cognos 11 chart connection - active report

[ddma]

Hi All. I would like to create very basic dashboard functionallity in Active Report, but looks like Im missing something...

I have query that pulls below data:
1. Company
2. Country
3. Revenue

In active report I created 2 pie charts (both are based on above query).

I. Country by Revenue
II. Company by Revenue.


I would like to create connection between those 2 charts, so when user selects chart's 1 segment (=country A), chart 2 automatically shows company data ONLY for that country.

I tried to create such connection, but Cognos asks me to map Country in chart 1 to Country in Chart 2, But the problem is that I dont have country in Chart 2, because I have there only Company.

Could you please suggest me how I can do it?

[MFGF]

Hi All. I would like to create very basic dashboard functionallity in Active Report, but looks like Im missing something...

I have query that pulls below data:
1. Company
2. Country
3. Revenue

In active report I created 2 pie charts (both are based on above query).

I. Country by Revenue
II. Company by Revenue.


I would like to create connection between those 2 charts, so when user selects chart's 1 segment (=country A), chart 2 automatically shows company data ONLY for that country.

I tried to create such connection, but Cognos asks me to map Country in chart 1 to Country in Chart 2, But the problem is that I dont have country in Chart 2, because I have there only Company.

Could you please suggest me how I can do it?

Hi,

I assume you're using Cognos 10 based on where you posted this - in the Cognos 10 Active Reports board. The first question (and possibly the most important) is whether you are using charts or visualizations. There is a big difference in an active report. Charts (from the AVS charting engine) are rendered server-side, and appear in your report output as png images. They cannot be interactively re-rendered within the output of an active report because the AVS charting engine isn't included in the report output.

To get charts to appear to change, which is (I think) what you are trying to achieve here, you need to use data decks. Your chart sits inside a data deck and is master-detailed to the query of the data deck, based on the value you want to "filter" on. So if you have a pie chart showing revenue by Company, and you want the chart to change for different Country selections, the query for that pie chart would also need to contain the Country item. It would sit within a data deck based on Country, and it would have a master/detail relationship with the data deck based on Country. When the report is rendered, the data deck would contain a different card for each Country, each showing a pie chart of Revenue by Company for that country. You could also add a Default Card to the data deck, containing a pie chart of Revenue by Company for all countries.
Your control would then set a Country variable driving the data deck using SELECT behaviour. When no Country has been selected, the Default Card would be displayed, showing the chart of Revenue by Company for all countries. When a Country is selected, the Data Deck would flip to the card for that country, showing the chart of Revenue by Company for that country.

If you are using visualizations rather than charts, it's a different story. The RAVE visualization engine is included within the Active Report output, and this means the visualizations can be interactively re-rendered within the output. This means you don't need to use data decks, and you can filter the visualizations using one or more items.

When using visualizations, you will see an "Extra Items" slot you can drag data items into. This allows you to bring in items not being displayed so you can filter on them. In this case, the pie visualization for Revenue by Company would have Country in the Extra Items slot. Your control would then set a Country variable which uses the FILTER behaviour on the visualization.

Hope that helps!

MF.

[ddma]

Hi,

I assume you're using Cognos 10 based on where you posted this - in the Cognos 10 Active Reports board. The first question (and possibly the most important) is whether you are using charts or visualizations. There is a big difference in an active report. Charts (from the AVS charting engine) are rendered server-side, and appear in your report output as png images. They cannot be interactively re-rendered within the output of an active report because the AVS charting engine isn't included in the report output.

To get charts to appear to change, which is (I think) what you are trying to achieve here, you need to use data decks. Your chart sits inside a data deck and is master-detailed to the query of the data deck, based on the value you want to "filter" on. So if you have a pie chart showing revenue by Company, and you want the chart to change for different Country selections, the query for that pie chart would also need to contain the Country item. It would sit within a data deck based on Country, and it would have a master/detail relationship with the data deck based on Country. When the report is rendered, the data deck would contain a different card for each Country, each showing a pie chart of Revenue by Company for that country. You could also add a Default Card to the data deck, containing a pie chart of Revenue by Company for all countries.
Your control would then set a Country variable driving the data deck using SELECT behaviour. When no Country has been selected, the Default Card would be displayed, showing the chart of Revenue by Company for all countries. When a Country is selected, the Data Deck would flip to the card for that country, showing the chart of Revenue by Company for that country.

If you are using visualizations rather than charts, it's a different story. The RAVE visualization engine is included within the Active Report output, and this means the visualizations can be interactively re-rendered within the output. This means you don't need to use data decks, and you can filter the visualizations using one or more items.

When using visualizations, you will see an "Extra Items" slot you can drag data items into. This allows you to bring in items not being displayed so you can filter on them. In this case, the pie visualization for Revenue by Company would have Country in the Extra Items slot. Your control would then set a Country variable which uses the FILTER behaviour on the visualization.

Hope that helps!

MF.

Thank you MFGF, very helpful!
However, I believe Im missing something, because its not working for me. I tried to recreate everything you wrote for chart functionality, but my second pie chart is not changing, can you please have a look at my steps and suggest what I did wrong?


1.  Create table based on 2 columns.
2. In 1 column I add Pie Chart A (country/revenue) based on query 1 (company, country, revenue).
3. In 2 column I add Data Deck 1. Deck Item = Country. In Data Deck I add Pie Chart B (company/revenue) based on query 2 (company, country, revenue).
4. For chart A I add connection. Source Control -> Chart A. Data Item = Country. Behaviour = Select. Target Control: Data Deck 1. Data Item = Country.

But when I ran report Pie Chart B is not changing. When I press on segments of Pie Chart A, then Pie Chart B sometimes blinks but values are not changing...

Can you please suggest what Im doing wrong? Thanks

[MFGF]

Thank you MFGF, very helpful!
However, I believe Im missing something, because its not working for me. I tried to recreate everything you wrote for chart functionality, but my second pie chart is not changing, can you please have a look at my steps and suggest what I did wrong?


1.  Create table based on 2 columns.
2. In 1 column I add Pie Chart A (country/revenue) based on query 1 (company, country, revenue).
3. In 2 column I add Data Deck 1. Deck Item = Country. In Data Deck I add Pie Chart B (company/revenue) based on query 2 (company, country, revenue).
4. For chart A I add connection. Source Control -> Chart A. Data Item = Country. Behaviour = Select. Target Control: Data Deck 1. Data Item = Country.

But when I ran report Pie Chart B is not changing. When I press on segments of Pie Chart A, then Pie Chart B sometimes blinks but values are not changing...

Can you please suggest what Im doing wrong? Thanks

Hi,

You didn't mention setting up a master/detail link between your data deck and Chart B? Did you miss out that step?

MF.

[ddma]

Hi,

You didn't mention setting up a master/detail link between your data deck and Chart B? Did you miss out that step?

MF.

Yes, that was an issue. All works now. Thank you for your help!