1. Drill through to the cube in power play from CRN?2. Create packages in CRN3. SQL - 4. Drill through reports in Impromptu5. Optimize the performance of Cubes6. Basic Unix Commands7. IWR and Upfront performance.8. CRN – How to create segments and use of it?9. Complex reports in CRN?10. XML as a data source in CRN

Interview Questions

What is the size of the warehouse that you have worked on?I have worked on warehouses as large as 500 GigaBytes when I was at the Travelocity

What is the size of the data mart you have worked onSize of the data-marts were approximately 200GB

What is the size of the report? complex reports?Most of my reports in the test environment ranged from 5 to 500 rows. I had reports with ranging to up to 3000 rows in the actual production. Around 2MB is the size of the report that I used. Around 4-5 MB for reports with snapshots.

The actual number of rows of the database accessed with the reports were as big as 60,000 rows

What is the size of the cube? complex cubes?The size of the cubes I have handled is around 500MB

What is the size of the biggest table you worked on and the number of rows?I have worked with tables as big as 170 million rows ( 200 GB)

How do you set up Cognos environment for 500 users? What type of system architecture would you design?

(i)Identify the goalWhat do you need the reporting for?

(ii)Identify the audienceWho will use the reports (type of audience)?

(iii)Select data sourcesWhat data sources contain the information required to meet the reporting goal?

(iv)Prepare a preliminary layoutIdentify the reporting tools (Impromptu or PowerPlay) to be used and then the support tools (Access Manager Administration, Architect, Transformer, IWR, Upfront) for the same

(v)Locate the serversSince there are over 500 users, it might be a good idea to keep separate servers for database and directory servers.

(vi)Directory ServerInstall Directory server on the chosen machine (should be accessible on the company intranet)

(vii)Install Server versions of tools on some machines and Client versions on the others (depending on requirements) along with Access Manager and Configuration wizard.

(viii)Set up how the machines would authenticate using Directory Server. Use Configuration wizard on each machine to set up authentication configuration

(ix)Identify the main points for each possible reportWhat information must you include?

(x)Select appropriate tool for each report.What is the best tabular/graphical representation (charts and tables in Impromptu or PowerPlay) for each of the main points?

(xi)Create appropriate models/cubes/catalogues

(xii)Administer user privileges on the Access Manager for each application

(xiii)Create the reports.

What is a common logon server, ticket server and PowerPlay Connect?

A set of user prompts that Access Manager uses to identify users and govern access to datasources. Users are prompted once for their logon information.

A server application that issues tickets. It maintains single signons for users of Web-basedproducts so that they can access multiple applications without having to re-enter authenticationdata.

Windows-based Cognos products use the Windows Common Logon server to record thisinformation, and Web-based Cognos products provide for a single signon using ticket servers.

What types of servers exists in series 7 and describe the functionality of each?

Cognos Impromptu Web Reports (Port:8020) http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/imrap.cgiListens to request for running Impromptu reports (from Web Server) and executes script to run the report and produce the result to the browser.

Cognos NoticeCast (Port:5000) http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/upfcgi.exeServer that listen for, or respond to, events and then send out email notices to interested parties(Time-critical events for business applications).

Cognos PowerPlay Enterprise Server (Port: 8010 )http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exeProvides users data access to cubes and reports in a local environment using the Windows client applications PowerPlay for Windows or PowerPlay for Excel..

Cognos Query (Port: 25000 )http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/cqcgi.exeUsed to explore, modify, and create queries on the Web

Cognos Visualizer (Port: 8060 ) http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/vizcgi.exeServer that allows consumers to view visualizations(prepared by Visualizer Authoring ) using a Web browser.

Upfront (Port: 8030)http://computername/cognos/cgi-bin/upfcgi.exeAllows users to publish, search, organize, and view Cognos reports and queries on the Web

What is LDAP- what type of LDAP servers have you worked with?LDAP is a platform independent protocol that is used for access to locate organizations, files and other resources on the internet or intranet.

Advantages: Flexible, Easier to scale, cheaper

I have worked on Netscape Directory Server.

In version6.0 why do you use Upfront and IWR?Upfront is the web-portal where the user can access published reports from Impromptu or PPES. There is also an interface for Access Manager Administration.

IWR is used to publish the Impromptu reports to the users via the upfront portal

Explain the steps to customize upfront portal?You can customize the upfront user interface by changing the colors fonts and graphicsTo modify the appearance of the upfront user

- disable template caching- create a new theme- switch to the new theme- modify colors and fonts in the theme- modify graphics in the theme- modify colors and points in the access manager templates- modify the access manager graphics

Steps for deploying reports on IWR server?Steps for deploying reports on IWR server:

i) After creating the reports, create a shared folder as a location point for accessing IWR reports with web-browser

ii) Make sure that the IWR server is running and the Web Server has been correctly configured with correct virtual directory addressing.

iii) Make sure that we have all the reports to be attached to one Newsbox, in one single exclusive directory. Include the catalog file also.

iv) If we need the reports to be published to new Newsbox, we can create the same at the Cognos Upfront portal, with Administrator logon.

v) Use Cognos Server Administrator to log onto IWR Report Administrator tool.vi) Click ‘Publish Report Set’ from the Tools menu.vii) We should provide info in the ‘Publish Report Set’ dialog box:

Report Set NameReport Set IWR Location (use the shared folder addressing from step (i))Source directory for Report Set( as in Step (iii)Upfont newsbox name, from where the reports will be accessible

viii) Click OK to publish

List few complex reports you have created?Sales generated by each product in each of the regions. This also included a chart sub-report describing the channel wise break up of the sales each product from different sales channels

Total sales quantity and sales margin generated by each product type for each Vendor for each country grouped in that order. There were sub-reports one for each product type, which is a chart representing the contribution of vendor to the business of the Product type in that country.

Compare calculated, catalog and report columns?

Calculated column is a column of data items that are formed as a result of a calculated expression involving one or more data-items.A Catalog column is a column in the Impromptu report, that contain data-items selected from the catalogA report column is a column in the report with data-items already accessed by the report.

The distinction between a catalog column and report column is that, while a catalog column will display all values including null values, a report column does not.

How do you assign a signon to a cube?Password security to a cube may have to be assigned in is set in two places.Steps to assign cube logon password:

a) Right click a cubeb) In cube properties, password option, set a password.c) Generate the cube that will have the set cube-logon password

Steps to assign user-class privileges (Access Manager Classes):a) If Access Manager Security is not already set:

i) From file menu click Model Propertiesii) Click Authentication tab in the model properties dialog boxiii) Select the namespace and enable ‘access manager user classes’ check-

boxiv) Click OK

b) Drag the user class/classes from the User Classes window to the target cubes in the PowerCubes window. This will associate the cube to the user-classes

c) Generate the cubes to create cubes with User class privileges attached to it.

Differentiate between Impromptu prompts and PowerPrompts?In Impromptu prompts can be declared using the Prompt Manager.There are four types of prompts:Type-in : Users have to type in the string/number and the report is filtered to that value. This is advised for only numbers data types or if the user is aware of the database.

File Picklist: values are prompted from a fileReport Picklist : values are prompted from a reportCatalog picklist: values are prompted from Catalog columns

A PowerPrompts application on the other hand is a series of HTML pages that allow report consumers to select the information they want to see in a report. We use JavaScript to help perform passing values while navigating to the prompts and a running web server to show the reports. We use power prompts developer studio for creation of PowerPrompts

Steps to change current user settings from Access Manager?Steps to change the current user settings from Access ManagerOpen the Access manager and login as administrator to the namespace where the user belongs.Right click on the user and select the properties where you can change the different user setting. Use these tabs and change properties therein

(i)GeneralName of the userDescription of the userFirst name of the userLast name of the userEmail address of the userPhone number of the userIf the user account is enabled or disabled.

(ii)User SignonsBasic signon (User ID, Password)User must change password at next logonUser can NOT change passwordUser’s password never expiresOS Signons

(iii)AccessAccess to data sourcesSetting up auto access

(iv)MembershipClasses available for membership

(v)Regional SettingsTime zoneDay light savings time is in effectTime formatLanguage, locale

(vi)Upfront settingsAllow personal Newsbox.

Click OK or Apply to save the changes made.

What is an event control server?An event control server is a component of the Upfront Server that is used to processes NoticeCast events.

What is your knowledge of Visualizer, Finance, KPI and Cognos Query?

Questions and Answers of the Question Hour

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Q1. What is the size of the data warehouse you worked with?

Q2. What is the biggest data table you worked in your recent project and how many rows

does it consist?

Q3. Define CDC and SCD. Give examples.Ans.

Change Data Capture (CDC)

The art of determining what records to extract from the source system is frequently called change data capture (CDC).The point of change data is to recognize what source records have changed and how, so that just the changed records are moved to the warehouse.

Techniques used to recognize changes to source database tables are:

Timestamps Triggers Application Integration Software (AIS) File Compares

Slowly Changing Dimensions

In a slowly changing dimension, rather than changing the data in the dimension record, we add another to hold the changed information.

There are three types of SCDs: Slowly Changing Dimension Type 1(SCD-1): Slowly Changing Dimension Type 2(SCD-2): Slowly Changing Dimension Type 3(SCD-3):

Slowly Changing Dimension Type 1(SCD-1)

No history is preserved in an SCD-1. If the input record already exists in the target dimension table, based on the natural key values, then that record is updated or refreshed with the data from the input record.

Slowly Changing Dimension Type2 (SCD-2)

Sometimes there are a number of critical values on a record that we may want to retain. In a SCD-2, We preserve a dimension record the way it was when the associated facts occurred. So if a field or column value that is one of these “Critical Values” on the input record is different from its corresponding column in the target table, then the existing record is “expired” and a new record based on the input record is inserted and assigned a new surrogate key value. If none of the critical values are different from their corresponding columns in the target table, then the existing record is updated but not expired, much like SCD-1.

Slowly Changing Dimension Type 3 (SCD-3)

Much like SCD-2, SCD-3 is used to track changes to critical values. However, instead of keeping a separated record for each change, separate columns on the existing record are used to store the current value and any previous ‘n’ values.

When a critical change is detected, all the previous values are shifted to the ‘next’ previous column and the ‘nth’ oldest value is discarded.

Q4. How to setup Cognos environment? What kind of system architecture would you use for 200 users?

Ans. We have to setup an intranet-based environment. It’s a three-tier web architecture where web server, reporting server and user interface as Upfront portal communicate. Here we restrict the user based on their logon/password (authentication).

Q5. Define Common Logon Server, Ticket Server and PowerPlay Connect?Ans.

Common Logon Server

In Windows, the Windows Common Logon server identifies the user and stores relevant security information locally on the user's computer.

When a user invokes authentication for any Windows based component of the Cognos platform, if the user has installed the Windows Common Logon server, a key icon appears in the system tray of the Windows taskbar. When the user opens another Cognos application, the second application uses the stored information to identify the user, and to enforce any security restrictions.

The information to identify the user remains in the Windows Common Logon server until the user has closed all Cognos applications, or has logged off the Windows Common Logon server.

Ticket Server

For Web users, the ticket server issues a ticket when a user is identified. A reference to the ticket is stored in a cookie in the user's Web browser. When the user opens another Cognos application, the application uses the stored ticket information to identify the user, and to enforce any security restrictions. When the user's browser session ends, the cookie is deleted.

Windows-based Cognos products use the Windows Common Logon server to record logon information, and Web-based Cognos products provide for a single signon using ticket servers.

PowerPlay Connect

PowerPlay Connect is a utility that you use to create or modify pointer files.

A pointer file is an .mdc file that contains connection information for a Cognos data source, a cube in a relational database, or an OLAP server.

You can distribute the pointer file to users for local storage, or add the file to a PowerPlay Enterprise Server. Report users open the pointer file to view their data from one of the following applications:

PowerPlay for Windows PowerPlay Web PowerPlay for Excel Visualizer Scenario 4Thought

Q6. How do you setup the user on Common Logon Serve and Ticket Server?

Q7. What is LDAP? On what type of LDAP servers did you work?Ans. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a product-independent protocol that is used to locate organizations, individuals, files, and other resources on the Internet or a corporate Intranet.

Q8. Why do you use Upfront server and IWR server?Ans. IWR Server delivers Impromptu reports across web to a large group of users. Users can subscribe to publish reports and customize them. IWR server is part of enterprise reporting solution.

Cognos Upfront is the customizable user interface that you use to view, find, organize, and share Cognos reports and queries on the Web.

Q9. How do you customize Upfront portal?

Q10. What are prompts? How many types of prompts are there? Name and define them.Ans. A prompt is an expression that enables users to filter data by typing or picking a value, or a series of values when the report opens. Prompts help users quickly find the information they need from a report.

There are two kinds of prompts: picklist and type-in.

For type-in prompts, the user types a value on which the report filter is based.

Picklist prompts retrieve their values from a text file (file picklist), from a data item in another report (report picklist), or from a data item the catalog (catalog picklist).

A prompt stored in a catalog is called a catalog prompt.

Q11. What are cascading prompts?Ans. Cascading prompt is a prompt that uses information from a previous prompt to determine which options to show in a picklist. For example, if you choose Italy in a country prompt, the picklist includes only sales branches that are in Italy.

Q12. What are the steps for deploying reports on IWR server?Ans. Impromptu Web Reports are used to place Impromptu reports on the Web so that users can view them using a Web browser. The process of getting Impromptu reports to the Web begins in Impromptu.

The report author creates the Impromptu reports, the catalog, and any supporting files, packages them using the Cognos Distribution Shuttle Builder.

Then passes the package to the report administrator. The report administrator uses Report Administration to copy the package of

reports to an Impromptu Web Reports server. This process is called publishing a report set.

Q13. List few complex reports that you have created in Impromptu and PowerPlay.Ans. I have created the complex reports such as crosstab reports, sub-reports and drill through reports.

Q14. What are calculated columns, catalog columns and report columns? Compare.Ans.

Calculated columns are the columns that are created by performing some operations on existing columns.

Catalog columns are the columns that are selected from the database table columns.

Report columns are the columns that are selected from the catalog columns and are displayed in the report.

Q15. What type of configuration is required while installing Cognos tools?

Q16. In transformer, how do you set current period?Ans. Steps

1. Select a dimension from Dimension Map.2. From the Edit menu select Properties menu item.

Dimension – Properties dialog box opens3. Select Time tab.4. Check Automatically set the current time period check box.5. Click OK button.

Q17. How do you assign signon to a cube?

Q18. Differentiate prompts in Impromptu and PowerPrompts.Ans. The prompts in Impromptu are expressions that enable users to filter data by typing or picking a value, or a series of values when the report opens.

Whereas, PowerPrompts is an application that guides report consumers through a series of HTML pages where they select the information that they want in a report. The report consumer then sees the report that is generated based on the selections.

For example, using a PowerPrompts application report consumers can add Columns to a report Column formatting A report template Conditional formatting Filters

Q19. If you have to change current system user settings in access manager, how do you do it?Ans.

Steps1. Log on to a namespace.2. Double-click the namespace to list the contents.3. Double-click the Users folder to open it.4. Click the user you want.5. From the Edit menu, click Properties.

6. Click the corresponding tab to make changes. The different tabs available are: General User Signon Access Membership Regional Settings Upfront

Q20. How do you provide security to access your catalogs, cubes and reports?Ans. The user classes and users are created using Access Manager to provide security to access catalogs, cubes and reports.

Q21. Explain implementation of Cognos tools.

Q22. What is an Event Control Server?

Q23. What is Cognos Query?Ans. Cognos Query is an ad hoc reporting tool that is used to explore, modify and create queries on the web. These queries are used to explore information and answer specific questions. Cognos Query is part of an enterprise reporting solution.

Q24. What is Cognos Finance?Ans. Cognos Finance is an integrated financial application that helps to manage the core financial processes of business, with a unified financial view and the flexibility of web deployment.

Business benefits: Achieve a consistent view of enterprise financial data to improve financial data

accuracy and provide the basis for effective decisions Streamline weekly, monthly and quarterly closing process. Provide rapid return on investment for the organization Reduce budget cycles. Improve planning and forecasting information Consistently produce up-to-date reports on key performance indicators across

plans, budgets, forecasts and actuals Facilitate enterprise web development.

Q25. What is KPI? Did you ever work on KPI package?Ans. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It is a numeric attribute of the business model that is quantifiable, and is identified as a key performance indicator of the enterprise. When you specify an attribute as a key performance indicator, it identifies the attribute as a measure candidate for the multidimensional browser in PowerPlay Transformer.

1) What is security by value?For any user class you can define a filter that provides focused views of the data by limiting the scope of data retrieved from a table or column. Filters can also improve performance by limiting the number of records retrieved. In addition, use filters to restrict access to sensitive data. This is called security by value.

2) Enhancements in Cognos EP 7 compared to EP6

Simplified Installation and ConfigurationImpromptu offers installation options that are simpler to use and more flexible. Transfer and configuration of Cognos products are separate in EP Series 7, so that you can reconfigure your applications without the need to re-transfer them.A Single Configuration ToolWhen you begin an installation, you may not be aware of the impact of various settings on your application and environment. With the new Configuration Manager, you can enter the configuration settings for all your Cognos products. You can then refine these settings as required, in a graphical interface that makes such changes simple.A Central Starting Point for Server AdministrationYou can now see and start the tools that you need for administration from a single window (Start, Programs, Cognos EP Series 7, Cognos Server Administration). On each computer that contains administration tools, this window describes each tool, and shows what tools are available.

Enhanced ERWin r3.5 Import in ArchitectIn previous versions of Architect you had to import all ERWin Subject areas at once. You now can import selected ERWin subject areas.

Use Access Manager Security in the Architect Expression EditorYou can now use Access Manager user and user class names in expressions created in the Architect Expression Editor. This capability is typically used to implement security by values inside databases.

Security Information Available for FiltersImpromptu 7.0 can use either Impromptu catalog security or Access Manager security information as report query variables to filter data in reports or catalogs.

Access Security TokensSecurity layers applied in either Impromptu or Access Manager are represented as access security tokens in the expression editor. Access security tokens allow you to add security information to expressions that you create in the expression editor, so that you can filter report data by security criteria. These tokens appear in a folder called Access Security in the Available Components box of the expression editor.

Token Name Descriptioncatalog-user-profile : Inserts the user class name as set up in the Impromptu catalog.user-name : Inserts the name of the user as set up in Access Manager.user-class : Inserts the list of user classes as set up in access manager.

For catalogs using Impromptu-based security, you can add the catalog-user-profile token to an expression, filter or conditional format. For catalogs that use Access Manager for security, you can add the user-name and user-class tokens to the same objects.Notes• You will get empty string values for the user-name and user-class tokens if you are not logged on and open a report created from a catalog that uses Access Manager for security.To see if you have empty string values for tokens, open the Profile tab of the Query dialog box and click the SQL option button.• Impromptu caches the Access Manager security information at logon. Therefore, Impromptu keeps values for these three tokens for the entire session until Impromptu is closed.• The values of these three tokens can also be inserted as data in a Text frame within a report. To do this, from the Insert menu, click More Objects.The User Class token is only available when used with the incomponent.

PowerPrompts Scripts Use JavaScriptIn PowerPrompts 6.0, the scripts for PowerPrompts applications were a combination of Impromptu reports and PowerPrompts methods. For PowerPrompts 7.0, scripting is done using JavaScript code.

Server Side JavaScriptPowerPrompts in EP Series 7 supports server side JavaScript. You can now create PowerPrompts applications using more complex logic as well as processing on the server rather than on the client.

Upfront IntegrationPowerPrompts can integrate with the Upfront server. PowerPrompts application authors can create their applications in such a way as to take advantage of themes and languages.

New Ways to Control Authentication ProcessAccess Manager offers new ways of controlling the authentication process. Administrators can now• force a user to change the password at the next logon• specify whether a user can or can not change the password• permit a user’s password to never expire• disable a user’s accountThe first three options affect the authentication process performed through basic signon, whereas the last option applies to all authentication methods supported by Access Manager.

Delegated Administration EnhancementsAccess Manager now includes the ability to limit the view of users when you set up delegated administration. Delegated administrators can see names of only those users who belong to the user classes they administer. In previous releases of Access Manager, this functionality applied only to user classes.Delegated administrators can be given the responsibility to administer either all user and user class objects within a namespace or a subset of those objects. For example, delegated administrators can be assigned access that limits privileges to the user class they belong to, its child user classes, and the users who are members of those user classes.

Authentication Files No Longer SupportedAuthentication files (.aut) were an authentication source at run time in previous versions of PowerPlay. To continue using the information contained in an authentication file, you must import it into a namespace on a directory server or local authentication file (.lae) by using Access Manager Administration or Access Manager Converter.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) SupportSSL is a standard protocol for providing a secure encrypted environment for communication over networks. Access Manager now supports SSL for exchanging confidential information to and from your directory server. SSL is enabled from the properties sheet for your directory server.

In IWR

Maintaining the Catalog Security Structure

In previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, you had to recreate your security structure in Access Manager, even if you specified those settings in the Impromptu catalog. You can now apply these settings to reports you publish to the Web without redefining them in Access Manager or Upfront.

Maintaining Catalog GovernorsImpromptu governor settings place restrictions on the amount of data retrieved or the amount of time available to return a result. You can now apply these governor settings to reports you publish to theWeb.

Impromptu Web Reports 7.0 for HP-UX and IBM AIXImpromptu Web Reports 7.0 is now available for Hewlett Packard UX 11.0 and IBM AIX 4.3.3. You can install the servers, gateways, and data store on UNIX computers, and install the administration utilities on a Windows computer.

Reports Delivered Using External Web ProgramsMany organizations use Web-based intranets to deliver internal reports to their employees and associates. Previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports did not support integration with these programs.Impromptu Web Reports 7.0 supports integration with external Web programs. Report administrators or report consumers can now do the following, by using external applications that pass parameters through a URL:• run or view reports• run or view custom views• run reports with prompts or filter information• run custom views with prompts or filter information• run or view reports with a specific user class name, for example, when viewing burst reports

Simplified Report Set PublishingIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, you used th e Cognos Distribution Shuttle Builder to manually collect files and package them to a posting folder. This step is no longer required. The Report Administration utility now automatically performs this step when you specify the location of the source and report set files.

Reports Always Run from UpfrontIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, where you run a report depends on where you were before you ran the report. In most cases, the report administrator scheduled public and burst reports to run using the Report Administration utility. Using the browser, users

could schedule personal reports or drill through from PowerPlay or from another Impromptu report.Now that Upfront is the Web user interface for all components of Cognos EP Series 7, you view a report in the interface where the report is run.

Multiple Versions of a ReportBecause data changes, it is sometimes necessary to see old versions of reports. In previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, every time you ran a personal report, you automatically overwrote the existing version.Using Impromptu Web Reports 7.0, you can save a report at different times to compare results or for archiving purposes. The maximum number of versions allowed is set by the report project administrator.

New Administration User ClassesImpromptu Web Reports 7.0 has additional user classes to help you build a hierarchical security structure.The following user classes have various roles and access rights in the Impromptu Web Reports security structure:• RootThis user class has full access to all of Impromptu Web Reports and Upfront.• NewsIndex administratorThis user class has full access to the report administration utility, and to all report NewsItems and custom views.• Impromptu Web Reports server administratorThis user class has access to the Impromptu Web Reports and Upfront server administration utilities.• Upfront server administratorThis user class has access to the Impromptu Web Reports and Upfront server administration utilities.• Report project administratorThis user class has full access to report NewsItems and custom views, as well as to the Impromptu Web Reports administration utility. A report project administrator cannot set security on report projects.• Report set administratorThis user class can update report sets for which they are administrators, as well as manage events. A report set administrator can manage reports that belong to their report sets. They cannot change report project and report set properties or publish new report sets.

Reports are NewsItemsIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, a report file (.imr) existed independently of associated entries in the Web user interface.

These entries were separate entities to be managed by an administrator.Now, a report file is a report entry in Upfront. It is treated as one entity. Any changes you make to report entries are made to the associated report fileDeleting ReportsIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, if you deleted an entry in the Inbox, All Reports, or Subscription folders, the report file remained intact on the server. Now, if you delete a report in Upfront, you also delete the report file, and custom views associated with it.One Report Per Report FileIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, several Web entries could be based on one report file. Now, report files have a one to one mapping with reports in Upfront. To create multiple Web entries based on one report file, you create custom views based on the report.

Privileges Replace Report TypesIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, reports had distinct behaviors based on report types. Personal, public, and burst reports had their intended usages and associated properties.Personal reports were available only to a distinct user or user class, and could be run as required. Public reports were available to a wider audience, and were usually run on a schedule set by the report administrator.Now, you use privileges to decide who can modify report properties, and decide how reports behave. You create access control lists that grant privileges• to view reports (read privileges)• to modify properties of reports (write privileges)• to execute reports (execute privileges)• to own reports (owner privileges)For example, the equivalent of a version 6.0 public report is a report that can be viewed but not executed or modified by a user class. The equivalent of a version 6.0 personal report is a report that can be executed but cannot be modified by a user.

A NewsIndex and NewsBoxes Replace FoldersIn previous versions of Impromptu Web Reports, report consumers opened reports through the All Reports, Subscription, and Inbox folders.When you ran an executable report, you opened the resulting entry in your Inbox. By default, the resulting Inbox entry remained available until the report was run again or until cleanup occurred.You subscribed to reports to open them later in your Subscriptions folder. You executed or viewed reports in your Subscriptions folder, and you viewed executable reports in your Inbox.

The Subscriptions and Inbox folders do not exist in Impromptu Web Reports 7.0. Subscriptions are now custom views. Now, you open reports from the Upfront NewsIndex or from a NewsBox.NewsBoxes are folders that group all types of NewsItems. You must save the results of a run command to a NewsBox if you want the results to be available later.You can add executable reports or custom views to your personal NewsBoxes, or save reports as custom views. You can also create shortcuts to reports or custom views for quick access. Shortcuts show the execution status of underlying reports or custom views, as well as the lastmodified date.

In Powerplay

Support for Architect Data Sources in TransformerThe PowerPlay Transformation Server (Windows) and PowerPlay Transformation Server Client for UNIX editions now include the Architect component and Transformer is integrated with Architect.An Architect model is a definition of available relational databases that you can use as a data source for Transformer and other Cognos products. Then you can use that model as a basis for your Transformer model.In Transformer you pick which attributes from the entities you need to include as measures and as levels. Transformer then automatically determines the SQL queries needed to retrieve that information based on the Architect model. You can then review and, if necessary, edit the SQL queries generated.

Alternate Representation of Secured Aggregated ValuesIn Transformer you can now restrict users from seeing aggregate values based on restricted details. The word "Denied" will appear when users are restricted from seeing a descendant. The option allows Transformer modelers to turn on or off restricted value aggregation.For example, you are responsible for a sales cube with North America divided into Mexico, Canada, and USA. A user is allowed to see the sales values for Mexico and USA, but not the values for Canada, so you cloak the Canada category. You can choose to restrict aggregate values, so that the user sees "Denied" instead of summary values, or continue to show totals for North America. If you continue to show totals, the user could then deduce the values for Canada, but not details.

Note: If you use filters, the user sees a value for North America that excludes the contribution for Canada. In this case users might erroneously conclude that Canada had no sales.

Improved Performance When Using Microsoft SQL Server Analysis ServicesPerformance has improved when you view reports based on cubes in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. Measure formatting and searches using the Find feature are faster than when previous releases are used. Also you can now report on cubes that contain ragged hierarchies (hierarchies that don’t contain all of the same levels of hierarchy) or unbalanced hierarchies (hierarchies that don’t contain the same level of detail throughout the hierarchy).

Create Custom Exceptions in PowerPlay WebEarlier versions of PowerPlay Web contain an automatic exception highlighting feature that applies predefined rules to the display of your data. You can now define your own exception highlighting using the Custom Exceptions button.After you define rules for custom highlighting, PowerPlay Web displays any data that falls within your value range in the color you specified. You can define up to five separate (non-overlapping) value ranges for a custom exception.

Percent Growth Calculations in PowerPlay WebPrevious versions of PowerPlay Web required that you define percent growth as a calculation in the cube. You can now insert a percent growth calculation wherever you require it in your crosstab display.

In-database Cubes no Longer SupportedIn earlier versions of PowerPlay, in-database cubes were used to secure cube access and to use database client/server for distribution. PowerPlay no longer includes the ability to create or access in- database cubes. PowerPlay Enterprise Server now provides the powerful security capabilities and superior distribution performance to replace in-database cube access.

NewsItem Types in UpfrontNewsItems types in Upfront now include reports, agents, URL shortcuts, shortcuts, custom views, data sources, and tools.

PowerPlay Enterprise ServerNew features in this release of PowerPlay Enterprise Server enhance the flexibility and power of complex, distributed installations. You can now group several servers in a named list for processing efficiency, provide increased fault tolerance with

the gateway failover mechanism, share file locations between servers and specify the location of temporary web files.

Increased Gateway Failover StabilityIn an environment where the gateway program on each web server

communicates with a PowerPlay dispatcher, the dispatcher is the

main point of risk. PowerPlay Enterprise Server now provides

increased fault tolerance with a failover mechanism at the gateway

level. Each web server can be configured so that the PowerPlay

gateway programs have one principal dispatcher and a list of

alternate dispatchers. If your principal PowerPlay dispatcher should

become unavailable, the failover mechanism provides uninterrupted

service to your users.

PowerPlay Enterprise Server searches the central file created by the Cognos Configuration Manager for a defined server group. If a group has been defined, the gateway stores this list of servers as the failover list in the ppdscgi.conf file.If no server group has been defined, you can create a failover list in the Configuration Manager by adding a list of servers in the PowerPlay Enterprise Server Gateway section.If the initial dispatcher in the failover list is stopped or disabled, the communications processor passes the request to the next server specified. Processing continues without a break.

Specify Location of Temporary FilesIn previous versions of PowerPlay, the temporary files created by PowerPlay Web were stored on the web server by default. This can be inefficient in a multiple web server environment or in an environment where data resides behind a firewall.You can now use the Fetch Files option in PowerPlay Enterprise Server to increase data security for your PowerPlay Web users or maximize resources in a large, multiple web server environment.The Fetch Files option lets you determine the location of the temporary files used to build a PowerPlay Web Explorer page. When a user requests data, PowerPlay creates a frameset, the data and a customized toolbar. The frameset is sent to the user’s web browser,

and the data and toolbar are stored in a temporary file location until requested by the browser. This temporary location is normally on the web server. When you enable Fetch Files, the temporary files are located on the PowerPlay server; you can therefore protect these files behind a firewall.You can also use the Fetch Files option if you operate a multi-web server environment, where requests are handled through a router. As the data for a PowerPlayWeb Explorer page is passed to the web browser in two parts, enabling Fetch Files places the temporary data at the shared level of the PowerPlay server.

Shared Location of Authored ReportsWhen reports are published from PowerPlay for Windows or PowerPlay Web Explorer, they are stored in the PowerPlay Enterprise Server imported_reports folder. In a multiple server environment, where several servers handle client requests, problems will occur unless the imported_reports folder is shared and available to all servers. For such a shared data environment, the Mount At option lets you map the imported_reports to a shared disk drive. You can specify the Mount At location at the folder, cube or server level.

3) Steps to upgrade from Cognos Products from EP series 6 to 7:

i. First create a backup of all Cognos product configuration. We must save the customized configurations as a Configuration Specification file (.ccs) from the Configuration Manager

ii. Back Up Security Information in Windows by using Access Manager. Use ‘Export to .LAE’ in the ‘Action’ menu

iii. Back Up PowerPlay Enterprise Server Metadata in Windows. This is done by making a copy of PPSRoot.cfx and PPSRoot directory and its contents.

iv. Back Up on all the Data from all applications

Upgrading is then done in the following orderi. Security(Configuration Manager and Access Manager)

ii. Setting up server productsiii. Client productsiv. Authoring toolsv. Modeling tools

For Cognos Query restoring, we must first upgrade the Architect model and republish it before upgrading the Cognos Query.

Copy the customized entries of .ini files of 6.0 servers to the .ini files of 7.0 servers

In a multi-server environment, we have to upgrade all servers of a group to 7.0 at the same time.

We have to create various ACLs in Upfront and IWR Report Administration.

4) How and why do u copy a database definition?Used to generate a clone of the existing selected database definition. The new definition has the identical attributes like the orignal definition with the exception of the logical database name which is prefixed by “copy of”. This button is available only when a logical database is selected.

Steps From the catalog menu databases In the datbase definition manager dialog box, in database

gateway and drivers box select a logical database name Click copy A copy of the existing definition is created with the name

profixed with “copy of”

This is used in case there is a long connection string. A better way is to copy the connection string.

5) Steps to edit database definitionYou can change the definition parameters like the ODBC data source, ODBC connect string, prompts for userid or not, connect timout, reply timeout.

From the catalog menu databases In the datbase definition manager dialog box, in database

gateway and drivers box select a logical database name Click edit and edit all the attributes you want to change.

6) What is a content overview?A content overview report describes

Catalog information, such as catalog name and location Information about the database, such as database logical name,

physical name and type of database Database structure including tables and columns

Catalog folder and its contents Table joins Information about user classes, such as name and access

privileges and other access settings of each user class.

7) How do you create a folder? Go to catalog menu folders In the New box click folder is you want to add a emply folder

and then add contents to it from different existing folder or new calculations, prompts, conditions, or folders.

