IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio: Practical Examples

Description

Take Your IBM Cognos 10 Reporting Skills to the Next Level:

Insider Techniques from Top IBM Cognos Trainers!

In this book, two leading IBM Cognos instructors show experienced users how to create better reports with less effort and take full advantage of IBM Cognos 10's most valuable improvements. The authors walk through dozens of detailed examples built in response to actual business reporting challenges. Their step-by-step examples illuminate everything from report design and formatting to queries and statistical analysis--and every example is designed for easy modification.

The authors begin with techniques for creating more usable, consumer-friendly reports, and for ensuring that your reports match your analysis. Next, they demonstrate how to utilize the IBM Cognos report hierarchy and data models more effectively and introduce advanced techniques for report formatting and data processing. They conclude with a full chapter on IBM Cognos 10's most powerful new tools--including Active Reports, support for local data sources, improved charting, and advanced statistical reporting.

Coverage Includes

* Creating simpler, more meaningful reports that match the way your users process information

* Quickly generating complex crosstab calculations

* Rapidly building interactive dashboards that illuminate management's key metrics

* Taking full advantage of the IBM Cognos report hierarchy and layout library

* Comparing legacy report queries to new IBM Cognos Framework Manager data models

* Overriding the standard data model to reflect the way your company organizes its data

* Combining multiple queries in one complex report

* Providing access to interactive reports to users who aren't connected to your servers

* Retrieving complex statistical analyses via the new IBM Cognos Statistics, powered by IBM SPSS

CONTENTS:

About the Authors xvi

Foreword by Erin Pyka xvii

Preface xviii

Chapter 1 Creating Consumer-Friendly Reports 1

Highlight Selected Text 1

   Design 2

   Step-by-Step 2

Avoiding Query Macros 10

   Design 12

   Step-by-Step 13

Complex Crosstab Calculations 20

   Design 20

   Step-by-Step 21

Summary 24

Chapter 2 Matching the Report to the Analysis 27

The Dashboard 28

   Design 28

   Step-by-Step 29

Prompting from an Entire Hierarchy 45

   Design 45

   Step-by-Step 45

Additional Dimensional Functions 58

   Design 58

   Step-by-Step 59

Master-Detail Report from Two Separate Lists 70

   Design 70

   Step-by-Step 70

Configuring the Interactive Dashboard 82

   Scenario 82

   Design 82

   Step-by-Step 82

Summary 89

Chapter 3 Understanding the Report Hierarchy 91

Layout Library 91

   Design 92

   Step-by-Step 92

Using the Layout Library 100

   Design 100

   Step-by-Step 101

Inheriting Formatting 109

   Design 109

   Step-by-Step 110

Inheriting Structure 120

   Design 120

   Step-by-Step 120

Creating the Briefing Book 127

   Design 127

   Step-by-Step 127

Summary 140

Chapter 4 Overriding the Data Model 141

Creating a Union 142

   Design 142

   Step-by-Step 143

Joining SQL and Model Queries 156

   Design 156

   Step-by-Step 157

Summary 172

Chapter 5 Additional Examples 175

Using HTML to Enhance Functionality 176

Final Product 176

   Design 176

   Step-by-Step 177

Integrating Multiple Queries into a Complex Report 187

   Final Product 188

   Design 188

   Step-by-Step 189

Summary 199

Chapter 6 New Techniques in Version 10 201

Using Active Reports to Replace HTML Code 202

   Design 203

   Step-by-Step 203

Adding Local Data Sources to Reports 207

   Design 207

   Step-by-Step 208

New Charting Options and Active Reports 220

   Design 220

   Step-by-Step 221

Statistical Analysis 247

   Design 247

   Step-by-Step 249

Summary 268

Index 271