Drag and Drop? It's a real Drag now.

[Keith Bajura]

Has anyone else experienced a change in drag and drop behavior in Reporting. In Cognos 10, you were pretty much able to drag and drop things exactly where you wanted. Where they would be placed would be indicated by the thick bar on the container. Now I find it impossible to do a lot of the things I was able to do before without using the Paste To command. For example, I can move a block from inside a block to before that block like I could before. The think black bar goes all over the place instead of where I want it. I need to use the Past To... Insert Before option to accomplish this. 

[Lynn]

Has anyone else experienced a change in drag and drop behavior in Reporting. In Cognos 10, you were pretty much able to drag and drop things exactly where you wanted. Where they would be placed would be indicated by the thick bar on the container. Now I find it impossible to do a lot of the things I was able to do before without using the Paste To command. For example, I can move a block from inside a block to before that block like I could before. The think black bar goes all over the place instead of where I want it. I need to use the Past To... Insert Before option to accomplish this.

The only difference I find is when I'm working in preview mode rather than design mode. An empty block, for example, is difficult to work with in preview mode because empty objects don't render. I find things very much the same as before when I'm in design mode.

Is your browser supported? Have you tried other browsers?

[MFGF]

Has anyone else experienced a change in drag and drop behavior in Reporting. In Cognos 10, you were pretty much able to drag and drop things exactly where you wanted. Where they would be placed would be indicated by the thick bar on the container. Now I find it impossible to do a lot of the things I was able to do before without using the Paste To command. For example, I can move a block from inside a block to before that block like I could before. The think black bar goes all over the place instead of where I want it. I need to use the Past To... Insert Before option to accomplish this.

Exactly as Lynn says above!

Also, have you tried switching to Structure View if you're struggling to drop in the right place?

MF.

[dougp]

I agree with Keith.

Example #1:  Create a list and populate it with enough data items to make it wider than the screen.  Now try to drop something after the list.  In 10.2.1, I could just drop it below the list.  When I do that in 11.0.7, it creates a new column in the list.  I must scroll all the way to the right, then drop the new item in the very narrow space between the to the right of the list and the right edge of the canvas.  This doesn't work at all if I have made my margins and/or padding 0.

Example #2:  I have a report that contains complex, nested formatting items, like tables and blocks, with small or 0 padding to make the formatting work.  I can no longer edit the report in design view.  All work must be performed in structure view.  This same report was easy to edit in 10.2.1.

Cognos 11 is really sad.  Someone please let me know when it's ready for production use.

[Lynn]

Example #1:  Create a list and populate it with enough data items to make it wider than the screen.  Now try to drop something after the list.  In 10.2.1, I could just drop it below the list.  When I do that in 11.0.7, it creates a new column in the list.  I must scroll all the way to the right, then drop the new item in the very narrow space between the to the right of the list and the right edge of the canvas.  This doesn't work at all if I have made my margins and/or padding 0.

This works for me in 11.0.8 exactly the same as it does for me in 10.2.2. I can drop a query item below a list that is wider than my screen and it will create a  singleton. I can drop multiple items below my excessively wide list and it creates a new list. I can drop an object from the toolbox below my silly-wide list and it puts in beneath the list. Perhaps this change you dislike occurred between 10.2.1 and 10.2.2.

Example #2:  I have a report that contains complex, nested formatting items, like tables and blocks, with small or 0 padding to make the formatting work.  I can no longer edit the report in design view.  All work must be performed in structure view.  This same report was easy to edit in 10.2.1.

This is commonly the case for active reports in my experience where 0 padding is essential to keep from exceeding the desired height and width. I found structure view more convenient at times in both 10.2.2 as well as 11.0.x. I do not see a huge difference in behavior with complex layouts and work quite easily in design mode for a majority of situations.

Perhaps check your browser compatability and recommended settings? I do have a large monitor and can set the resolution to accommodate my aging eyes  :)

This is a link for required settings: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_cra.doc/c_configurewebbrowsers.html

This is a link about supported environments including web browsers: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27047186

[MFGF]

Cognos 11 is really sad.  Someone please let me know when it's ready for production use.

That's a rather damning statement for a product that is eminently more capable than Cognos 10. Tell me how you'd go about uploading a file, blending it with data in a package and/or a database and performing geospatial data discovery on the result in Cognos 10? Yes, the UI is different. If you're a died-in-the-wool Report Studio fan, there might be small things that irritate you a little. But to say it's not ready for production use seems a little melodramatic.

Just my humble opinion - and please don't be offended :)

MF.

[Lynn]

Our customers who have migrated from 10 to 11 are over the moon about it. They can do so much more than they could in 10. Many have commented on how dated and old fashioned the 10 interface was in comparison to 11 and are looking forward to a revamp of Event Studio (which is the only legacy product in use across our customer base).

Users who are new to 11 are similarly enthusiastic about the ease of use and the power of our solution.

Our solution includes Cognos Analytics along with reporting packages built over our bespoke Kimball star schema data warehouse which is fed by ETL from our own operational software products used widely in our particular industry here in the UK. As with any BI tool, the underlying  design of the data source and the meta data layer that report authors interact with are fundamentally important to getting the best results.

Change can be difficult and there are always kinks to work out and improvements to be made, but that is pretty much a way of life with software in my experience. The IBM RFE website combined with bug tickets are constructive ways to address issues and concerns. IBM product managers are very responsive to votes on the RFE site so taking the time to vote and add your own requests for enhancements is worthwhile.

[dougp]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFkazjodpeQ

I agree.  I have a few users who are super-excited about dashboards, especially since correcting many of the problems we saw in 11.0.4.



But they added new, shiny objects at the expense of breaking the parts of the workhorse that people depend upon...

...and please don't be offended

Not offended at all.  Just looking at the evidence.

Tell me how you'd go about uploading a file, blending it with data in a package and/or a database...

Do you mean the feature that worked beautifully in 10.2.1 but produced JavaScript stack traces in 11.0.4, which was released 11 months after the product was allegedly ready for production?

...and performing geospatial data discovery on the result in Cognos 10?

You never used EM4C?