If you want to generate folder from a report or a database table click generate and select generate folder based on report or database table.

8) What happens if you delete/rename columns/tables.If the report is using the table or the column which are renamed or deleted the report fails.You can only rename a folder or items in folder and impromptu tracks the changes.

9) Can you generate reports directly from folderNO. You can generate reports only from tables and not from folders. You can create folders from either reports or from database tables.

10) What is the functionality of qualify, weight, and auditQualify : when using more than one database that has a table with the same name, you can use the qualification tab to the tables dialog box to qualify the tables with their correct database name and table name. That way user will access the correct tables. By default the tables are fully qualified. You can qualify tables with information on database, owner, tables and columns.

Weight : table weighting specifies the order in which tables will be retrieved and joined. The more detailed the table, the bigger the weight that should be assigned. The object is to get impromptu to read the summary tables first and then join to successively more detailed tables.

Audit : impromptu can log performance data in audit files. You use this information to determine whether changes to your reports, catalogs or impromptu environment are affecting performance times.

Use the audit configuration application to - Enable auditing- Set the audit file location- Configure how much space audit files will take- Store the SQL statements impromptu uses to get

informationUse the Audit File Processor application to

- Set the audit file load location- Set the audit data database- Set whether audit files are deleted after loading- Create database tables- Add data from the audit files to the database tables.

13) Definitions of ConditionA condition is a true-false expression you can include in a report to filter data. Use conditions when you want to make frequently-used expressions available to catalog users.For example, you can define a condition that shows only data for your sales region.

14) What is a Calculation?A calculation is an expression using existing data items to calculate a new data item. For example, you can define a calculation that gives the discounted price for a preferred customer.

15) What is a Prompt?A prompt is an expression that you set up so users can filter the data in a report by typing or picking a filter value when the report opens. Prompts help report users quickly find the information they need.For example, you can define a prompt that enables sales representatives to select customer sites by city.

16) Catalog Conditions in Secured Catalog – Can a person with only ‘user class’ membership (or any membership other than Creator) create conditions in Catalog? What about Catalog Calculations?

NO.

The privileges of a secured catalog are rigidly stringent in the sense that a Creator also cannot upgrade the absence of “Edit/Create Folders” privileges in the users other than Creator.

So users(other that those belonging to Creator class) cannot have the privilege of Editing the folder structure of the catalog. Hence they cannot create conditions.

Secured Catalogs also limit the scope of Catalog Calculations in the same way.

17) What is Impromptu Request Server

Impromptu gives users the freedom to quickly and easily create any query or report, while providing administrators with the flexible scheduling and distribution capabilities they require. One of the strategies of Impromptu to achieve this is the use of Impromptu request server. Impromptu Request Server extends the client version by adding batch/scheduled querying and server-side report execution.It supports databases like Microsoft SQL Server, NCR Teradata(NT Version)

and ORACLE SQL*Net, Sybase Open Client (Unix version)

Comments: Offers distributed processing to users who need maximum

flexibility when publishing reports. Users can move their query processing from Impromptu to the

server, freeing the client PC for other tasks. Request Server does not support Hotfiles

18) Hotfiles. Indexed or No

NO. The implication of this is that joins may take longer than expected to execute.

19) How do u suppress redundant information, while filtering in Impromptu queries?

We can use the “Eliminate duplicate rows” check-box to suppress redundant information

20) Discuss Grouped Data Item and Associated Data Item

Grouped data item is a data item included in the Impromptu report query, to group rows in report based on the data item. We can maintain a hierarchy of Grouped Data Items such that each grouped data items groups the rows within the grouping due to preceding data items in the Group Order.

We can associate data items to a grouped data item, so that there is no repetition within a group.

21) How do you edit user-class privileges in Impromptu?

We use “User Profiles” in the Catalog menu. The various types of user class editing available to the Creator are:

(i) ‘User Classes’ tab - Change class password (ii) ‘Table Access’ tab - Grant/Deny access (for use of Database

tables) (iii) ‘Folder Access’ tab - Grant/Deny permission to Access/Select

Value of folders and data-items.(iv) ‘Filters tab’ - Filter condition on Database columns(v) ‘Governor tab’ - Edit User class Privileges by

enabling/disabling the following:a) Create/Edit Reportsb) Edit Foldersc) Add/Modify User Classesd) Direct Entry SQL

Allow/Warn/Prevent :a) Sorting on non-indexed columnsb) Outer Joinsc) Eliminate duplicate rows( select distinct)d) Cross-product queries( no table joins)

22) What is the method to create prompts? We can access Prompt Manager from the ‘Report’ menu to create prompts which we can include in our query by using prompts in filter expressions.

Prompt Manager can also be accessed by from ‘Available Components’ box in the Filter tab of ‘Query’ dialog box

23) What are the data-types available in impromptu?

StringNumberDateTimeDate-timeInterval

27) What are thumbnails?A thumbnail is user-selected number of rows of data. The queries work on the selected number of rows. If the queries demand more then, the report automatically attaches to the database.

For example, if you work with a thumbnail of 30 rows, Impromptu retrieves the first 30 rows from the database and then uses the 30 rows as the data source for your queries. If you add a column to the query, Impromptu must retrieve the new data from the database.

Other issues :When you close a report, thumbnail is automatically discarded.Thumbnails can be given in: Report-Query-Access tab-Thumb nail.

28) What are the Advantages of Stored Procedures

To help you build powerful database applications, stored procedures provide several advantages including better performance, higher productivity, ease of use, and increased scalability.

PerformanceStored procedures are compiled once and stored in executable form, so procedure calls are quick and efficient. Executable code is automatically cached and shared among users. This lowers memory requirements and invocation overhead.By grouping SQL statements, a stored procedure allows them to be executed with a single call. This minimizes the use of slow networks, reduces network traffic, and improves round-trip response time. OLTP applications, in particular, benefit because result set processing eliminates network bottlenecks.Additionally, stored procedures enable you to take advantage of the computing resources of the server. For example, you can move computation-bound procedures from client to server, where they will

execute faster. Likewise, stored functions called from SQL statements enhance performance by executing application logic within the server.

Productivity and Ease of UseBy designing applications around a common set of stored procedures, you can avoid redundant coding and increase your productivity. Moreover, stored procedures let you extend the functionality of the RDBMS. For example, stored functions called from SQL statements enhance the power of SQL.You can use the Java integrated development environment (IDE) of your choice to create stored procedures. Then, you can deploy them on any tier of the network architecture. Moreover, they can be called by standard Java interfaces such as JDBC, CORBA, and EJB and by programmatic interfaces and development tools such as SQLJ, the OCI, Pro*C/C++, and JDeveloper.This broad access to stored procedures lets you share business logic across applications. For example, a stored procedure that implements a business rule can be called from various client-side applications, all of which can share that business rule. In addition, you can leverage the server's Java facilities while continuing to write applications for your favorite programmatic interface.

Scalability

Stored procedures increase scalability by isolating application processing on the server. In addition, automatic dependency tracking for stored procedures aids the development of scalable applications.

The shared memory facilities of the Multi-Threaded Server (MTS) enable Oracle8i to support more than 10,000 concurrent users on a single node. For more scalability, you can use the Net8 Connection Manager to multiplex Net8 connections.

Maintainability

Once it is validated, a stored procedure can be used with confidence in any number of applications. If its definition changes, only the procedure is affected, not the applications that call it. This simplifies maintenance and enhancement. Also, maintaining a procedure on the server is easier than maintaining copies on various client machines.

Interoperability

Within the RDBMS, Java conforms fully to the Java Language Specification and furnishes all the advantages of a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. Also, like PL/SQL, Java provides full access to Oracle data, so any procedure written in PL/SQL can be written in Java.

PL/SQL stored procedures complement Java stored procedures. Typically, SQL programmers who want procedural extensions favor PL/SQL, and Java programmers who want easy access to Oracle data favor Java.

The RDBMS allows a high degree of interoperability between Java and PL/SQL. Java applications can call PL/SQL stored procedures using an embedded JDBC driver. Conversely, PL/SQL applications can call Java stored procedures directly.

Security

You can restrict access to data by allowing users to manipulate the data only through stored procedures that execute with their definer's privileges. For example, you can allow access to a procedure that updates a database table, but deny access to the table itself.

Replication

With Oracle Advanced Replication, stored procedures can be replicated (copied) from one Oracle8i database to another. This feature makes them ideal for implementing a central set of business rules. Once written, the stored procedures are replicated and distributed to work groups and branch offices throughout the company. In this way, policies can be revised on a central server rather than on individual servers.

29) What are the types of filters?

The types of filters are- details- summary

- crosstab detail- crosstab summary

30) What are the types of functions?Functions fall into the following three categories:

Impromptu Functions. These functions are always available. Impromptu functions may or may not be applied locally on the computer. The application location depends on whether there is an equivalent function supported by the active database. If the active database has an equivalent function, Impromptu allows the database to apply the function.

Common Database Functions. Only functions that are common to two or more databases supported by Impromptu are documented. These functions can be applied to only the databases that support them.

Note: Database functions do not always have the same names as their Impromptu equivalents.

User-Defined Functions (UDFs). These are external functions you create to customize Impromptu.

31) What are styles and what are the default types

A defined group of formatting options that you can apply to selected report objects.

List of Standard styles as defined in the Impromptu.ini file:

Light Emboss

Dark Emboss

Column Title Emboss

Light Etch

Dark Etch

Transparent

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Poor (Color)

Normal (Color)

Good (Color)

Poor (Mono)

Normal (Mono)

Good (Mono)

Blue Sky 1

Blue Sky 2

Blue Sky 3

Blue Sky 4

Sea Blues 1

Sea Blues 2

Sea Blues 3

Sea Blues 4

Seeing Red 1

Seeing Red 2

Seeing Red 3

Seeing Red 4

Mellow Yellow 1

Mellow Yellow 2

Mellow Yellow 3

Mellow Yellow 4

Grass Green 1

Grass Green 2

Grass Green 3

Grass Green 4

Interview Questions

What is the size of the warehouse that you have worked on?The last project I worked on had a warehouse of size 500-600GB. The Fact table had about 50M rows.

What is the size of the data mart you have worked on?In the project we had about 3 different data marts and I was mainly working on the Sales data mart. This was close to 300GB. The HR related data mart was much smaller with about 10gig in size.

What is the size of the cube?The average cube size was less than one gig and with an average 6-8 dimensions.

What is the size of the report? What is the size of complex reports?The production environment:I worked on complex reports and we would scan data 100,000 rows of each table/dimension. Most prompted and grouped reports had data about 500 rows. Summarized reports would be much lesser with anything between 10-20 rows.The test database:The test database I was working on had about 30,000 rows.

What is the size of complex cubes?The complex cube we worked on included all the dimensions in the model and there were about 8 dimensions. Each dimension had about 150,000,000 rows(so, about150K*8 and that was about 120M rows). The largest size was about 100-150MB.The major cubes were about one GB, average cubes based on one/two dimensions were about 500MB-600MB.

What is the size of the biggest table you worked on and the number of rows?The biggest table was the Sales Fact table and it had about 150M rows.This was about 100GB.

How do you set up Cognos environment for 500 users? What type of system architecture would you design?For 500 users we must first need to access the user classes, if there are any public user classes and guest user classes.Based on that, if security settings are arranged.We will need Upfront, IWR, PowerPlay (Web and Administrator), Impromptu, Powerprompts.The system architecture would be:Administer user privileges in Access manager

What is a common logon server, ticket server and PowerPlay Connect?Windows Common Logon Server is windows based authentication system that logs on users on the system to all Cognos application after initial log in. This way user does not have to provide authentication information each time they log onto a Cognos application.

Ticket Server is an access manager component that provides tickets to guest users or occasional users who do not have access to web based reports.The ticket server issues a ticket when a user is identified. A reference to the ticketis stored in a cookie in the user's Web browser. When the user opens another Cognos application, the application uses the stored ticket information to identify the user, and to enforceany security restrictions. When the user's browser session ends, the cookie is deleted.

PowerPlay Connect is a utility that you use to create or modify pointer files. A pointer file is a .mdc file that connects to Cognos data source or an OLAP server.You can use PowerPlay Connect to provide a connection to the following OLAP servers:Hyperion EssbaseIBM DB2 OLAPMicrosoft OLAP Services (including local cubes, .cub files)SAP BWPowerConnect can connect to data sources in:PowerPlay for windows/WebCognos Finance

What types of servers exists in series 7 and describe the functionality of each?There are about 4 servers for administration in the Cognos EP series7IWR server This is for publishing and managing Impromptu reports

for webPPES server This is for publishing and managing PowerPlay reports

for webUpfront server Visualizer server

What is LDAP- what type of LDAP servers have you worked with?LDAP: is a Lightweight Directory Access protocol.I have worked with Netscape LDAP server and it is very compliant with Cognos architecture.

In version6.0 why do you use Upfront and IWR?

Explain the steps to customize upfront portal?

What are the steps for deploying reports on IWR server?Steps:

1. Create a report set and save it in directory/folder.2. Go to Impromptu-Report Administration3. From Tools menu,, select Publish a report set4. In the new window select either to update a report set or create anew report set5. Give the destination folder path in the IWR server report location6. In the source directory, select the directory where the report set is located7. In the Upfront news box, select a news box where the reports needs to be

published

List few complex reports you have created?

I created certain complex business mix reports, reports for the finance department and certain product forecast variance reports to the marketing departments.

In Business mix reports I had to multiple level filters using prompts and users had to be given access to ignore prompts at each level. The reports involved had cascading reports with using multiple reports and hotfiles as data sources.The report for the finance department involved complex calculations with comparisons of different relative time settings.The product forecast-variance report had multiple summaries with different associations. These reports also needed different views. This was solved using multiple sub-report and chart reports.

Compare calculated, catalog and report columns?

The difference between using a catalog column or a report column in a calculation/summary is that:A report column will list only distinct values whereas a catalog column will display all values including null values.

How do you assign a signon to a cube?Password security to a cube is set in two places.In Transformer:

d) Right click a cubee) In cube properties, password option, set a passwordf) In User classes window, give privileges to a particular user class for a specific

cubeg) All users in that user class have the privilege to access the cube

In Access Manager1. Right click the data source directory in the namespace

2. Select add a cube3. Add a cube and set a password for the cube4. Right click the user, select properties 5. Select access tab6. Enable cube access

Differentiate between Impromptu prompts and Powerprompts?In Impromptu prompts can be declared using the prompt manager.There are two types of prompts:Type-in and PicklistIn a type in prompt, users type in the string/number and the report is filtered to that value. Type-in prompts are advised for only numbers data types or if the user is aware of the database.Picklist: Report and CatalogIf we select a report pick list, values are prompted from a reportIf we select a catalog column, then values are prompted from the catalog.

Power Prompts is an application in which multiple prompts are defined using HTML and javascript. So, users can filter report data using GUI in their browser.

Steps to change current user settings from Access Manager?1. Go to access Manager administration2. Log on as an administrator3. Select the default directory server and namespace4. Right click the username that needs to be edited5. You can edit User attributes, Signons, Memberships, Access to data sources,

regional time settings and access to personal news boxes in Upfront.

What is an event control server?An event control server is in Upfront where you can set properties as to how many processes should take place on start up, maximum number of processes and multithreading options.This is used to initiate Noticecast events.

What is your knowledge of Visualizer, Finance, KPI and Cognos Query?Visualizer: I am very strong in Visualizer. I used it in the last project.Cognos Finance: I haven’t used this but at the previous project I was a part of the Evaluation Team for Cognos finance.KPI: Key Performance IndicatorsCognos Query: I can drill thru impromptu reports into Cognos query etc.

Question Answers

We are using Impromptu V 7.2. We have text fields in the Database upto 258 Characters. But in Impromptu we wish to restrict the String Length in a single line '30'. Suppose, we have a 60 Character String. Then first 30 Chars should displayed in the 1st line, next 30 chars in the 2nd line. We have to use 'Word Wrap' also.Any idea how to implement this?

Try using the LEFT and RIGHT functions.LEFT(fieldname, 30)RIGHT(fieldname,LENGTH(fieldname) - 30)Or you could use SUBSTRING commands as well.

i am getting this error while refreshing my data cube."An error occurred during the creation of a PowerCube. Try creating the PowerCube again." i have deleted all the temp files and tried refreshing the cube again,but didnt work. Also i have sufficient HDD space on my server.

only one possibility clean housesave model as mdlclose modelopen model as mdlsave it as pyiclose modelopen model again as pyistart population

Whats the difference between mdl and pyi files in PowerPlay Transformer. Thanks in advanceThe difference between the two types of models is in how they are stored:-".pyi" models are stored in binary-".mdl" models are stored in ASCII

I work with the MDL files as opposed to the PYI files for a number of reasons including the following:- The PYI models often become corrupt, and once that happens, there is nothing you can do to fix it- The MDL files can be viewed in a text editor like textpad, notepad etc, whereas the PYI files can't- The MDL files are generally smaller in size

And

I normally use the PYI files and keep MDL backups for one reason;

I find that the database passwords are never stored in the MDL file and cannot be used for automated cube builds.

The backups are there for the very reason you state, corrupt PYIs cannot be opened.

And

We build our cubes by running transformer in batch mode by scheduling a .bat file in Cognos Scheduler.  The -k switch in the scheduled bat files sends the database user id and password to the model, so we can still have automated cube building using the mdl files (woo hoo!).  For each cube we want to build in the bat file you have something like the following.....

cmd /c start /w c:\Cognos\cer1\bin\trnsfrmr.exe -n -k <DBName>=<DBUserName>/<DBPassword> c:\cubemodels\cubemodelname.mdl

When I calculate my %, I got '/0' if I am dividing by 0. Can I display blank instead of /0.

Goto Dimension explorer ( Press F4 ) Right click on the measure for which u want to show blank ( i.e Replace /0 with blank )Goto Format measuresBlank tabClick on the "Division by zero" check box to select it.

I have the following doubts and I would like to get some ideas/responses to my queries (3 of them)... 1. I have a PPR report created in PowerPlay (Cognos 6) for windows. I saved it as a PPX and had it published in Upfront. However this is seen as a PDF by default. I clicked on PROPERTIES for this report in Upfront and clicked on ADVANCED ACTIONS. This shows me 3 options: 1. PDF (Default)2. Interactive HTML Format3. Windows.... (Sorry I do not remember this option quite well). I want my users to play around with this PowerPlay report (by Drilling-down) but unfortunately I see it in PDF format. ==> How can I have this PPX file published as an INTERACTIVE HTML by default? I am assuming this should be possible because of the above 3 options that Upfront shows me. Any ideas, anyone? 2. I want to rank/sort (descending) the data dynamically (always show the Bars like a Pareto Chart) whenever the user does a drill-down/up. When I created the PPR report in windows, I ensured I include the RANK functionality. When I opened this PPX report in Upfront (by manually choosing the interactive HTML format) it shows me the cube(with all values) by default and not the sorted bars along with the formatting that I had specified in the PPR report. How can I ensure the bars are ranked/sorted at all times? Any ideas? 3. Is there a RANK / SORT (for bars) option in Viz that I can include

in my Charts? The problem is I want to build some RANKED bars which have to also give me the ability to do a Slice and Dice. I have tried to get the source data in the form of an IQD (ranked, grouped and sorted accordingly) but unfortunately this option will not let me look at the data other than that is included in this cube. ErrorCannot initialize server to access Powercube.When trying to access an Essbase cube from PowerPlay 6.5.

Solution DescriptionIn the user variables, it is necessary to have the ARBORPATH set to \Program Files\Cognos\Powerplay\Essbase\V5\Tcpip.For Powerplay Web access, set the system variables to the same path as Shown above. This must be set to the level of TCPIP.Ensure that the server is running before attempting to connect.

We are using a macro to print several reports during the night. These we are all working fine. We then moved all Cognos software to a new server. We changed the macros for the right locations and printer names. When testing the macro in Cognos Script editor, the macro is running fine. No errors reported. However, the reports are not being printed. Does anybody have any idea?

I never used macros for printing but I had a macro that ran always fine On some PCs and on others did not. When reusing object variables I did not set them to "Nothing" in between or at the end of the marcro. Doing that solved the problem.

I'm sure this is a known weakness for PowerPlay. I'm asking if anyone have a suggestion on how to overcome the issue of getting the column headers to print on every page. Please help.

When you are in PowerPlay go to:FilePrintOptionsCheck the box "Axes & Labels on all Pages"When you say OK and get back to the print dialogue box, you can hit cancel so you don't print, but the options that you selected will still apply.

I have a model ..I want to build a cube using this model by macro. Sub Main() Dim objTransApp As Object Dim objModel As Object Dim objDataSource As Object 'Open the Application .. Set objTransApp = CreateObject "CognosTransformer.Application.Cer3") ' Open the model..

Set objModel =objTransApp.OpenModel("F:\Cognos\cubes\Models\TestbuildMacro1.mdl") With objModel .GenerateCategories .ObjModel.SaveAs "F:\Cognos\cubes\Models\Select Customer TestByMacro.mdl" .Close End With Set objModel = Nothing Set objTransApp = Nothing End Sub This didnot work.. for me..when i try to run this from script editor its throwing this error..TR0118 Database cannot be read.. Can any one correct this pls.. Or if you have acode pls send it to me..When using an MDL the connection Password is set to prompt. A PYI would maintain the password. Therefore, if using an MDL you must use the command line switches to supply the password to the Datasource when calling transformer.

When u check the 'ELIMINATE DUPLICATE ROWS' in the filter it is applied for the row If u want to apply DISTINCT for a particular column then the column should have a Summary function like Total, Count etc. So in the data definition u can specify like this Count(distinct mgr_id)

Is there anyway to customise the Date Format in Impromptu?

right click a value of date field... format... type in the date format... ie dd-mm-yyyy ( this is how the value will come as 15-12-2003) if you type dd-mmm-yyyy ( this is how the value will come as 15-Dec-2003) dd-mm-yy ( this is how the value will come as 15-12-03)

After struggling with a report for several days and having nothing to show for it I decided to raise my hand and ask for help. I'm trying to produce a general report that produces a list of students by term code, college, department and major. The initial idea was that the report would be a series of four cascading prompts going from term code down to major. This initial report will be used as the starting point for several reports that are still in the planning stage.While the prompts appear it seems that the filtering doesn't apply to the subset from the prior report but to the data as a whole. What I think complicates things are that the structure here is analogous to the company where a division spans geographic regions.I need to make the queries to operate in such a way as only those rows selected by prior query are eligible for subsequent rows. At this point it appears that the answer is to come up with a computed column that is passed forward but I don't see how.

You are correct - it's product functionality that the value in prompt 1 does not apply to report 2 in a cascading scheme. A way to work around this is to produce a report-prompt cascade that would work with calculated columns (as you correctly stated). Build your prompts based upon a report picklist via catalog picklist. Your report will have two columns: egCollege, College+term

You will use that report for your prompt source - the trick will be to *display* the college name and *use* the calculated column.

If you're using the function to filter database records, "Today" is generally more efficient since it will set up a where clause and only return those records from the database that fit. "Now" will retrieve every database record to check it. Syntax: now () Returns a datetime value representing the current date and time of the computer that the database software runs on.

Syntax: today Returns the current date according to the clock of the computer that you are running Impromptu on. "Now" is a date/timestamp value, "today" is a date value. Either will work fine, as long as you don't care what time it is when you use "now".

I have published excel spreed sheets to upfront. I am not sure of the process you followed but here is the steps that I have used in the past. I hope this helps.

1) Create the following folder C:\My documents\Cognos\Cer1\ExcelSpreadsheets2) Copy your Excel spreadsheet to the directory above3) Create the following virtual directory in your web server; \cognos\Excel4) Give this virtual directory read and directory browsing permissions5) The URL to reach this file ishttp://<machine_name>/cognos/Excel/<spreadsheet_name>6) Copy this URL from your browser7) Log into Upfront8) Click on the newsbox9) Click the "New" link10) Click the "Create a NewsItem for a URL or file" link11) Add a name in the field that describes the URL that you are adding12) Paste the copied URL from step 6 and paste it into the URL field.13) Click "Next"14) Select the newsbox that you want to add it to15) Click "Finish"

Can any give me solutions to this problem I have, currently this works but I think there maybe a better solution in how to handle this. There's a Region prompt and two State prompts where it gets a little tricky. The user wanted to be able to select (+ states, multiple or "All") so vehicles in those states would be included in count and another minus States prompt so vehicles in those states would not be counted. This second prompt will also allow a selection of "none" for no minus states. The user is aware that with the + and - "in" statements she could end up with different results then she expects. For example if she selects + some states, say CA and MI, then minus other states, say Ak and AL the SQL would say: where States1 in ('CA','MI') and States2 not in ('AK','AL'). The "not in" is really irrelevant because everything but CA and MI is automatically excluded by the States1 prompt.The minus prompt is really intended to be used when "All" is selected on the plus prompt- i.e count all states except... There's one other prompt that requires explanation. The user wanted the record data in the column titled "Sales Area" to change based on what she selects in the + and - States from report to report so there is a prompt for Description. This is so the report shows what she selected so she doesn't forget what the counts were for if she

looks at the report in the future. It is intended for the user to key in this prompt whatever verbiage they want for the col. heading. e.g. I select All states on the plus side and 'CA' on the minus side. I might type in "US - CA" in the Desc. prompt. She manually creates an Excel.Any other suggestions on another way to handle this type of situation?

First of all, There are two efficient solutions...One is to use PowerPromts so you can set several prompting processes using = different reports or prompts.The other one is to create File list pick (or what), where you set the ALL = option inserting a * or ALL in the csv file (for example) and in the combo = box you simply select what you want. So you do the same for the second (NOT IN) prompt, too.

I get the following errors when trying to save some of my cubes:(TR 1901) MDC(49): could not save file (Category Index) in [filename].mdc(TR 1901) MDC(49): could not save file (Category) in [filename].mdc (TR 1901) MDC(49): could not save file (Bitmap) in [filename].mdc What does it mean? How do I avoid this?

Last time I had the same error while building my cubes was when we upgraded or virus-scan program. As a permanent solution, I have excluded all Cognos related files (*.mdc, *.imr, *.iqd, *.ppr, *.ppx, *.pyi, etc) from virus scan. Since then everything worked just fine. To find out whether you experience the same problem or not, you can simply disable your virus-scan, and manually update your cube. If it builds without any error then your problem is also related with virus scan.

Having a problem with DB2 databse version 7.1 running on unix and transformation server 7 version 2 running on unix (rsserver). The models will build fine on the desktop but as soon as they are run on the server they get an error that the database cannot be found. The databases that rsserver cannot can be accessed on the unix server through db connect and queries can be run Transformer cannot connect for some reason. I have checked the datbase definitions and they should match ok any ideas of what to check? You need to bind the client database from the cognos server from db2 bnd directory connecting to the database server and run the following commands as a db2 user who has bind permissions on the database. Please let me know if it works.> db2 connect to <database> user <userid> using <password>> db2 bind @db2ubind.lst blocking all grant public> db2 bind @db2cli.lst blocking all grant public

I have question about the MTD and YTD calculation in powerplay, I used the date wizard in transformer to build the date dimension. for my understanding, the calculation is based on the current date, for example, current date is 22-Oct-2003, then MTD should be from 01-Oct-2003 to 22-Oct-2003 YTD should be from 01-Jan-2003 to 22-Oct-2003 But it is possible to change the calculation dynamically so that it is not must to refer to current date. Please advise.

You can choose whether or not you want Transformer set the current date automatically from one or more data sources. (In date dimension properties, you can check if current period should be set

automatically, in data sources properties you can check whether or not a specific data source should be used to set the current period).Besides that, you can give command line parameters at runtime with a current date that you specify yourself. Please look it up in the Transformer manual.

I have encountered the urgent problem about IMR, I created a set of reports based on database(Hofiles). However, when I changed the location for hotfiles, the reports can't be executed, it seems that the reports still remember the original hotfiles location.Please help

If I am right - when u change the location of your catalogs or your hotfile.. the reports dont open. Solutions to this are - you create a snapshot or go the general options and change the path of your catalogs. Hope this helps.

If you just relocated the hotfiles you can change their location in the catalog. Usually the hotfile data source that you added will list the full path name to the folder where the hotfiles are. If you just rename that to the correct path the reports should run.

I use Enteprise Server 7.0 and I am having the following problem:A user is member of several user classes. In one of the cubes, both These user classes have access to the cube. For certain measures, this users get unexpected results (zeroes where Other values are correct).When I remove membership from 1 of the two userclasses, this user gets correct results. Apart from the fact that I find this odd, there is an option to let the user be prompted for the user class when logging in. Apparently this option should be in the Options folder of the Settings tab of the Server in Enterprise Server administration tool. But... I don't see this entry at the indicated place. Can anybody please help me? This is getting really frustrating.

This sounds like a cognos issue, not SQL Server. SQL Server does not Have user classes, it has user roles. There is no option to allow a user to specify their role when logging in. They are automatically associated with the permissions and privileges of all their roles. The setting your looking for is probably in Cognos' Access Manager...

I was trying to adjust one of the Cognos report to print on our pre-printed form. I have problem adjusting the body which can have multiple records. Do any one of you know how I can control the number of records in the body or adjust the setup so to print all the records corresponding one particular customer in the same page without spanning to next page. Thanks & Regards

I am not sure that you can fit all the records of a particular ustomer in a single page . What you can do instead is report the group header on every page where ever the report body spills more than one page . I hope this solves the purpose.

Already the report header had been grouped by some other fields like customer, Site, Currency etc.. But in the list frame for this customer details like Order #, Amt, Qty etc are displayed... Sometimes the details corresponding to some Order # span across to next page... this needs to be avoided...Is this possible.

I think that the details in the list frame cannot fit in a single page As you cannot be sure that how many details are there for a single group. What you can do instead is repeat the group header on every page so that whenver the details for that group , go more then one page you can have the group also repeating on the next page.

This can be done by selecting the primary list frame -> go to Properties and layout and press the button for that group repeating the group on every page. Please let me know if this suits your requirement.

I think this is a fairly simple question. I am in the process of Building a cube and I have created a report/IQD as a data source. My data looks like this:

date report type interface Measure 1 Measure 2--------- ----------- --------- --------- --------- -------------10/24/03 Error 1 0 110/24/03 Inbound 1 2 210/24/03 Outbound 1 1 1Date time and Interface are the two dimensions I have identified Right now. The problem I have is with the report type field. The value in the report type field determines the meaning of the two measures. Do you think I should use report type as a dimension or try to create different measures for the different report types (and if this is the right option how do I do this in transformer)?

If the amounts of Measures 1 and 2 mean something totally different, depending on the value of the report type, you should use separate measures. You could use if then else logic in your iqd.

In your example you should use 6 differents measures:Error - Measure 1Error - Measure 2Inbound - Measure 1Inbound - Measure 2Outbound - Measure 1Outbound - Measure 2

Make 6 calculated columns in your iqd's. If the first column should Reflect Error - Measure 1, use the calculation: If report type = Error, then Measure 1, else 0. Do this for all 6 measures. Use this new iqd as your datasource in Transformer.

I have a datasource for Desired Inventory days for products. The data is like this..Product sub-product Desired_Inv_Days1 a 251 b 152 c 102 d 30Now for the group level there is seperate value for inventory days. That is there is desired inventory days for product. That is for product 1 & 2 the value is 30 & 35 respectively. I don't want to take sum or average of sub-product and roll it up to product. I have to the value from the datasource. Can this be achieved in transformer? Is external rollup is the solution? If yes, how my data should be organised for use as external rollup?.

You can use the desired inventory days for the product as a sort of attribute for the subproduct. If your grain is subproduct, you can make your source as this: Product sub-product Desired_Inv_Days sub prod Des_Inv_Days Prod 1 a 25 30 1 b 15 30

2 c 10 35 2 d 30 35

You can then use 'average' for the rollupHTH

At a clients site we use Enterprise Server 7.1 with all components (Webserver, Directory Server, PPES, IWR) on a single machine. The machine is accessible through the network. A new group of users is interested in using the Enterprise Server with Powerplay cubes and IWR reports, but a new requirement is that the cubes and reports must be accessible through the internet. Could you please point me in the right direction regarding accessing The machine over the internet, configuring the webserver, security, Additional things that need to be done or configuration settings that have to be made?

As long as they are in the same domain and in your directory server space, just install the admin tools and they can deploy their web applications in the web server.

We are having a Picklist Prompt. Which Picklist (Report Picklist or Catalog Picklist) is best suitable that you can come up with an idea. Values in the Picklist are coming from a field of a view in the DB, and we need 1 of the records, not necessarily the 1st record for that field or not 1st in alphbaetical order, to be the DEFAULT value. e.g. we have Country col and it has values France, Australia, India, USA, Italy, UK... and we need India to be the Default value. Any clues to achieve this?

I would suggest that in the imr picklist - that you associate a value with each of the related items and sort on that column in the report.

