Help (and good resources) needed for reporting on cubes (.mdc files)

[rpostma]

Hi everybody,

I'm quite new to reporting on cubes, and googled a lot to get my reports like they should. So actually I have 2 questions here

[1] What are good references / tutorials to learn reporting on cubes?

(I need to report in report studio, using cognos 10)

[2] A specific issues about filtering:

I learned (somewhere on google) that I should avoid "detail filtering" when reporting on cubes. But I'm not sure if the way I currently set-up my filter is a good way to go.

What I want to achieve is
- that the user selects a month
- that the crosstab shows all days in that month as a row (meaning: not all dates, so basically a filter)
- with in my columns the measures that I have put there

My solution is

- to create a query with 1 dataItem (named pMonth (*expression: see below) )

- set this dataitem (pMonth) as first column

- make this column invisible (by rightclicking on this crosstab cell and selecting "show empty cell" and make the width 0px)

- set the date column as 2nd column

- add my measures as columns

It all seems to work, but

[ a ] I don't know if this is the right way to filter

[ b ] I have the feeling that there must be a better / easier way...

* expression of pMonth
filter( [MyCube].[Date].[Date].[Month] ,
[MyCube].[Date].[Date].[Month].[Month - Long Name]=?pMonth?)I hope you can give me some feedback, and give me pointers to usefull reference material.Thanks in advance!

[tjohnson3050]

There is nothing wrong with the approach you took.  You could do all of that in a single calculated column by returning the children of the selected month.

You can search this forum for good discussion on detail filters with dimensional sources.  The general rule is don't do it.  In some cases you can achieve an effecient report with the correct MDX generated, but until you feel you understand the generated MDX completely, it is best to stick to using filter functions in data items.

Dimsional Reporting Resources:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cbi/v10r1m1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_cr_rptstd.10.1.1.doc%2Fc_cr_rptstd_dimensional_reporting_style.html

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/page82.html

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3C03311925AC1773&feature=plcp