Playing with Cognos 10 (oooh shiny!)

[CognosPaul]

One of the things I'm most happy about is you can embed objects inside crosstabs. That has caused me quite a bit of hassle in the past. I created a crosstab with years in the rows, order type in the columns, and a small line graph showing the sales per month for that year for that order type. The axis properties menu was changed so I had to search for the "Use Same Range For All Instances".

The new bullet graphs are nice. Remember to enable the new graphs in the options. There is an option for grouping the graph in rows and columns. Unfortunately the axis is the same for all of the graphs in the matrix. Meaning if you're trying to show 2004 with 200 sales against a target of 150 and 2005 with 1000 sales against a target of 1200 (hey, it could happen), the 2004 is firmly in the red. I couldn't find a way around that but I didn't bother reading any manuals (it's much more fun to blunder in and break things) so I might be missing something.

An old gripe I had with map graphs still exist. There is still no properties row in the properties for any of the insertable locations. This makes many drillthroughs impossible. BAH!

[Lynn]

Remember to enable the new graphs in the options.

Is that something done when installing Cognos 10 or what options are you referring to? We don't have it downloaded yet so I can't really look to see where this might be.

Seems odd to have to specify that you want the new graphs. I'm not seeing any reason why someone wouldn't want to enable them. Some obscure phobia to bullet graphs? ???

[MFGF]

Cognos 10 has a shiny new charting engine included, but at the moment there are a couple of charts supported by the old engine it doesn't have (although it adds lots of nice new ones).  For this reason (and to make upgrading from 8 to 10 simple), the old charting engine is still there.  Reports written in Cognos 8 will move across into 10 exactly as-is (ie using the old charts), but can be moved to the new charts as required.

Cheers!

MF.

[CognosPaul]

I'm playing with active reports. Still haven't bothered reading the manual yet, so take everything I say with a huge grain of salt.

It looks like you can't filter graphs based on interactions. I think it's because the graphs are built on runtime and stored as static objects. The way around it, that I've found, is to put the graph inside a list (with a master detail) and filter that list on interactions.

I tried filtering lists with a Data Radio Button Group. There doesn't seem to be any way of adding a static value (for an ALL option, for instance) or a deselect option. Once filtered always filtered?

If you right click you get a menu that has "Show Variables" and "Reset Variables". The "Reset Variables" options does reset the variables, but throws the error:

Message: 'this._IM2' is null or not an object

Filters stop working after you get that error. I need to find a way to disable that - I can imagine a few times where that can cause problems.

Instead of relying on the Reset Variables, or using a more appropriate prompt control, I added a button that clears the value in that variable.

The MHT doesn't work at all in IE 6 (yes I know, the client is in the process of upgrading to IE 8 (yes I know...) as we speak). It works well in IE 8, but does not open at all in Firefox. There is at least one Firefox extension that will open MHT but I haven't tried it yet. I understand Opera will also open MHT.

I'll talk to my IBM rep about seeing if I can upload an example Active Report.


Repeaters don't have interaction controls>:( I use repeaters fairly often when I need to work with custom HTML and JavaScript stuff. Lists and Repeater Tables don't work because of the junk divs and spans added in. This is incredibly annoying.

[MFGF]

I'm playing with active reports. Still haven't bothered reading the manual yet, so take everything I say with a huge grain of salt.

Hi Paul.  The old adage says that you only read the manual when all else fails! :)

It looks like you can't filter graphs based on interactions. I think it's because the graphs are built on runtime and stored as static objects. The way around it, that I've found, is to put the graph inside a list (with a master detail) and filter that list on interactions.

Yep - the charting engine is not built into the MHT file, so charts are rendered as static objects when the MHT is being built.  You can add multiple versions of each chart and drive which one is displayed using a data deck to give the illusion of interactivity.

I tried filtering lists with a Data Radio Button Group. There doesn't seem to be any way of adding a static value (for an ALL option, for instance) or a deselect option. Once filtered always filtered?