I have a client that is looking to implement Cognos Impromptu and Powerplay. Project Drivers: 1) They currently have data they report on in two different areas; Access and Oracle. They want to get to one platform (Cognos & SQL Server). 2) The Access database only contains information for one division. They need to develop a security plan and add the remaining divisions. They have asked me to find a resource to bring this project full cycle By reviewing current reporting needs and helping them understand possible future needs, designing & developing the database based on the Reporting requirements, designing & developing the security requirements, and assisting with the reporting within Cognos. Issues I have: 1) This task list seems too summarized for me, but I don't know the Cognos product that well and have only participated on one data warehouse project in the past. 2) It seems to me that this is quite a bit to find in one person. Questions: 1) Does anyone know what types of questions I should be Asking the client to really define this project? 2) Does anyone have a Project plan that would encompass the majority of the tasks that would need to be accomplished? 3) Does anyone have a resource list from a similar project so I could get a feel for the types of people my client would need on-site to complete this project? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

the first question I would ask is: Do they want or need a data warehouse? is the reason they use access based on a related app that also must be migrated. If speed is of essence than you could employ a data mart structure using an etl tool to move into the SQL environment immediately with a more controlled transition from oracle and access find out what the pressing informational need is and strive to answer that question first. But make sure that it is not overly complex - as an

introduction to BI tools should be gradual to get understanding and buy in Don't count on traditional IT specs - as the client doesn't really have a concept of what the Cognos tools can do for them and how to make it effective until they can see and feel it.

I am working on an Impromptu report, which is a transaction report for a Powerplay cube. I have added a calculation to the Impromptu report and now I get an error reported when trying to view all of the lines for a specific date...

"Error retrieving data from the database." Error number -258:

DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'bulk fetch'.I have tried using flexible processing to try and resolve the problem – this doesn't help. If it helps, the calculation is based on a two previously calculated fields divided by each other. I have also tried this calculation by doing the full calculations using the raw fields, with the same result. Database is a SQL database held on a remote server. This is OK for the iqd file for PP (as long as all records ARE included in the report in this instance). But, the users will undoubtedly need this adding to the drill through report as well, which will no doubt have the same outcome. Any ideas?

May be there is a null division in some row then the database will raise an error. But I am not sure if this would result into the error you described. You should then do an if then else around the division. There are some traps: e.g. with ORACLE Impromptu might use the DECODE function for the if then else which will then also do the null division...

I have a problem(well everyone here has some....so what's special abt me!!!) Well i have joined in a new project and to my horror i am finding out that the catalog is pretty much screwed up and there are more than 70 IWR reports that are running on it right now. Some of the reports are running fine but many are not displaying the correct data. I am expected to find a sol to this prob......can anyone suggest ways to handle this situation??

You might make use of the Cognos Architect tool to reverse engineer your catalog... Once you have reverse engineered it, you canA) Validate all of your objectsB) Compact the modelC) Prepare it for deployment D) (Most Important) Export it as an Impromptu Catalog in a new file shell or *.cat fileDoing this has saved my bacon many times when a good catalog goes bad. Hope this helps,

I have been working on my Impromptu reports which I saved on my C: drive. Today I came and try to open my reports and come up with the following error:"Failed to open document [Pipeline_Summary.imr]. Its location has changed. Please check the full path of this file".I have not changed paths or directories and I am opening from the same location I saved it the last time. Do you know why this happens? How can I solved the problem?

Rename Impromptu.ini file as oldimpromptu.ini file.Close Impromptu and open it and try opening the report.

i have this simple macro which refreshes a cube .sub main()dim tmp1 as string

dim tmp2 as stringdim i as integertmp1="C:\ProgramFiles\Cognos7\cer3\bin\trnsfrmr.exe"tmp2="D:\Harvinder\cog7\test.pyi"i=shell(tmp1+" -n -s "+tmp2)end subBut it is prompting me for a Cognos Common logon /User Class id's while running.how can i pass this info automatically to the transformer via the macro.

You can map an Access Manager account to the NT account that is running the job. That way, the logon occurs automatically. There is a tool out there called CubeRunner that takes care of all that kind of stuff.

OR

the below macro will accomplish the goal of refreshing a cube. Note the openmodel method passes a Userid, password and user class.

Sub Main()Dim ObjTransApp As ObjectDim ObjModel As ObjectDim Model$Model = "e:\mymodels\mymodel.pyi"Set ObjTransApp = CreateObject("CognosTransformer.Application")Set ObjModel = ObjTransApp.OpenModel(Model, "Administrator","","RootUser Class")With ObjModel .CreateMDCFilesEnd WithObjTransApp.QuitSet objTransApp = NothingSet objModel = NothingEnd Sub

I have a secure model file with financial data. Only few users beed to see certain measures and data. How do I implement user class level security on measures ?

Import all the classes and users that u require in ur model .then go to the dimension map and click on the user class tab. double click on the class for which u want to apply the security.a list of all the measures for that class will appear on ur screen. form this screen u can use the include/exclude option for the measures for a particular class of users.

We have serveral impromptu reports that goes after our live transactional data. In the catalogs of each of these reports, we make sure that we select 'READ UNCOMITTED' under user profiles/database section . However, I have been informed by our DBA Team that when user run these report, it sometimes causes blocking. How can we prevent this to happen?

It is my understanding that you need to page through the entire report (in page view) or if you are in screen view, slide the right bar to the very end and the report will retieve all of the lines, thereby releasing the lock.

And

According to Cognos Tech. Services, going through ODBC rather than Native DB-Lib provider may solve this problem. However, when you use ODBC, you are limited to a single database, whereas by using DB-Lib we can across database as long as they reside in the same server.

No question found

I tried you solution, but again it is still comes in with a blank, this is due to the grouping rows, if I switch the order then it may not be blank. It is not because theres null values. Its because of the grouping. The grouping has to exist so that the counts are correct. Again thank you. I think my only solution to this is to talk the customer into powerplay. Then the default will become 0 or NA.Thank you again for your solution, I wish it would have worked.

Then

How about a multi-step approach...First, if you use Scotts' solution but without the grouping. Second, export that result to either a hot file or a dbase file. Third, create a second catalog based on that exported file. Fourth, recreate the report but with the grouping that you need. I will often times follow this sort of process, but I will do it in amacro so that I can automate it.

Then

Thanks but when I create the list report there is NO NULLS. It only occurs with the data elements I bring into the rows. I can get rid of the nulls in the columns by using insert data items. It is the problem that occurs in the rows of the cross tab. Even doing your solution since the nulls do not exist the report when grouped in the rows still do what grouping does. It is blank. If I save it in a delimited format the nulls disappear. My client does not want to have to do any formatting in excel. They want to be able to export it to excel with no blanks. I am not sure there really is a solution to this.

I have a catalog with computed fields and joins connected to one library (AS/400), can I copy the catalog and connect it to another library assuming that both libraries are exactly the same? How can I do it? I tried to change the connection but I lost all joins.In Catalog, Tables menu in Impromptu Administrator, click on the library name in the right-hand window to highlight it. Then click the Rename button and rename it to the new library name. The structures must be the same, or your joins and columns may be adversely affected. The same technique works for system name, also - in case you have separate "test" and "production" boxes w/the same library structures, this is an easy way to have test & production catalogs. Recommend you change the catalog decription if you go this route, it's easy to mistake the catalogs without some precise verbiage indicating which is which.

I've created a catalog picklist in a report. It lets me choose some of the records by clicking and pressing CTRL. It also lets me select ALL because of the UNION SELECT ' ALL' I created in an Oracle view. Perfect. Heres the problem. The same catalog picklists will be

used over and over again by several reports. I don't really want to keep recreating the catalog picklist for each report. When I create the catalog picklist in the catalog why all of a sudden can I only choose one selection from the list. The CTRL and click functionality is not there when the picklist is created in the catalog.

Re-check your filter: "in" statements let you multi-select. "=" statements force you to choose only one item.

Then

That's correct, however I set the catalog picklist up identical in the catalog. The criteria in the report has not changed. The 'in' statement hasn't changed changed. The only thing in the report that changed was that I added the catalog picklist prompt under the data tab.

Then

I assume you meant to say you added the new "folder" prompt in the filter instead of the one you had created in each report. The existing prompt from the report in the filter definition was replaced by the one you created in the catalog folder list? If that is not working, look to see what the difference in the sql that's generated. The two methods should create the same sql.

In impromptu I have set the date prompts to be of the format 'mm-dd-yyyy'.But in IWR,when the prompt appears it appears in 'm/d/yy'. How do I set the date format for the date prompts to 'mm-dd-yyyy'.Open the locale.tab file, in the bin folder. Find the line for the appropriate language. Towards the end of that line is the date format.

I would like to display in Powerplay the followingJan Feb Mar Etc

2002 100 100 200 4002003 300 100 800 500

Is there something that I can do manually with the date dimension? I only have one date dimension and the others are product and customer related. I just want to see on one page the comparison year on year of each month's performance.

You can achieve this by making an alternative drill down path by month. Then you can use both paths (primary and alternative) in 1 report in the way you indicate. Please read about making alternative drill down paths in the manual, it is actually quite straightforward.

Then

OK, I hadn't thought of that - thanks. I have found alternate drill downs to be quite slow, though. Do you think that will degrade performance?

Then

that depends completely on your cube: number of measures, number of dimensions, cardinality of dimensions (number of different values that a dimension on a specific level can have), number of rows etc. I have actually had a couple of times where the use of alternate drill downs meant an improvement of the performance because you have one dimension less if you combine them

instead of having separate ones. It is often a matter of trial and error before you have an optimal combination of data, cubesize and performance.

I created an application which calls and runs an IWR report. The output is nicely displayed on the screen. Does anyone know of a way to automatically save the output to disk with no user intervention?Assuming you're on 7.x, there is an executable called iwrcommand.exe. You feed it various parameters, including an XML string which contains your actual command. One of the commands available is GetOutputName, which will give you the name of the actual output file. You already know the name of the folder where that file sits, so you can combine the two. GetOutputName requires the newsitem ID, which you can get from Upfront itself of course, or you can use upfrontcmd.exe, which works more or less like iwrcommand, except it goes against Upfront instead of IWR.

You should have included in your documentation the Upfront Developer Guide and the IWRCommand Developer Guide, which go into all sorts of detail on this kind of stuff. It's not exactly trivial, but it isn't too hard (I can do it, so it can't be too bad!).

I have worked on Impromptu a little bit and can get away doing some small things . I have a doubt. It is a very basic one. Suppose i have a catalog which has say 3 cols from a table. Now suppose I generate the whole report with this. Everything is fine till now. Now i add another column to the table and try to pull it into the report .impromptu does not do so. Does it mean i have to regenrate the whole report just bacause i have to add a single field to it ? I would not want to think so ...Pls advise.

No need to generate new report. Bring the new column into the catalog first, by selecting the new column and click "Add". Once it's done, go to Catalog -> Folders" and click the "Generate Tables" and Select the corresponding tables. It generates the new folder, copy the new column name and paste it in your existing folder. Now you can add the new column into your impromptu report. So, it avoids creating new report. "IMPROMPTU MAKES EASY REPORTING"

modified the transformer datasources to point to our database then changed the signon string. Matched columns. When I try to generate catogories I get error at Customer Dimension saying " REPOSE NO MEM: In sufficient memory on machine" I have 220,000 customers. How do I over come this situation. What are the steps I should take to generate cube .Please let me know places where I should look for logsdon't think that you need to change your iqd..Why don't you try this..

1.Close your model.2.Clean up your temp folder and all .tmp files.3.Run the Query which will produce this IQD and save as iqd .4.Open the Model now..5.Generate categories..

Note: If you are able to run the query against the New database successfully and save them as iqd.. The you will be fine..you don't have change anything in the iqd..

I am working with Cognos version 7.1.116.11 with a RS/6000 Unix database. I have created my initial report with tables from the RS/6000. Report looks fine. Now I need data that is

not housed in a table on the RS/6000, so I have created an excel spreadsheet with data ( department number and department name) to use in the report.I am new with this product so I was hoping that someone has done this before and could give me a step by step of what to do next to get the data into my report.If you are building the cube on Unix, you will have to create a flat file. Unix cannot as far as I know, read a MS Excel file. Insert into your data sources, the new flat file. Should be a comma or some other variable delimited file. Same rules on column names apply - they must match if you expect them to be shared. If these have measures, you may have to adjust the datatype or manipulate the measure properties to get the correct decimal point placement.

Can you explain the technique you use to attach more than one report to a PP application. My understanding is that the .xxm file created with each PP app is code to point to a single report. Even if you put multiple reports in the directory, the PP app points to the one that is selected in the PP studio. It sounds like you may have found a new technique, which I am very interested in. It would help us to solve a problem we are having.See it depends on the requirement you have. If you require PP applications of the same type for all the three reports then you can use 1 PP Application for all the 3 reports. the process is fairly simple . Suppose you have reports R1 , R2 and R3 and you have 1 PP application P1 which can be used for all the 3 reports.You publish the reports and the PP application.Step 1 : In the newsbox where your published reports reside , go to individual report Properties-> Advance Properties and click on the administrative tab and attach the PP application 'P1' to the report R1.Step 2: Now repeat the process in Step1 for reports R2 and R3. I hope this will solve your problem, do let me know if you have some doubt.

I am facing a problem. I have a prompt single select.I like to allow for multiple selections. The filter criteria is PL_Desc =3D ( if ( ?PL? =3D 'All' ) then ( PL_Desc ) else ( ?PL? ) ). I have a condition for checking the 'All' as I mentioned. I applied 'IN' instead of '=3D' ..still is not working.Any nice = solution.design your filter as followsif PL_Desc =3D ('All' ) then ( PL_Desc ) else ( ?PL? )=20

I have report which throws an asynchronous error. The knowledge base suggests that I clean up the environment variables TEMP and TMP .Where can I find these environment variables?

To determine the current value of these variables you can open a Command/MS-DOS window and type use the line:

set|moreDepending on the version of Windows you're using the default location for TMP/TEMP varies as does how you change it. During the install, Cognos sets the "Impromptu data directory" and "Cognos Query log file location." For Windows 2K, NT and XP you change it through the System control panel. Windows 98 and ME users change it using either the config.sys or autoexec.bat. The default location for the TMP/TEMP directory varies - Windows 98 and ME default to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, Windows NT uses C:\TEMP and Windows 2K uses C:\Documents And Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp (a different temp directory for each user.) Sorry but I don't recall what Windows XP uses for the TMP/TEMP directory.

The important thing is to make sure the directory specified by the TMP/TEMP variables exists and that you have full rights to it. Cognos stores the file locations in a common configuration file and not everybody has access to it. In my case Cognos was installed using the Administrator username and the "Impromptu data directory" and "Cognos Query log file location were set to

D:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Tempwhich my normal username doesn't have rights to so I created C:\TEMP and used the cacls command to grant everybody rights to this directory.

Or

Open the impromptu and check the directory name mentioned for Temp from menu option Tools -> Options ->File Location tab. Then go to that directory from Window Explorer and delete all the files there.

In IWR the date prompt format of all the reports is m/d/yy. In the IMR file and catalogue,the format is only mm/dd/yyyy. But it gets changed to m/d/yy when published. How can I change the format of the date prompt in IWR to mm-dd-yyyy?u can change the date format in locale.tab file which is in bin folder of cognos.open that file in notepad.uncheck your wordwrap option (if checked).

en-us "English (United States)"en "English (United States)"

pls find above 2 entries in ur file. scroll right & go to 2nd last column there u will find M/d/yy. change that to ur required format for both the above 2 entries. save it and restart your m/c(important). NOTE : the above is for US english language.u can check your language settings for cognos,but i think it will be same. I have 3 impromptu reports from the single catalog. I want an html screen where I should have link to these three reports and these reports must be published on the web. Can anyone let me know how do we do ths.Do this for each of the powerprompt applications or IWR reports you want to link to and place the link to this page in your upfront portal. Simple and hopefully easy. If you dig a little deeper into the "Upfront Developers Guide", not nearly as helpful as it sounds, then it gives examples on how to create this url dynamically.

Or

You can only have one powerprompts application associated with one report.This means that if your reports have prompts that the powerprompts application is handling then you are going to have a problem.Here is an alternative solution. Click on the upfront link to the first report. While the report is running select the entire url that is in the browser bar and use it as a link on a webpage. It might look something like this:

I have a small help. There is a requirement such that in a cube if the user selects one dimension and selects a value (ex: country user selects UK) the other dimensions when clicked should display data pertaining only to the country dimension selected (UK). basically they have to act in a cascading manner. Kindly let me know can we do this using powerplay transformer or powerplay.

In a OLAP environment... the hierarchy of a dimension is populated in that manner only. If you select a country for example only those cities which are the member of that country would be shown in a cube. No extra effort is required in OLAP for implementing a cascading scenario like in Impromptu. For example, if you select India at the country level and drill-down to cities level only Jamshedpur, Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai etc will be shown - 'Chicago' will not be shown 'coz Chicago is part of USA. Hope I have explained myself. Feel free to get back incase I didn't get your question.

Then

I understand that the dimesion get filtered in they are descendants of the dimension. What do i want is there are series of dimesions say country and products in two different lines. Then when I choose US then product dimension in other line must display the products for US only and not for other countries. Hope I have made my question clear to you.

I have a Cube which has 8 dimensions and 3 measures. The source for the cube is 3 iqd files. I have a simple question, if i Refresh the cube how does this Scenario work, it refreshes the iqd or just the cube, if it is the cube then how does the updated data can be brought into the cube. Does the iqd file only holds the query or it holds the data in itThe IQD's are just queries. You can view/edit them in notepad or any Other text editor if you choose to, you will see the reference to the Database along with the actual SQL, aqnd the column headers which are the titles of the query columns in your datasource..When doing teh cube build it's entire contents is replaced using the new data, you may see references to old dimensions if they were saved in the model. When transformer is running it is building/sorting/reading work files.

I want a small clarification regading the powerplay. Can we have prompts in the powerplay as we can have in cognos IWR using powerpromts.In PPWeb you can have prompts by publishing a report from the client to upfront. Then you can select e.g. which category of a dimesnion should be displayed or if you want zero suppression. But this is limited feature. In PP Windows Client you do not have prompts but you could save a report and force a macro to be executed when opening this report. The macro could do some prompting an then could custimze the report. You would have to do some programming for that.

Or

Can we have prompts applied to the particular MDC using Powerplay web server??You would have the prompts with a PPReport. This means you build a report in the PP client while you are connected to the Enterprise Server and then chose "Publish to Upfront". There you get a dialog asking you which prompts you want in the report. If you have it installed just try it with an example to see which option you have for the prompts. I would like to know can we have cascading of prompts for the same. Yes, you can cascaded prompts within a dimension. Can we do cascading of prompts using macros for powerplay windows? I never did it... and as I said this is programming work. In a macro you can design the whole report. So this is a very flexible way. And it is up to you and your macro what prompts the user gets displayed by the macro.

We have published IWR reports for our HR community. They are "managed reports" that contain standardized prompts that permit end Users to customize their reports. We would like to make available some Word documents in Upfront that document the reports and provide information to the report consumer. We would show things like:1. General purpose of report

2. A screen shot of the report page (no data, just column headings)3. List of columns4. List of prompts (and answer choices for file picklist prompts)5. Calculated column definitions6. Output format available7. Role-based security applied (Demographic data or Payroll data)8. Report "owner"9. NewsBox location link10. ???I would appreciate it if any of you could send me a specimen template that you use for documentation of your IWR reports.

We use the following in our docs.Report Name:Description:Prompts:Summaries:Drill-Down Reports Associated with this report:

Error executing the cognos script. R429 "Object creation failed"Set objAuthApp =CreateObject("Authenticator2.Application")Any idea what might be the reason?

Check your registry under HKEY_Local_Machine/Software/Classes. See if the class object "Authenticator2.Application" exists. If it doesn't, you'll probably need to re-install your Cognos products at least access manager.(solution didn’t work)

I have a customer that is looking for references from other Cognos customers that have implemented Active Directory as the repository for Cognos Access Manager in a multiple domain environment. Their goal is to integrate Cognos and Windows security environments so that they only have to maintain one profile for each user. Has anyone done that? Any special considerations?

We have done it. It was a headache and we had three consultants from Cognos who came in to help. We have one master schema and then numerous zone schemas. Cognos can only work if they are all in the same schema. In essence, they had to make an instance of the schema, bring the others down for about 5 minutes. Imagine bringing your security system down in the entire world for about 5 minutes when the company operates 24/7. Unfortunetly, I am the Project Manager there so didn't get into technical details.

I have created a calculated columns as InvoiceQuotation which is calculated as Invoice # + ' (' + Quotation + ')'. This calculated column is designated as lowest level in Invoice Dimension. When Categories are created getting a value as () in two paths. How can the blank values be suppressed for calculated columns before generating categories.Not sure if I got the right idea about your request...this may help. Are you using .iqd? If so, you should be able to calculate the column as you describe and then add a filter [calculated column name] <> criteriaor

Filter on the original column that produces the null [original column] is missing

all,could anybody please respond to this .in project suppose we have 1 fact table 4 dimensions(time,customer,product,region) .how to create categories, measures, levels, hierachies in database . we crete it in cognos or in databse.what are they actually? could anybody respond to this , as i am new to datawarehousing

As far as time is there we can do that in cognos it self. In the property tab of the time in transfor you can say it that is year or Quatuor or month. For all others at they are comming from different colums of the database there is no need to have a hierachies in the databas. You can place then in a hierachies while creating a cube it self. Any way you can do all at the database leavel also but it is more complex. If i had to creat a hierachies at database leavel i would have gone for some tool like informatica which would give me a GUI interface to do that.

Gurus,I have published a cube to Upfront and when I run the Cube I get thefollowing Title <Cube Name> <Cognos Powerplay Web Explorer> - <Microsoft InternetExplorer>.Can any one suggest as which file I need to modify to Just display the CubeName.

need to add a new string-key to the registery for the "Window Title".This key should be added to theHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. The value ofthe key and be anything you wish. There is a KB about this atmicrosoft.com

and

expand to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. add a new string value called Window Title and leave that as blank if you just want the cube name to be displayed in the titel bar or you can also set a value for this 'Window Title' if you want to display any title of your choice.

Cognos Gurus,I am new to PowerPlay world and trying to build a Cubeto get the Project Summary data for different ClassCategories and Project Accounting (PA) periods. Icreated an imr report and saved it as an iqd file. Theimr report looks fine. When I imported the iqd file,the Dimensions that got created automatically were:Project TypeOrganization Name Last Name (Dimension Level)Class Category Class Codes (Dimension Level)PA PeriodMeasures:Project Summary Actual amountProject Summary Budgeted amountProject Summary Committed amountProject idTask idNow, when I built a Cube against it, I see ProjectType with Organization Name in Crosstab, which is notthe requirement. How to get the Project Summary datadisplayed for various Class Categories and PA periods?What did I miss?Please help. Thanks very much in advance.Siva.

when you open a cube the default view that come is a cross tab report generated using the first dimension and the second dimension that are in the model file and the cell values will be the first item that you place in the measures. so keep the first two dimensions, what you want as your default summarized report and the first measure as the value that you want to display as the cell value. hope this works out. Try doing this and it works.I do not know what is your colume name so lets say it is Product type.

how to give the user an 'ALL' option in a> > picklist>Take a file picklist and insert a value 'all' in that file. Now your filter condition should be if ?prompt? = all then product type in (<--click select valuse and select all here-->) else product type = ?prompt?.

Or

Try this in the filter clause for all the fields used in your pickList. Use the filter condition.If( running-count(<fld-nm>) =1 or <fld-nm> is missing) then ('All') else (<fld-nm>).

Use a space before All as the ascii value for space is less than any number or char it will be displayed on the top of the list followed by all other values for the field in the list.

Or

One suggestion on what Steve had to write for this thread...if you don't =want your prompt to be static... however, this was discussed in past...

Use catalog picklist... for that you need to create a view (ask your DBA =to do this)...from the following SQL...

(Select PROD_CODE from PRODUCTunionselect "--ALL--" from PRODUCT/DUAL) as PROD_PROMPT

pull this view in the catalog... use PROD_PROMPT to create PROMPT where =all the PROD_ Code's would appear along with the value "--ALL--"... i.e. =the prompt is populate with PROD_CODE's and "--ALL--" and then you write =the usual if then statement...

if (?PROMPT? =3D '--ALL--') then (PROD_CODE) else (?PROMPT?)...

this eliminates the need to maintain the file that lists PROD_CODE's

I have created an Impromptu Report using the sample catalog provided by Cognos.My main query has 2 columns:(1) Product Type(2) Product LineI have created a Sub report which has 4 columns:(1) Product Type(2) Product Line(3) Product(4) Product CostNow, I have created a catalog picklist prompt for "Product Type" (Product Type in '?Product Type?')(multi value selection possible).... In the Subreport, I specified the filter as : (Product Type of subreport) in (Main Query.Product Type). When i select 3 values in the prompt,only the first value is being passed to the sub report ignoring the rest values. Could someone suggest how to solve this problem?

Then

That's the Imprompru works, sadly enough. The main report will work fine, but the sub-report only filters by the first value in the IN clause from the main query.

I have a request from a user to have an HTML link that will take a user directly to a specific IWR report in Upfront. Is it possible to create an link in Upfront to open a specific IWR?

I did this by copying the NewsItem title and then pasting it (in an E-Mail message, for example). It works.Doesn’t work

Hello, I'm not sure how to do this. Let say I create > a number of reports with for example that use a blue > font and white background that would be used over a > period of 2 weeks. After 2 weeks the users say for example I want all the reports to have a green font and black background. Is there a way to create reports from the beginning > and then in the future changing parameters in only one spot or a template or something and have it ripple through all reports. Let's say a company color scheme changes the look and > feel of the corporate look. Instead of change the colors, fonts, bmps, in all 400 reports just do it in one place and it would have a ripple effect through all 400 reports. If this can be done where do you start in the beginning stages of report building to make it work like that?

I would suggest creating a named style that has the features (font color, etc.) you want. Apply the style after the report is defined. When you want the color scheme to change, you can edit the style definition to use the new colors. Keep in mind that styles are stored in the ini files of the machine you are building the report on, so other systems may need to have the ini file copied over to use the same style definition.

I have a question bothering me for a couple of days. I need to plot several measures on one chart, for example, ploting various interest rates against months. Can I do this in Impromptu? If no, how about in ReportNet?Impromptu will not allow more than 2 measures to be plotted in a chart. It has a very basic charting capability. You do have more options with PPES. I am not sure about Report Net but based on the demonstration you should have this option.

Is anyone out there finding they need to re-boot their Upfront / PPES> IWR gateway servers periodically? Cognos is telling us it should be standard operating procedure to do a re-boot at least monthly if not more often. If so, what kind of server issues are you having?

Then

It's always better to reboot your server every once in a while. Connections will be checked. Memory will be cleared. We have a server at the moment that is not working fine when it comesTo memory. And if we don't reboot every so often, the weirdest errors occur. So, I would definitely advice you to reboot your server regularly.Then

I guess my question is why do these issues occur in the first place? Is it the nature of the beast? Is there some tuning that can be done to eliminate the need for re-boots? Re-booting is the universal solution to just about every server issue that ails us.

ThenNot sure how useful this is, but... I have found that I have no need to reboot. I do reboot because there are security patches required for W2K and they are installed automatically. In my case, the security patches are vital, because it is a forward facing server to the internet. Before I was updating automatically, there were hardly ever reboots. Sometimes, after the installation of the patches etc I won't reboot, but you can find that strange things happen with IWR reports (bold type face is no longer bold). I do find, however, there are times when a few users have executedintensive queries on very large cubes, that I have almost resorted to re-booting. This is because 4 processors with 2 gb of memory is completely chewed up by the process and I am unable to launch task manager. In these instances, I manage the server from another W2k machine and restart the PPES service. Once this is done it generally does not require a re-boot.

Then

It sounds like your environment is like ours. We have a 4 CPU (550 Mhz) system with 2 gig of RAM. We have large cubes as well. The cube that users run reports from is 125 MB. How does that compare to your cubes? Are yours larger or smaller? In this case, PPES was running fine. It was Upfront that hosed us. I found this in the event viewer, it was listed as "Information" and was not considered an error. Application popup: UpfServer.exe - Application Error : The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005). Click on OK to terminate the application. The following error (about 150 occurences) were also in the event viewer immediatley after the above "information". The script started from the URL '/cognos/cgi-bin/upfcgi.exe' with parameters '' has not responded within the configured timeout period. The HTTP server is terminating the script.

ThenI think that our processors are also 550 Mhz (Xeon), so we are looking at virtually identical machines here. The largest and most used cube is close to 500 mb; the majority of the well used cubes are around 250mb and then I have about another 20 or so that are under 50mb. I have a total of 50 or so cubes and 125 users for PP Web. I am also running IWR on the same server, but this is less utilized.

If someone does a heavy query (usually something they can make no use of) like all customers and all products for a year. It is pretty much "their" server until they are done - if it does finish.I have never had a problem with upfront itself - perhaps we are using that in a different way (?). I had a look through my event log and there is no mention of any problems or otherwise with any of the Cognos products. A few things that may differ with our setup are 1 - I no longer run the SQL databases on the same server, so I can crank the memory usage right down on all of the SQL services.2 - I am on SP43 - I use HTTPS, this means that there is no caching happening in the browser. The reason this is interesting (?) is that I have had errors when people try and do a download to .csv from the cube. I can't remember the error exactly, but it was a Cognos screen and it made mention of a memory error. When I raised this with Cognos, they said they wouldn't support the download of that size anyway. But, that it was an error passed back to Cognos from the browser. Essentially, the browser couldn't cope with that amount of data (text). At first, I was dubious,

because it had the little red cross in the corner and looked very "Cognos" generated, but I redesigned the cube and just used codes instead of descriptions and the download worked fine - so there is probably some truth in that. I'm not sure if any of this is any help, but I tend to prefer my servers not to be rebooted if at all possible, I guess that is the Unix user in me. I do know that some of our other W2k servers struggle to stay alive for more than a few days - none of then are running Cognos, though. How do you find access time to your cubes on that setup? I am getting complaints about it here and am evaluating Reportnet to try and speed things up. I think it will be a hard transition for the users to Reportnet, though...

script to run multiple imr to update multiple ims files in a catalog?

Sub Main On error goto errhdlr

Dim ImpApp as Object Dim ImpRep as Object LOGDIR = "\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\LOGS\" MyStep = "CATALOGNAME.cat" Set ImpApp = CreateObject ("CognosImpromptu.Application") ImpApp.Visible True ImpApp.OpenCatalog "\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\FILENAME1.IMR", "Creator","", "USERID","PASSWORD"

MyStep = "FILENAME1.imr" Set ImpRep=ImpApp.OpenReport("\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\FILENAME1.IMR.imr") ImpRep.ExportHotFile "\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\FILENAME1.IMR.ims" ImpRep.CloseReport

checkdate = now() IF DIR(LOGDIR+FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG") = "" THEN Open LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" for Output as #1 ELSE OPEN LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" FOR APPEND AS #1 END IF mytime = time$ WRITE #1, mytime + "Update for " + MyStep + " completed." Close #1 MyStep = "FILENAME2.imr" Set ImpRep=ImpApp.OpenReport("\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\FILENAME2.IMR.imr") ImpRep.ExportHotFile "\\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME\FILENAME2.IMR.ims"

ImpRep.CloseReport

checkdate = now() IF DIR(LOGDIR+FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG") = "" THEN Open LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" for Output as #1 ELSE OPEN LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" FOR APPEND AS #1 END IF mytime = time$ WRITE #1, mytime + "Update for " + MyStep + " completed." Close #1

-SAME ENTIRES FOR FILENAME2, 3, 4, 5.......ETC. Done: ImpApp.Activate sendkeys "%(fx)" Set ImpRep = Nothing Set ImpApp = Nothing Exit Sub errhdlr: checkdate = now() IF DIR(LOGDIR+FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG") = "" THEN Open LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" for Output as #2 ELSE OPEN LOGDIR + FORMAT(CHECKDATE,"MMDDYYYY") + ".LOG" FOR APPEND AS #2 END IF mytime = time$ msgtext=mytime + " - Error " & Err & ": " & Error$ write #2, MyStep + " " + msgtext Close #2 Resume DoneEnd Sub

Could any body tell me , Is there any formula for Percentile in =3D impromptu or transformer?

You can calculate Percentile in Impromptu... check functions in Impromptu...I don't have Cognos installed on my machine...I would have given you the steps... contact Sanjiv Dutta... I had explained this to him recently... or may be Krishan Prasad YS... I had sent him in the Same Time Comm which he had saved... he might have to do a little search on his m/c to find this...With Transformer you can't achieve this... And

I will tell you the logic of calculating the Percentile Rank (a =value between 0 to 1 assigned against each record)... sort & then rank =the varibale on which you want to calculate... then calculate =rank/count... for example if you have 10 records then the first record =gets 0.1 the last recrod gets 1 and the last but one gets 0.9 and so on =and so forth... and I am sure you wnat percentile rank (mostly shotened =as percentile)and not percentile...if you have any grouping... then 0 to 1 assigned for each group...Postal Script:

Percentile Rank is ProbablityPercentile is valuue of the variable

I selected all dimensions with next 25/11/03 as the date. But when =pressed OK I don't find any process running. Good if you can let me know exact =use of Clean House.

Those categories which are not relevant are deleted from the multidimensional structure...When you create a cube... first the structure is created... each level in dimension is populated. Then the pre calculated aggregation in the respective cells of the cube is stored...Now assume you had created a cube with a test data source which had dimension dim1 with levels lvl1 and lvl2 with values lvl11, lvl12, etc for lvl1 and lvl21, lvl22, etc... now when you create a cube the structure will have lvl11, lvl12, etc for lvl1 and lvl21, lvl22, etc and then when you create the cube again these values remain in the =structure... even though they may not be in the data source... to remove =these irrelevant categories from the model is done with clean house...hoe this explains... what is clean house for...

