Modelling in FM

[Cng2005]

Dear Gurus !
I am a new modeller in Cognos8. I have done some modelling in ReportNet FM, however Cognos8 looks to be altogether different. I have read the help that comes with it, however it looks simple as compared to what I am trying to do...

I am doing a project for a insurance company - and the underlying tables are very very complex. I will try to explain you with 5 tables (to start with)..probably if someone can give me a clue how to model it, I can try with the rest of the database.

Table: POLICY
-------------
POLICY_ID (KEY)
Premium_Amt (NUMERIC)
<etc etc?

TABLE COVERAGE
-----------------
POLICY_ID (KEY)
COVERAGE_ID(KEY)
ANNUAL_PREMIUM (NUMERIC)
<other non numeric columns>

Table CLIENT
------------
CLIENT_ID (KEY)
<other non-numeric client details>


TABLE POLICY_CLIENT
---------------------
POLICY_ID(KEY)
CLIENT_ID(KEY)
RELATIONSHIP_TYPE(KEY)

TABLE COVERAGE_INSURED
--------------------------
POLICY_ID(KEY)
COVERAGE_ID(KEY)
CLIENT_ID(KEY)


I tried to model 0:n as outer join , however did not work with cognos8 FM. The tables are many-to-may joins...
1 client can have many policies or 1 policy can be owned by many clients on different relationships (TABLE POLICY_CLIENT as above)....

Currently I am doing 1:1 join which is indeed helping me...but I want an expert answer - where you can help me with...
many thanks for answering me..

:D

[rockytopmark]

Regarding the Cognos 8 and ReportNet are altogether different comment... I have to disagree... I feel that they are VERY similar, but do have some differences.  The basics... Query Subjects, Namespaces, Relationships... are all still there in C8.  So keep your RN knowledge active and use it here in C8, adjusting as needed for changes you encounter.

Does the DBA or the Application development team have a schema diagram, that describes the relationship between the tables?  If so, I would get that and model your relationships just as the Application is using them.

I highly doubt the app has any outer joins, so steer clear of using them.

[blom0344]

I doubt that outer joins are your greatest problem. No reporting tool will be able to cope with many-to- many cardinalities without remodelling. C8 will give you the toolset to solve this in the model layer.
(The verify action in C8 will classifiy many-to-many relationships as invalid.)
You need to remodel into starschema's with the facttable having a n:1 (or n:0) relationship with the dimensions.
This means identifying tables that contain facts and this is not very easy with insurance type databases..