SOLVED - I need help to remove prompt from a report - SOLVED

[DaniEU]

Hi,
I have my first work to do and I´m having some difficulties to do it.
We have a report presenting total sales of services by salesman.
A prompt page is presented with two questions. My job here is copy this report, and remove the prompt.
I did it, but I could not find a way to change the filters to get the value needed.
The current filter is:
[Cogsec yarok mlm].[Parts and tools].[Parts and tools].[Machines] = ?parts?
where parts is the value a user choose in the prompt page.
I need to hard code a value for this filter and I could not find how to do that.

[Lynn]

You might want to consider some form of training to help you get started.

Here on Cognoise we have a Forum Etiquette post that will help you learn how to provide sufficient information to get the best help. If you take a look at point 1 (c) you'll find it is important to say if your source is relational or dimensional. I'm guessing yours is dimensional because your filter expression contains a four-part item expression. Can you confirm what type of source you have?

The relational and dimensional reporting styles are vastly different. If yours truly is a dimensional source then I'd say your filter expression looks like a detail filter which is entirely the wrong thing to do with dimensional sources.

You should take a look at the Report Studio user guide. Chapter 10 is about the relational style of reporting and it has a section on focusing relational data. Chapter 11 is about the dimensional style of reporting adn it has a section on focusing dimensional data. Both of these are about prompts and filters but each pertains to the correct style for the type of data source.

[DaniEU]

Hi Lynn,

Thank you for your reply.
I will read the forum etiquette to be more accurate next time.
Yes, the source is dimensional and the filter is a detail filter.
I will also look user guide, but as I´ve stated before this is a report running for over a year, and this is my first job in the company. I have just finnished my first course (Author professional reports fundamentals).
I just need to create a few copies of this report without the prompts, and each one with different values.
I just can say that during the course we have never discussed about differences between dimensional or relational sources.
I will follow your ideas and read the user guide to understand it.
Thank´s.

[Lynn]

Here is a link with some additional information that may help you regarding relational vs. dimensional filtering. Detail filters are not advised with dimensional sources although there tends to be a little leniency if it is a DMR source. If you really want to leave it as a detail filter then you should be able to just change it as you desire. What aspect of making that change are you having trouble with?

I would also suggest that creating copies of the same report with different hard coded filter values is an unnecessary duplication of code. My suggestion would be to create a single report that has the necessary prompts, and then create a report view that has the particular prompt value specified. Make as many views as you need for the different values required. The advantage here is that if a change is required you can change the base report instead of repeating the change across multiple copies of the same thing.

http://www.cognoise.com/index.php/topic,28194.msg90484.html#msg90484

[DaniEU]

This is an interessant idea. Can you point me to some documentation on how to do that?

[Lynn]

This is an interessant idea. Can you point me to some documentation on how to do that?

Chapter 6 of the Cognos Connection user guide has a section on report views.

[DaniEU]

Thank you again Lynn, this option of the "Report View" I never heard about. This just prove I really have a long way to go.....
Now I have it running, and in an inteligent way, far better then I was thinking about.

[Lynn]

Glad to know you are making progress. I think the user guides are really worth reviewing even if you just skim through the table of contents to be familiar with terminology and concepts. You can dig into specific sections as the need arises, such as you just did for report views. 

If you've taken courses you can periodically review the course guides as well. Sometimes things start to make more sense after you've been working with the product a little while so re-visiting the course materials can help reinforce things.

Good luck!