How to reduce catogaries in Model??.What are catogaries?. What does run catogaries does?.I have problem in building the cube cognos says there can be 500,000 Categories only and my model is exceeding these.A category is a unique instance of a value within a level of a dimension.

Eg; Time Dimension with levels Year, QTR, MonthTwo years of data

Years 2002 & 2003 = 2 categories (1per year)

Qtrs 2002Q1, 2002Q2, ..., 2003Q4 = 8 Categories (4per year)

Months 20020101, 20020201,..., 20031201 = 24 Categories (12 peryear)

Total categories in the model 34Now continue with every level of every dimension. If you highlight the dimension map and do a show count, you can see the number of categories per level. Based on your problem, I would assume you have a very low grain within one of your dimensions (customer, product, etc.) Is this required? Try to aggregate up to a high level summary and get the user to drill thru to get the details.

leap years occur in years exactly divisible by fourso if u have Current FY and Previous FY.

check

if remainder of (Current FY/4) = 0 and month = MARCH then it is a financial year and you substract 1 day from your previous FY dateelse if remainder of (previous FY/4) = 0 and month = MARCH then it is a financial year and you add 1 day in your previous FY date else The same date. end ifend if

HTH.

hi Dinesh,as for October 31, we can simply use the functions=20last-of-month(add-months(Today(),-1)) and then do the formatting as dd-mmm =

which will give u 31-Oct...as for 2002 we have Previous FY...so i am using

it with some calculation taking care for the months of Feb &March...but=20when it's March in any leap year(e.g. 2004), i wish to know how to get=2028-Feb for Previous FY as for the Current FY it'll simply give us 29-Feb.

Can u tell me , how u r finding october 31 2002( a per ur ex.)

Hi AllWe are building anual report based on Financial Year(FY) (from April toMarch). This report would contain data from the Current FY (e.g.2003)=20 and the Previous FY (2002) from April uptil previous month, that is, if we=20 are running this report in the current month which is November, it'd have=20 data from April 01 2003 to October 31 2003 for the Current FY and from April=20 01 2002 to October 31 2002. This date range is also to displayed in the title header...that is 'Measure for ending 31-October-2003' and 'Measure for ending 31-October-2002. Now suppose when we are in the month of March 2004 which also happens to be leap year. Now when we run the report it'd contain data from April 01 2003 upto 29-February-2004 for the current FY and from April 01 2002=20 upto 28-Feb-2003. When we have to display this ending dates in the title header...it's fine with the current year that is 'Measure for ending 29-February-2004' by using 'lastmonth(addmonths(Today(),-1))'...but how can we display 'Measure for 28-Fabruary-2003'.

I have published my powerplay reports on PPES server (ver6) and when accessing the reports I'm getting two messages. My browser is IE.Acrobat reader version 5.1/5.0 First Message Title : "Acrobat Reader" Message : Error Reading Linearized hint data.Second MessageTitle : "Acrobat plug-in"Message : Could not find Acrobat External Window HandlerAnd nothing is coming in the reports.How can I solve this problem???

You have enabled the function "Allow fast webview".Disable this at Edit - Preferences - Options.

We are intending to upgrade from cognos 7.1 to 7,2. We have previous converted from 6 to 7.1 and the effort involved was horrendous particularly the upgrade of the 150 Impromtu reports. These reports run against the Oracle database via ODBC driver. What happened was that the upgrade did not convert the SQLs correctly for a few of our Impromptu reports to version 7.1. Our key driver fot the upgrade is the new functionalities of the Powerplay for Web.. I would like hear from any of you guys out there who have recentlyUpgrade from 7.1 to 7.2 and wouldn't mind sharing your expriences in the issues or problems that you encountered.

We recently upgraded from 6.0 to 7.0. And later on also from 7.0 to 7.1 version 2. We experienced the same problems again. SQL may become corrupted.

I have a requirement such as this. I have 5000 Products.I need to prompt the user all these products. I first show the end user a file picklist prompt showing =3D alphabets(A,B,C,D.... etc) The user on clicking A ,will be prompted to select from a report =3D picklist prompt(cascading prompt) all the products whose product description =3D begins with 'A'.Then he has to choose products from this picklist. Now this is the scenario:

Now I got to show the end user an 'ALL' option in the picklist which has got the list of alphabets itself. The user on choosing ALL from this first prompt,must be able select all the products in one go. Can someone suggest a method for this?This is really really urgent for me.

And

I tried ur idea by creating a report from a query like Select prodcode,prodname from table1Union select all,' ' from table2 Everything works fine.But for one thing. I want the picklist prompt to be a multiple picklist prompt.But the = moment I add the filter condition such as (prodid in (?prodlist?) or (1=3Dif((?prodlist?) in ('ALL'))then (1) else = (0)))

The problem is when i use the prompt name twice in the filter condition,the multiple picklist prompt reduces to a single picklist prompt. Wat could be the problem?

The problem appears with the way you have constructed the filter condition. It is beyond my ken. Kindly modify this:=20 Select prodcode,prodname from table1 union select all,' ' from table2Into =20 Select prodcode,prodname from table1 union select all,all from table2 Try the following steps to recreate your filter condition, hopefully this should work (I am not having Cognos installed on my machine to verify the following steps):

1) Create a prompt report2) Add the filter condition if ?prompt_prodcode? =3D 'all' then prodcode =else ?prompt_prodcode? 3) Create the report the user will be prompted4) Use prompt (report picklist) using the report used in step (1) name = it as ?prompt_prodname?5) Apply the filter condition if ?prompt_prodname? =3D 'all' then = prodname else ?prompt_prodname? in prodname. This should retain the = ability of the user to select multiple prompt values.=20The idea is all (prodcode) will correspond to all (prodname) in the = hierarchy. That is, only 'all' will be seen in ?prompt_prodname? when = you selected 'all' in ?prompt_prodcode?.Please try the above and let me know if this works for you.

Has anyone encountered this problem before? I have a report in which one of the columns just shows #FORMAT# as the values. The column is a varchar and presents correctly when running the report in Impromptu ver 6.1 I have only encountered this problem when running the report from IWR. The interesting thing is, when I run the report using powerprompts on my local machine, then report is rendered in acrobat and the column returns correctly. Only when rendering in .pdf on the server is there a problem. The version of adobe acrobat on my local machine is the same as on the servers too.You may want to increase the size of Text box that accommodates this column in IMPROMPTU. (doesn’t work)

Then

Please try to check the datatypes for the same column which is giving error. Even I faced the problem that the IMR report giving diiferent results & IWR report giving different result. I gave a condition decode( column_name,'5',100,0) In this place the column_name is having datatype number.I used value '5' as string. It was showing 100 value in IMR but showing 0 in IWR ( Cognos 7.0 )

I have a main report in Impromptu 7.1 with a drill-through on one of the fields. When the drill-through is activated, if no data is retrieved in the drill through report, I want to display a message like "no data found". I've tried using a calculated field in the header, but I don't know how to make it display if no rows are retrieved. The "missing" condition does Not apply in this case. I don't want to display the message if data is found. Any ideas?

In your report insert the 'no data found' text message field. Apply a 'conditional format' to this text message field to be 'hidden' when key report data 'is not missing'.

Then

Well, it's a great idea... but the problem is that in the case of no data retrieved, the only things that get displayed are static fields like the report title and page numbering, which are not based on the datamart data.Basing a condition on a datamart field doesn't work - the calculation doesn't seem to get evaluated. "Missing" is apparently not the same as "not found" where no rows are returned, although it works when at least one row is retrieved. Any other ideas?

Then

Sorry. I probably did not make myself clear. The condition that you are testing for is the existence of data. Put a static 'no data found' field into your report. Create a formatting condition that tests if key report data has been found. Apply this condition to that static field and associate 'hidden' with it. When this condition tests true (i.e. data was found), the static field will be hidden. If data is returned, (i.e. the condition tests true) the static field will be hidden. If no data is returned, (i.e. the condition tests false) the 'no data found' static filed will be displayed.

I created a date range in an Impromptu report using 2 type-in data prompts. The following gets passed to Oracle as a result... select T1."OFFICE" from "REPORT_DATA" T1 where T1."ISSUE_DATE" between to_date('2003-11-26 00:00:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') and to_date('2003-11-26 00:00:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') How can I get the following passed instead? select T1."OFFICE" from "REPORT_DATA" T1 where T1."ISSUE_DATE" between to_date('2003-11-26 00:00:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') and to_date('2003-11-26 23:59:59', <<-------- 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') Editting the SQL is not an option.Mark, I assume that the to_date expression is created automatically. If you bumped your ending date up by one day that would give you one more second than your goal. Is that acceptable?

ThenSo then my range is November 26 to November 27. Fixes the 26th but I get nothing for the 27th. Issue_date has timestamps on the date like 04:54:43, etc. November 27 00:00:00 to November 27 00:00:00 won't pick up 04:54:43.

ThenUse date instead of datetime, with datetime-to-date, then the time thing doesn't matter.

Is there a way that I can extract some partial data from a column in Impromptu? For instance, I have a column that has data in the format 123456/7, and I want to extract everything before the /. The characters before and after the / varies and the only constant in the data is the/. I can't see how to do it using the functions - any ideas?I am not sure if you got an answer for this yet or not. You basically have to identify where in the string the '/' occurs. position('/', yourstring) The part of the string you want is everything up to but not including the / left(yourstring, position('/', yourstring)-1)

What would be the most effective way to turn a date field into a 28 day month period (1-13) for the current year? The only way I can imagine is an if then else statement such as... if (order_date between today() and today()-28) then ('13') else if (order_date between today()-29 and today()-56) then ('12')... etc. Is there an easier way perhaps using a function or a better calculation?

I think your best bet would be a date table with the actual date and the 28 day month it belongs in. I'm a really big fan of date dimensions for this kind of stuff. I can't think of any way to do it in Imp other than your giant if-then calculation. I don't think you can do it with math because you have 1 extra day in your year (28 * 13 = 364, I mean.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Oho, now we're getting somewhere. Nowhere good, though. The only way that I know of for a child report (2nd report) to access the prompt values of a parent report (1st report) is if the prompt values are included as calculations in the parent report itself. I don't know if this is possible for you or not, but the best suggestion I could make would be to try using a report and a sub-report instead of 2 separate reports. Use the SP report as your "main" query, and your second report as your subreport. Then maybe you can access the prompt values from the main query as variables and stick them in your header, or something like that. Andrew Ah, well now, that's easy, I can't add them. Lots of options in the SP reports are just greyedout, one of them is the possibility to use calculations in the report. I think we are having a little communications problem. By parent report, I mean the first report to run, which should be your hotfile. It has the prompts, yes? What happens if you add them as calculated fields to that report? Andrew If I try to add them exactly as calculations, I either have to fill them in twice, once for the sp report, once for the parent. Or in the other case Impromptu just crashes :(Arne I've not worked with stored procedures, so I may not be much help. Did you try to insert the prompt values in the parent report as calculations? If that doesn't work, what happens when you try it? Andrew

Hello all,I posted this question already yesterday, but so far I haven't received any replies and unfortunately it is getting quite urgent for me. I'm using a stored procedure report in Impromptu. I added this SP as a hotfile to my catalog and re-use it in another report ( the 'parent' ). There are 3 prompts in the SP, and the parent report asks for them nicely. However, I would like to access those prompts in the parent report, to display the values in a calculated field. I tried working with catalog prompts but don't seem to find a solution that way. Creating the exact duplicates of the sp prompts in the parent reports and then trying to display one simply makes Impromptu crash. Arne++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have to get a date input for one of my report whose SQL is edited. eg: Select * from Table1 a=20 where a.date between ?date value1? and ?date value2? I am not able to get the values like this,where ?date value1? ,?date=20 value2? are date prompts whose values are of the format(yyyy-mm-dd). I tried to get the prompt values as string types and then converted it=20 to=20 date using date() function,but still I am not able to get the query done. Can

someone help me.It is really urgent. Remember I want the user to enter the date in the (mm-dd-yyyy) format.

Can say try using to-Char with format and then to number U can able to compare to number for between caluse. Just give a try am not confident on this. Let me know how it works out :-))

ThenWhen I do an SQL override,I wont be able to use the impromptu functions. The database that I am using is DB2 v5r1 on AS/400.

ThenAre you still getting problems with inserting prompt into edited sql based report? Try inserting a date-time-to-date calculation into the catalog in=20 Catalog-Folders, then check Calculate before.... It works for me perfectly... Then in sql, only insert prompt and set your prompt type to simple date...

thenHi Rajkumar...Then let's see step-by-step1. Open catalog2. connect to database2a. Close any open reports that may be open.3. Go to Catalog menu4. select FOLDERS sub-menu5. select the folder (database table) where you may to insert one DATE=20 format column that we're going to use for filtering5a. click on CALCULATION button.6. from here we must get a column with DATETIME-TO-DATE functionality.=207. Check that our NEW DATE fomat column is in right place...

From now on we are able to use this coulmn for PROMPTING ON DATE , EVEN IN = DIRECT ENTRY sql... HTH,

ps.: by the way here is the sql, that I used for your test in direct entry...

select T1."CREATION=5FDATE" as c1, ((cast=5Fdate(T1."CREATION=5FDATE"))) as c2from "HDBS01TE"."TBL879TE" T1where ((((cast=5Fdate(T1."CREATION=5FDATE")))) =3D ?time?)

I am trying to tie several small cubes togather. I created catalog on it I started IMR and I get this error This report will result in a 'cross product' query. This User Profile prevents the use of 'cross product' reports.You tend to get this message when the generated SQL in the report tries to fetch fields from two separate tables where no join criteria is specified between them. Have another look at your catalogue and make sure you have set up the joins between your tables correctly.

Is it possible to create a report that summarizes YTD and current month sales for each product in Impromptu. To me this is more of a PowerPlay thing but is it possible in Impromptu.

Hi Tim, You're right, I'd rather do this with PowerPlay too, but unless I'm over simplifying this, then sure you could do it in Impromptu. For YTD total, create a grouping and a total on year For Current Month, 1 Create a calculated column that Uses a Month Number funciton against your dates.2. Group on year and then on Month Number3. Add totals for Month Number4. Depending on if you want to show all months, or If you want to see only your most recent month (Current month) then either sort descending on Year and Month No, or filter your report on MAX year and Month No.

> After a few years I have restarted to work a little> bit on Cognos> Transformer (v6.0...) and I'm stuck in a problem:> > Example> > I have two .csv-files, one (SHP) contains shipping> data for my company and> the other one (MTR) contains a table with tolerances> to the shipping> quantities.> > SHP> -Customer> -Order> -Required Quantity> -Shipped Quantity> > MTR> -Customer> -TolerancePercent> > Of course one Customer could have thousands of> orders in file SHP, but he> can only have one tolerance in file MTR> I'd like do make kind of an OTIF report that> calculates how many of the> shipped oredrs were within the tolerance and how> many not.> How can I combine the two files?> Whatever I try the transformer doesn't calculate> with data from the two> files....

I don't believe what you want to do can be done inTransformer alone. In order to use these two files,you will need to perform a relational JOIN, whichTransformer does not do. If you load the files intodatabase tables, you can perform the join in SQL andthen create an IQD file to support the data structureyou want.

I have already implemented a data warehouse for my company, but I still don't understand some

  > basic concepts introduced by Ralph Kimball and many others, can anyone help me out?

  >  > 1.The meaning and justification of an Operational Data Store or ODS: as far as I know, an ODS is

  > characteristic of:

  > a.It is current, not historical

  > b.It is operational, it is subject to changes

  > c.It can serves as a staging area. Data are transported from OLTP's to the warehouse.

  > d.It is integrated. This means there is only one ODS to accept data from possibly multiple OLTP

  > data sources; these data are not only extracted and loaded, but also transformed in the process.

  > e.It is not used as analysis, data mining, querying, reporting or anything. I cannot see any

  > reasons we need an ODS, nor do I know the purpose of its introduction.

ODSs are fairly specialized and not many companies need them. They are typically used if you want todo near real-time operational reporting on combined data from multiple OLTP systems.

And

The above is correct. The difference between Kimball and Inmon is the ODS. Kimball would created andODS and throw it away. Inmon would update the Enterprise DW and populate all marts from there. Inmondoes not like to throw things away. However, in most large DWs, we use the ODS to see what haschanged, write that to our ODS, update the DW, then toss the ODS.  >  > 2.The myth of the star schema and the snowflake architecture: We use Cognos Power Play as the OLAP

  > tool, and Cognos Impromptu as the reporting tool, both support native connection to Oracle. We

  > have created Power Cubes for marketing and sales users. Power Cubes are the so-called

  > multi-dimensional databases, which the star schema and the snowflake architecture are meant for.

  > Power Cubes are separate objects from the database, they cannot be directly manipulated by SQL

  > or anything, only be sliced and diced by Power Play client program. The star schema and the

  > snowflake architecture are actually embeded in a Power Play Transformer model, the original

  > database structure is rather irrelavent to the performance of the Power Cubes. Even if the

  > database structure is fully normalized, it is the transforming process that is impacted, not the

  > Power cubes themselves. Therefore, the star schema and the snowflake architecture, which are

  > extensively emphasized by many books and articles, are completely useless when utilizing a tool

  > like Cognos Power Play. Maybe inside Power Play are start schema and snowflake architecture, but

  > who knows?

Kimball's books and teachings assume you're using a relational database. While this might be true insome cases, most of the popular tools are actually MOLAPs which use an optimized compressed cubestructure that isn't even logically a star schema. Remember that the whole star/snowflake idea is tomake a relational database simulate a cube; you don't have to do that if you have a realmultidimensional database (like PowerPlay and lots of others). And once you do have a cube, youdon't need to worry about structuring the relational feeder systems for optimum query performance.

These are some of of the tools that (usually) service queries from MOLAP cubes, not directly fromrelational databases (and which are therefore ignored by Kimball): Analysis Services,

BusinessObjects, Essbase, Express, Gentia, Holos, iTM1, PowerPlay.

And

Not useless. A star/snowflake is a dimensional model and is relational. As opposed to an ODS. Allquery and reporting is done against the star. Now a lot of us are moving away from thestart/snowflake in the enterprise DW, but they are still essential for the marts. All tools workbest against the star schema. Don't confuse cubes with marts. Cubes are built from marts. They are adatabase, but since they can only be accessed via the PP tool, they are not marts. If you buildcubes against the enterprise DW and bypass the marts,then yes, the star schemas are useless as faras the cubes are concerned. However, if you build cubes against the mart then they are not. Forinstance when you drill through from PP to Impromptu, you will utilize the star.  >  > 3.How many data marts are there: We would naturally assume one Power cube is one data mart,

  > because one Power cube is one multi-dimensional database. However, data marts should be

  > subject-oriented, remember? Our marketing cubes and sales cubes actually share the same

  > 'subject', the sales, they focus on partly different dimensions and measures though. If we have

  > only one subject - sales, but two cubes for marketing and sales respectively, how many data

  > marts do we have? Furthermore, there are limitations in the creation of a Power cube, such as

  > max. 50 million source data and 200M max. size of the cube file. (The latter is a practical

  > limitation, not one of the tool, a too big cube can be very slow) Therefore, we might have to

  > make five cubes for one department, then again how many data marts do we have? One or five?

PowerPlay needs you to split a logical data mart into multiple powercubes because it doesn't have avery scalable cube engine. Other MOLAP servers don't have this limit, so one logically linked cubeset can serve the needs of a variety of people with interest in the same subject area, regardless ofthe data volumes or dimensional complexity. Microsoft Analysis Services and Oracle Express would beexamples of very scalable MOLAP servers that can handle hundreds of gigabytes of input data (ofcourse, MOLAPs store multidimensional data in a much smaller volume than the input data in arelational database).

And

A mart is a set of relational tables. A cube is a highly indexed flat file. It is not a mart. Itsounds like you have a sales mart and a marketing mart, which together is your DW. This is a commonpractice. Now you have cubes built against the DW (combo sales and marketing). This is common also.But again, the cubes are not marts. They are highly indexded flat files, not relational tables.

I am looking for a good reference material or tutorial on how to set upa drill thru from powerplay to IWR.  I am using iqd files as the datasource for my dimension and transactional data but am not sure how totie the powerplay and iqd together to allow for the drill thru...anyhelp is appreciated.

You are actually tying the cube to the Imr.First make sure the column names in the model data sources match the columnnames in the catalog that the Impromptu report will be built from.Then in the cube properties in you model you can enable the drill through onall or some of the measures, you will tell it where the report is at thistime. The report need to be already written and everything that will bepassed from the cube to the report needs to be included in the report, youcan remove items from the display but they should all be in the queryitself.Try it from client to client first, then go to web.

Hope this helps, I do not have my pc with software up right now to be moreprecise.

Then

In the documentation from Cognos it says "if you create your datasource using an iqd file, then the corresponding impromptu reports appear in the drill-through list for each measure in the source"...does this mean that it is automatic?  When creating the datasource via an Iqd file should we include all of the possible dimension columns in one file?  Currently we use flat files for building our cubes such that we have one file for each dimension in along with a file(s) for the transactional source data.  We are looking at using iqd as an alternative to the flat files (to help with drill-through), but it seems that if we try the same approach with iqd, the drill-though does not work.

What I have had to do is create an impromptu report that contains all of the columns for the dimensions in order for the drill through at any level to work...but this seems to negate the need to have individual dimension iqd files?  Is there any good tutorials or examples on using iqd? and the steps to acutally creating a cube that is built on them?

 Also is it possible in Impromptu to make a query that is the result of a union of two tables?

Hope you can help me. I am wanting to do a report for the financial year, and in the cube I want it to sum the years in financial years. Our financial year starts on 1st arch and ends 28th / 29th February. As it sums Calender years, there must be a ay to write this report so the year begins in March (FY01, FY02 ad so on). The first quarter would start on 1st March.

In transformer

Just use the Date Dimension Wizard to set the values for you. Tell it the Fiscal Year starts 3/01 and it will figure it all out for you.

In impromptutry assigning values to ur financial months...since ur financial year starts on March 01, assign 1 to the month of March, 2 to April...and so on, finally 12 to Feb...name this value column anything, say 'Month Values'...now group on this column, and then associate all ur month based calculation with the column: Month Values

see if it works...yes u shall definitely take care of the leap year applying some logic in the calculation itself...

and

I would say the table with calendar dates mapped to financial dates is the best way to go as you could then have the db do the conversion work. However if you need to do it in Impromptu, one way would be to use the year and month functions in combination with the add-months function. One way (for FY01 ending Feb. 28, 2001):

get the FY with: year(add-months(date_exp,10))get the month with: month(date_exp)

You could then concatenate/substring to get the format you want.

So, for date 02/15/2001, FY would be: year(add-months(02/15/2001,10)) or year(12/15/2001) or 2001 and month(02/15/2001) would give you 2

While, for date 03/15/2001, FY would be: year(add-months(03/15/2001,10)) or year(01/15/2002) or 2002 and month(03/15/2001) would give you 3

Keep in mind that depending on your db and Impromptu setup, the functions may or may not be done on the db itself - if not it'll pull all the data back to your PC first before doing the conversion functions and grouping of the data.

I am new to cognos admin part.I just wann to know what is Ticket server in cognos and common user logon server. I am trying to setup a cognos environment i hope it is pritty straight farword.Can some tell me what are the thing i have to consetrate while installing cognos impromptu,ppes and upfront,can i make them inn one server.

The ticket server is the cognos component that issues the web user a ticket (sorta like a cookie but it resides on the server), it serves as verification of your authentication and have a default expiration time associated to them. The ticket is issued when the user is authenticated, if using single signon (nt challange response) it's transparent and you would never even know your ticket expired, however with basic signon if your ticket has expired you will be prompted via common logon to sign in again.

Single server is the simpliest to configure. The first thing you should install is your directory server component (LDAP). dependent on which version of cognos you can use Active directory, Netscape Directory Server or it's newer replacement from Iplanet

I have an interesting problem. For a college that is looking at student registration data. A student applies to the college and is given a conditional acceptance coded as 10. Then as various requirements are met the status code changes. So, at the database level there is a table for decision code and a student table. This is a one to many relationship. A student will have had several decision codes over time. I need to build a report that lists all of the students who have a decision code of 10 but not students who also have an 11 (11 means that they have a final acceptance). The report would be used to follow up with students while they move through the enrollemen/acceptance process. In SQL the statement would be as follows: select unique_person_ID from decision_tablewhere entry_term_code = '200441'and decision_code = '10'minus (select unique_person_ID from decision_table where entry_term_code = '200441' and decision_code = '11')

I am not a database or technical expert. I'm at the user level. I think that the above SQL statement is a multipass query which cannot be done in Impromptu although I am not certain that this is the case. At any rate, I am looking for a workaround. Any ideas?

Create a report selecting unique_person_id where decision_code = 11 Then create another report selecting unique_person_id, whatever_else and then, in the lower left corner, switch the data source from catalog to hotfile (you could use a hotfile, or, starting w/ S7 an imr file) and include the unique_person_id from your original report -- if you'd like you can remove the mark for insertion arrow to prevent it from showing up in the report.

Then, in the filter tab, unique_person_id from the catalog <> unique_person_id from the original report.

I can't seem to do lookups when it comes to converting numbers to Descriptions.Does anyone know if there's a limitation with this function when it comes to numbers? i.e.lookup (retailer use type id) in ('1' -> 'regular') default (retailer use type id).

If (retailer_id = 1) then (Acme) else if (retailer_id = 2) then (Wal_Mart) else (someone else) Impromptu itself doesn't have a limit on these (although I'd suggest using a lookup table or creating a view w/ these values) but your database driver may have a limit on the number of charachters it can convey to the db.

I'm using a stored procedure report in Impromptu. I > added this SP as a hotfile to my catalog and re-use it in another report ( the 'parent' ). There are 3 prompts in the SP, and the parent report asks for them nicely. However, I would like to access those prompts in the parent report, to display the values in a calculated field. I tried working with catalog prompts but don't seem to find a solution that way. Creating the exact duplicates of the sp prompts in the parent reports and then trying to display one simply makes Impromptu crash. I hope someone can help me here.

save the SP report simply as a report. But then insert that report (.imr) as a hotfile in my catalog. This allows me to access the values from the stored procedure, but not statically. The 'parent' report will always ask for the prompts of the SP report and will execute the SP, so I'll always get new results.

If I would save the SP report as a normal hotfile, I would work with static values as the SP would not get called. So, it is the inserted SP report (hotfile) that pops up the prompts, and I would like to access the prompts also in the parent report.

Example the SP report asks for a certain year for which to collect the records. I give in the year through the SP report prompt. I would like to display the year in the report header, ofcourse the year number itself is not returned by the SP and so does not get into my parent report, unless I require the user to enter the same year in two different prompts... which is just a wee bit silly.

I have a column with dates in following format: "mm-yy" (for example 01-02 - January 2002). Impromptu sees them as strings and sorts incorrect. How can I convert these strings to date or date-time format?

Well, here's the expression followed by some notes on what you need to do: make-datetime((string-to-integer('20'+substring(strDATE,4,2))),(string-to-integer(substring(strDATE,1,2))),1)

The '20' is the first two digits of the year. There may need to be additional logic if you also have 19xx dates in the data. 'strDATE' is the field you are evaluating in the format mm-yy you mentioned.

The last '1' in the expression is the day of the month as the returned date. So, 11-02 would return 11/01/2002 from this expression. If you want a different day of the month, replace the 1 with the appropriate value.

I have a requirment, I am working on Cognos 7 series, I have a power prompt, depending on some condition I need to put some Text in IMR report in Header part. I not getting how to put Text dynamically in power prompts. Folks give me solutionhow it can be achived.

Insert a text field in your header. You may want to go into the properties and rename it something more friendly.At the end of your Powerprompts script, add the following lines (modify to fit your report, of course):

GetReport().SetPrimaryFrame("Page Header");GetReportObject("Your text field namehere").SetText("your text here");

You can use PowerPrompt variables as the text, as in: GetReportObject("text1").SetText(App.Variables("var1"));

You may have to escape() and/or unescape() around your powerprompt variable, if you get odd stuff like %20 coming through.

I have built a Time dimension(Datewizard) whose datasource is in number format(YYYYMMDD). While drilling through from the cube to the impromptu report on the above field, it throws an error. When i looked into drill-through filter text in the Impromptu, it is =2002-10-01 but where as the column in the database is in the number format wherein there are no '-' separator. How can I achieve this functionality ?What changes need to be done at the transformer model level?Pls. Suggest. I can not include any date functions for tht column in the impromptu level as the performance is very low.

What I belive is the problem lies in Formating...whenever we give Format it just for the display purpose and internally it will b the same/similar as DATE (RDBMS format viz. YYYY-DD-MM-Seconds) Hope u could manage with that.

Then

The datatype of the "date" column is NUMBER in the database.. The datatype in the transformer of Date Dimension is specified as "DATE". While drilling thro' from cube to impromptu, it passes the Date in YYYY-MM-DD where as the data in the date column in Impromptu is YYYYMMDD.Mismatch arises in the values for the above reason.Note: Impromptu - NUMBER DATATYPE (for ex: 20031125) Transformer - TIME DIMENSION whose datatype would be DATE(for ex: 2003-11-25) and hence the data is not getting populated as the format is different.This is my understanding.Pls. clarify,If my understanding is wrong and how to resolve this.

I have a customer that is looking for references from other Cognos customers that have implemented Active Directory as the repository for Cognos Access Manager in a multiple domain environment. Their goal is to integrate Cognos and Windows security environments so that they only have to maintain one profile for each user. Has anyone done that? Any special considerations?

Not sure if this is your question but here is a stab at answering what I believe you are asking.Even though the AD will store the Cognos schema it is still a separate entity with respect to Authentication and Authorization no different than the Iplanet DS and will still have to be managed separately. AD is just the container holding the information and there is nolinking/interrelationship between the two.

And

I have done this before and you do NOT have to bring your security system down to accomplish it... but there are two things-1. you should be logged in as the "ULTIMATE ADMIN" (there's a name for that in AD- root admin or something).2. you need to build the Cognos Schema directly off the "main forest" (not sure if that is the term)

Dave is right, though. You cannot leverage the "User Objects" within AD, but create new "Application Objects" (quotes means these are what I call them- not sure about the industry standard). Cognos also requires you use Access Manager to create and edit security entries. It is a little misleading when you hear that Cognos can run off or "leverage" your current AD- because, in reality, that isn't true. So the only advantage is- having a consistent technology (not both AD and NDS) and having everything physically on one system that you can then backup and "redundantize" till the cows come home and limit the ways your reporting system can be "brought down" by system failure.

Is it possible to get the date from next row into a separate column in an Impromptu report? For example: If a customer places 6 orders at different dates then can I get the order date for second order beside the order date for first order?

Order # Date Date from next row1 11/2/2003 11/7/20032 11/7/2003 11/9/20033 11/9/2003 11/15/20034 11/15/2003 11/21/20035 11/21/2003 11/25/20036 11/25/2003Thanks,There are no buffers in Impromptu to allow you to You can do aggregate queries where you set rows conditionally, if this doesn't work, usually not given your data set; then link the table to itself optionally based on Customer = Customer and order# = order# +1 However, I would assume your orders are not sequentially ordered and can not perform that option. I would then create a hot file using a count function or other variable which increments and then resets per customer. Use this column as the join cust=cust and # = #+1 remember the first or last row will not have a hit, and you may need an optional join.

Then

I am trying to do this on the reporting side without making any changes to the catalog. Is this possible?

Then

You can only do this in a report if you have row number id's assigned to the rows, and you know what the "next date row id" is. You can use a form frame with a main query

and a sub query in it (both list frames) where the main query is linked to the sub query by row id + 1 in the filter for the sub query, as in Mainquery.rowid = subquery.rowid + 1It requires some pretty stringent data rules to make this work, and might be easier accomplished in a warehouse environment where you can "pre-sort" and organize the rows, assigning row id's as the warehouse table is populated. Outside the scope, I understand.

I'm trying to automate the cube building process using bat file. Since my cube is incrementally updated everymonth. I need to change the query to look at only current month. I need to this using IMR and save the imr to iqd. Is there any way i can use macros to do this job. Thanks very much for the help in advance

Can you not use a variable to perform the select? Where RDBMS_date >= First/last of month ( Add_months(today, -1) ) Or between ... I use these types of queries extensively for all monthly reporting

have created a model that uses IQD as the source for the data. I am able to build the powercube successfully on my local machine without any issues, however when I try to run the cube on the server I keep getting database connection issues and am not sure what is wrong. The datasource properties are set to Server The processing tab for the powercube is set to Server In the signons menu in transformer I have included the username and Password for the database In the impromptu catalog I have included the username and password for the database Below is the output from the log file: Any help with getting this to work would be appreciated.

12/02/03 09:37:53 3 00000000 Command Line:/products/cognos/cer3/bin/rsserver -cm /home/codata/bass/prod /mats_iqd/models/Mats_Complete_iqd.mdl [->OK] 12/02/03 09:37:53 3 00000000 Processing MDL file/home/codata/bass/prod/mats_iqd/models/Mats_Complete_iq d.mdl 12/02/03 09:37:53 3 00000000 Creating model file/home/codata/bass/prod/mats_iqd/modelwork/ppd45060.qyi 12/02/03 09:38:01 3 0049F217 Completed processing of MDL

You probably do not have all of the necessary paths defined in your profile. I had the same problem, it was the $ORACLE_HOME/lib in our cas was mapped to a directory that had changed..If you need any additional info please ask.

