the lower right window.

Comment. Allows Users to insert comments within the calculation itself; to make
notations throughout the expression. Click Comment. Notice that the calculation is greyed
out and preceded with the familiar “//” used in SQL. Click Comments again to uncomment
calculation.

Prettify. Restructures calculation expression into a more readable format for users.
E.g. When a CASE WHEN expression is in one long block of text that wraps across lines,
Prettify will clean it up and break it out into shorter segments with each condition clause on
a separate line.

High Contrast Mode. This mode reverses the color scheme in the expression editor.
This provides black background with light text some users prefer. Click High Contrast. Click
again if you wish to restore the original background.

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 Font. The default font size for the expression editor is 14. Users may increase or
decrease the font size used.

Click on the functions tab on the far left navigation panel and click the arrow to expand
Operators. Here, you are presented with the full scope of mathematical operators and
commands to create complex calculations.

Scroll through the list and select various Operators. Click Information to see the
expression syntax for the operator in the bottom right window. See examples below.

You can also use Find to search for functions. Enter “average” into the Find field. Click on
“average” in the results list to view the function definition.

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For the purposes of this workshop, we will walk through manually creating the same calculation
that Cognos Analytics created and is shown in the Expression field.

To do so, use a simple drag-and-drop method to bring over the data items and operators from
the components panel. Users could also manually build their expressions directly in the
Expression window, or copy/paste them into the editor.

Click on the Clear button in the Find field to remove the search criteria.

In the Expression window, place your cursor at the end of the expression shown on Row 1.
Click Enter to bring your cursor to a new line, line 2.

We will use the expression on line 1 for reference and remove the duplicate expression at the
end of the exercise.

Click the Data Source tab

and expand (if needed)
Loyalty Program Details
and Measures.

Click on Unit Sales Price

and drag it over to line 2
in the Expression
window.

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 Open the Functions tab and expand
Operators.

Drag the Subtraction function to the

right of Unit Sale Price in row 2. (You
may also simply type “-“ for the
subtraction sign).

Return to the Data Source tab and drag

Unit_Cost after the ‘-‘ to complete your
calculation.

Click on the calculation expression in row 1 and click Comment . This will “comment
out” the entire line so you may now validate your new expression to ensure there are no
errors in syntax.

Click Validate . The validation results in the lower window should state “The expression
is valid”. Click OK to return to your data module.

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 The new expression is now added to the
Loyalty Program Details and Measures table.

Drag Margin below Unit Cost.

Look for the blue line (which represents the

drop zone) beneath Unit Cost.

Now you want to Apply the same

Currency format as you used for
Revenue.

Right-click on Margin to open the

options menu and then select Format
data.

Under Format type select Currency

then click OK.

Save the Data module.

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Part 9. Create a Custom Data Group
Often, users need to organize data into groups for analysis, sometimes referred to as “binning”
or “buckets” (anyone remember statistics)!

In looking at “MonthsAsMember”, you feel that analyzing membership, on each membership

duration, may not provide much insight.

For instance, there may not be a great deal of difference between someone who has been a
member for 15 months versus 16 months. Rather, you would be more interested in the
behaviors of members with similar membership durations.

Therefore, you will create custom groupings to “bin/bucket” the individual membership
duration into “Months as Member” category groups.

Click column “MonthsAsMember”.

Click the ellipse (…), then select “Create

data group”.

Rename the Data group column name to

“Membership Group”.

Set the number of Groups to 4.

Since Month is a numeric value, an equal

distribution of month ranges will be
automatically calculated.

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 Cognos Analytics also provides you
with statistics on your data, such
as, Max/Min values, and number of
values.

Click the Data group statistics

information on the right side of
window, next to Range border
values.

Click the “X” to close the Data

group statistics window.

You can override the equal distribution to manually define your month groups and customize
the group names.

The equal distribution is interesting and shows that the distribution is very close to full years.

You want to update the groups to

monthly cut-offs that correspond to full
years for every group.

Click in each of the Range border values

field and change the Range border
values to those shown below.

Then, click in the Group names fields to

change Group names as shown

Click Create.

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 The new Membership Group column now
appears in the Loyalty Program Details and
Measures table.

Click the arrow next to Membership Group.

A second column named “Membership

Group__bin_nr” was also created - this is an
identifier field which may be used for sorting.
By default, it is set to hidden and will be
greyed out.

Click on Membership Group__bin_nr and

open the Properties.

Note the Comments section.

Cognos Analytics created a complex

calculation expression when creating the new
Membership Group items.

To view the calculation in the calculation

editor, click on View or edit next to
Expression to open the Edit Calculation
window.

