Monday, December 21, 2009

View/Edit SQL & MDX behind a report

To View/Edit the SQL/MDX behind a report page, follow the steps below:

We will assume that the report that you would like to play with is already created here. If not, please go ahead and drag/drop the query items to create a sample report.


Go to Query Explorer

Click on Query1 (or the appropriate query)

If the report has been created using SQL, to view the SQL used, click on 'Select Generated SQL' from the Properties pane.

You should now get a Warning. Click 'OK' and 'Convert' to start playing with the SQL.

Once the changes have been made, click on 'Validate' to verify if everything has been set correctly. Clear any errors that are displayed and click 'OK'.

If the report has been created using MDX, go to Tools > Show Generated SQL/MDX to view the MDX behind the report.

Create Column Groups on a Crosstab

If you would like to group measures on your Crosstab, an easy way to get this done would be to drag and drop 'Text Items' onto the columns of your crosstab first. Use these Text Items to define the groups that you would require. eg. Sales, Distribution etc.

Once your groups have been defined, drag and drop the measures from your package under the groups that they belong to. The trick here is to drop the measures carefully so that they are placed under each group and not as measures applicable to all groups.

How do I change the Package information for a report developed in Cognos Report Studio?

One of the ways to get this done is by locating the particular report in question through your Cognos Connection page. When you have located the report, click on 'Properties' icon in the Actions column to view the report's properties.

On the Properties page, In the 'General' tab, you should see a heading that reads 'Package' right at the bottom of the page. The package name that is currently displayed here is the name of the package that is being used.

If you would like to change the Package used, click on 'Link to a package'. This will now bring up a dialog box that allows you to Select a package. Navigate through the folder structure and locate your new package. Once selected, click 'OK' to confirm. The report will now use the new package identified.

IMPORTANT!!

Always ensure that the package that is being replaced is compatible with the old package. i.e., the names of the Query Subjects and Data Items should be the same.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Welcome!

December 2009 has just given us an interesting project on Cognos 8 BI Reporting and we thought that it would be really useful to start making notes of things that we discover during the next couple of months..

Hopefully, we should have some interesting finds and discussions in here.. We are open to suggestions etc. and would be excited to have some debates here...

Happy Cognosing! :)