Then

You may want to check "Signon" and "FullDb" in .mdl file. If "FullDb" is not compatible with your properties in Unix platform, you may have problems.FYI: If you set a password and user id for a signon in the General tab of the Signon property sheet and then save the model as MDL, the information will be saved to the .mdl

file if Transformer is set to generate verb MDL. If Transformer generates Structured MDL the password is not saved and then PromptForPassword is set to True. For security purposes, Transformer saves passwords and user IDs in encrypted format. The options FullDB and EncryptedPW require encrypted strings that can only be produced by Transformer. The options Database and Password are identical except that they do not require encrypted strings and so can be manually entered.

hieven after going thr' doc's i could not understand the diff and relation bet CLOAK, APEX in a dimension diagram. can any one explain with proper example? thanks in advance.

This is a good question, and one that often gets people confused. Let's say you have data that looks like this:

2003USA 1,000EUR 2,500ASIA 1,500All 5,000

And assume that there are countries/states/cities, etc as lower levels. If you select USA in a Dimension Diagram and CLOAK,the result will be: 2003EUR 2,500ASIA 1,500All 5,000

This is because the USA 'branch' has been hidden from view, but the measure values still roll up to the total from the cloaked categories. (I have not found a good use for this feature.) Now, if you select USA in the Dimension Diagram and APEX, the result is this:

2003USA 1,000All 1,000

The Apex command makes that category the top of the hierarchy, and all other branches are removed from the view. You can still drill-down on USA for the lower levels, but no information about Europe or Asia is visble.

Anyone know why PowerPlay seems to intent some categories and not others when lowest level children are added as rows? Is this an XP Professional bug or is it a PowerPlay bug or is it a feature that I am not understanding?Auto Indent is a feature of PowerPlay. Sometime a few categories will not be indented evenly. This may be caused by the video driver, font selection or a ragged heirarchy at the lowest level. You can turn off this feature by opening the properties of the report and unchecking the appropriate setting.

Then

FWIW, I logged a call w/Cognos about inconsistent indenting within the same category in PP reports and the Cognos rep told me this was an identified bug that would be addressed in s7MR2 (which according to my colleague is now available from Cognos).

Kindly let me know the compatibility of power prompts with the macro. If the create a imr with some macro running on it will the power prompt support the same.You say the macro is running 'on' an Impromptu report, but not if you plan to use PowerPrompts in Windows or IWR/Web. This is very important, because you cannot run macros with IWR.Basically, there is no connection between PowerPrompts and macros, but if you are using Impromptu client (Windows) you can run the macro and PowerPrompts application on the same report.

I am using IWR, but there is a random amount of records returned in the IWR version and no error message. When I run it in Impromptu admin I get the error below and 900 or so records returned. Can anyone help? Error number -258:DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'bulk fetch'.

I was told by Cognos Support that IWR suppresses Impromptu error messages because most customer did not want a server return an error... So this is by design. I am not sure why you get the error in Impromptu. Bulk fetch is the reading e.g. 100 records at once from the database. If you get a random number in IWR this might be the reason. I just donot remember where to specify how many rows impromptu reads at a time but I think one can configure this easily. May be you can avoid the error when reading less records.

Then

Thanks for that, Hendrik. I can remove the error by selecting a smaller date range, but I thought that one month's worth of data was fairly reasonable. It has certainly been working until now. I suppose the data base may be getting bigger now and that my contribute towards it. When I run this same query on Imp Admin on the server I get this error. Error number -258:DMS-E-GENERAL, A general exception has occurred during operation 'bulk fetch'.DMS-E-RDS_OLEDB, The OLE DB provider has returned the following error:HRESULT: E_FAIL Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server Intra-query parallelism caused your server command (process ID #63) to deadlock. Rerun the query without intra-query parallelism by using the query hint option (maxdop 1).

SQLSTATE = 42000, ERROR = 8650

The SQL database is on a remote server. But this working fine until last week - I will try and look into the number of rows setting.

then

You cannot 'set' the number of records Impromptu returns per fetch. It is calculated by the database, based on the number of bytes required for the columns/calculations you are requesting. I suspect you are correct, that the database has grown and the larger number of available records has caused the error to appear now. Have you shown the error message to the DBA? That would be my first suggestion.

How to set the Current period to System date. I have created separate IQD which returns to the System date. How to map this value with the date dimension. Please help me..There are several steps involved:

1. In Transformer, change the name of the System Date column to the same name as that populating the Time Dimension. THIS MUST MATCH EXACTLY - so DATE is not the same as Date.2. Make sure that the metadata about System Date matches that for the column populating the Time Dimension - is it to Month, to Day, etc.3. In the Properties dialog box for the IQD that populates the Time Dimension, turn off the checkbox for Sets Current Period.4. Ensure that the System Date IQD has the checkbox for Sets Current Period checked.

I am creating an IMR using a template. The template page of the report shows the Logo of Company and the Report Name. The Listed data comes from the 2nd page.Now I am using the same template for a graph report using the chart frame. But the chart instead of coming on the 2nd Page is coming on 1st page and thus I am not getting normal 1st page with Logo and Report name.Is there anyway, so that the Chart comes on 2nd page and the 1st page is like listed reports? Do I need to change the Template? Is there anyway I can insert a Page Break?If I understand your requirement, I think you can just put your chart in the report footer, and force a page break before the footer.

I have a report that consists of 260 calculations. I am not going to go into details on the report. I am recieving this error msg when I go and add two calculations in the Impromptu report. I really do not want to recreate this report because of the complexities. This is a Financial report which has multiple layers of grouping. Which cognos Help suggested...... This is a Financial report which has multiple layers of grouping.The error msg is: Error Number :239 A general Exception has occured during operation prepare request with options. Relational Datasystem Internal Error? (?,?) Any assistance will be appreciated.

This report may be creating a SQL statement that is too long for your database to handle. Most databases have a limit around 1000 characters for SQL statements. See if you can

save the report as SQL and submit it to the database from a different application - you will probably get a clearer error message.

Then

Well, I'm not Opher, so I could be wrong, but I don't think he was trying to solve your problem so uch as help you identify the source of it. If you add your 2 calcs and then copy the SQL out of the report, you can try and run that in your database client. If it works there, then you at least know you have an Impromptu problem. If it doesn't work there, then you may have a database problem, such as the SQL being too long. That would be my first guess.

I have edited SQL in impromptu & Data does not show up. How-ever, when I go to the profile tab, there is data for each column. Totally about 100 rows What makes the data to vanish. Can some one help?

Look at your blank report.Go to the report menu.Select "apply template."Apply the simple list template.No guarantees, but I've seen it before.......When you're in the window where you select your report type, be sure to click on the "Set as default" button. That way all subsequent reports can be seen, instead of having to go through the step below for each one.

am trying to run the following javascript in Powerprompts :<%var rs = new Recordset();rs.Open("Select fi_dcsregtable, contract ,champusregion from dcs.dcsreg", "DCSHSRD1" );rs.close();%>The application returns the following error :SQL0567N "%S" is not a valid authorization ID. SQLSTATE=42602

I would like to know the procedure to create logical database in Impromptu which does not require a database sign on ?You need to define the database in Access Manager, and create a signon for it, then assign the user you are logging into Cognos as to that signon. Or, you can pass the user ID and password as parameters to your recordset Open method.

Suppose I created a calculated column that had say percent change in it. Now I want to filter (not highlight) percent change greater than say 25%. Can this be done at the user level? If so, how so?

You CAN filter on a calculation. It may be tricky, depending on where the calculation is performed. What I mean by this is - whether it is a summary calculation, or a detail calculation.

Impromptu, by default, simply copies the contents of the original calculation to the filter, as an example, (which I think matches what you are trying to do):Column 1 from DB, value = 100Column 2 from DB, value = 75Column 3 is a calculation of 75 / 100 = .75 (or 75%)

The filter needs to restrict only values that are >= 75%, in other words:The filter is: Column 3 >= .75, but what actually gets written to the filter is:(Column 2 / Column 1) >= .75

In the event of a summary where you need the total of column 2 / the total of column 1, all of this happens in the summary filter. (accessible via the filter tab of the query dialog boxes under the "summary" filter pull down definition) This is because the filter is calculated and applied AFTER the records are retrieved, and AFTER the summary calculations are done. In other words read all the records that qualify, total the columns, and then apply to filter to disregard the groupings that do not qualify for the filter criteria.

Too much detail I know, but I hope that helps!

I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before - I had a look in the archives, but I can't see any of the emails for some reason! So apologies if this is repetitive for some of you. Does anyone have any experience improving cube build performance? And/Or cube access performance. I have looked through the optimization documentation

that I have, but there doesn't seem to be hard and fast rules.

I know that I can change the partition size, which will affect the build and access. I choose to have a slower build time in favour of faster access to my users. So OK, what I would like is a faster build and fast access and I wonder whether there is anything else that I can do. I don't think that I can run incremental builds, because I use "unique" and "move" to accommodate errors/corrections in the database. Would having more data sources help with cube build speed or hinder it?

As an example, I have a cube that takes 3 hours to build manually (finished size is just over 500mb). It has 3 data sources, one is transactional and the other two are for information only. One of the information data sources is a csv and is very small,the other is an iqd and is a large product file. The transactional file is an invoice linefile (iqd), which has millions of lines in and holds most of the data. My thought was to split this transactional file a little and have a customer iqd (much the same as the product one) to spread the data to more data sources.Have you seen the document "PowerPlay 7.1 – Practical Guide For Transformer In Production"? It is available from the Cognos Support web site. There is no hard and fast rule for build/access speed improvments. There is a trade-off -- longer build usually leads to faster access speed – because Transformer can create better cube structures with more processing time.

Some quick suggestions:

1) Dual CPUs - Transformer can use two (it is OPTIONAL, with default OFF) if you have them in the computer.2) More RAM - YES! Absolutly will improve build (AND access) speed. Read about Cache settings in the above document to take advantage of the RAM you have.3) More free disk space -- Transformer eats up disk space for temp files. My guide -- for 5GB of source data have at least 20GB of free disk space available. And use only local drives for temp files.4) Talk with DBA and network admin to see about query optimization options.5) In Transformer, right-click on a cube definition and select PowerCube Partition Status. This will show you what partitions exist and how large they are. If they are VERY large (more than available RAM) you need to adjust. You can change that on the Cube Properties Auto-Partition tab.6) Also on Auto-Partition tab is the setting for Maximum number of passes. This is how many times the work file will be processed in order to find an optimal cube design. Default is 5, but you can increase that to see if the cube will get faster. Build time will get longer.

Before doing anything, print out the log file for a current build and keep it. Compare to log file after each change. See what is happening - longer query processing? longer sort time? faster cube processing? This will guide you through the process.

Is there a way in an impromptu web report to allow the user to sort on a particular field or fields? Prompts?Define columns, e.g., Sort Key 1, Sort Key 2, etc. The expressions would use the prompt value with if statements. Best to use a file picklist for the prompt. On the sort tab, specify the sort key columns.

I use a file picklist in Impromptu, the file is called 'type.asc' and contains the following values: -1, all1,Profit2,Loss

However, when I move the report (stored procedure report) asking for the prompt to another computer, the report often shows the prompt wrong, because it shows the whole line as label (like: '1,Profit' and uses the same whole line as value, causing an char to int conversion error. Sometimes it is fixed by replacing the , characters by ; characters. But later on I might have to change ; to , again to get it to work.

The version is Impromptu 7.0, same version on all machines. A more recent version is not an option :( Any explanation for this, or workaround ? I save the file as plain Text with ANSI encoding.check the impromptu.ini-file, if the parameter "file picklist delimiter" is listed there with the default value ",". If not append the file with this entry. ... hope this helps!And

Create your picklist in Excel, with two columns: one for value, one for display. Save as .csv and use that file for your picklist. It works for me.

We are looking into the possibility of using ReportNet to distribute reports to approx 2000 of our clients, we use Oracle 9i for our Data Warehouse and would look at putting the ReportNet Datastore on Oracle as well.This raises the question regarding Oracle Licence, as the produced report is stored in an Oracle Database do we need to have a Oracle Licence to retrieve it? The report is static and can not be queried and is merely stored as a blob in the DB.I am aware of some large corporations using Oracle as their DW but useMicrosoft SQL Server for the ReportNet Datastore. If there is anybody outtheir with this configuration can you advise me why this approach has beentaken?===============================================================Go to Report -&gt;query , click on advance tab, new window pops up, click on New, do your calculation, Click OK, to all, at the end of the your report, automatically newly calculated column will be added .

I'm working on compiling documentation for existing applications (PP cubes, Impromptu catalogs, etc.) and wondering if anyone has standardized templates they'd be willing to share. I've created some on my own, but not sure if I'm capturing everything that *should* be documented. Can anyone provide general guidelines regarding what truly is useful to have documented? I want to use my time wisely and document the integral pieces. I've researched this through Cognos KB as well as via DW books and various websites, but I'm sure that Real World Experience is different from theoretical. I'd appreciate any feedback/insight/direction to reliable resources, etc. Thanks,

I have made documentation for our own Cognos catalogs, reports and cubes but also for those of our clients. I would gladly share the template with you but it is in Dutch, so I don't think you would understand what I meant. So instead I will tell you what I put in the documentation. The first thing I have in the documentation is the folder structure and The tables that are in the folders. Especially if you have a lot of aliases this can be very handy. For example when database tables are updated you can immediately see what you need to do in your Catalog. I also show the different layers of the Catlog for exampleStudent SA_STUDENT

Subject SA_SUBJECTGrade alias SA-GRADE

For the reports I document the following:* Location of the report* Discription: Short explanation of what the report is meant for and what

information it contains* Frequency of the report, this only is usefull for IWR reports: when is it

scheduled or can it be run randomly

* Catlog: on which Catalog is the report based. Only usefull if you have more than one Catalog.

* Type of report: list report/crosstab etc.* Lay-out: Landscape or portrait, which template it is based on, the title of the

report* Fields: Name of the field in the report, name of the database field, folder it

came from, tablename it is in, adaptations i.e. used functions etc.* Filter: the filter used in the report (detail and Summary)* Prompts:Name of prompt, type of prompt,Message, Field in 'Use', field in

'Display', Default value. With a report or file picklist is also state which report or file is used.

* Conditional Formats* Grouping and associations* Sorting* Headers and Footers

We use IQD files based on reports for our Cubes. The IQD files and the underlying imr files are documented the same as regular reports.

For the cubes I register:* Location, discription, Frequncy with which the cunbe is refreshed, Catalog,

Report/IQD it is based on, Model which it is based on, Security: who has access to the cube,

* Measures: name, field, adaptation* Dimension: name, sort(R or T), Name of the layer and the field in that layer,

label of the layer i.e. Relation/Project RRelation/SA_NAME -Project/ProjectnumberProjectnameThis shows a dimension Relation/Project that consists of two layers: Relation and Project.

* The last thing I take down is the dimension view: which Categories are shown.Now you can find a lot of things I have menationed through the different Cognostools. However the snag is you don't have all the information in one go.The absolute minimum you need out of all this lot is: Catalogstucture. Fields, filter and prompts of reports.

The great thing about registering this is that someone unknown to the Catalog and the reports can more easily get an understanding of the cohesion. I have used all the above mentioned in maintenance and troubleshooting tasks. I do use Architect which also contains a lot of usefull information, especially about joins.

I ran the folling test with a brand new drill thru report created from scratch. 1. Open PPES admin and click to browse cube. Provide login info as cube is secured. Cube opens, drill down a few levels. Click drill through and drill through runs successfully.

2. Perform the identical actions as in (1) but instead log into upfront and open cube. Down down to the identical level as in (1), drill through and then get the page error (java script).Why the difference? What is upfront doing differently? Please help this is a production issue and have logged a case with Cognos too and they are review the problem. Minauti

Have you moved the drill-through report after it's been published?

Has anyone ever used an if/then/else statement in CQ?

In CQ there is no option to use if then else / Decode . You need to take care using SQL.Then embade this SQL in architect package and create a CQ package out of this.

then

This is incorrect.

You can do an if-then-else calculation in CQ. You can also, as an admin, set "enumeration values" in the Architect model which does a decode behavior but does it on the CQ server v. the db server.

Then

Well itz good to know there is some way to handle this in CQ. I will appriciate if you elaborate more to handle the situation directly in CQ GUI.The earlier comments was wrf of KB Document#: 110483 for IF THEN ELSE within Cognos Query UI It says : To work around, within Architect, try inserting an SQL with a CASE statements into Data Access layer. This way, the calculation would be executed before going to the web and presented as a column to select within your report. Let me know your ways to handle the situation.

Then

I should clarify -- you cannot do an "if-then-else" calc -- you *can* do a calculation with the "decode" function. Add a calculation, look under "functions" and then under "other functions" -- you will see decode if the db supports it.

I am having much difficulty installing the Sun One Directory Server. I am installing it from the Cognos 7.1 Version 2 Supplimental CD. When it goes into configurations manager, I follow the instructions and go to 3rd party, general. I stay with all of the defaults, and apply. It locks up at 22% every time. I've tried this on two separate servers and it happens every time. Very frustrating. Please advise.

I also ran through a number of issues with the directory server. But the best way to handle it would be to look for the following: McAfee or Norton (Disable them) SNMP services (Stop it till you finish install) Please tell me if you continue to face the same issue

I am experiencing a strange problem with PP Transformer 7.1, I have two datasources (IQDs) of following structure

Invoices:Year, period, debtor, product, agent code, amountAgentsagent code, agent name

Then I create a simple cube with dimensions Product, Time (Year/Period), Debtor, Agent with measure Amount for the dimension Agent I use Agent Code as category code and Agent Name as a label. Then I try to build the cube and at the moment Transformer starts reading the datasource Invoices I get a message "TR3110 Unknown error. Contant Cognos support." Then if I export the datasurce Agents using Impromptu into CSV and I use CSV as a datasource for Agents (instead of IQD) but keeping Invoice as IQD, the cube is built without any problems. I have the same problem with any model that has both transactional and structural queries. The db is Progress 9.1d using the Progress SQL92 ODBC driver. Has anyone experienced the same problem?

Please do the things...Solution 1

1. Backup your copy of the trnsfrmr.ini file by copying it to another directory or rename it to trnsfrmrbak.ini. The file is located in the <install drive>:\Program = Files\Cognos\cer1\bin directory.2. Start Transformer again. This will recreate this file and I think the application will now open without error.

Solution 2I think The IQD data source was bringing in duplicate dates.

In Impromptu open the IMR used to create the IQD. Select Report->Query->Filter and enable "Eliminate Duplicate Rows" to = filter out the duplicate dates. Resave the query as iqd.Please let me know if it works

This doesn’t seem to work…..Then

Your problem enunciates that you have both transactional as well as = structural data... please create separate iqd file for each dimension = and separate iqd files for transactional data and structural data... = then your transformer model should work fine... I had a similar (not the = same problem) not in too distant time... I guess you require to incorporate external rollup

Then

I have tried to play with the model little bit. If I change the Properties of all the datasources folder General/PowerCube creation from "Default" to "Create the

PowerCubes" then the cube is built without TR3110. But then if I manually change the label of any category and try to rebuild the cube TR3110 appears again. This time helps physically delete the cube (mdc file) from the disk and also the cube definition from the PowerCubes list. Strange but it works.

The administartor has created in Oracle 8i database. Now this stored procedure needs to be called using Impromptu to RETRIEVE data and DISPLAY in the Impromptu List report.

How do I go about this? While creating the catalog I only get to see the list tables & views in the database and not the stored proc... Do I need to do any setting? I am using the native driver to connect to the database.

Does the stored procedures created in Oracle have used Ref Cursors to store the result et? If so then you have to use the StoredProcedure template that you get when you click File->New menu option to create new report and in the dialog box that is displayed enter @Call <sp_name> (<list of Parameters) For more details see Impromptu Administrator's Guide i.e imadmngd.pdf

I have a multiple picklist prompt (Report picklist) which has an 'ALL' option in it.For example ,I have a cascaded prompt which first shows a list of alphabets (a,b,c..,'ALL'.) The user on choosing 'a', I then Prompt him all the products that start with 'a'. The user then has to select one or more products from the second picklist. If the user selects 'ALL' from the first picklist,then that means he wants to select all the countries. So the second prompt shows only 'ALL' in it.

This I achieve using a condition such as,1 = if( prodid in (?prodlist?)) then (1) else if('ALL' in (?prodlist?)) then (1) else (0) ...Everything works fine till here. Now i want to give the user an 'ALL' option when he chooses even an alphabet. Thererfore if the user chooses 'a',then he 'll get a second prompt with all the products beginning with 'a' along with with an 'A' Now if the user chooses 'ALL' from this prompt,he means to select only the 100 products that begin with 'a' and not all the products available in the database.Is there anyway I can achieve this?

Can offer a convenient but very time consuming solution... Create other prompta as All-A, All-B and so on...on the similar fashion (I assume) u have already created prompt for All. Its convenient because no much tricky logic needed, and time consuming as u have to creat 26 All's! :-)

I have a datasource like following:Date, product code, warehouse code, movement movements can be both positive and negative. I would like to create a cube with three dimensions - product, warehouse and time(year/month/day). The measure should be the balanceon the warehouse at the end of the time period (year/month/day).

I know that I could create a running total in the datasource for all combinations product x warehouse x date and then use the Time Rollup - last. But since there are by far not a transaction for all products and warehouses every day this would create billions of records comparing to few hundred thousands of the original datasource (movements). I have tried to create a query like this but it has already taken more than 3 hours of CPU time without giving any results.Is there any better way how to solve this?

How can you determine the balance value if you only enter the 'movement' quantities?Also, don't use Time Rollup of Last. Last will give you values of zero for everything except past periods. Unless you have future period data, use Time Rollup Current Period. Try both and see what you prefer. Then

If I have the movements from the very beginning I can calculate the balance at any time period by adding up all the movements until that period. I have the current balance available so I could also substract the movements backwards to get some older balance.

What exactly want to do is a model with two measures (both related to the time dimension).1) inventory balance2) inventory movement

Then I can calculate the turnover of the inventory (per wh, inventory group...) and it's development in time. Thank you for the suggestion to use "Current Period" I will take alook if that might help.

I ran the folling test with a brand new drill thru report created from scratch. 1. Open PPES admin and click to browse cube. Provide login info as cube is secured. Cube opens, drill down a few levels. Click drill through and drill through runs successfully.2. Perform the identical actions as in (1) but instead log into upfront and open cube. Down down to the identical level as in (1), drill through and then get the page error (java script).Why the difference? What is upfront doing differently? Please help this is a production issue and have logged a case with Cognos too and they are review the problem. Minauti

are you trying through the browser on the server or the browser on your machine?By the way what is the exact error?

Then

Hi, I am trying it thru browser on server and local machine. The issue is tht when I browse the cube thru PPES it drill thru giving the desired results but when I drill thru with the same parameters thru upfront it gives me Javascript error. We are following it up with Cognos also and they have asked us to perform few more tests but the error still persists. Kindly help, if you have encountered the same error or know of the same

problem. Thanks in advance. Minauti (answer not complete)

i am working on cognos series 7 version 2. in the powerplay model i have added time categories 4months ago, 3months ago, 2 months ago. my boss told me that add calculated categories %change (4months ago), % change (3months ago), %change of (2 months ago). can one anyone help how to do this.

Create a special category with the crosshair. Hold your pointer over the right hand side of the drill category and pull it below the other categories and release it. Select the relative time tab on the properties sheet. Select customised. Select the option period to date grouped. Your target is month and offset -2 (for two months), -3 (for 3 month) and -4 (for 4 months) It is within this year so your context is year = 0. The system will give you period to date, previous period to date, change, % change by default. See if that will help...

does anyone now what "TR3435" error message means?

This error can occur if, for security reasons, File Sharing Permissions have been altered on the model and the "Read" option has been set to "Deny". Effectively users do not have the necessary permissions to read the file. It may be necessary to consult with the Cognos or Network administrator to grant the necessary permissions on the file

I am trying to refresh the cube.For example i have 10mil records already in the cube.And there are 500 recoreds added in the database.If i try to refresh the cube is it going to scan from very first record or it is just going to take new 500 records and add it to the cube. How does the scenrio works.

Not true! There is a way to add only new data to a cube. The cube needs to be set to incremental update AND you need to have an IQD that only pulls "new data" each time it runs. You will also need to ensure that prior data won't change. If it does then you will need to rebuild the whole cube.

I am using V7 of transformer and one of the cubes that are scheduled over night (Cognos scheduler is used) has the following error at the end of the build.(TR1901) MDC(49): could not save file (Bitmap) in \\dolphin\cognosv2\cubes\cubename.mdc. [->OK]The process creates the mdc file, but when you try and access through upfront you get "The connection string is invalid" error and the cube is obviously corrupt.

There is 22GB of space available on the server and the cube builds fine manually.The trouble is that this cube takes several hours to build!

Jeanette, perhaps the cube is locked (i.e. someone is using the cube during the build) Try building to a non-production location first and then copy it to the production location. An alternative is with 7.1 where there is an alt cube name that it will use if the main cube islocked.

I wish to apply conditional formatting to a crosstab report. The condition is on the cell value. Say a crosstab has C as Columans & R as rows and m1 is the measure. Now I want to apply conditional formatting on values of m1 on different ranges and apply 'styles'. I have tried following 2 approach without any luck..."Add Custom Condtions" approach:

As I select a cell value and right click with the intention to build a condition on m1 (different ranges like m1<50, m1 between 51 and 100 , m1 between 101 and 150 and m1 > = 151 ) I do not find the column m1 in Report Column folder and Catalog Columns are not be seen in "Condition Definition" window.

"Add Catalog Condtions" approach:

Also I have tried building the condition at catalog level and pulling them in Conditional Formats window to apply styles. To my dismay nothing happens... the fish floats and fetches me only the data and not the conditional format. Also the conditions pulled in Conditional Formats window vanish.Please put in your valuable comments. This is easily achievable in PowerPlay. I need that in Impromptu.

Alok, I came across this issue a few months back. (I would recommend upgrading 7.1.339.0 but it's not essential for this solution) To successfully apply conditional formatting to all crosstab rows in areport do the following:

1. execute the report so you have actual values to work on.2. observe what happens when you single click a crosstab column header with the arrow down icon (or row selector icon).

a) first time it selects the all rows in the current columnb) second time it selects all the crosstab columns!

3. Once all the crosstab rows are selected you can apply your conditional formatting.

Your conditional formatting will "stick" through subsequent report executions.

Then

Thanks for the reply. I have tried as suggested by you, albeit without any luck. The formatting is OK when it comes to applying it with condition on categorical data. I wish to apply formatting on ranges of "CELL VALUES" of the cross tab report. I selected all the crosstab columns and added the conditions in "Conditions" window by clicking "Addcatalog conditions". Then I applied different styles to different conditions. Then clicked OK to close "Conditional Formats" window. The formating was not applied to the crosstab. When I go back to conditional format window I see the catalog condition disappearing.In "add custom condition" I can not add the condition as the "report column" folder presents only Row Data in the cross tab to build the condtion. The catalog column is not available to build the custom condition.

I have also tried getting the list report from the cross tab and then applying the formatting and back to crosstab but this loses the formatting.

Then

Hi Alok, sorry to hear it's not working for you. I have made some observations while applying conditional formatting to crosstab reports. The most significant one being that you WILL lose all conditional formatting if you modify your report after the conditional formatting is applied.Based on you comments below you are attempting to apply a condition format to the actual crosstab cells that are range based. Unfortunately, I don't believe that Impromptu provides that functionality. Do you have PowerPlay? It does provide the ability to apply conditional formats to the individual cells.The only way to accomplish what you are trying to do in Impromptu is the manually create each of you crosstab columns and then apply a conditional format to each column. If your crosstab columns are always consistently the same columns then you can use this technique.===============================================================

Hi Jeannette,I have encountered this error before and try and follow these changes. Try and change all your temp directory coz the cube was built sucessfully but was not saved and when u point unsaved or incomplete cube then u get the connection string error on upfront.

Change the setting for the UDA temporary directory, which is the temporary directory that gets used during the retrieval of the data from the database. Steps -

Open Configuration Manager. Go to Services, UDA, General. Change the setting for the List of Temporary Directories to point to a temp location with sufficient free space available.

Hi all,I have a requirement where I need to hide a dimension in the cube but show it in the powerplay reports. I know how to make a model secured but when I hide a dimension there, it automatically hides in powerplay reports also. Can anyone please help me with this Thanks in Advance. Minauti

Can you further describe what you are trying to do? By 'hiding the cube', do you mean it is not visible to some people? You cannot include a Dimension in PowerPlay reports if it is not in the cube. You can set security so that the only some users will be able to view what is in that Dimension.

Then

I am trying to hide a dimension in the cube on upfront for A userclass but I wnt this dimension to be visible for the same userclase in a powerplay report. I have set my security right for the userclass but if i hide this dimension for tht userclass then it will not be available in the powerplay report either. Do you have any idea, how to solve this problem.TIA

Then

A possible workaround is to use 2 cubes: 1 with the dimension hidden, which you publish or distribute, and 1 with the dimension showing, which you don't publish/distribute, but use to base your reports on.

Then

Only one possible solution for this is to - generate secured & un-secured cubes from the same model.- Have the secured cube published to Upfront.- Build PP reports based on unsecured cube.

However, please note that if you are providing access to these reports from PP Web explorer, there is a potential for the users to navigate as they do in a cube or a cube view. You can over come that by giving access to these PP reports using Web Viewer which gives the output in PDF format and the user will not be able to navigate outside what youhave defined in the report. Also, for being able to generate PP reports, you do not need to publish the unsecured cube to upfront.

Question. I can not seem to find where to sync the time on the IWR server with the time it stamps on the reports when they are published. It is off by about 1 hour. They system date is one hour behind the date when it is published to the web. Any suggestions? Where do I set this time?

What you are probably seeing, Clayton, is the 'local' time based on the time zone your profile is set to. Take a look at your perferences in Upfront and make sure the time zone is correct.Also, check the time zone that Access Manager sees in the Namespace. Those two need to be the same for the time to be 'current'.

ThenThis answer is very close to correct but you will need to make a non-intuitive change in the Upfront preferences. If you have daylight savings checked in AM then you will need to uncheck it in Upfront as it will override the AM setting and set it 1 hour behind.

To test this for yourself create a new folder and see the date/time created. Make the change to the Daylight savings check box and repeat the test and the folder should now be in sync with the machine.

Then

I did what Dave said, I unchecked the box for daylight savings in Upfront. I did this from the remote desktop from where I published the reports. Went into iwr, logged in as administrator and changed it in the personalize, locale tab. Thanks for all your help.

I have a problem with a few of reports that was created in impromptu version 7.1.3 and now I have to open it in another impromptu version 7.0.8. Impromptu 7.0.8 say me that can not open report 'casuse of it was created in version 7.1.3.

You might try opening the upgraded report, copying the SQL and then opening the older version of Impromptu and then pasting the SQL in. It should work, but there will be certain issues.

I have a number that is 76.7779166666667 that I formatted to appear as 76.78 will no problem. When I convert that number to string though I'm getting 77. What do you do in Impromptu to get 76.78 as a string?left ( ( number-to-string ( Amount * 100 ) ) ; ( ( char_length ( ( number-to-string ( amount * 100 ) ) ) ) - 2 ) ) ) + '.' + right ( ( number-to-string ( amount * 100 ) ) ; 2 ) )

Hi gurus, what is the actual difference between shared and secured catalog? as far as i know shared catalog is all users accessing the same copy but in distributed each user has his own copy. If we make changes what is the result for shared and distributed catalog? can anybody please elaborate on this issue. Thanks in advance.You are correct, with distributed each user get their own copy and this copy updates each time they connect to it. It will automatically update with changes made to the master. In a shared catalog everyone access the same physical catalog. There is a setting for distributed, however the other catalog types are determined by the presence of additional user profiles (shared) or the presence of a namespace in catalog properties (secured).

Then

Hi Paul - Overall a good response. One thing, though, is that a catalog does not need a namespace to be 'secured'. A secured catalog, by default, does not give new user profiles the ability to create and edit reports. They are only able to run reports others have created. When a namespace is pointed to, all the catalog 'types' work the same way, but Access Manager settings can be used to authenticate and authorize the user - for example, passwords to the database can be in AM, etc.

Thanks for your suggestions. It's difficult to try anything in this situation. The cube takes so long to build and is in such high demand that I have to wait until the evening to try anything. Yesterday, I changed the data sources to use multiple processors and I also created an additional temp directory for transformer to use. Idon't think that it was any faster in it's creation. But, it did create the cube correctly. I am going to keep a close eye on this and will let you know if I find anything else.

I'm also facing similar problem. How did you assigned the multiple processors to the data sources and where did u set the new temp directory settings.

Then

Steps are as follows - also get this document form the Cognos site that was recommended by Opher. "Practical Guide for transformer in Production" - it is very useful.

Open the properties of the data sourceUnder the general tab you can choose to use multiple processors for that data source. The document above is helpful with the other settings in there, but I am still studying to fully understand.

To add another temp directoryPress F5 to open the preferences dialog box. In the directories tab you can add temp directories - choose somewhere local and with lots of space. When you complete the action transformer will ask you if you want to create the directories if they are not there.

