Workspace & Tips (HyperLink, Fixed widget etc)

[bbtresoo]

Hi Guys

It's my first step into workspace environnement and I'm asking to myself a lot of questions  for example :

1) I created a hyperlink from report studio to workspace, I've just copied my workspace report path and pasted it in my url report studio. the hyperlink works fine but the cognos welcome page is constantly showing up before opening my workspace report, is there a way to get ride of it?

Is there also a way to pass some parameters from report studio to workspace ?

2) When I create my workspace report is there a way to keep my widget fixed for good, I don't need to resize them every time I open my report

3) I created a dashboard in report studio and decided to drag and drop it from workspace. Unfortunately once in workspace all my structure  messed up, all my objects were scattered, I was told I need to rename each object carefully in report studio and drag and drop these objects from worskpace to rebuild step by step my report !!!! is that right? because it's an additional work , I might lose all my borders etc i did in report studio :-\

Thanks for your feedbacks.
Ps : You don't had to answer all the questions, even one o them it will be very helpful and appreciated ;)

[MFGF]

Hi,

1) I created a hyperlink from report studio to workspace, I've just copied my workspace report path and pasted it in my url report studio. the hyperlink works fine but the cognos welcome page is constantly showing up before opening my workspace report, is there a way to get ride of it?

Good question! I suspect that it's driven by the user preference to show the welcome page on startup. If you turn this option off in My Preferences, does it make a difference?

2) When I create my workspace report is there a way to keep my widget fixed for good, I don't need to resize them every time I open my report

It sounds like you are taking the approach of building the entire, finished dashboard in Report Studio and dropping the whole thing into a workspace? Can I ask why - is there a specific reason for doing this? If you want the "dashboard" to be as-is in Report Studio and remain fixed, why use Cognos Workspace at all? Wouldn't a portal page with a Report Viewer portlet be a simpler solution? Notwithstanding, Once you bring in and resize the widget, when you save the workspace the widget size should also be saved, so you shouldn't need to keep resizing it each time you open the workspace.

3) I created a dashboard in report studio and decided to drag and drop it from workspace. Unfortunately once in workspace all my structure  messed up, all my objects were scattered, I was told I need to rename each object carefully in report studio and drag and drop these objects from worskpace to rebuild step by step my report !!!! is that right? because it's an additional work , I might lose all my borders etc i did in report studio :-\

See my answer to 2) above here with regards to the approach. Really Workspace is designed to allow you to self-assemble component widgets from one or more reports. It will have a good go at rendering a complete report page, but I don't think that's really its design intent. It works best where you want to pick (say) a crosstab from one report, a couple of charts from a second, and a map from a third (for example). The objects from within the reports don't even need to be based on the same package.

Cheers!

MF.

[bbtresoo]

Hi,

Good question! I suspect that it's driven by the user preference to show the welcome page on startup. If you turn this option off in My Preferences, does it make a difference?

It sounds like you are taking the approach of building the entire, finished dashboard in Report Studio and dropping the whole thing into a workspace? Can I ask why - is there a specific reason for doing this? If you want the "dashboard" to be as-is in Report Studio and remain fixed, why use Cognos Workspace at all? Wouldn't a portal page with a Report Viewer portlet be a simpler solution? Notwithstanding, Once you bring in and resize the widget, when you save the workspace the widget size should also be saved, so you shouldn't need to keep resizing it each time you open the workspace.

See my answer to 2) above here with regards to the approach. Really Workspace is designed to allow you to self-assemble component widgets from one or more reports. It will have a good go at rendering a complete report page, but I don't think that's really its design intent. It works best where you want to pick (say) a crosstab from one report, a couple of charts from a second, and a map from a third (for example). The objects from within the reports don't even need to be based on the same package.

Cheers!

MF.

HI MFGF,

Sorry to get back to you lately, first of all thank you for your prompt feedback.

1) When I uncheck the welcome page on startup , it doesn't work , it makes sense because My Preferences concerns your entire environnement not only a specific report. I think there's some parameters to specify in the URL

2) I don't think I can create a complex dashboard from the workspace advanced, I didn't find it as rich as report studio in terms of option, maybe I'm wrong

3) the fact is starting from my dashboard the user needs to make some operations on it like filtering , summarizing data, etccc that's what the client said to us about his client. that's why he oriented us first of all towards report studio then workspace.

4) thank you about your last point where you explain me the general concept of workspace which is more to confront different charts or lists from different reports than build a report. But i still don't understand the utility of workspace advanced
Thank you again

[MFGF]

Cognos Workspace Advanced is an authoring tool for writing reports - in the same way that Report Studio is an authoring tool for writing reports. They are aimed at different audences, though. Report Studio is targeted at technically competent, well-trained authors - usually IT types or "Super Users" with advanced authoring skills. Cognos Workspace Advanced is targeted at business authors - people who, um, have little or no technical competence but often have the power to fire you :) Report Studio is all-singing, all-dancing, bells-and-whistles, everything on the waggon, powerful, rich and (often) pretty complicated to use. Cognos Workspace Advanced is simple, intuitive, authoring-for-dummies but with far fewer features and capabilities than Report Studio. In the end they both create report specifications, though, so they are essentially two flavours of the same thing.

This forum is the Cognos Workspace forum, though, not the Cognos Workspace Advanced forum. They are two different things entirely. Which are you asking about?

MF.

[bbtresoo]

Cognos Workspace Advanced is an authoring tool for writing reports - in the same way that Report Studio is an authoring tool for writing reports. They are aimed at different audences, though. Report Studio is targeted at technically competent, well-trained authors - usually IT types or "Super Users" with advanced authoring skills. Cognos Workspace Advanced is targeted at business authors - people who, um, have little or no technical competence but often have the power to fire you :) Report Studio is all-singing, all-dancing, bells-and-whistles, everything on the waggon, powerful, rich and (often) pretty complicated to use. Cognos Workspace Advanced is simple, intuitive, authoring-for-dummies but with far fewer features and capabilities than Report Studio. In the nd they both create report specifications, though, so they are essentially two flavours of the same thing.

This forum is the Cognos Workspace forum, though, not the Cognos Workspace Advanced forum. They are two different things entirely. Which are you asking about?

MF.

Me I'm focusing essentialy to the workspace.

[Francois51]

We addressed the 2) question by playing with the capabilities.

In the COGNOS workspace user guide there is a list of the "Features available to different capabilities" and when you restrict your users capability theey can't move the widget (tere are also other things they can't do anymore...).

Let's say you don't want the people who have " the power to fire you" to be annoyed by the widget moving all alone, you can achieve withe the permissions, you will have to play a little with it before finding the happy medium.