Expand Collapse functionality in Cognos Analytics Dashboard.

[raghunori]

Hello Cognos experts. I am trying to create a dashboard in Cognos Analytics with a view as shown below. In there, I need to implement expand/collapse functionality in a crosstab visual. For eg: in the crosstab visual below, a user should be able to see the row 'x' details (a,b,c) only if they want to, by expanding the section. x=a+b+c.

Any suggestions on how to implement it?

      Month1   Month2   Month3
x            
   a         
   b         
   c         
            
y            
   d         
   e         
   f         

[cognostechie]

Hi

Yes, it is possible but this will require your metadata model to be in dimensional format. Moreover, the Dashboard should be made using the reporting method (known as Report Studio in earlier versions). Once the report is made, go to 'drill options' and there are different settings which will allow you to create a plus sign and when you click on that, it will retain the data of the higher level while show the data of the lower level (children of the parent) next to the plus sign. This has been there since Cognos, the Canadian company, used to own Cognos but neither they nor IBM made this as the default behavior leading people to believe that this functionality does not exist (like so many other features which has actually given other tools like Power BI an edge in the market leading to demise of Cognos). Many companies are discontinuing using Cognos and migrating to Power BI not because Cognos cannot do what Power BI does but simply because they don't know that it can. The unavailability of proper resources also played a big role in it.

I am currently working for an organization who had decided to start implementing Power BI from next year but now have discarded the idea because now they feel Cognos can do everything they want !

[raghunori]

Thanks much..thats good information. However, Forgot to mention that each of the rows in the crosstab is a calculation and the values are not coming from single source. For example from the sample below x& y are two different calculations and formulae for x & y are different summaries. For eg: the intersection of x & month1 can be "empl count" where as the intersection of Y& Month1 can be "onboard count". These scenarios are making it even more difficult to implement the expand/collapse functionality.

So in report studio, can I implement expand collapse on each of these calculated rows separately?

Month1   Month2   Month3
x           
   a         
   b         
   c         
           
y           
   d         
   e         
   f       

[cognostechie]

Hi

Expand/Collapse functionality has nothing to do with how the calculation is performed or the calculation of the data. It will only work if the data in the Crosstab is using a dimensional package which is something I assumed when replying to your question. The 1st thing you have to make sure is that the package you are using is dimensional and the drill downs are defined in the model. If not then you can discard this idea until you develop a dimensional model which would be either a Cube or a DMR.

If you are not familiar with what a Cube/DMR is then I would suggest to learn that first without which no amount of help from this forum will help you achieve this. 

[raghunori]

I am using Data Modules. Cognos Analytics version 11.x. I believe DMR option is unavailable in data modules. But what we can do is to create navigation paths.

But that still is not helping my cause