I had 3 temp directories, which I have increased to 4 now.

I have two excel source files & created IQD files from database for the dimensions and measures as listed below:

Budget.xls - columns areDateCust CodeProduct NameTotal Sales BudgetTotal Gross Budget

Sales.xls - Columns are=20DateRegionCodeRegionnameCountrycodeCountrynameCustcodeCustnameCountrycustomer (Countrycode + countryname+custcode+custname)SalespersoncodeSalespersonnameInvoice#QuotationInvoiceQuotation (invoice+quotation)Productline codeProductline nameItem groups codeItem groups description

ABC codeABC Code descriptionCustomer PartTotal Sales(SGD)Total Sales(USD)Total Cost (SGD)Total Margin(SGD).......

ABC Code Dimension - Levels are ( from ABCCode iqd)ABC CodeABC Code Description

Customers Dimension - Levels are ( from customer iqd)RegioncodeRegionnameCountrycustomer(countrycode + countryname+custcode+custname)

Item Groups Dimension - Levels are ( from Item groups iqd)Item groups codeItem groups Description

Parts Dimension - Levels are ( from parts iqd)Part numberPart descriptionCustomer Item

Products Dimension - Levels are ( from Products iqd)Productline codeProductline description

Sales details Dimension - Levels are ( from salesdetails iqd)Salesperson codeSalesperson nameInvoicequotation (Invoice + Quotation)

Salesmeasure - From Salemeasures iqdCountrycustomer (Countrycode + countryname+custcode+custname)Invoicequotation (Invoice + Quotation)Productline descriptionCustomer ItemABC CodeItem Groups Code

Total Sales(SGD)Total Sales(USD)Total Cost (SGD)

Total Margin(SGD).......except the below listed measuresTotal Sales BudgetTotal Gross Budget

In the model designed have the lowest levels as- ABC Code- CountryCustomer-Item Groups Code- Customer Item-Product Line description-Invoice Quotation

When trying to generate cube getting error as=20

Powerplay transformer error=20"Total Average Cost(SGD) - To resolve this problem either associate the columns in the data source to higher level in the dimension, or , if appropriate designate the level as unique level.It's very urgent to resolve this problem. Any ideas are highlyappreciated.

Have you had a look at the scope for that measure? It's easy to see what relationship dimensions and measures have using this because the colours show you very easily what is linked. I have seen this error when the measure is associated with a level that has no link to it's upper levels. Let us know what the scope diagram shows.

Then

Try and get an iqd file created for each dimension separately =and all measures in one iqd file. Then you will have no problem for =association. For example, Dimensions are D1, D2, D3 with levels l11, =l12, l13, D1_ID (ID for dimension D1) for D1 in D1.iqd file and l21, =l22, l23, D2_ID (ID for dimension D2) for D2 D2.iqd file and l31, l32, =l33, D3_ID (ID for dimension D3) for D3 D3.iqd file (assuming that all =the dimension has three levels- these may vary from one dimension to the =other). Now get all the measures with all the ID's in M1.iqd file i.e. =D1_ID, D2_ID, D3_ID, m1, m2, m3 in M1.iqd file. Insert these D1.iqd, D2 =D2.iqd, D3 D3.iqd, & M1.iqd as data source in PowerPlay Transformer. =This mimics 'STAR SCHEMA' and is the most efficient way (read best =practices) to insert data sources for an OLAP application. You will =never witness such problem as this of association. A little bit of =planning the model for your OLAP application will save your effort, time =& energy in all your development work. Hope this helps. Feel free if you =need any further input from me.

Installing ReportNet in Unix

Install ReportNetTo install ReportNet, use the installation wizard to copy all the componentsto your computer.

StepsInsert the CD that is appropriate for your operating system. On UNIX, youmust mount the CD using Rock Ridge file extensions.The Welcome page of the installation wizard should appear.If no Welcome page appears, do one of the following:On Windows, in the win32 directory on the CD, double-click the xwsetup.exefile.On UNIX, type ./xstartupSelect the language to use for the installation.Copy the required files to your computer.Follow the directions in the installation wizard. For a completeinstallation of ReportNet, you need all the components that are installed bydefault. To install only some components, or for a distributed installation,see the Installation and Configuration Guide on the CD.In the Finish page of the installation wizard, click Start CognosConfiguration and then click Finish.If you will use Oracle or DB2 databases, you must set up the JDBC drivers.For DB2, you must also install the DB2 client on the ReportNet computer. Formore information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide on the CD.

Update Your JAVA Runtime Environment on UNIXBefore you can use the cryptographic operations, such as data encryption andkey management, implemented by ReportNet, you must check that the requiredJAR (Java Archive) files are present in your Java Runtime Environment (JRE).On Windows, this is done automatically when you install ReportNet.

Before updating your JRE on UNIX, ensure you have the correct version of aJRE installed:

Sun Solaris: 1.3.1_07HP-UX: 1.3.1_08IBM AIX: 1.3.1 (ca131-20030122a)StepsCheck that the following JAR (Java Archive) files exist in theJRE_location/lib/ext:sunjce_provider.jarUS_export_policy.jarlocal_policy.jarjce1_2_1.jarjcert.jarjnet.jarjsse.jarbcprov-jdk13-113.jarTip: An example of the installation location of a Java Runtime Environmentis /directory/java/java_version/jre.If any files are missing, go to crn_location/bin/jre/1.3.1/lib/ext directoryand copy the appropriate JAR files to the JRE_location/lib/ext directory.

Configuring ReportNet

After you install ReportNet on your computer, some the followingconfiguration tasks are required:

      Configuring your Web server.

      Set the database connection properties for the content store.

      Configure a mail server account.

Configuring Your Web ServerBefore you use Web pages generated by ReportNet, you must configure your Webserver. You must set up virtual directories, also known as Web aliases, forthe directories that contain the HTML and Web files for ReportNet.

The virtual directories in the Alias column of the following table arerequired for all Web servers.

Alias  Location  Permissioncrn

 crn_location\webcontent

 Read

crn/cgi-bin

 crn_location\cgi-bin

 Execute

crn/help

 crn_location\webcontent\documentation

 Read

Set Database Connection Properties for the Content StoreYou you must specify the database server information to ensure thatReportNet can connect to the database you use for the content store. ContentManager uses the database logon to access the content store.

Steps for Oracle and DB2 DatabasesOn the computer where you installed Content Manager, start CognosConfiguration.In the Explorer window, under Data Access, Content Manager, right-clickContent Store and click Delete.This deletes the default resource. You can configure ReportNet to accessonly one content store.Right-click Content Manager, and then click New resource, Database.In the Name box, type a name for the resource.

In the Type box, select the type of database and click OK.In the Properties window:If you are use a DB2 database, for the Database name property, type thedatabase alias.If you use an Oracle database, type the appropriate values for the Databaseserver and port number and Service name properties.Click the Value box next to the User ID and password property and then clickthe edit button when it appears.Type the appropriate values in the Enter the user ID and password dialog boxand then click OK.From the File menu, click Save.The logon credentials are immediately encrypted.Steps for Microsoft SQL ServerOn the computer where you installed Content Manager, start CognosConfiguration.In the Explorer window, under Data Access, Content Manager, click ContentStore.By default, ReportNet uses properties for a Microsoft SQL Server database.If necessary, in the Properties window, change the default value for theDatabase server and port number.For the Database name property, type the name of the database you previouslycreated in Microsoft SQL Server to use as the content store.Click the Value box next to the User ID and password property and then clickthe edit button when it appears.In the Enter the user ID and password dialog box, type the appropriatevalues and then click OK.From the File menu, click Save.The logon credentials are immediately encrypted.

Configure a Mail Server Account (Optional)If you want to send reports by email, you must configure a mail serveraccount.

StepsOn each computer where Content Manager or the report server is installed,start Cognos Configuration.In the Explorer window, under Data Access, click Notification.In the Properties window, for the SMTP mail server property, type the hostname and port of your SMTP (outgoing) mail server.Click the Value box next to the Account and password property and then clickthe edit button when it appears.Type the appropriate values in the Enter the user ID and password dialog boxand then click OK.In the Properties window, type the appropriate value for the default senderaccount.From the File menu, click Save.

Test ReportNetYou can test your installation and configuration by starting the ReportNetservice and then opening Cognos Connection, the ReportNet Web portal.

On Windows, the ReportNet service is configured to start automatically bydefault.

On UNIX, to start the ReportNet process automatically, you must configure

the process as a daemon. For more information, see your operating systemdocumentation.

You must install and configure both ReportNet and Framework Manager beforeyou can use ReportNet for reporting.

StepsStart Cognos Configuration.Ensure that you save your configuration, otherwise you will not be able tostart the ReportNet service.From the Actions menu, click Start.It may take a few minutes for the ReportNet service to start.Open a Web browser.Type the following, where crn is the virtual directory you created when youconfigured the Web server:http://computer_name/crnIt may take a few minutes for the Web page to open.If you see the Welcome page of Cognos Connection, your installation isworking.

Install Framework ManagerTo install Framework Manager, use the installation wizard to copy all thecomponents to your computer.

StepsInsert the Framework manager CD, and then open the installation menu.The Welcome page of the installation wizard should appear.If no Welcome page appears, in the win32 directory on the CD, double-clickthe xwsetup.exe.file.Select the language to use to run the installation wizard.Follow the directions in the installation wizard to copy the required filesto your computer.

Does anyone know of a macro that can produce a report (.doc, .xls, .imr,etc.) that illustrates all users, grouped by userclass, from Access Manager.

Option Explicit

Sub Get_Users_List(UserClass As Object)

Dim I As IntegerDim J as Integer

If UserClass.Users.Count > 0 ThenFor I = 1 To UserClass.Users.Countif userclass.users(i).IdentificationInformation.OSSignons.count >0 thenfor j= 1 to userclass.users(i).IdentificationInformation.OSSignons.countPrint #1, UserClass.Name & ":" & UserClass.Users(I).Name & ":" &UserClass.Users(I).IdentificationInformation.OSSignons(j).namenext jend ifPrint #1, UserClass.Name & ":" & UserClass.Users(I).Name & ":"Next ielse

Print #1, UserClass.Name & ":"End If

If UserClass.UserClasses.Count >= 0 ThenFor I = 1 To UserClass.UserClasses.CountCall Get_Users_List(UserClass.UserClasses(I))NextEnd If

End Sub

Sub Main()

Dim objAuthApp As Object ' Access Manager Application ObjectDim objAuthDoc As Object ' Access Manager Document ObjectDim objDSConfig As ObjectDim OSSignon As StringDim ObjUser as Object

Const AdminUser = "Administrator"Const AdminSignon = ""Const NameSpace = "default"Const FileName = "d:\ClassUsers.csv"

' Calls Access Manager and opens namespace with admin signonSet objAuthApp = CreateObject("Authenticator2.Application")Set objAuthDoc = objAuthApp.Documents.OpenWithBasicSignon(NameSpace,AdminUser, AdminSignon, 0)Set objUser = objAuthDoc.UserFolder.Users.item("administrator")

' Opens output file and writes titleOpen FileName For Output As #1Print #1, "User Class:User Name:OSSignon"

' Calls recursive procedure for getting users listCall Get_Users_List(objAuthDoc.RootUserClass)

' Closes output fileClose #1

' Exits Access ManagerobjAuthApp.QuitSet objAuthDoc = NothingSet objAuthApp = NothingEnd Sub

15) What are the steps involved in creating Free Style From the File menu, click New, and then double-click Blank. In the Data tab, double-click the folder to be accessed Double-click the columns to be added to the Query Data box. Add Picture data items to add pictures to your freestyle report later Similarly add other data items

Include summary items using the Summary dialog box. In the Group tab, use Group button to group the report. We can add a list frame to the freestyle report to show the details of the data.

This gets added to the form frame of the Blank report We can change the Scope of the Data in the Form Frame by using the scope of

data box. with this we can group the data by one column. Ex: We can group according to product.

Add a Chart to the Report, to depict pictorally column values or summarized values as shown in the list frame. This should make the list frame to be better understood. Ex: Sales delivered by different channel for a particular product

Add a Picture Frame to the Report to enhance the report details. For example, you can add dynamically linked pictures that change to match the information in the list report. Ex: Picture of product depicted in the page

Add a Text Frame to the Report The text can be a title, to describe the contents of the report, or the text can be report data that would change with the information on the list report. Ex: Product name for the present page of the report

We now have a free-style report that has coherent objects.

16) How do you create cascading prompts for reports?1. Create the report that you want the user to open.2. Save, but do not close, the report. For each cascading prompt you require, save the report again with a different name for each.3. Go back to the first report you created.4. From the Report menu, click Query, and click the Filter tab.5. In the Available Components box, double click the Report Columns folder to open it.6. Double-click the data item you want to appear in the filter expression.7. In the Available Components box, click "In" or "=", and click the left parenthesis.For example, Product in (8. Double-click Prompt Manager in the Available Filter Components box.9. Click New to create a prompt.10. In the Prompt Definition dialog box, type a Name and a Message for the prompt.11. In the Type box, click Report Picklist.12. Locate and select one of the reports you saved in step 2.13. In the Report Data box, select the data item that the current report prompts for, click Use,click Display and click OK.14. Click OK to close the Prompt Manager.15. Complete the filter definition by double-clicking ")" in the Available Components box, and click OK.For example, Product in (?Product Name?)16. Open each of the reports you saved (other than the first report you created in step 1), and edit each report so it contains the required data items, and the appropriate filter definition containing the desired prompt.17. Open the last report and edit it so it is a simple list containing the data item for which the user is prompted.

18. Save the report

Note: The first report mentioned(the report that the user sees), would contain the

last(lowest level) filter condition(Ex: Product name). The last report would contain the

the first filter the user is prompted for(Ex: Product Type)

17) Explain Client Server Balancing.Impromptu has 3 client-server balancing server options. Always choose Database or limited local processing over flexible processing. This forces the query to run on database, sorting and extended summaries (summaries in headers) are also performed on the database.

The administrator sets the Client-server balancing option for a particular User Class. You can set the client-server balancing for sub ordinate classes.For the templates, it is always local database, flexible processing assumed.

Database only: Runs queries completely on the database.

Limited Local Processing: Runs queries with some processing on your computer.

Flexible Processing: Processes on the database only, or on the database and on yourcomputer depending on how Impromptu decides to optimize the processing.

Database Limited FlexibleSummary before details

Cannot Handle Runs 2 queries.Once for details and once for summary and merges both

One query and computes the total by itself

Grouped summary & report level summary

Cannot handle Runs 2 queries.Once for details and once for summary and merges both

One query and computes the total on the computer

Filter with a "sounds like" prompt

May not handle this Impromptu runs the query but you cannot sort on the filter

Impromptu will run the query with no limits

The following summaries(13) are available in Impromptu only, which means they are processed on your computer:• moving-average• moving-total

• percentage of the total• percentile• quantile• rank• running-total• running-average• running-count• running-difference• running-maximum• running-minimum• tertile

When you filter on summaries that are processed on your computer, the summaries are usually processed locally. However, adding a filter may change where the summary is processed. Selecting the client/server option (Client/Server tab, Query dialog box) also impacts the processing location of the summary filter.Note:In the Components box (Calculation dialog box):• Impromptu functions are processed locally on your computer. (i)• Database-only functions are processed on the database. (d)• Combination functions are processed on the database whenever possible. (id)

18) What are Snapshots?Types? Why would we need snapshots?

Snapshot is a permanent local copy of the data in your report.Snapshot saved on a server is known as remote snapshot.Any report that contains a snapshot retrieves data from the snapshot and not the database.(Click the snapshot icon and refresh/remove snapshot for updated information.Why snapshots (local)?To send reports as email attachments to users without access to database or catalog.To store historic information and later use as datasets.Why snapshots (remote)?To run reports with complex calculations during off-peak hours.Note:Data cannot be updated in the reports for hotfilesRemote SnapshotsTo create a remote snapshot, you run a report against the database using Request Server. Request Server then saves the results of the query as a result set in the database instead of locally.

The key differences between remote snapshots and local snapshots are as follows: A report based on a remote snapshot does not contain any data. Instead, a

reference or pointer points to the results table in the database. A remote snapshot requires access to the database, often on a network, and

so is not as portable as a local snapshot.

You must have Request Server to create the result set in the database. Remote snapshots offer many of the same benefits as local snapshots. In

addition, they can be created unattended during off-peak hours. they are created by running a query directly on the database server, and so

build much more quickly than tables built locally. As the size of the database increases, so too does the performance advantage of a remote snapshot.

where the result set is particularly large, a remote snapshot maintains a relatively small file size compared to the local snapshot, because the report does not actually contain any data.

When you save a snapshot with your report, the data and the report are saved as one file, and the data in the report is static. If the database for your report is updated after a snapshot is taken, the data in the snapshot does not change to reflect the updates. If you want to use the updated data, you must refresh the snapshot.

19) What is a HotFile?A HotFile is a local data table you can create from database columns. Once created, a HotFile is independent of the database columns from which it was created, and you can use it in any report or catalog. You can join a HotFile to database tables, reports, or other HotFiles.

Uses: Generate reports using data from multiple databases. Use HotFiles as lookup tables or in report prompts. Use HotFiles as a database. Share HotFiles by including them in your catalog.

Notes• HotFiles exist on the client. They are not supported by Impromptu Request Server.• HotFiles are not indexed, therefore, joins may take longer than expected to execute.• HotFile size is limited only by available disk space. However, you should not use HotFiles to store very large query results as they could slow computer performance.

Create a HotFile AutomaticallyYou can set up a macro that automatically creates a HotFile each night to save time on lengthy report execution during business hours. For example, you have a report that contains a complicated calculation for profit margin that takes 45 minutes to execute. You have to create this calculation with new data each day. You create a macro in Impromptu that creates a profit margin report with the new data and saves it as a HotFile overnight using the Cognos Scheduler.

A note on Thumbnail

A thumbnail is user-selected number of rows of data. The queries work on the selected number of rows. If the queries demand more then, the report automatically attaches to the database. For example, if you work with a thumbnail of 30 rows, Impromptu retrieves the first 30 rows from the database and then uses the 30 rows as the data source for your queries. If you add a column to the query, Impromptu must retrieve the new data from the database.

When you close a report, thumbnail is automatically discarded.Thumbnails can be given in: Report-Query-Access tab-Thumb nail.

Action items(Nov 20 ’03)Action items(Nov 20 ’03)

20) Explorer Vs. Reporter

Explorer Report Reporter ReportExplorer reports are dynamic Reporter reports are staticWhen you first open the report the first two dimensions and the first measure appear in the report

The report is blank when opened first. Have to add dimensions and measures manually.

They have summarized rows and columns by default

Reporter reports are blank. You can add summaries manually.

- you cannot delete rows or columns using delete. Have to replace the existing dimensions with some other dimension.

- can remove rows and columns based on category or level

- does not support short bar drop zone - supports short bar drop zone.- subset creation are not supported. - can create find-in, parentage or advanced

subsets.- in explorer reports, levels that are intersected from the same dimension must be nested so that child categories appear directly below parent categores.

- in reporter reports, nested levels can also be created from alternate paths of the same dimension.

- drilling down on a category in a nested explorer report replaces the drill category level with the child category.

- drilling down on a category in a nested report adds the children of that category as new categories at the same level.

- the indented2 layout for crosstab display is available for reports.

- the indented2 layout for crosstab display is not available for reports.

- blank rows or columns cannot be added to explorer reports

- you can add blank rows or columns to reporter crosstabs.

21) What are subsets in Powerplay?Steps to create a subset?A group of categories created to isolate information that shares some common criteria. Subsets are created by adding a subset definition to a report.Subsets are visible in the pane in below the dimension viewer.The subset viewer shows subset definitions created by the parentage, find-in-cube, and advanced subset tools. You can add individual categories from the results as a row, column, or layer, or you can use the resulting categories to create a subset.

Parentage Subset DefinitionA subset definition based on the parent/child relationships below a specific level. You can base the subset definition on the categories at the next level down, at the next two levels down, or at the lowest level of detail.

Advanced Subset DefinitionA query that selects a new set of categories based on a dimension, drill-down path, and category level or levels. You can further restrict the selection by adding find-in-cube and value restrictions, and by including or excluding parent categories.Find-In-Cube Subset DefinitionSubset definition created using the Find in Cube tool, which searches for the text you type in the Find What box. You can find all categories or dimensions in a cube, which meet specified criteria. You can have a case-sensitive search, a whole category search, or a wildcard search.

Value RestrictionAn advanced subset definition created using the Restrict by Value dialog box. You can restrict the selected measure by highest or lowest values, or a range of values.

Steps to create a subset?

i. Open a reportii. In the dimension viewer pane select one or more dimensions and right

clickiii. Depending on the level in the dimension you are: You either have

Parentage or Advanced subset option or both.iv. Select one and in the Subset windowv. Give a name to the sub set

vi. Select the levelsvii. Determine parentage/restrictions

viii. Click OK.

22) How do you rank in PowerPlay? First select the required data. For example, Products in rows and Total

revenue in columns. Delete the product summary row at the top. Select Total revenue column. From Explore menu select Rank. The Rank window opens Select the type of ranking ( All, Top 10, or Bottom 10 etc) Select the Ordinal as Highest/Lowest Select ascending or descending order Click OK.

23) How do you configure Upfront? End user level? Open Cognos Server Administration. Click on the Upfront Portal The Upfront server window opens Select/Write the server name- (To add/remove a server, click Server Menu-Add

server)

First time it prompts you to secure your server If yes, provide a password to your server If no, it will not prompt in future sessions

To test:Open browser, type localhost/server connected, if it opens your Upfront is configured well. If no there could be an error in the server you are connected to or in the web servers or not responding. Start and stop web servers and virtual directories.

23) What are intersected categories in Power Play?

A feature that combines categories from different dimensions. For example, you can select Products and Locations, and add the new intersected category as rows. If you add Years as columns, the report shows the number of products sold over the years, by region.This feature is only available in Reporter reports.You can intersect any level with any dimension.Steps:

i. Select any level or dimension in the dimension pane.ii. Ctrl click the other level/dimension

iii. Click the Intersect Icon

24) Materialized Views

A materialized view is a polyglot structure, resembling other existing structures in some ways, yet different in others.

A materialized view is like a view in that it represents data that is contained in other database tables and views; yet it is unlike a view in that it contains actual data. A materialized view is like an index in that the data it contains is derived from the data in database tables and views; yet unlike an index in that its data must be explicitly refreshed. Finally, a materialized view is very much like a snapshot in that an administrator can specify when the data is to be refreshed; but it is unlike a snapshot in that a materialized view should either include summary data or data from many different joined tables.

Introduced with Oracle8i, a materialized view is designed to improve performance of the database by doing some intensive work in advance of the results of that work being needed.

25) Steps to create Business Mix reports:

1)Create an explorer Report

Use the required rows and columns and the required drill-level. Time dimension should appear in the columns and we can have our business mix that need to be compared, in the rows. Use show as percentage of Column total to give easier comparatives.

Ex: We could have a report to compare a product line with the rest over different time-periods

2) Add Layers for a New Perspective:A business mix report focuses on a single area of the business over a period of time. You can provide more details with layers, which are a third set of dimension categories you can add to a report. Details from another dimension provide a new perspective on the report. Drag the required dimensions and drop into the layer target in the dimension line

3) Add a Title:Using the format menu go to the Title dialog box. We can add test, include picture using insert button. We can also add dynamic texts like the value of the current row, current column or layer

4) Examine Other Dimensions:We can drag other dimension of the business to replace the dimension we are viewing. Ex: Replace Product line and then Margin ranges with Channel.

5) Show the Business Mix in a Clustered Bar Display:Click the Clustered Bar button.From the Format menu, click Display Options.Display Options dialog box.Click the Display tab.Clear the Show the Summary Bar(s) check box and the Show the Summary Cluster(s)check box.

6) Move and Size the Legend:To adjust the legend:

Position the pointer anywhere on the border of the legend, and when the pointer changes shape, drag the borders of the legend until the window is the size you want.

Click the title bar of the legend window and drag it to a location where it doesn’t cover the bars in the display.

7) Print Only Selected Layers: From the File menu, click Print, and click Options. Click the Rows and Layers tab. If the Rows and Layers tab is not available, you must first click Page

layout view or Selected display(s) on the Print tab.

Select Print the Specified Rows and Layers. In the Layers box, select the layer to be printed and ensure that the other

layers are cleared of any check marks. Select all the rows.

26) Optimizing Impromptu performance (Performance issues)

Impromptu Performance can be optimized usingi. client/database – server balancing

ii. table weightingiii. qualificationsiv. governorsv. alternative data sources

vi. user defined functionsvii. bulk fetch

viii. stored proceduresix. auditing

To maximize the performance of impromptu, create the most efficient reports possible by optimizing

i. queries and reportsii. the balance between client and server processing

iii. summariesiv. filtersv. sorting

vi. if/then/else and lookup statementsvii. OLE

viii. Report formatting commandsix. Use of alternative data sourcesx. Use of outer joins

xi. Data retrieval limitsxii. Connection time to the data server

27) What is auto partitioning?A nested sub-cube that Transformer can create to speed data access.

StepsRight click the Powercube and open its property sheet.In the Property sheet, click the Processing TabSelect auto Partitioning in the Optimization drop down box.** The default setting is auto partitioning**Then Click the AutoPartition Tab and set:specify the Estimated Number of Consolidated Records

Adjust the slider in the direction of Faster Cube Creation or Faster Cube Access

Specify a Desired Partition Size (start large, reduce, test, and repeat until runtime processing is acceptable)

Specify the Maximum Number of Passes (start with 5, or one pass for every manually defined partition level) In the dimension tab select the dimensions you want to include in the partition.

To remove partitions, click Reset Partitions in the Tools menu bar.Why Auto partitioning?To speed up retrieval times in PowerPlay, you can accept the automatically set partitions in Transformer. These pre-summarize the cube data into rows at one or more optimal partition levels. With partitioning, the size of the cube increases, resulting in somewhat longer cube creation times. However, runtime performance improves dramatically.

You can allow Transformer to automatically partition your new cube, choosing the best candidate levels by using the PowerPlay versions 6.x and later algorithm, and consolidating with sort (by default)

specify one or more dimensions for partitioning, by using manual levels to add depth if your model is too "flat"

check the log file to see if the number of rows in the summary partition was reduced with each optimization pass

optionally repeat with a larger partition size or fine-tune the partitions manually

Notes: If you are moving PowerPlay version 5.x cubes to versions 6.x and later, you will be prompted to change the Optimization method in the Processing tab of the PowerCube property sheet from the old 5.x default, Categories, to the new one, Auto-Partition. Unless the model contains manual partitioning, Transformer then automatically chooses the dimensions that contain the data best suited to being rolled up into a summary partition.You can always add new categories to an existing partition level. For example, if a cube is partitioned on the Regions level, adding a new region to the level results in a new partition for that region.Because retrieval times for data at the lowest level of a partitioned dimension are slow, do not partition on a dimension that your users routinely expand to the lowest (leaf) level.

Action items(Dec 3, ’03)Action items(Dec 3, ’03)1) Examples each of:

i) Business Mix Reportsii) Variance Reportsiii) Trend over time Reportsiv) Finance Reports

Business Mix:a) Performance of Products by grouping primary form frame with regions - Total

Sales Amount with type groupings in simple list and bar-chart representation of summated Margin Values for each product type for each year.

b) Sales channel performance – Cross-tab with sales channel and years and chart frame with stacked bar graph

c) Performance of customers and their classification in terms of profit making.

Trend Over Time:a) Total sales volume compared over two seasonsb) Total sales revenue compared over two quartersc) Average profit margin for all vendor sites weeklyd) Average revenue generated by the sales reps between two slump periodse) Total revenue generated by the each product line over Thanks giving in the past

two yearsf) Relative product sales in the over last two weeksg) Inventory re-stocking in the last quarter as compared to quarter last year.h) Returned item trend analysisi) Vendor order placement analysis over the last five yearsj) Revenue generated by each sales channel during holiday season in last two years.

Variancea) Revenue generated difference between Environmental goods and sporting goodsb) Revenue generated difference by different product types in the holiday seasonc) The margin difference between the best selling and least selling productsd) Margin difference of total sales volume of a product in multiple sales regionse) Countrywide sales generated by the vendors.f) List profit making, break-even, not so –profit making vendorsg) Growth in the sales of product line by season

Financea) Total revenue generated by each product lineb) Total revenue geared by sales regionc) Summary sales report for each regiond) Return-on-investment for each producte) Return on investment on the Catalog campaignf) Return on Investment in the Phone sales channelg) Total gross sales generated by each sales channelh) Total sales generated by each product type

2) How will you deal with exporting a cube, given the end-user : Has disk-space for the cube Is at different geographic location with no network access

In the event that user needs access to a cube n a remote location. The user can save a report as a sub cube (.mdc file). The user can then save the sub cube and the report on their laptops.This cube can be saved as sub cube only if the administrator enables the “save as Powercube” option in the PPES.Steps:

Open a report with selected dimensions from a remote cube. Save as .mdc file (Please check to see if the administrator has enabled it for you.)

3) What are the attributes associated with different catalog type?

Default settings for Creator (all Catalogs):Create reports, Modify user classes, Edit Folders, direct entry SQL

Default settings for User Class:Shared --Create reports, Modify user classesDistributed --Create reports, Modify user classes, Edit foldersSecured --Optional with no access to edit user classes

4) How do you install and deploy Cognos IDE for 100 users?

Identify the goalWhat do you need the reporting for?

Identify the audienceWho will use the reports (type of audience)?

Select data sourcesWhat data sources contain the information required to meet the reporting goal?

Prepare a preliminary layoutIdentify the reporting tools (Impromptu or PowerPlay) to be used and then the support tools (Access Manager Administration, Architect, Transformer, IWR, Upfront) for the same

Locate the serversSince there are over 100 users, it might be a good idea to keep separate servers for database and directory servers.

Directory Server

Install Directory server on the chosen machine (should be accessible on the company intranet)

Install Server versions of tools on some machines and Client versions on the others (depending on requirements) along with Access Manager and Configuration wizard.

Set up how the machines would authenticate using Directory Server. Use Configuration wizard on each machine to set up authentication configuration

Identify the main points for each possible reportWhat information must you include?

Select appropriate tool for each report.What is the best tabular/graphical representation (charts and tables in Impromptu or PowerPlay) for each of the main points?

Create appropriate models/cubes/catalogues

Create the reports.

5) What is .wk1 file format?

.wk1 is a file format for a Lotus 1-2-3-worksheet file. Impromptu supports saving a report as a .wk1 worksheet.

6) What is the use of annotations?

Annotations are descriptions of columns, calculations, catalog filters, and catalog prompts stored in a relational database or metadata repository.

If your catalogs are large and complicated, you may want to store information about the contents in an external data source; or your company may already store catalog information in a relational database or metadata repository. You can use that information to provide context help that describes columns, calculations, catalog filters, and catalog prompts.

7) Apply a template on report using a macro.

(needs to be corrected )

code in CognosScript:Sub Main()Dim objImpApp As ObjectDim objImpRep As ObjectConst catalog = "C:\Program Files\Cognos\" & _"\cer2\samples\Impromptu\Reports\Great Outdoor Orig\" & _

"Great Outdoors Sales Data.CAT"

Const report = "C:\lev\Cognos\Assignments\Scripts\ProdRank.imr"Set objImpApp = CreateObject("CognosImpromptu.Application")Set objImpRep = objImpApp.OpenReport _("C:\lev\Cognos\Assignments\Scripts\ProdRank.imr")

objImpRep.ApplyTemplate "C:\lev\Cognos\Assignments\Scripts\ProdRank.imt"

objImpApp.CloseCatalogobjImpApp.QuitSet objImpRep = NothingSet objImpApp = NothingEnd Sub

8) What are the limitations on BLOB datatype?

In text frames : we only access the first 256 characters of a text BLOB by default The horizontal dimension of the text-frame may have to be decreased to fit the

page width, so that we can see the full contents of Blob text when sorting or grouping in done on local machine rather than on the database,

we lose access to the text BLOB("Text not available" caption on the text frame)

Blobs cannot be used in filters

9) What are the differences between working on server or working on local system (w/ref to Calculations & summaries)?The goal of an Impromptu Administrator should be to balance load among client and database-server. Setting the correct client/database-server options for different user classes ensures that all users get the best possible performance.

Calculation and summaries may involve some work to be done out of the database column, depending on the nature of the calculation and query load on the database server, we may need to distribute such work to the database server and the client machine

We may have queries that are very large, or we may want the SQL generated by queries to be portable to other applications that access your database. In such cases it is preferable to have calculations performed at database.

10) Can sub reports have snapshots?

Impromptu does not give the option of including snapshots with reports that have sub-reports.

11) How to save a report with snapshot as a .txt file?Snapshot is the data of the report which can be saved along with the report as an .imr file only. To save a report (with snapshot ) as a .txt file, click File Save As and then in the Save as Type – select .txt extension. This saves the data of the report as an .txt file.

12) What is the role of placeholders in filters and calculations?

