Introducing IBM Cognos 10 BI Cognos Connection

In this recipe we will be exploring Cognos Connection, which is the user interface presented to the user when he/she logs in to IBM Cognos 10 BI for the first time.

IBM Cognos 10 BI, once installed and configured, can be accessed through the Web using supported web browsers. For a list of supported web browsers, refer to the Installation and Configuration Guide shipped with the product.

Getting ready

As stated earlier, make sure that IBM Cognos 10 BI is installed and configured. Install and configure the GO Sales and GO Data Warehouse samples. Use the gateway URI to log on to the web interface called Cognos Connection.

How to do it…

To explore Cognos Connection, perform the following steps:

1. Log on to Cognos Connection using the gateway URI that may be similar to http://<HostName>:<PortNumber>/ibmcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi.
2. Take note of the Cognos Connection interface. It has the GO Sales and GO Data Warehouse samples visible.



3. Note the blue-colored folder icon, shown as

   

   in the preceding screenshot. It represents metadata model packages that are published to Cognos Connection using the Cognos Framework Manager tool. These packages have objects that represent business data objects, relationships, and calculations, which can be used to author reports and dashboards.

Refer to the book, IBM Cognos TM1 Cookbook by Packt Publishing to learn how to create metadata models packages.

4. From the toolbar, click on Launch. This will open a menu, showing different studios, each having different functionality, as shown in the following screenshot:



5. We will use Business Insight and Business Insight Advanced, which are the first two choices in the preceding menu. These are the two components used to create and view dashboards.

For other options, refer to the corresponding books by the same publisher. For instance, refer to the book, IBM Cognos 8 Report Studio Cookbook to know more about creating and distributing complex reports. Query Studio and Analysis Studio are meant to provide business users with the facility to slice and dice business data themselves. Event Studio is meant to define business situations and corresponding actions.

6. Coming back to Cognos Connection, note that a yellow-colored folder icon, which is shown as

   

   represents a user-defined folder, which may or may not contain other published metadata model packages, reports, dashboards, and other content. In our case, we have a user-defined folder called Samples. This was created when we installed and configured samples shipped with the product.

Click on the New Folder icon, which is represented by



, on the toolbar to create a user-defined folder. Other options are also visible here, for instance to create a new dashboard.

 

7. Click on the user-defined folder—Samples to view its contents, as shown in the following screenshot:



8. As shown in the preceding screenshot, it has more such folders, each having its own content. The top part of the pane shows the navigation path. Let’s navigate deeper into Models | Business Insight Samples to show some sample dashboards, created using IBM Cognos Business Insight, as shown in the following screenshot:



9. Click on one of these links to view the corresponding dashboard. For instance, click on Sales Dashboard (Interactive) to view the dashboard, as shown in the following screenshot:



10. The dashboard can also be opened in the authoring tool, which is IBM Cognos Business Insight, in this case by clicking on the icon shown as

    

    on extreme right, on Cognos Connection. It will show the same result as shown in the preceding screenshot.

11. We will see the Business Insight interface in detail later in this article.

How it works…

Cognos Connection is the primary user interface that user sees when he/she logs in for the first time. Business data has to be first identified and imported from the metadata model using the Cognos Framework Manager tool. Relationships (inner/outer joins) and calculations are then created, and the resultant metadata model package is published to the IBM Cognos 10 BI Server. This becomes available on Cognos Connection. Users are given access to appropriate studios on Cognos Connection, according to their needs. Analysis, reports, and dashboards are then created and distributed using one of these studios. The preceding sample has used Business Insight, for instance.

Later sections in this article will look more into Business Insight and Business Insight Advanced. The next section focuses on the Business Insight interface details from the navigation perspective.

Exploring IBM Cognos Business Insight User Interface

In this recipe we will explore IBM Cognos Business Insight User Interface in more detail. We will explore various areas of the UI, each dedicated to perform different actions.

Getting ready

As stated earlier, we will be exploring different sections of Cognos Business Insight. Hence, make sure that IBM Cognos 10 BI installation is open and samples are set up properly. We will start the recipe assuming that the IBM Cognos Connection window is already open on the screen.

How to do it…

To explore IBM Cognos Business Insight User Interface, perform the following steps:

1. In the IBM Cognos Connection window, navigate to Business Insight Samples, as shown in the following screenshot:



2. Click on one of the dashboards, for instance Marketing Dashboard to open the dashboard in Business Insight. Different areas are labeled, as shown in the following figure:



3. The overall layout is termed as Dashboard. The topmost toolbar is called Application bar . The Application bar contains different icons to manage the dashboard as a whole. For instance, we can create, open, e-mail, share, or save the dashboard using one of the icons on the Application bar.

The user can explore different icons on the Application bar by hovering the mouse pointer over them. Hovering displays the tooltip, which has a brief but self-explanatory help text.

4. Similarly, it has a Widget toolbar for every widget, which gets activated when the user clicks on the corresponding widget. When the mouse is focused away from the widget, the Widget toolbar disappears. It has various options, for instance to refresh the widget data, print as PDF, resize to ? t content, and so on. It also provides the user with the capability to change the chart type as well as to change the color palette. However, all these options have help text associated with them, which is activated on mouse hover.
5. Content tab and Content pane show the list of objects available on the Cognos Connection. Directory structure on Cognos Connection can be navigated using Content pane and Content tab, and hence, available objects can be added to or removed from the dashboard. The drag-and-drop functionality has been provided as a result of which creating and editing a dashboard has become as simple as moving objects between the Dashboard area and Cognos Connection.
6. The Toolbox tab displays additional widgets. The Slider Filter and Select Value Filter widgets allow the user to filter report content. The other toolbox widgets allow user to add more report content to the dashboard, such as HTML content, images, RSS feeds, and rich text.

How it works…

In the preceding section, we have seen basic areas of Business Insight. More than one user can log on to the IBM Cognos 10 BI server, and create various objects on Cognos Connection. These objects include packages, reports, cubes, templates, and statistics to name a few.

These objects can be created using one or more tools available to users. For instance, reports can be created using one of the studios available. Cubes can be created using IBM Cognos TM1 or IBM Cognos Transformer and published on Cognos Connection. Metadata model packages can be created using IBM Cognos Framework Manager and published on Cognos Connection.

These objects can then be dragged, dropped, and formatted as standalone objects in Cognos Business Insight, and hence, dashboards can be created.