IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook - Second Edition

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook - Second Edition

by Ahmed Lashin, Abhishek Sanghani
Released August 2013
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781849688208

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Book description

Getting the most out of IBM Cognos Report Studio is a breeze with this recipe-packed cookbook. Cherry-pick the ones you want or go through the tutorial step by step – either way you’ll end up with some highly impressive reports.

  • Learn advanced techniques to produce real-life reports that meet business demand
  • Learn tricks and hacks for speedy and effortless report development
  • Peek into the best practices used in industry and discover ways to work like a pro

In Detail

IBM Cognos Report Studio is widely used for creating and managing business reports in medium to large companies. It is simple enough for any business analyst, power user, or developer to pick up and start developing basic reports. However, this book is designed to take the reader beyond the basics and into the world of creating more sophisticated, functional business reports.

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition helps you understand and use all the features provided by Report Studio to generate impressive deliverables. It will take you from being a beginner to a professional report author. It bridges the gap between basic training provided by manuals or trainers and the practical techniques learned over years of practice.

Written in a recipe style, this book offers step-by-step instructions for IBM Cognos Report Studio users to author reports effectively, allowing a reader to dip in and out of the chapters as they desire.

You will see a new fictional business case in each recipe that will relate to a real-life problem and then you will learn how to crack it in Report Studio.

This book covers all the basic and advanced features of Report Authoring. It introduces the fundamental features useful across any level of reporting. Then it ascends to advanced techniques and tricks to overcome Studio limitations. Develop excellent reports using dimensional data sources by following best practices that development work requires in Report Studio. You will also learn about editing the report outside the Studio by directly editing the XML specifications. You will discover how to build and use Cognos Active Reports, a new addition in IBM Cognos 10.

Provide richness to the user interface by adding JavaScript and HTML tags and using the different chart types introduced in IBM Cognos 10. The main focus is on the practical use of various powerful features that Report Studio has to offer to suit your business requirements.

Learn numerous techniques and hacks that will allow you to make the best out of your IBM Cognos 10.1 Report Studio.