13)Is sub report a frame yes/No? YESList frame : Data items and other report objects in a tabular row and column format. Form frame : Other report objects, including other frames. You can create a form frame report or insert a form frame in another frame.Chart frame : A visual representation of data such as a pie chart. Text frame : Data items or text that you enter. You can edit the text that you enter into a text frame but you cannot edit a text frame that contains a data item. Picture frame :A static graphic (such as a company logo that doesn’t change) or a dynamic graphic (such as a unique product photo for each product number). Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) frame : An object such as data, pictures, charts, and so on from an OLE-compliant application. If the OLE frame is linked to the source application then the information in the frame automatically reflects changes made in the source application.Impromptu treats an OLE object as a default frame. Sub-report frame : The results of several reports combined into one report.

14) What are performance indicators/ measure ?A measure is a performance indicator that is quantifiable and used to determine how well a business is operating. For example, measures can be Revenue, Revenue/Employee, and Profit Margin %.

15)Define slice & dice of data?Slicing and dicing of data is to change and arrange data when you - choose different categories for your report - drill down or drill up - drag dimensions from the dimension line - swap rows, columns, or layers - filter information

For example, you have a report that shows the number of products sold by each branch at the end of the last quarter. You can slice and dice information to show revenue over the last two months for each product line.

16)What are the charts in PowerPlay?

1. Pie (depth)2. 3-D Bar3. Simple Bar (depth)4. Clustered Bar (Depth)5. Stacked Bar (Depth)6. Single Line7. Multiline8. Scatter9. Correlation (depth)10.

17)Example of a clustered bar chart? Prepare clustered bar chart report.Revenue of different product lines for 1999, 2000, 2001

18)How are calculations affected when moved from a reporter to explorer mode?The calculations are lost when a report is moved from a reporter to an explorer view.

19)Explain the differences between Upfront6 and Upfront 7

New Features in Upfront include "NewsItems Clearly Classified in Upfront", "Move Customized Information from Upfront 6.0, and "Improvements to How Upfront Templates are Coded". NewsItems Clearly Classified in UpfrontNewsItems in Upfront are now referenced by type. The types of NewsItems are reports, agents, shortcuts, custom views, data sources, tools, and URLs.Move Customized Information from Upfront 6.0You may have Upfront 6.0 installed and want to use Upfront 6.0 standard or custom themes, NewsIndex, registry settings, or gateway information in Upfront 7.0. You can move them easily using the upgrade utility.However, you must run the upfpack utility in Upfront 6.0. This creates the package of Upfront 6.0 information needed to perform the upgrade.Improvements to How Upfront Templates are CodedAll Upfront 6.0 templates work with Upfront 7.0 without any changes. However, if you created Upfront 6.0 templates and want to create new templates in Upfront 7.0, you should investigate the differences in template coding practices. New UTML and XML tags have been added and existing tags have been modified to provide more functionality.

20)What is OLE Automation in Access Manager?

A process whereby the features of an application are made available as a collection or group of objects. OLE automation objects have properties and methods that you can use to control object attributes and operating characteristics. For example, the objects, properties, and methods exposed by an application correspond to the dialog box options and menu commands provided by the Application object.

You can automate the administration tasks you perform in Access Manager Administration. Use OLE automation for more complex automation tasks that require a knowledge of computer programming.

21)OLE Automation

Windows users with knowledge of computer programming can use object linking and embedding (OLE) automation. OLE automation allows access to all functionality in the Access Manager Administration user interface. With OLE automation, you can use collections of objects, and you can set and return values for conditional processing.

22) What is multifile cube threshold?

You can use the multifile PowerCubes feature introduced in Transformer 6.6 to create local PowerCubes that are larger than the 2-GB limit imposed on single-file cubes. By default, the MultiFile Cube Threshold setting in the [PowerPlay Transformer] section of Trnsfrmr.ini is set to zero. This disables multifile generation, so that only a single cube is generated. However, you can change this threshold setting so that very large cubes are automatically output to multiple files. For example,• set the threshold to a large unscaled integer (such as 30,000,000), if your cube is still less than 2 GB• set the threshold to a smaller number (such as 1,000,000) to test or use the multifile feature on smaller cubesTransformer determines the number of output files needed, taking the number of data records in the cube, dividing by the threshold, and rounding up. Cube partitions are spread evenly across these multidimensional partition (.mdp) files, and an additional multidimensional cube (.mdc) file is added to hold the PowerCube metadata.

23) How to optimize cube performance?

Before you build your model, to optimize performance,• consolidate your source data where possible, summarizing details and removing out-of-date records• if you have multiple CPUs, configure your data sources to use the multiprocessing capability of TransformerBecause cube size, processing time in Transformer, and access time in PowerPlay are all affected by the optimization method you choose, identify which (competing) factors are important to you, and then select the most appropriate methods from the list below:• Use multiple data sources to reduce the size of each source file and shorten processingtime in Transformer.• Specify how the cube is processed, either by reducing the number of categories in the cube (which shortens access time in PowerPlay) or by optimizing querying (which shortens processing time in Transformer).• Maximize data consolidation by using the auto-partition feature and by adding a sort step before records are written to the cube; this decreases cube size and shortens access time in PowerPlay, but lengthens processing time in Transformer.

• Take full advantage of partitioning to shorten access time in PowerPlay.• Use incremental updates so that you only add new data during cube updates, whichshortens processing time in Transformer.

To optimize the processing of the powercube use the following properties of the cube

• Optimization, with Auto-Partition set as the default• This Cube Is Incrementally Updated check box• Cube Creation, with local processing enabled as the default• Store This PowerCube Compressed check box• Enable Crosstab Caching check box

24) Explain 15 differences between explorer and reporter charts?

Explorer Report Reporter ReportExplorer reports are dynamic Reporter reports are staticWhen you first open the report the first two dimensions and the first measure appear in the report

The report is blank when opened first. Have to add dimensions and measures manually.

They have summarized rows and columns by default

Reporter reports are blank. You can add summaries manually.

- you cannot delete rows or columns using delete. Have to replace the existing dimensions with some other dimension.

- can remove rows and columns based on category or level

- does not support short bar drop zone - supports short bar drop zone.- subset creation are not supported. - can create find-in, parentage or advanced

subsets.- in explorer reports, levels that are intersected from the same dimension must be nested so that child categories appear directly below parent categories.

- in reporter reports, nested levels can also be created from alternate paths of the same dimension.

- drilling down on a category in a nested explorer report replaces the drill category level with the child category.

- drilling down on a category in a nested report adds the children of that category as new categories at the same level.

- the indented2 layout for crosstab display is available for reports.

- the indented2 layout for crosstab display is not available for reports.

- blank rows or columns cannot be added to explorer reports

- you can add blank rows or columns to reporter cross tabs.

Cannot perform calculation in explorer Can perform calculationsAutomatic exceptions can happen only in explorer reports

Only Custom exceptions are allowed

25) How to display zero values in place of nulls1. In the dimension viewer, click the measures you want to format.

2. From the toolbox, click the Format Measures button, and then click the Blank tab (NumberFormat dialog box).3. In the Show As Blank box, do one of the following:• To show all zero values as blank, select Zero Values.• To show all division by zero calculations as blank, select Division By Zero.• To show all missing values as blank, select Missing Values.4. Click OK.

These rows and columns with zero values or divided by zero can be suppressed using the:1. Go to Explore menu and select Suppress2. The options available are suppress rows only, columns only or both rows and

columns.3. Choose the appropriate one. The fields with zero will be suppressed based on the

File-Preferences options you set..

To File-Preference options are:1. Go to File menu2. Select Preferences menu3. Select the Suppress tab4. Select the appropriate suppress options from the four options:

a. Zero valuesb. Divided by zero valuesc. Missing valuesd. Overflow values

These options are applied when Explore-Suppress menu is selected.Note: To suppress the entire row/column should have zeroes. If there are just a few fields with zeroes, the options are not applied.How does it work with chart options?The suppress zeroes action work similarly as in cross tab report options. For example, in a clustered bar chart, if an entire bar is zero, the bar is not displayed. If the entire cluster is zero the cluster is not displayed.

26) Define Business Mix reportA business mix report focuses on a single area of the business over a period of time. You can provide more details with layers, which are a third set of dimension categories you can add to a report. Details from another dimension provide a new perspective on the report.A business mix report compares products, programs, Internet usage, or any other aspect of your business. You can compare them by using measures, such as revenue, head count, or cost. It uncovers what is driving business.

27)Define Top 10 reportThis report finds out what is influencing the business. You can rank top products, programs, clients, sales representatives, and so on.

28)Define Trend over time reportsIn a trend over time report, you can track various aspects of your business. You can compare lastmonth’s numbers to the same month last year, or any time period to a corresponding timeperiod, you can quickly spot developing trends and keep your business on target.

29)Define a Variance reportA variance report examines the difference between actual results and expected results.A variance report focuses on the gap between any two items. The variance might be thedifference between this year’s accounts receivable and last year’s, or between planned revenueand actual revenue.

30)Define an exception reportThis report lists the critical values of a report. It highlights the least or the highest reporting columns. End users can use either Automatic highlighting or exceptional highlighting. Automatic highlighting is available only in explorer mode.

31)Define Access ManagerAccess Manager is a centralized environment to define, store, and maintain securityinformation for Cognos business information applications.You can set up and maintain secure user access to data, such as cubes and reports; set up and maintain user signon information and auto-access privileges for the data sources and servers that contain the required data.

32)Cognos products and release dates:In the 1980’s Cognos experienced a fundamental shift in business direction that redefined the company. Cognos was hired by a client to create a reporting tool. In 1982, Quasar changes its name to Cognos to reflect its growing emphasis on products that provide information and knowledge 1982 Powerhouse

QTP1988 Architect1990 PowerPlay1992 Powerhouse for Windows Impromptu1997 Impromptu Web Query1999 PowerPlay Enterprise server

Decision stream

Visualizer

Upfront

Finance2000 Cognos Analytical applications

Cognos Query

Acquires Adyatum ( EPP software)2001 Cognos Series 7 Notice cast

2002 Cognos Finance with PlanningCognos Metrics Manager Scorecarding

2003 EP with Cognos Management seriesReportNet- All in one reporting

33)What does .csa stand for?Cognos Security Administration file.

34)How to set cube size in .ini file?

Check the Multifile cube threshold limit

Note: Still to work on Action Item 7(Macro for using template on report). As this is not providing required results.

Q4. How to setup Cognos environment? What kind of system architecture would you use for 200 users?

Ans. We have to setup an intranet-based environment. It’s a three-tier web architecture where web server, reporting server and user interface as Upfront portal communicate. Here we restrict the user based on their logon/password (authentication).

Q5. Define Common Logon Server, Ticket Server and PowerPlay Connect?Ans.

Common Logon Server

In Windows, the Windows Common Logon server identifies the user and stores relevant security information locally on the user's computer.

When a user invokes authentication for any Windows based component of the Cognos platform, if the user has installed the Windows Common Logon server, a key icon appears in the system tray of the Windows taskbar. When the user opens another Cognos application, the second application uses the stored information to identify the user, and to enforce any security restrictions.

The information to identify the user remains in the Windows Common Logon server until the user has closed all Cognos applications, or has logged off the Windows Common Logon server.

Ticket Server

For Web users, the ticket server issues a ticket when a user is identified. A reference to the ticket is stored in a cookie in the user's Web browser. When the user opens another

Cognos application, the application uses the stored ticket information to identify the user, and to enforce any security restrictions. When the user's browser session ends, the cookie is deleted.

Windows-based Cognos products use the Windows Common Logon server to record logon information, and Web-based Cognos products provide for a single signon using ticket servers.

PowerPlay Connect

PowerPlay Connect is a utility that you use to create or modify pointer files.

A pointer file is an .mdc file that contains connection information for a Cognos data source, a cube in a relational database, or an OLAP server.

You can distribute the pointer file to users for local storage, or add the file to a PowerPlay Enterprise Server. Report users open the pointer file to view their data from one of the following applications:

PowerPlay for Windows PowerPlay Web PowerPlay for Excel Visualizer Scenario 4Thought

Q6. How do you setup the user on Common Logon Serve and Ticket Server?

Q7. What is LDAP? On what type of LDAP servers did you work?Ans. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a product-independent protocol that is used to locate organizations, individuals, files, and other resources on the Internet or a corporate Intranet.

Q8. Why do you use Upfront server and IWR server?Ans. IWR Server delivers Impromptu reports across web to a large group of users. Users can subscribe to publish reports and customize them. IWR server is part of enterprise reporting solution.

Cognos Upfront is the customizable user interface that you use to view, find, organize, and share Cognos reports and queries on the Web.

Q9. How do you customize Upfront portal?

Q10. What are prompts? How many types of prompts are there? Name and define them.

Ans. A prompt is an expression that enables users to filter data by typing or picking a value, or a series of values when the report opens. Prompts help users quickly find the information they need from a report.

There are two kinds of prompts: picklist and type-in.

For type-in prompts, the user types a value on which the report filter is based.

Picklist prompts retrieve their values from a text file (file picklist), from a data item in another report (report picklist), or from a data item the catalog (catalog picklist).

A prompt stored in a catalog is called a catalog prompt.

Q11. What are cascading prompts?Ans. Cascading prompt is a prompt that uses information from a previous prompt to determine which options to show in a picklist. For example, if you choose Italy in a country prompt, the picklist includes only sales branches that are in Italy.

Q12. What are the steps for deploying reports on IWR server?Ans. Impromptu Web Reports are used to place Impromptu reports on the Web so that users can view them using a Web browser. The process of getting Impromptu reports to the Web begins in Impromptu.

The report author creates the Impromptu reports, the catalog, and any supporting files, packages them using the Cognos Distribution Shuttle Builder.

Then passes the package to the report administrator. The report administrator uses Report Administration to copy the package of

reports to an Impromptu Web Reports server. This process is called publishing a report set.

Q13. List few complex reports that you have created in Impromptu and PowerPlay.Ans. I have created the complex reports such as crosstab reports, sub-reports and drill through reports.

Q14. What are calculated columns, catalog columns and report columns? Compare.Ans. Calculated columns are the columns that are created by performing some operations on existing columns.

Catalog columns are the columns that are selected from the database table columns.

Report columns are the columns that are selected from the catalog columns and are displayed in the report.

Q15. What type of configuration is required while installing Cognos tools?

Q16. In transformer, how do you set current period?Ans. Steps

6. Select a dimension from Dimension Map.7. From the Edit menu select Properties menu item.

Dimension – Properties dialog box opens8. Select Time tab.9. Check Automatically set the current time period check box.10. Click OK button.

Q17. How do you assign signon to a cube?

Q18. Differentiate prompts in Impromptu and PowerPrompts.Ans. The prompts in Impromptu are expressions that enable users to filter data by typing or picking a value, or a series of values when the report opens.

Whereas, PowerPrompts is an application that guides report consumers through a series of HTML pages where they select the information that they want in a report. The report consumer then sees the report that is generated based on the selections.

For example, using a PowerPrompts application report consumers can add Columns to a report Column formatting A report template Conditional formatting Filters

Q19. If you have to change current system user settings in access manager, how do you do it?Ans.

Steps7. Log on to a namespace.8. Double-click the namespace to list the contents.9. Double-click the Users folder to open it.10. Click the user you want.11. From the Edit menu, click Properties.12. Click the corresponding tab to make changes. The different tabs available are:

General User Signon Access Membership Regional Settings Upfront

Q20. How do you provide security to access your catalogs, cubes and reports?Ans. The user classes and users are created using Access Manager to provide security to access catalogs, cubes and reports.

Q21. Explain implementation of Cognos tools.

Q22. What is an Event Control Server?

Q23. What is Cognos Query?Ans. Cognos Query is an ad hoc reporting tool that is used to explore, modify and create queries on the web. These queries are used to explore information and answer specific questions. Cognos Query is part of an enterprise reporting solution.

Q24. What is Cognos Finance?Ans. Cognos Finance is an integrated financial application that helps to manage the core financial processes of business, with a unified financial view and the flexibility of web deployment.

Business benefits: Achieve a consistent view of enterprise financial data to improve financial data

accuracy and provide the basis for effective decisions Streamline weekly, monthly and quarterly closing process. Provide rapid return on investment for the organization Reduce budget cycles. Improve planning and forecasting information Consistently produce up-to-date reports on key performance indicators across

plans, budgets, forecasts and actuals Facilitate enterprise web development.

Q25. What is KPI? Did you ever work on KPI package?Ans. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It is a numeric attribute of the business model that is quantifiable, and is identified as a key performance indicator of the enterprise. When you specify an attribute as a key performance indicator, it identifies the attribute as a measure candidate for the multidimensional browser in PowerPlay Transformer.

Drill Questions on Impromptu and Power Play.

1) What are the databases supported by Cognos Impromptu?

2) Steps to connect from Impromptu through ODBC Administrator?

3) What are the types of reports created in Impromptu?

4) In ranking reports for cross-tab reports, how do you multiple ranking?

5) How would you rank a sales representative?

6) When does the end-user not see a wizard?

7) When we open a snapshot, does it connect to the database, if the catalog is already

connected to the database?

8) File format of reports when hosted on web server?

9) What are the restrictions on cross-tab reports?

10) How do you set up prompts in Reports?

11) What is the process of creating variance reports?

12) What are the different report variables?

13) Total number of functions in impromptu?

14) What are the conversion functions in impromptu?

15) How can you use the concat expression for more than two strings?

16) What are the values possible for access security in functions? User Name and

Catalog User Profile

17) What are the datatypes in dataset? Date-time, Time, Interval, String, Numeric,

Date

18) How do you create charts?

19) What are free style reports and steps to create them?

20) What are the types of frames available in impromptu?

21) What is OLE(with contextual reference to Impromptu)?

22) How do you implement subreports?

23) What are the options in governor settings?

24) How do you enforce catalog level restriction on table and column?

25) What do you mean by scope of data in form frame?

26) When does select value appear in available components of a function?

27) How do you create cascaded prompts?

28) What is the difference between remote and local snapshots?

29) What are thumbnails and hotfiles (restrictions and uses)?

30) What are the types of catalogs?

31) Are null values included in outer joins?

32) What is client server balancing and how do you implement it?

33) What is the difference between Group and Associate?

34) Why do you need complex reports?

35) How can you optimize performance in Impromptu?

36) What are prompts?

37) What is the difference between prompts and filters?

38) When would you use catalog prompts and when would you use report prompts?

39) When does auto-grouping have an effect?

40) How can you impose summary to be calculated before summary filter is applied?

41) What is the use of conditional formatting in Impromptu?

42) What are the options of Governor tab setting?

43) What is the difference between remote and local snapshots?

44) What are thumbnails and hotfiles (restrictions and uses)?

45) What are the types of catalogs?

46) Are null values included in outer joins?

47) What are the types of reports created in Impromptu?

48) What are the values possible for access security in functions?

49) What are the types of frames available in impromptu?

50) What is OLE(with contextual reference to Impromptu)?

51) What happens if you delete/rename columns/tables.

52) What are the data-types available in impromptu?

53) What are MDX and PPX?

54) What are the differences between Explorer and Reporter Reports?

55) What are (i) Drill-down reports and (ii) Slice-dice reports?

56) What are sub-sets?

57) What are performance indicators?

58) How do you do ranking reports in Power Play?

59) What are exceptions in Power Play?

60) How do you drill down from Power Play to Impromptu?

61) How would you configure a portal for upfront?

62) What are intersected categories?

63) Give the steps to change the performance criteria?

64) How do you include nested levels in Power Play reports?

65) Describe the steps involved in creating Drill-down reports.

66) How can you perform drill-down simultaneously on both column and row?

67) What needs to be done to connect to a remote cube if no remote cube appears in

the ‘chose remote cube’ dialog box?

68) Give an example of a Business Mix report. Steps ?

69) Give an example of a complex report in Power Play and Impromptu.

70) What are the problems you have come across in making reports in Power

Play?

71) How do add dynamic titles to Power Play?

72) What are the criteria for choice of Impromptu over Power Play and vice-versa?

73) What is a multi-dimensioned cube?

74) What are nested cross-tabs in Reporter Report? Steps?

75) What is a “group” in a calculated column (Impromptu)?

76) How do you perform ‘sort’ in Power Play?

77) What are the two types of sort in Power Play?

78) What are custom exceptions?

79) How do you operate with layers in Power Play?

80) How do we handle multiple measures in explorer report?

81) What are the types and uses of sub-sets?

82) What are materialized views

83) What are the steps for putting prompts in Power Play?

84) What are wild-card characters?

85) What is a top ordinal and where is it used?

86) What are the different types of charts?

87) What is the difference between Group and Associate and Qualification and

Weight?

88) What are the performance issues in Impromptu?

89) How do you create a macro? Example.

90) How do you create dimensions in transformer?

91) What is a data-class?

92) What are Roll-up functions?

93) What is a Dimension view?

94) How to set a dimension to current-time in Power Play transformer?

95) What is the practicality in having two dimensions and how can we avoid it?

96) How can we implement security in cubes from Transformer?

97) What is auto-partitioning? Categories also

98) What are subsets?

99) What are the differences between explorer and reporter reports in terms of

subsets?

100) How to sort data by, in powerplay?

101) What are Roll-up functions?

102) How can we implement security in cubes from Transformer?

103) What are the different types of charts?

104) How can you break a subset?

105) How can you drill through from powerplay to impromptu?

106) What is the difference between custom exception highlighting and

automatic exception highlighting?

107) What is the difference between drill down and drill through?

108) Name some dynamic titles in powerplay

109) Name some of the differences between reporter and explorer reports

110) How is powerplay different from impromptu?

111) What is the 80/20 rule in powerplay?

112) What are intersected categories?

113) What are wild-card characters?

114) How do you include nested levels in Power Play reports?

115) Powerplay reports can be saved as……

116) What is a top ordinal and where is it used?

117) What are performance indicators?

Drill Questions on Impromptu and Power Play.

118) What are the databases supported by Cognos Impromptu?

119) Steps to connect from Impromptu through ODBC Administrator?

120) What are the types of reports created in Impromptu?

121) In ranking reports for cross-tab reports, how do you multiple ranking?

122) How would you rank a sales representative?

123) When does the end-user not see a wizard?

124) When we open a snapshot, does it connect to the database, if the catalog is

already connected to the database?

125) File format of reports when hosted on web server?

126) What are the restrictions on cross-tab reports?

127) How do you set up prompts in Reports?

128) What is the process of creating variance reports?

129) What are the different report variables?

130) Total number of functions in impromptu?

131) What are the conversion functions in impromptu?

132) How can you use the concat expression for more than two strings?

133) What are the values possible for access security in functions?

134) What are the datatypes in dataset?

135) How do you create charts?

136) What are free style reports and steps to create them?

137) What are the types of frames available in impromptu?

138) What is OLE(with contextual reference to Impromptu)?

139) How do you implement subreports?

140) What are the options in governor settings?

141) How do you enforce catalog level restriction on table and column?

142) What do you mean by scope of data in form frame?

143) When does select value appear in available components of a function?

144) How do you create cascaded prompts?

145) What is the difference between remote and local snapshots?

146) What are thumbnails and hotfiles (restrictions and uses)?

147) What are the types of catalogs?

148) Are null values included in outer joins?

149) What is client server balancing and how do you implement it?

150) What are MDX and PPX?

151) What are the differences between Explorer and Reporter Reports?

152) What are (i) Drill-down reports and (ii) Slice-dice reports?

153) What are sub-sets?

154) What are performance indicators?

155) How do you do ranking reports in Power Play?

156) What are exceptions in Power Play?

157) How do you drill down from Power Play to Impromptu?

158) How would you configure a portal for upfront?

159) What are intersected categories?

160) Give the steps to change the performance criteria?

161) How do you include nested levels in Power Play reports?

162) Describe the steps involved in creating Drill-down reports.

163) How can you perform drill-down simultaneously on both column and row?

164) What needs to be done to connect to a remote cube if no remote cube

appears in the ‘chose remote cube’ dialog box?

165) Give an example of a Business Mix report. Steps ?

166) Give an example of a complex report in Power Play and Impromptu.

167) What are the problems you have come across in making reports in Power

Play?

168) How do add dynamic titles to Power Play?

169) What are the criteria for choice of Impromptu over Power Play and vice-

versa?

170) What is a multi-dimensioned cube?

171) What are nested cross-tabs in Reporter Report? Steps?

172) What is a “group” in a calculated column(Impromptu)?

173) How do you perform ‘sort’ in Power Play?

174) What are the two types of sort in Power Play?

175) What are custom exceptions?

176) How do you operate with layers in Power Play?

177) How do we handle multiple measures in explorer report?

178) What are the types and uses of sub-sets?

179) What are materialized views/

180) What are the steps for putting prompts in Power Play?

181) What are wild-card characters?

182) What is a top ordinal and where is it used?

183) What are the different types of charts?

184) What is the difference between Group and Associate?

185) What are the performance issues in Impromptu?

186) How do you create a macro? Example.

187) How do you create dimensions in transformer?

188) What is a data-class?

189) What are Roll-up functions?

190) What is a Dimension view?

191) How to set a dimension to current-time in Power Play transformer?

192) What is the practicality in having two dimensions and how can we avoid

it?

193) How can we implement security in cubes from Transformer?

194) What is auto-partitioning?

Cognos Question Bank

Suppress Redundant Data Using the Associate ButtonWhat Is a Summary Report?A summary report uses the information from the database to provide summarized (or "rolledup") numbers.

Work With Sub-ReportsSub-reports are multiple Impromptu queries contained in a single report, so that you can deliverinformation that would otherwise be available with two or more reports.

What You Can Do With Sub-Reports• schedule sub-reports with Scheduler and print the results• export the main sub-report query data to other applications using the Save As command• drill through to a sub-report from PowerPlay or Impromptu; however, the filters that are

automatically applied from the source report to the drill-through report are always applied to the main query but never applied to the sub-report queries

For information on setting up drill-through reports, see (p. 82).• publish a report with multiple queries as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and view it with a Web browserFor information about publishing reports for use with Web browsers, see "Use HTML to PublishReports on the Web" (p. 93).What You Can’t Do With Sub-ReportsYou cannot• save a sub-report as a local snapshot• schedule sub-reports with Request Server; sub-reports cannot be saved as remotesnapshots• insert a sub-report into a list frame• sort, group, or filter two different queries simultaneouslyTo specify that a summary is calculated before the summary filter is applied, do one of thefollowing:• Click the Calculate Before the Summary Filter Is Applied check box in the Data Definitiondialog box of the summary data item. The summary calculation is prefiltered in this instance,but not if you use it elsewhere.• Add a Prefilter component to the summary expression. The calculation is alwaysautomatically applied before the summary filter.

You can create an expression that retrieves data that matches a specific pattern. The patterncan include wildcard characters as follows:• the percent sign (%) represents any number of characters• the underscore (_) represents one character

The Prompt Manager verifies links between prompts. If you attempt to create a circular linkbetween two reports in which Report A has a report picklist prompt that references Report Band you attempt to set up a prompt for Report B that references Report A, the OK button(Prompt Definition dialog box) becomes unavailable.

Each summary is associated with one of the following:• its location in the report, called automatic association• a specific data item, called fixed association

In the Available Components box, double click Functions, and select one of the following:• Day to show the day portion of a date• Month to show the month portion of a date• Year to show the year portion of a date

A local snapshot is a permanent copy of the data stored as part of your report. Like a photograph, it captures the data as it existed when you created the snapshot. However, because the data is part of the report, it cannot be used to generate new reports.Use local snapshots when you• want to run reports without opening a catalog• want a static view of the data at a particular point in time• want to be able to view the report without access to the source database• do not need to add new tables or data to your report

Notes• You can only drill through from a value in the parent’s main query to a main query in thechild report.• To drill through from a chart, the chart must contain summary values for one data item (forexample, a bar chart that shows the total sale amount for each country).

• Both reports must be from the same catalog.

Remote SnapshotsTo create a remote snapshot, you run a report against the database using Request Server.Request Server then saves the results of the query as a result set in the database instead oflocally.The key differences between remote snapshots and local snapshots are as follows:• A report based on a remote snapshot does not contain any data. Instead, a reference orpointer points to the results table in the database.• A remote snapshot requires access to the database, often on a network, and so is not asportable as a local snapshot.• You must have Request Server to create the result set in the database.

Remote snapshots offer many of the same benefits as local snapshots. In addition,• they can be created unattended during off-peak hours.• they are created by running a query directly on the database server, and so build muchmore quickly than tables built locally. As the size of the database increases, so too does theperformance advantage of a remote snapshot.• where the result set is particularly large, a remote snapshot maintains a relatively small filesize compared to the local snapshot, because the report does not actually contain any data.

PowerPlayEconomy requires you to keep on top of evolving trends and opportunities.We need tools to harness your business information so you can make informed business decisions.

A variance report focuses on the gap between any two items. The variance might be the difference between this year’s accounts receivable and last year’s, or between planned revenue and actual revenue.

An exception report delivers good and bad news in any way you choose. To highlightexceptional data, you can use either automatic exception highlighting or custom exceptions.

To apply automatic exception highlighting, you must be working in an Explorer report.

Note: Automatic Exception Highlighting is not available if the report contains a time dimension.

While most measures apply to all dimensions, some do not. Depending on how your administrator sets up the cube, a measure may not apply in every dimension, or may not apply at every level within a dimension. When you use a measure together with non-pertinent categories, some cells in the report show zeros.

An exception definition can also run a macro that performs a set of actions. Macros are useful when you want to apply formatting to information that doesn’t fall within a range, or perform a special action.

While you can add another display in any view, you can only arrange and size displays for printing in page layout or page width view.

With PowerPlay you can create professional-looking balance sheets, profit-and-loss statements, and other financial reports that conform to standard accounting principles.

Explorer reports Reporter reports1. Shows categories from the first two dimension

folders on the dimension line in the rows and columns of the report. The report reflects data based on the first measure in the cube.

1. Report is empty, and you must add categories to the report.

2. You can remove unwanted information

2. In Explorer reports, you can hide or show the summary categories of a nested crosstab report.

3. When you add a category, its child categories replace the categories in the report and the parent category becomes the summary row.

4. Levels that are intersected from the same dimension must be nested so that child cate-gories appear directly below parent categories.

5. When you drag a category on a nested category, the child categories of the dragged category replace the nested category and its siblings.

6. In an Explorer report, a summary layer and its child categories are added as layers

from Reporter reports by deleting it.

3. You can add information from different dimensions, or from different levels of the same dimension.

4. Nested levels can also be created from alternate paths of the same dimension.

5. When you drag a category on a nested category, you add the category to the report.

Short bar drop zones are available for only Reporter reports. You can use these drop zones to add categories to individual rows or columns as lower levels.

You can add new intersected categories. These appear as a single, unified category instead of their component categories. Unified categories provide compatibility with versions prior to PowerPlay 6.0.

6. In a Reporter report, only the selected category is added as a layer.

PowerPlay Users Guide

Use the *.ppx report format to distribute the report to other PowerPlayclients, such as PowerPlay for Excel and PowerPlay Web.

Get Started: OverviewReplace or Add Categories in ReportsWhen you create a report, you can add• categories• nested categories• intersected categories• layersDuplicate a Report or Copy Information Between ReportsHide CategoriesShow Summary CategoriesCustomize the Contents of ReportsSuppress Unnecessary InformationRemove Unwanted Information

Notes• PowerPlay clients (PowerPlay for Windows and PowerPlay for Excel) share connectioninformation. When you create, edit, or remove a connection, all PowerPlay clients areaffected.• Based on the speed of your network connection, you may want to alter the network timeout.

Notes• By default, you create a new Explorer report. • By default, PowerPlay uses a crosstab display. You can change the default display by usingthe Display tab (Preferences dialog box, File menu).• In the Connection box, only valid connections for the server specified in the Server Type boxappear.• If you can’t access a remote cube, ensure that the connection profile is correct. Contact youradministrator for the information you need to create a connection.• If a message appears that the cube or server is not available, try to establish the connectionat a later time or contact your administrator.

You must install PowerPlay User Edition or PowerPlay Transformation Server (Windows orUNIX edition) to access a local cube.

Tips• To associate the report with a different local or remote cube, select Prompt for Cube in theChoose a Report dialog box.• To refresh reports based on sub-cubes, select Refresh Sub-Cubes on the Options tab(Preferences dialog box).

In Explorer or Reporter,nested levels can be• multiple levels from one dimension• levels from different dimensions• levels from a dimension nested with multiple measures

Add Intersected Categories to a Reporter ReportIn Reporter reports, you can add new intersected categories.These appear as a single, unifiedcategory instead of their component categories. Unified categories provide compatibility withversions prior to PowerPlay 6.0. 2. In the dimension viewer, Ctrl+click to select two or more categories to combine.The categories must come from different dimensions. If you select categories from the samedimension, PowerPlay adds them as individual categories.3. Click the Intersect button in the toolbox.4. Click the Add as Rows or Add as Columns button in the toolbox to add the new category toyour report.

Notes• If you select Show Values as a percentage of a total or subtotal (Explore menu), andduplicate an Explorer report as a Reporter report, PowerPlay shows values as numbers (notpercentages), and places the summary row and column in the body of the report.

Explore Performance IndicatorsMeasures you use to evaluate your business.

Example, you can compare revenue in the Americas for last two quartersto the product plan (that is, the forecast revenue) for the same period.Then you can compare the difference between revenue and product plan for the Americas to the

numbers for the whole organization.

Investigate Business ImpactsImpact that each aspect of the business has on

the others and on the overall results.

Organizing the key factors that drive the business(Products sold), into a dimension in PowerPlay Transformer.

A multidimensional picture of your business.