Cognos Analytics created a custom calculation in

the form of a CASE WHEN statement, utilizing
the Range border values you defined for the
data group.

Notice that the THEN statement uses the

numeric values to support its use as a sort key.

Click Close to close the calculation editor

window.

Leave the Properties panel open. Click on the new Membership Group data item (in the Data
module panel). Click on View or edit next to Expression to open the Edit calculation window.

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Again, Cognos Analytics created a custom calculation in the form of a CASE WHEN statement.
For the Membership Group, it shows range values and the THEN statement uses the group
names you defined.

Click Cancel to close the calculation editor window. Close the Property panel and Save the data
module.

Part 10. Create a Navigation Path

A navigation path is a collection of non-measure columns that business users leverage for data
exploration.

Navigation paths can be defined in a data module or dashboard to help users easily explore and
drill down to see their underlying data. These can be “natural” navigation paths that follow a
defined hierarchy, or they can be defined to allow users to navigate and drill down in any order
that makes sense for their analysis.

In traditional BI and OLAP technologies, a drill down action requires a pre-defined hierarchical
data structure so that you could navigate the drill down i.e. Year to Month to Day.

Navigation paths are much more flexible and can accommodate a drill down path that aligns
with the thought process users go through to analyze their business.

A navigation path will now be created so to allow you to drill down into your data on that path.

The main goal is in analyzing Product Line performance by Country and Membership Group.

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 From “Loyalty Program Details and
Measures” folder, click the ellipse (…)
beside Product Line.

Then click “Create navigation path”.

In the Create Navigation Path popup

window, name the path “Products by
Country by Membership Group”.

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 In the Find window, enter “Country”. Click
and drag Country under “Product Line”.

In the Find window, enter “Membership”.

Click and Drag “Membership Group”
under “Country”.

Your navigation path should now appear as follows:

Click OK to close the popup window.

TECH TIP: The same column may be added to multiple navigation groups.

To identify your Navigation path members in

the Data Modules panel, click the Identify
navigation path members icon at the top
of the Data Module panel.

Each data item used in a navigation group is

now underlined to identify its membership.

Save the Data Module.

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Part 11. Test the Data Module
Now that the data module is ready, it’s time to test it out before creating new content for the
analysis.

Click on the icon on the upper left of the main toolbar. Cognos Analytics will open a new
browser tab that will allow for the creation of a report to validate the new Data Module.

TECH TIP: Beware of Pop-up blockers in the browser. If they are enabled, allow them for this
server. For more information on pop-up blockers, see Appendix B.

To begin, you’ll verify that the report is in

preview mode so that you can see the data
update as you test the data module.

At the far top-right of the toolbar, click the

down-arrow for Page Design and ensure that
Page Preview is selected.

To quickly build a report and test

the model, you can select a few
items from the Data Source pane
and drag them over into the
Report Viewer.

Expand Customer Loyalty

Program, then expand the Loyalty
Program Details and Measures
folder.

Click on Membership Group and

drag it over to the list report, over
where it says “Drop items here to
create new columns”.

You now see your list of custom

defined membership groups.

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Drag and drop Count to the right of Membership Group. A flashing vertical bar will appear at
the drop zone.

Counts are brought in for each of the Membership Groups you defined.

Click on the header for the Count column to bring it into focus.

The on-demand toolbar opens, providing you with context specific formatting options for the
column. Hover over each of the icons on the toolbar to view options available. Click on the
Summarize icon to open the summary options for the column. Select Total.

An Overall-Total count is generated (which matches what was shown earlier in the workshop as
the “Number of Values” under Data group statistics (when creating the custom data group).

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This count will be used to verify that the data module is consistent for reporting while
investigating other ways to “slice and dice” the data.

Click on the Membership Group header and then click delete from your keyboard. The column
is removed, leaving only the Count, where the total has remained the same.

From the data source panel, click on Product

Line and drag it to the list report, to the left
of Count, dropping it when the vertical bar
indicates the drop zone.

The Count should remain the same. If this is

true, the module is behaving as expected.

Next, also verify that the data module

is performing with the other files
brought in for analysis.

Expand the Customer Demographics

folder.

Drag Gender between Product Line

and Count as shown below.

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The report updates with the Gender column and the Total remains, verifying that the
relationship join you created is working as intended.

Your quick test confirms the setup is correct and the data module is behaving as expected.

Close the Test ‘New Report’ tab in the browser to return to the data module.

Save the Data Module.