Table of contents

  1. IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook - Second Edition
    1. Table of Contents
    2. IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook - Second Edition
    3. Credits
    4. About the Authors
    5. About the Reviewers
    6. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
        1. Why Subscribe?
        2. Free Access for Packt account holders
        3. Instant Updates on New Packt Books
    7. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Errata
        2. Piracy
        3. Questions
    8. 1. Report Authoring Basic Concepts
      1. Introduction
      2. Summary filters and detail filters
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The detail filter
          2. The summary filter
        4. There's more...
          1. Before/after aggregation
        5. See also
      3. Sorting grouped values
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Aggregation and rollup aggregation
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The aggregation property
          2. The rollup aggregation property
          3. Multiple aggregation
        4. There's more...
      5. Implementing if-then-else in filters
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Formatting data – dates, numbers, and percentages
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Date format
          2. Numerical format
          3. The % margin
        4. There's more...
      7. Creating sections
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
      8. Hiding columns in crosstabs
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Prompts – display value versus use value
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    9. 2. Advanced Report Authoring
      1. Introduction
      2. Adding cascaded prompts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Cascaded source
        4. There's more...
          1. Auto-Submit
        5. See also
      3. Creating a nested report – defining the master-detail relationship
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The master-detail relationship
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
      4. Writing back to the database
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Adding conditional formatting
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The String variable
          2. The Boolean variable
          3. The report language variable
        4. There's more...
          1. The style variable property
          2. The text source variable property
      6. Formatting negative values
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Running Difference
          2. Showing negative values in red and brackets
      7. Playing with conditional styles
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Using conditional blocks – many reports in one
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Defining drill-through from crosstab intersection
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      10. Overriding crosstab intersection drill-through definitions
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    10. 3. Using JavaScript Files – Tips and Tricks
      1. Introduction
      2. Defining dynamic default values for prompts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Span
          2. GetElementsByTagName
          3. SelectedIndex
          4. CanSubmitPrompt
        4. There's more...
      3. Changing the title of the value prompt
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Validating textbox prompts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Showing/hiding prompt controls at runtime
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Selecting and submitting values automatically
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Manipulating the Date Time control
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Creating a variable width bar chart using JavaScript
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    11. 4. The Report Page – Tips and Tricks
      1. Introduction
      2. Showing images dynamically (traffic light report)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Handling the missing image issue
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Dynamic links to an external website (a Google Maps example)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Alternating drill links
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Render Variable
        4. There's more...
      6. Showing tooltips on reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
      7. Merged cells in Excel output
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      8. Worksheet name in Excel output
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Conditional column titles
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
    12. 5. Working with XML
      1. Introduction
      2. Changing drill targets quickly
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Copying and pasting drill links
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Removing references to old packages or items
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. A hidden gem in XML – row level formatting
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    13. 6. Writing Printable Reports
      1. Introduction
      2. Controlling the container size and rows per page
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Eliminating orphan rows
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Defining page orientation and size (and overriding them for one page)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Avoiding page title repetition
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Horizontal pagination
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Page numbering with horizontal pagination
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      8. Choosing the output format from a prompt
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Choosing the right colors
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Defining page sets
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      11. Cautions about HTML items and JavaScript files
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      12. Displaying the report name in a footer
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
    14. 7. Working with Dimensional Models
      1. Introduction
      2. List report or crosstab report
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      3. Filtering rows or columns
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Filtering a whole report
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Adding a prompt into Slicer and its limitations
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      6. Achieving zero suppression
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Aggregation versus preaggregated values
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. The roleValue() function
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Swapping dimensions using MUN manipulation
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. See also
    15. 8. Working with Macros
      1. Introduction
      2. Adding data-level security using the CSVIdentityMap macro
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Using the Prompt macro in native SQL
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Making prompts optional
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Optional_defaultValue
          2. Pure_Optional
        4. There's more...
      5. Adding a token using macros
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      6. Using the prompt() and promptmany() macros in query subjects
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      7. Showing the prompt values in a report based on security
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      8. String operations to get it right
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Showing a username in the footer
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    16. 9. Using Report Studio Efficiently
      1. Introduction
      2. Using Report Studio's environmental options
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. View | Visual Aids
          2. Structure | Create Crosstab Nodes
          3. Tools | Options | View | Reuse IBM Cognos Viewer window
          4. Tools | Options | Report
        4. There's more...
      3. Copying and pasting partial or full reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      4. Upgrading report specifications
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Setting the execution timeout
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Setting the maximum row limit
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      7. Handling slow report validation
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Capturing a query
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more…
          1. Why make filters mandatory?
          2. Query formatting
          3. Capturing the query for the database
      9. Browsing values from the data expression window
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Viewing the page structure
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      11. Picking up and applying styles
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      12. Using the "grab them all" practice
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. See also
      13. Using Default Data Formats
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
    17. 10. Working with Active Reports
      1. Introduction
      2. Building tabbed reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Working with Decks
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Working with the Data Deck
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Filtering data using Data Check Box Group
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    18. 11. Charts and New Chart Features
      1. Introduction
      2. Chart formatting options
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Chart Palette Presets
          2. Background Effects Presets
        4. There's more...
      3. Converting a chart to another chart type
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      4. Working with pie charts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The Summarize Small Slices property
          2. The First Slice Angle property
          3. The Exploded Slices property
      5. Getting started with bullet charts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Getting started with scatter charts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
    19. 12. More Useful Recipes
      1. Introduction
      2. Timing report execution
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. The report view
          2. Scheduling
        4. There's more...
      3. Missing values versus zero values
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Overriding data formatting using patterns
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Setting up conditional drill-throughs
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Dynamically switching between reports using an iFrame
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Freezing column titles
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    20. 13. Best Practices
      1. Introduction
      2. Reducing the number of query items
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
          1. Alias member unique name
          2. Delete unreferenced query objects
          3. Dragging items from the Data Items pane
      3. Highlighting hidden items
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      4. Using relative paths for images
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Controlling JavaScript file execution
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      6. Customizing classes for report-wide effect
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      7. Creating templates
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      8. Regression testing
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Commenting the code
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      10. Naming data containers (lists, crosstabs, and charts) for use in Cognos Workspace
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      11. Enabling a larger worksheet size for Excel 2007
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
    21. A. Recommendations and References
      1. Introduction
      2. Version controlling
      3. Recommendations for prompt types
      4. Cognos Mashup Service
      5. SDK and third-party tools for Cognos
      6. IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE)
      7. IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office
      8. IBM Cognos Workspace
      9. IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced
      10. IBM Cognos Cloud
    22. Index

Product information

  • Title: IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook - Second Edition
  • Author(s): Ahmed Lashin, Abhishek Sanghani
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781849688208