Assuming you are using a dimensional package, just add a calculation to the query which comprises the set of members you want to use as radio buttons and the ALL member - eg set([ALL member], [first value], [second value], [third value]) - and use this to drive your data radio button group.

If you right click you get a menu that has "Show Variables" and "Reset Variables". The "Reset Variables" options does reset the variables, but throws the error:

Message: 'this._IM2' is null or not an object

Filters stop working after you get that error. I need to find a way to disable that - I can imagine a few times where that can cause problems.

Ouch!  Sounds like a "negative undocumented feature" :)  Which browser and version are you using?

Instead of relying on the Reset Variables, or using a more appropriate prompt control, I added a button that clears the value in that variable.

The MHT doesn't work at all in IE 6 (yes I know, the client is in the process of upgrading to IE 8 (yes I know...) as we speak). It works well in IE 8, but does not open at all in Firefox. There is at least one Firefox extension that will open MHT but I haven't tried it yet. I understand Opera will also open MHT.

MHT is a format introduced by Microsoft.  Their IE6 browser does not support it - they added MHT support for IE7.  Firefox can support MHT files, but you will need an addon called UnMHT.  My experience of this with Active Reports is somewhat mixed - things do not seem to line up properly, although they do at least render and work.

I'll talk to my IBM rep about seeing if I can upload an example Active Report.

Upload or download?  Send me a PM if you're stuck! :)

Repeaters don't have interaction controls>:( I use repeaters fairly often when I need to work with custom HTML and JavaScript stuff. Lists and Repeater Tables don't work because of the junk divs and spans added in. This is incredibly annoying.

Very true! :)

Cheers!

MF.

[Fumble]

Active Reports - Well I've just spent a frustrating 2 days trying to get graphs to come back with data. They are ok if just applied to the page but try and control it with  one of the new controls. Always comes back with 'no data'.
Now I have read the previous post about the static graphs rendered, but I checked out one of the C10 demo's and that controls graphs using the Data Deck, so it is possible to master detail through it somehow.
Anyway - back to the drawing board.

[lindero]

Active Reports are quite easy when you understood it once.

Grafics are rendered on the server so you must use master detail with the deck components.

I just spent some hours and now I know how to build these reports with the different variable types.

[blom0344]

One of the things I'm most happy about is you can embed objects inside crosstabs. That has caused me quite a bit of hassle in the past. I created a crosstab with years in the rows, order type in the columns, and a small line graph showing the sales per month for that year for that order type. The axis properties menu was changed so I had to search for the "Use Same Range For All Instances".

Sounds great. Would appreciate a screenshot of an imbedded graph in a crosstab   ;D

During pre-sales meeting we were told that it should be possible to have a Cognos 10 instance running on an existing Cognos 8.4.1 installation/content store. This should enable a smooth path in upgrading reports to version 10 while still being able to provide customers with version 8.4.1 new or modified reports.

We were also told that no porting is possible between traditional RS reports and active reports. There is no shared base, so it is necessary to build them seperately..

[CognosPaul]

Here's the screenshot, but I've since realized that you could actually embed graphs in CTs in version 8 too... Whoops.




Create the rows and columns, set the Fact Cells to Yes, unlock the report and drag in a graph into the cell. You can also define contents on a specific intersection if you want.

For the most part if a report runs in C8 then it will run in C10. I've noticed one upgrade bug that I haven't been able to track down. There were several reports with a background images on various pages. When I tried to migrate those reports Cognos would throw an upgrade error:

Code Select Expand

RSU-SPC-0164 CSS style was removed. Unable to parse CSS declaration: background-image:url(\\ImagesServer\Images\Report Images\FirstPageBackground68.PNG);background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeatRSU-SPC-0164 CSS style was removed. Unable to parse CSS declaration: text-align:center;background-image:url(\\ImagesServer\Images\Report Images\Background68.png);background-position:center center;background-repeat:no-repeat

Still, upgrading from 8.4 to 10 has been very very smooth.

You can convert a report to an active report, but prompts will disappear.

[blom0344]

Paul,

Thanx..