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Appendix A: Cognos Analytics User Interface

Navigation panel. On the left side of the UI is the main Navigation panel, the icon is . This
navigation panel is present on the UI at all times and updates dynamically as the User works
with the various capabilities within Cognos Analytics. The upper part of the panel provides
Users with direct access to search for their content, and links to content to which they have
access. The bottom portion of the panel provides Users with one-click access to capabilities to
create and manage new activities such as creating new content, uploading personal data files,
accessing notifications and managing the environment (dependent on User permissions as set
by the Administrator). The Navigation panel will dynamically update with capabilities based on
the content the User is working with on the canvas.

• Home. The Home page is main screen the User will come to when entering Cognos
Analytics. The default view will render lists of recently used content, a file drop zone for
uploading files, and a quick reference section which allows the User resources to get
started, sample data sets, and links to support materials. For the home page, the User may
change their view by selecting a saved Dashboard, Report or Story to render on this home
page. Administrators may also set the homepage view globally, or by User Group.

• Search. The New Smart Search in Cognos Analytics provides a modernized search
engine that uses a smart, intent-driven search algorithm to assist the User. Click on Search
to open the search panel. Type “Sales” in the search dialog box. As you type, an auto-fill
feature will launch and render search suggestions for related terms. Click outside the Search
panel to close it. It is on the top right side, and is not part of the hamburger icon.

• My Content. The My Content folder provides the User with direct access to
the content they have saved. This is content owned by the User and may only be viewed by
the User. You will be saving your work from today’s workshop in this folder. Click on
Content in the navigation panel to see My Content, Samples and Team
Content. Click on My Content to open the navigation panel to see if there is any User
content in your environment.

• Team Content. The Team Content folder contains all the published enterprise
and shared content the user has permissions to view. Click on Content in the
navigation panel to see My Content, Samples and Team Content. Click on Team Content to
open the navigation panel. Notice there is a list of folders. We will go deeper into these
later in the exercises.

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• Recent. IBM research shows that Users typically use the same set of content on a
regular basis. The Recent button shows the User the most recently used list of content, up
to 20 objects (reports, dashboards, data modules, etc.). Objects appear in order based on
most recently used. Once an object is viewed, it will move to the top of the list. Click on
Recent to see what, if any, are the most recently used objects in your environment. Hover
your mouse over the icon to the left of each object to identify the type of object. Click
outside the Recent panel to close it.

• Manage. Users who have been granted departmental administration permissions are
able to manage content and create or modify Users, schedules, data sources and customize
the environment.

• New. The New button allows Users to create new content. It is intent-driven, meaning
that it allows Users to select what type of content they wish to create, and the Cognos
Analytics UI will open the associated capabilities in UI. From here, Users may create new
Reports, Dashboards, Explorations, Stories and Data Modules.

Switcher Menu. The Switcher menu at the top center of the UI provides a
dropdown button that allows Users to easily move between the different objects they have
worked with during their current session, without opening additional browser windows. (None
will currently show as you have not opened any objects so far, but example is shown below).

Drop Zone. Users may now easily upload files to Cognos Analytics using the Drag and drop
files, open Quick Launch or Browse section at the bottom of the home page.

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Canvas. The majority of the UI is dedicated to the Canvas. This is the interactive work area
where the User will interact with all their data. The Canvas will dynamically update based on
the content the User is working on.

Now that you are familiar with the User Interface, you’re ready to take Cognos Analytics for a
test drive.

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Appendix B: Popup Blockers
Cognos Analytics uses pop-up windows. You will need to ensure your preferred browser is set
to allow pop-ups.

CHROME (WINDOWS)

By default, Chrome will notify you when a pop-up is blocks and give you an option to see it. To
turn off pop-up blocker, follow these instructions:

1. Click the Customize and control Google Chrome menu (the three horizontal bars in the
upper right corner)
2. Select Settings.
3. Click the Show advanced settings... at the bottom.
4. Under Privacy, click the Content Settings button.
5. To disable the pop-up blocker, check the Allow all sites to show pop-ups box.
6. To enable pop-ups on specific sites, check Do not allow any site to show pop-
ups (recommended) and click Exceptions and enter the URL(s).

FIREFOX (WINDOWS)

1. Click the Firefox menu in the left-hand corner of the window.

2. Select Options.
3. Click Content.
4. To disable the pop-up blocker, uncheck the Block pop-up windows box.
5. To allow specific pop-ups, click Exceptions and enter the URL(s).
6. Close the window.
7. Click OK.

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Summary
Congratulations, you’ve completed your first Data Module. Your Data Module may be used
with Reports, Dashboards, Explorations, and Stories. With this, you are ready to begin using
this data for your analysis.

To continue your Analytics journey, please check out our other tutorials in this Cognos
Analytics 11.2 series.

Visit: https://www.ibm.com/demos/collection/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/

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