Demystifying IBM Cognos 8 Security

One of the most challenging aspects of establishing any enterprise business intelligence platform is the design and implementation of a security model that is flexible and extensible enough to meet the needs of your business while also remaining simple enough to administer and maintain. Every organization is unique in how they operate, so a structure that best suits one may not necessarily be appropriate for another. Because of these fundamental differences, there is unfortunately, no single archetype for business intelligence security. There are however a few proven guidelines which if followed, will help to ensure that whichever solution...

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Determinants – The Answer to a Framework Manager Mystery

Determinants can play a crucial role in the overall performance and consistency of your Framework Manager model but remain one of the most confusing aspects of the application to most developers. This article will attempt to end the confusion. Determinants are used so that a table of one grain (level of detail) behaves as if it were another actually stored at another grain. They are primarily used for dimension tables where fact tables join to dimension tables at more than one level in the dimension. (There are other cases where you could use them, but they are less common and fairly specific situations.) The Situation Let’s use the...

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IBM Cognos 8 Framework Manager Model Design

For those starting out with Cognos 8, or even those who have worked with it for quite a while, Framework Manager model design can seem like a daunting or even overwhelming task. With so many options available, it can be hard to know what to consider during design, and how to promote stability and sustainability. This is the first in a two-part article that will focus on the best practices, organization and overall methodology of Framework model development. As is often the case with complex tools, even developers who have worked with Cognos for a while can be confused on at least some of the concepts and considerations of model design. The...

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What’s new in IBM Cognos 10 Framework Manager

While Framework Manager didn’t receive the dramatic changes in IBM Cognos 10 that some other areas did, there are still some interesting and useful new features, which might have slipped under the radar with the new release. The main new features are: The ability to create “Durable Models” Model Design Accelerator Dynamic query Mode There have also been several minor improvements in the way the IBM Cognos 10 handles SAP BW sources. If that’s an option that you are using, either contact Ironside Group and speak to one of our expert IBM Cognos/SAP consultants or check out the Framework Manager manual for details. There is one notable feature...

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How to Standardize Unique Default Skins for Each of Your Different Environments

Many organizations utilize multiple Cognos environments as part of their development process, such as development, QA and production servers. It is not uncommon for users (especially system administrators and developers) to become confused about which server he/she is working on as all of the environments look the same. (logo, background, font etc). So how can you easily distinguish between these various environments? Here we describe a simple technique to apply a common skin for each different Cognos environment regardless of what a user has set in their profile. This method can be used to set one skin in development, and another in...

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A Tool to Standardize The Look and Feel of Your Reports

In Previous Tips and Tricks we discussed how to standardize a “skin” in each of your different Cognos 8 environments. This allowed all users to receive the same look and feel when interacting with Cognos Connection. We’re going to take it one step further and discuss the benefits of using a built-in tool called the Layout Component Reference to accomplish this at the individual report level. Having reports with a common look and feel promotes user adoption as well as trust in the tools they are using. Have you ever noticed that some of your reports looks similar to others but may have some slight formatting variations? Text justified to the...

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Presenting in Calendar Format Report

The Problem Over the past several years, we have had a number of customers inquire about a method to deliver real-time  scheduling information in a common calendar format.  Typically this requires the ability to schedule events around or related to other events, update dates in a separate application, and view the resulting calendar information immediately. The need for real-time information eliminates any possibility for caching or warehousing data which might be utilized to stage and provide performance improvements. Fortunately the amount of event data displayed on the calendar is often fairly small, and we can provide drill-down...

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Linking IBM Cognos Portal Pages through Prompts

In this month’s Tech Tip we will extend the capability introduced in last month’s article “Creating IBM Cognos Portal Pages” by linking various portal pages in Cognos Connection dashboard applications. To demonstrate this technique, we will explain how to pass your prompt selections from one dashboard portlet to other report portlets within the same dashboard page. Create the main portal tab The first step in enabling this functionality is to fuse all the different dashboard pieces together by creating another, master dashboard page that will encapsulate two things: The prompt. The two report outputs. To do this, start by navigating to...

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IBM Cognos CSV Files: The Encoding Mystery

The ability to export a report to CSV format is one of great out of box capabilities provided by the IBM Cognos suite of tools. A delimited text (CSV) file can be opened in any application associated with the .csv file type, such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Wordpad, or Star Office in Unix. In addition, the CSV format file is also widely accepted by most modern database vendors. Providing the end users with this ability makes report data easily re-usable and integration friendly with other applications. Of course, there are always caveats to consider with any technology solution. For example, I once had a project where the customer informed...

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