ExampleWhich channel produced the highest revenue in the Americas in the last quarterand then look at the revenue for the same channel in the Far East.

Analyze and Report on Your DataQuickly and easily use the multidimensional capabilities of PowerPlay to focus on your bottom line.

Change Performance IndicatorsExamine the information with a performance indicator, such as revenue.And then look from another perspective, such as profit margin.

In 1996, revenue for Environmental Line surpassed that for the GO Sport Line.However, profit margin % for the same period shows :

the GO Sport Line - more profitable than the Environmental Line.

Drill DownTo see what is driving a performance indicator:

Drill down to lower levels, Then drill back up to any level.

Slice and DiceDon’t have to create a new report to see the revenue for all locations. Simply drag the Locations dimension from dimension line into the column area of current report. This slicing and dicing 1996 revenue for the Americas is higher than for any other location.

FilterFilter the report to focus on the revenue for a single channel.Ex: comparing the revenue for all channels in the first quarter to the revenue generated by the Mass Marketer channel in the same quarter

The Mass Marketer channel is a solid contributor to the business.

Change DisplaysSee the trend for each quarter and the relationship between locations

crosstab display to a stacked bar display,

Mass Marketer channel performed well in the Far East and the Americas in 1996.

RankEx: Top selling products for 1997.

Highlight ExceptionsEx : several products generated sales above $35,000 but one, recycled products, did not.

CalculateDifference between planned and actual revenue.

Drill Through to ImpromptuDrill through from a PowerPlay report to information contained elsewhere.

If Impromptu is available to you, you can drill through to a saved Impromptu report and see the lowest level of detail for the information in your PowerPlay report.

The Impromptu report shows the actual records behind a selected PowerPlay value.

Can also drill through to another multidimensional cube.Instead of having all your information in one big cube, your administrator can create several smaller cubes and link them in PowerPlay Transformer.

You can then drill through from cube to cube, viewing and exploring the information you need.

Select a Distribution Option• PowerPlay portable report files (.ppx), a generic reporting format suitable for exploring andprinting the data from any PowerPlay client• Portable document format files (.pdf), a static format suitable for high-quality printing orviewing from the new Upfront component

PowerPlay User Edition or PowerPlay Transformation Server can save their reports as local subcubes.

If there are no calculated measures in the cube, users who have the client application of Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services (MS SSOS)

Can also save their data as a .cub file. For more information about saving data as a Microsoft Local cube, see the OLAP Server Connection Guide.Your distribution options now include

Internet or intranet Web pages,Email, and the Cognos publishing component, Upfront.

Chapter 2: Essential Skills

Explore Using the Dimension FoldersUse Dimension Folders to Drill DownYou can use the dimension folders to change the information in your report. If you open thefolders associated with the rows or columns in the report, you can drill down and drill up byselecting other categories in the folder. Arrows appear indicating which categories have drillpaths.For example, if you drill down on the Years folder, select Relative Time, and then select YTDGrouped, you can see the options for drilling down and drilling up (flyout menu). In this case,there are several drill-down choices for Years, and YTD Grouped has alternate drill-up paths.

PowerPlay Transformer

Use Transformer to create structured models from various data sources that you then distribute as multidimensional PowerCubes.Build a ModelUse the New Model wizard to import your source data into Transformer. Transformer can create a preliminary model for you by using AutoDesign, or you can create your model manually.DimensionsDimensions are broad groupings of data that represent major segments of your business information, such as products or locations. Dimensions consist of a hierarchy of categories, organized by level.

For analytical purposes, each dimension may be split into one or more additional drill-down paths. Drill-down paths are vertically arranged paths that lead from the highest-level categories in the hierarchy to the lowest. Drill-down paths in the same dimension must converge at some common level within the model. For example, if the time dimension is divided into fiscal year and calendar year paths, these converge at the month level.Levels are positions within the dimensional hierarchy that contain categories at the same order of detail, with a common set of attributes.

Short names can come from any other column in your data source or can be specified for each category. You can use short names to provide alternate information in PowerPlay or to shorten the length of labels in PowerPlay reports.

The numbers that appear in parenthesis beside each level label represent the total number of categories in that level. The numbers that appear in parenthesis beside the dimension name represent the total number of categories, including the root and drill categories.

Build a Model from an ImpromptuQuery Definition FileEvery cube that you open in PowerPlay is based on a business model. You can build this model in PowerPlay Transformer by specifying the data sources and then defining the dimensions, levels, and measures. You can use the Transformer AutoDesign utility to build an initial model.

This lesson teaches you how to use AutoDesign to build a model based on a source file from Impromptu (.iqd).

Create a Measure that Counts CategoriesYou can create a measure that counts vendors who generate revenue for the Great Outdoors company. Based on a unique level (Vendorname), this count includes all non-missing, non-zero values, but does not count more than once: if the same vendor buys a product in each of two months, the quarterly rollup counts that vendor only once, not twice.

Note: A level must be unique before you can use it to create a measure that countscategories.

8. Click the Rollup tab and then select Quantity from the Activity Measure box.By selecting Quantity as the Activity Measure, you are limiting the Vendor Count measure to only those Vendors that return a value in the Quantity measure.

Build a Model from an ArchitectData SourceWhenever u save the cube it shows a status window (which it doesn’t show in case of building a model

from .iqd file) which takes some time. May be a performance issue.

Every cube that you open in PowerPlay is based on a business model. You can build this model in Architect or PowerPlay Transformer by specifying the data sources and then defining the dimensions, levels, and measures.If you are using an Architect data source, you use the Metadata Explorer to specify the dimensions, levels, and measures that you need in the cube.

This lesson teaches you how to use the Metadata Explorer to build a model from an Architect data source (.cem). You also learn how to define the default authentication source for your model.

Notes:• Transformer models can have only one Architect data source.• All models based on Architect packages use security, so you will always be prompted toenter the appropriate administrator logon.

If you place your time dimension first on the dimension line, as shown, it is used by default in PowerPlay Explorer reports.

Build a Model Using Multiple DataSourcesThis lesson teaches you how to manually build a model by using delimited ASCII files (.asc) that provide information about different aspects of the Great Outdoors Company (products, sales territories, vendors,

and transaction details). You learn how to use the columns from these data sources to define the structure of your model, and how to add a currency conversion capability.

In this tutorial, start with Products.asc, the file that contains the key structural data about the business. (If Transformer uses auto-partitioning optimization, the default, you can import files in any order, without affecting processing time.)

Declare Level UniquenessIf you explore each of the sources in your Data Sources list, you notice that the Transactions.asc file contains columns that are duplicated in each of the other data sources. This duplication exists so that Transformer can relate the transactional information to the structural information.You must declare these shared levels unique so that Transformer can properly relate the data between the different data sources.In the samples used in your Multiple Sources model, each category in each level is unambiguous: that is, it is associated with a source value that is itself not associated with any other category. Your own sample data may not be as "perfect". You may need to use calculated columns to remove the ambiguity (for example, concatenating Smith+LocationA and Smith+LocationB). For more information about resolving uniqueness problems in your model, see the Transformer online help. Note: If the Currency date column had the same name as another date column in your model, you would have to open the Data Source property sheet and, in the Timing area of the General tab, clear the Generate Categories and PowerCube Creation check boxes.

Create a Base Currency Table

Note: If you want to support conversion to and from the currencies of countries in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), select the Use Euro Triangulation check box and then either• manually type in the euro exchange rates on the date of EMU entry• add another data source providing conversion rates against the euroFor more information about setting up conversion to currencies tied to the euro, see the Transformer online help.

Specify the Measures that Support Currency ConversionYou need to specify which measures will support currency conversion in PowerPlay reports: in our example, Revenue and Cost, but not Quantity. You can also specify the format of the converted measure in Transformer, or leave it for your PowerPlay users to adjust on a report-by-report basis.

Step by step transformer

The dimension map is a table that shows all dimensions in the model, and the levels they contain. It is the working area where you see your model taking shape. Use it to plan the structure of your multidimensional cube, including• a time dimension that contains the relevant divisions in the calendar or fiscal year, such as Quarter, Week, and Day, generally derived from a single column in your data source• alternate drill-down paths, to support analysis by different attributes, such as product type or supplier• manually added levels (for example between Region and State) so you can more accurately allocate measures• associations between levels and transaction values (such as Quantity Sold) for multiple data source modelsThe dimension map consists of a dimension line, where you add dimensions, and levels for each dimension.

You can create your own menus and add the commands you need. When you change default menus or create new ones, the changes are stored in an .mnu file, which is updated each time you make a change.

Note: Users cannot import a configuration file created in PowerPlay 7.0 RTM and previous versions. You must run PowerPlay with the old settings and click Save As to save the settings in a new initialization file.

Data sources may be structural or transactional:• Structural data sources contain the columns that define the model structure: the categories in each dimension. They likely contain many columns, but few rows.• Transactional data sources contain the columns for the measures to be tracked. They likely contain few columns, typically only one for each dimension and one for each measure, but many rows.Transformer prompts you to save a copy of your model in binary (.py?) or ASCII text (.mdl) format. Use the .mdl format when exporting models, or when you have made a lot of changes since your last save action, to avoid possible fragmentation problems.

Compatibility Between VersionsIf you import an .mdl file from a Transformer version prior to 5.x, some features do not convert. These include shares, memory and disk detail storage formats, partitioning information, and various clean house operations.

Conversely, if you import models created in Transformer versions 5.x or earlier, there is no support for such advanced features as Calculated Columns (6.0), Category Counts (6.5), or authentication based on namespaces administered by Access Manager (6.6).

Finally, Transformer no longer allows the direct importation of .def, .dat, and .gen files (from PowerPlay versions 4.x or earlier). If you still have legacy files of this type, you must import them into Transformer version 6.0 or earlier. You can then name the columns, define any required manual levels in the dimensions, and export the populated model as an .mdl file.

Models that use multiple data sources offer several advantages:• Measure allocation. Transformer can take measures that are normally unrelated to some portion of the dimension map and allocate their values to those portions. For example, sales-tracking systems do not generally include information about staffing levels at each branch. However, by including a data source that provides this information, you can derive valuable information, such as the average sales per employee.• Performance improvements. By splitting a single, large data source into smaller, partially normalized sources, you can shorten the processing time if the columns in all measure-containing sources are associated with unique levels in the model. This is because Transformer can associate such measures directly, without regard to their contextin the level hierarchy.• Integration of data from various sources. Models with multiple data sources can combine data from different departments or locations, even if they use different storage systems.

View the Scope of a Data Source

DescriptionData sources may be associated with all, or a portion, of the dimension map. To make theproper associations, all column names related to the same level in the dimension map must match exactly, and the levels with which these source columns are associated must be either unique or fully qualified by one or more higher levels in the hierarchy.Additionally, scope depends on the relationship of the source columns to the levels in thedimension map, as shown in the accompanying illustrations.

Level Derived DirectlyThe level takes its category values from a column in the source. For example, this sourcecontains columns that provide category values for all levels.

Level Derived IndirectlyThe source is not related to the level, but is related to descendants of the level. For example, this source contains a column that provides category values for the unique level Product No., but no columns for the

ancestor levels. Product Type and Product Line may be manual levels, or their category values may come indirectly from columns in other data sources.Level Derived from a Source with Missing ColumnsThe level cannot take its values from the source because the source lacks columns for ancestor levels, and the level is not unique. The source does not contain enough data to map column values to a level without knowing the entire context. For example, this source contains a column that provides category values for the level Product No., but not for the ancestor levels. The context of the Product No. categories cannot be ascertained because the level hasn’t been declared unique.

Transformer supports a wide range of local data sources:• delimited ASCII (.asc) and comma-separated variable (.csv) files• Impromptu Query Definition (.iqd) files, which can query local or server-based databases• fixed-field text files• local databases, including Microsoft Access, which can specify SQL queries against local or server-based databases, Clipper, dBase, FoxPro, and Paradox• PowerHouse portable subfiles• spreadsheet crosstabs and databases, including Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

Notes• You can use an Access Query that points to an ODBC data source as a means of gettingserver-based data into Transformer.• If you use an Access Query as a source, the columns that appear in the Data Sources listare the result of the SQL query run against the database.

DatesTo obtain date values for the categories in a time dimension, at least one data source mustcontain date values. You can• set the absolute range of dates allowed in the model• match the date format in the model to the format in the source file• specify whether the measure values associated with these dates apply to some or all of the levels in the time dimension; see "Set the Degree of Detail for Dates" (p. 52).In a model with multiple data sources, date columns may appear in several source files, and each column may relate to the same time dimension. For example, a sales-analysis model might contain one source file with order information (including the order date) and another with sales forecasts by time period. For Transformer to relate values from both of these sources to the time dimension, the columns that contain the date values in each source file must have the same name.

PowerPlay for Excel ReportsWith PowerPlay for Excel, you can include relevant data from cubes in your reports. Rather than being limited to row and column operations, you can perform Excel-based operations on your cube data.

You can also compare different financial periods. Use PowerPlay for Excel to get the data you want from your cube, and then use Excel to perform calculations on the data.

Update Your Report Data with QueriesInclude Data from Different CubesPerform Calculations on Different Levels of Data

Work OfflineYou can access remote cubes from a PowerPlay Enterprise Server in the LAN. Or, if you have PowerPlay Personal Server installed on your computer, you can access local cubes.If the PowerPlay Enterprise Server administrator has also set up the cube appropriately, you can save a subset of the cube data. Then you can use this sub-cube to work with PowerPlay even though you are not connected to the original cube. This feature is useful when you want to take work home or when you are on a business trip and don’t have access to a remote cube.

If you are familiar with PowerPlay for Windows, you will find that creating reports in PowerPlay for Excel is similar to creating reports in PowerPlay for Windows in Reporter mode, with these differences:• You perform most PowerPlay functions using the Navigator window that you open from the PowerPlay menu.• To move columns, rows, or categories, you delete them from their current location in the Navigator window and then add them in a new location as new categories.• You use Excel features (not PowerPlay for Excel features) for formatting and for calculations.

Guidelines to Create ReportsConsider these guidelines when you create PowerPlay reports.• From the PowerPlay menu, click Open to connect to a cube.• From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate to find the data you want to include in your report. When you return to the PowerPlay worksheet from the Navigator window, follow these guidelines:• The PowerPlay worksheet maintains a connection to the cube. Use the PowerPlay worksheet to apply PowerPlay for Excel functions such as refreshing your report data, drilling down and drilling up, and so on.• To protect the data in your worksheet, ensure that Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu or toolbar.• Copy and paste your data to an Excel worksheet to use Excel calculation and formattingfeatures. If you make formatting changes in your PowerPlay worksheet and then return to

the Navigator window and make changes to your report, you will lose your formatting changes when you place the report back in the PowerPlay worksheet.When you exit the Navigator window, a PowerPlay for Excel dialog box appears. This dialog box allows you to accept the changes you made or to return to the PowerPlay worksheet without making the changes.

Queries and Numbers

Use PowerPlay for Excel to choose whether or not to generate queries when you create areport. The default setting is numbers instead of queries. You need to convert your numbers to queries only if you want to regularly update the cube data in the Excel worksheet.

PowerConnect:

PowerPlay Connect is a utility that you use to create or modify pointer files. A pointer file is an .mdc file that contains connection information for a Cognos data source or an OLAP server. You can distribute the pointer file to users for local storage, or add the file to a PowerPlay Enterprise Server. Report users open the pointer file to view their data from one of the following applications:

PowerPlay for WindowsPowerPlay WebPowerPlay for ExcelVisualizerScenario4Thought

Cognos Data SourcesYou can use PowerPlay Connect to provide a connection to the following Cognos data sources: cubes on PowerPlay Enterprise ServerServer[:Port]Specifies the name or IP address of the server that holds the cube, and the port number (optional if not the default 8010).Example: abcserver:8012

Database[;Timeout]

Specifies the path and name of the remote cube and the network timeout setting in seconds (optional).Example: dow_small;45 Cognos FinanceServerSpecifies the name and port number, or the IP address of the server.Example: finserver

DatabaseSpecifies the port number for the database.Example: 1616

OLAP Servers

You can use PowerPlay Connect to provide a connection to the following OLAP servers:

Hyperion Essbase IBM DB2 OLAP Microsoft OLAP Services, including local cubes (.cub files) SAP Business Intelligence Warehouse (SAP BW)

You can use PowerPlay Connect to create a pointer file to a Cognos data source. Central administration and distribution of pointer files can save time for users. Rather than configuring a remote connection, users can open the pointer file to access the remote data source.

Modeling tool that you use to build multidimensional models from your sourceData.local data sources, including• Impromptu query definition files (.iqd), which can query local or server-based databases• delimited ASCII files (.asc) and comma-separated variable files (.csv)• fixed-field text files• local databases, including Microsoft Access, which can specify SQL queries against local orserver-based databases, Clipper, dBase, FoxPro, and Paradox• PowerHouse portable subfiles• spreadsheet crosstabs and databases, including Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

Build a ModelAfter you build your preliminary model

you can adjust the dimensions and levels so that the structure matches your planned design.You can then refine your model

by adding custom time dimensions or categories, calculated measures or categories, manual levels, alternate drill-down paths, currency exchange rate data sources, and special categories.

Create a PowerCube for Distributionyou can create several PowerCubes from a single model, each one tailored to a different user group.If you want your users to be able to drill through to other cubes, or from one component in theCognos platform to another,

you can set up drill-through targets for the PowerCube.For example, your PowerPlay users may want to drill between cubes that each contain data for only one sales territory.They may also want to drill through to the transaction details contained in an Impromptu report.View the PowerCube in PowerPlayportable reporting format (.ppx)

to share PowerCube-based reports among any of the client products.

Transformer InterfaceDimension MapDimensions are broad groupings of data

- represent major segments of your business information, such as products or locations.DimensionsBroad groupings of data that represent major segments of your business information,

such as products or locations.Hierarchy of categories, organized by level.

LevelsPositions within the dimensional hierarchy that contain

categories at the same order of detail, with a common set of attributes.Source levels- contain categories from a data source column, such as years, quarters, or months in the Order Date column.Manual levels – contain categories you have added, either for analytical purposes, such as Seasons or Product Colors, or to bring the category-per-level ratio closer to the recommended guidelines.Data Sources ListContains all data sources that you have imported into Transformer.Each Data source contains the columns that you can use

to create levels and measures for your model.Measures Listcontains all available measures for your model.Measures - numerical data used to gauge performance within the organization.Derived from a transactional data source or

calculated in Transformer by using specified formulas.Ex: Revenue, Cost, Order Quantity, and the calculated measure Gross Margin, which is derivedby using the formula (Revenue-Cost)/Revenue.Dimensions Pane and Category Viewerto explore and further refine your model.Use Transformer to create structured models from various data sources that you then distribute as multidimensional PowerCubes.Build a ModelUse the New Model wizard to import your source data into Transformer. Transformer can create a preliminary model for you by using AutoDesign, or you can create your model manually.DimensionsDimensions are broad groupings of data that represent major segments of your business information, such as products or locations. Dimensions consist of a hierarchy of categories, organized by level.

For analytical purposes, each dimension may be split into one or more additional drill-down paths. Drill-down paths are vertically arranged paths that lead from the highest-level categories in the hierarchy to the lowest. Drill-down paths in the same dimension must converge at some common level within the model. For example, if the time dimension is divided into fiscal year and calendar year paths, these converge at the month level.

Levels are positions within the dimensional hierarchy that contain categories at the same order of detail, with a common set of attributes.

Short names can come from any other column in your data source or can be specified for each category. You can use short names to provide alternate information in PowerPlay or to shorten the length of labels in PowerPlay reports.

The numbers that appear in parenthesis beside each level label represent the total number of categories in that level. The numbers that appear in parenthesis beside the dimension name represent the total number of categories, including the root and drill categories.Build a Model from an ImpromptuQuery Definition File

Every cube that you open in PowerPlay is based on a business model. You can build this model in PowerPlay Transformer by specifying the data sources and then defining the dimensions, levels, and measures. You can use the Transformer AutoDesign utility to build an initial model.

AutoDesign (Ex :to build a model based on a source file from Impromptu (.iqd).)Create a Measure that Counts CategoriesYou can create a measure that counts vendors who generate revenue for the Great Outdoors company. Based on a unique level (Vendorname), this count includes all non-missing, non-zero values, but does not count more than once: if the same vendor buys a product in each of two months, the quarterly rollup counts that vendor only once, not twice.

Note: A level must be unique before you can use it to create a measure that countscategories.

8. Click the Rollup tab and then select Quantity from the Activity Measure box.By selecting Quantity as the Activity Measure, you are limiting the Vendor Count measure to only those Vendors that return a value in the Quantity measure.Build a Model from an ArchitectData SourceWhenever u save the cube it shows a status window (which it doesn’t show in case of building a model

from .iqd file) which takes some time. May be a performance issue.

Every cube that you open in PowerPlay is based on a business model. You can build this model in Architect or PowerPlay Transformer by specifying the data sources and then defining the dimensions, levels, and measures.If you are using an Architect data source, you use the Metadata Explorer to specify the dimensions, levels, and measures that you need in the cube.

This lesson teaches you how to use the Metadata Explorer to build a model from an Architect data source (.cem). You also learn how to define the default authentication source for your model.

Notes:• Transformer models can have only one Architect data source.• All models based on Architect packages use security, so you will always be prompted to enter the appropriate administrator logon.

If you place your time dimension first on the dimension line, as shown, it is used by default in PowerPlay Explorer reports.

Steps:1) Metadata explorer Candidate hierarchies Select levels by using different data items in “Data

Sources” window.2) Rename dimensions on dimension map3) Date Wizard . Data Source Type boxSubject-AttributeOrderHeader select orderDate.4) Data Sources Synchronize Query. Check Model.5) Generate Categories6) Calculated Measure (Unitprice - Unitcost)

Build a Model Using Multiple DataSourcesThis lesson teaches you how to manually build a model by using delimited ASCII files (.asc) that provide information about different aspects of the Great Outdoors Company (products, sales territories, vendors, and transaction details). You learn how to use the columns from these data sources to define the structure of your model, and how to add a currency conversion capability.

In this tutorial, start with Products.asc, the file that contains the key structural data about the business. (If Transformer uses auto-partitioning optimization, the default, you can import files in any order, without affecting processing time.)

1) Use “*.asc” files(Delimited field-text with column title)as inserted data sources. More than one data source

2) Add to dimension map from the data sources. Rename dimensions. Add to measures list.3) Declare Level Uniqueness. Double-click Unique4) Time Dimension Manually, New Dim General Time. Earliest date, latest date, select order-

date column5) Level name and label6) Generate Categories7) Refine -- Create an Alternate Drill-Down Path8) Create Special Categories and it to link to existing categories9) Currency Conversion. Insert data source currency10) Currency Table. Label, Rate, Country code, Date. Load table button.11) Verify in Power Play12) Regional PowerCubes: Insert PowercubeCube Group Dimesion, Level, Lowest detail in

level, Summarize13) Password Protection

Declare Level UniquenessIf you explore each of the sources in your Data Sources list, you notice that the Transactions.asc file contains columns that are duplicated in each of the other data sources. This duplication exists so that Transformer can relate the transactional information to the structural information.You must declare these shared levels unique so that Transformer can properly relate the data between the different data sources.In the samples used in your Multiple Sources model, each category in each level is unambiguous: that is, it is associated with a source value that is itself not associated with any other category. Your own sample data may not be as "perfect". You may need to use calculated columns to remove the ambiguity (for example, concatenating Smith+LocationA and Smith+LocationB). For more information about resolving uniqueness problems in your model, see the Transformer online help. Note: If the Currency date column had the same name as another date column in your model, you would have to open the Data Source property sheet and, in the Timing area of the General tab, clear the Generate Categories and PowerCube Creation check boxes.

Create a Base Currency Table

Note: If you want to support conversion to and from the currencies of countries in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), select the Use Euro Triangulation check box and then either• manually type in the euro exchange rates on the date of EMU entry• add another data source providing conversion rates against the euroFor more information about setting up conversion to currencies tied to the euro, see the Transformer online help.

Specify the Measures that Support Currency ConversionYou need to specify which measures will support currency conversion in PowerPlay reports: in our example, Revenue and Cost, but not Quantity. You can also specify the format of the converted measure in Transformer, or leave it for your PowerPlay users to adjust on a report-by-report basis.

Step by step transformer

The dimension map is a table that shows all dimensions in the model, and the levels they contain. It is the working area where you see your model taking shape. Use it to plan the structure of your multidimensional cube, including• a time dimension that contains the relevant divisions in the calendar or fiscal year, such as Quarter, Week, and Day, generally derived from a single column in your data source• alternate drill-down paths, to support analysis by different attributes, such as product type or supplier• manually added levels (for example between Region and State) so you can more accurately allocate measures• associations between levels and transaction values (such as Quantity Sold) for multiple data source modelsThe dimension map consists of a dimension line, where you add dimensions, and levels for each dimension.

You can create your own menus and add the commands you need. When you change default menus or create new ones, the changes are stored in an .mnu file, which is updated each time you make a change.

Note: Users cannot import a configuration file created in PowerPlay 7.0 RTM and previous versions. You must run PowerPlay with the old settings and click Save As to save the settings in a new initialization file.

Data sources may be structural or transactional:• Structural data sources contain the columns that define the model structure: the categories in each dimension. They likely contain many columns, but few rows.• Transactional data sources contain the columns for the measures to be tracked. They likely contain few columns, typically only one for each dimension and one for each measure, but many rows.Transformer prompts you to save a copy of your model in binary (.py?) or ASCII text (.mdl) format. Use the .mdl format when exporting models, or when you have made a lot of changes since your last save action, to avoid possible fragmentation problems.

Compatibility Between VersionsIf you import an .mdl file from a Transformer version prior to 5.x, some features do not convert. These include shares, memory and disk detail storage formats, partitioning information, and various clean house operations.

Conversely, if you import models created in Transformer versions 5.x or earlier, there is no support for such advanced features as Calculated Columns (6.0), Category Counts (6.5), or authentication based on namespaces administered by Access Manager (6.6).

Finally, Transformer no longer allows the direct importation of .def, .dat, and .gen files (from PowerPlay versions 4.x or earlier). If you still have legacy files of this type, you must import them into Transformer version 6.0 or earlier. You can then name the columns, define any required manual levels in the dimensions, and export the populated model as an .mdl file.

Models that use multiple data sources offer several advantages:• Measure allocation. Transformer can take measures that are normally unrelated to some portion of the dimension map and allocate their values to those portions. For example, sales-tracking systems do not generally include information about staffing levels at each branch. However, by including a data source that provides this information, you can derive valuable information, such as the average sales per employee.• Performance improvements. By splitting a single, large data source into smaller, partially normalized sources, you can shorten the processing time if the columns in all measure-containing sources are associated with unique levels in the model. This is because Transformer can associate such measures directly, without regard to their contextin the level hierarchy.• Integration of data from various sources. Models with multiple data sources can combine data from different departments or locations, even if they use different storage systems.

View the Scope of a Data SourceDescriptionData sources may be associated with all, or a portion, of the dimension map. To make theproper associations, all column names related to the same level in the dimension map must match exactly, and the levels with which these source columns are associated must be either unique or fully qualified by one or more higher levels in the hierarchy.Additionally, scope depends on the relationship of the source columns to the levels in thedimension map, as shown in the accompanying illustrations.

Level Derived DirectlyThe level takes its category values from a column in the source. For example, this sourcecontains columns that provide category values for all levels.Level Derived IndirectlyThe source is not related to the level, but is related to descendants of the level. For example, this source contains a column that provides category values for the unique level Product No., but no columns for the ancestor levels. Product Type and Product Line may be manual levels, or their category values may come indirectly from columns in other data sources.Level Derived from a Source with Missing ColumnsThe level cannot take its values from the source because the source lacks columns for ancestor levels, and the level is not unique. The source does not contain enough data to map column values to a level without knowing the entire context. For example, this source contains a column that provides category values for the level Product No., but not for the ancestor levels. The context of the Product No. categories cannot be ascertained because the level hasn’t been declared unique.

Transformer supports a wide range of local data sources:• delimited ASCII (.asc) and comma-separated variable (.csv) files• Impromptu Query Definition (.iqd) files, which can query local or server-based databases• fixed-field text files• local databases, including Microsoft Access, which can specify SQL queries against local or server-based databases, Clipper, dBase, FoxPro, and Paradox• PowerHouse portable subfiles• spreadsheet crosstabs and databases, including Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

Notes• You can use an Access Query that points to an ODBC data source as a means of gettingserver-based data into Transformer.• If you use an Access Query as a source, the columns that appear in the Data Sources listare the result of the SQL query run against the database.

DatesTo obtain date values for the categories in a time dimension, at least one data source mustcontain date values. You can• set the absolute range of dates allowed in the model• match the date format in the model to the format in the source file• specify whether the measure values associated with these dates apply to some or all of the levels in the time dimension; see "Set the Degree of Detail for Dates" (p. 52).In a model with multiple data sources, date columns may appear in several source files, and each column may relate to the same time dimension. For example, a sales-analysis model might contain one source file with order information (including the order date) and another with sales forecasts by time period. For Transformer to relate values from both of these sources to the time dimension, the columns that contain the date values in each source file must have the same name.

IWR

Report administration is shared between these access control lists (ACL) in Impromptu WebReports:

• NewsIndex administrator• report project administrator• report set administrator

ACL --- list of user classes that specifieswho can read or write to a particular object,

such as report sets and report projects in IWR Administration, or NewsBoxes and NewsItems in Upfront.

Use Access Manager to delegate responsibilities for Rep Admn (give privileges to existing classes or create new classes)

_ Log on to Upfront Server Administration as the root user and specify• a NewsIndex administrator ACL• a server administrator ACLThe server administrator ACL cannot perform report administration activities. You specifythis ACL to delegate Impromptu Web Reports server and Upfront server administrationtasks to its members._ Create the NewsIndex administrator ACL before creating the report project and report setadministrator ACLs. For information about how to specify the NewsIndex administrator, seethe Upfront Server Administrator Guide._ Log on to Report Administration as a NewsIndex administrator and specify the report projectadministrators (p. 14) and the report set administrators (p. 15)._ Log on to the Cognos Web portal as a NewsIndex administrator and define user privilegesto NewsBoxes and NewsItems. For more information, see the Cognos Web Portal UserGuide. Specify a Report Project AdministratorReport project --- a group of one or more report sets.Report set ---- a group of reports that use one catalog.

Report project administrator can set security on report sets

by specifying who belongs to the report set administrator ACL.full administrative access to Impromptu reports and custom views.

Cannot set security for the report project.No Rep Pr Adm –then, any user who has a valid user ID and password, and access to the Report Administration utility can administer report projects.

The root user or the NewsIndex administrator creates the report project administrator ACL usingReport Administration. Members of that ACL can• specify report set administrators• publish report sets (p. 29)• enable and disable governors (p. 33)• change some of the settings on the General tab of the report project• map user classes to user profiles (p. 17)• set administrative properties for Impromptu reports in UpfrontSteps1. Log on to Report Administration as the root user or the NewsIndex administrator.2. In the left pane, click Report Project 1.3. Click the Security tab.4. Select Grant Access to User Classes Selected Below.5. Select the user classes you want to set as report project administrators.

6. From the Actions menu, click Save.

Specify a Report Set AdministratorAdministrator Guide 15A report set is a catalog, one or more reports that use the catalog, and any supporting files,such as graphics files, HotFiles (.ims), or PowerPrompts applications. Only a root user,NewsIndex administrator or a report project administrator can publish a report set.You can delegate report set administrators to update report sets and create events in reportadministration. They can also create burst reports and dependent reports for users in Upfront.If you do not define a report set administrator ACL, any user who has a valid user ID andpassword, and access to the Report Administration utility can administer report sets.Report set administrators can update only existing report sets to which they are granted access.This means that they have access to the Update the Existing Report Set option. They cannotpublish new report sets. They can view and change properties for their report sets, except forproperties on the Security tab. They cannot view or change properties for report sets to whichthey are not granted access. In addition, report set administrators can create, delete, andchange events.Report set administrators can also change the administrative properties of reports and customviews of the report set in Upfront. For more information, see the Impromptu Web Reports topicsin the Cognos Web Portal User Guide.The root user, NewsIndex administrator, or report project administrator creates an ACL for eachreport set in Report Administration.Report set administrators can do any of the following for the report sets to which they aregranted access:• Update report sets (p. 35).• Manage events and dependencies.• Enable and disable governors (p. 33).• Set administrative properties for Impromptu reports in Upfront.Steps1. Log on to Report Administration as the root user, NewsIndex administrator, or report projectadministrator.2. In the left pane, click a report set.3. Click the Security tab.4. Select Grant Access to User Classes Selected Below.5. Select the user classes you want to set as administrators for the report set.6. From the Actions menu, click Save.

Source of Database Logon InformationAfter you publish a report set,

you must specify the source of database logon information to usewhen any report in the set is run.The database logon information may be set according to user profiles in the Impromptu catalog or users’ database signons in the Access Manager namespace.Consult the administrator of the Impromptu catalog to determine whether the database signons are stored in the catalog. Database signon information is stored in the Impromptu catalog,you can set IW Reports to use the signon information in the user profiles in the Impromptu catalog.This is the default setting for each report set.If database signon information is not stored in the Impromptu catalog and the database requiressignon information, you can change the report set to use users’ database signons in the AccessManager namespace.

Use User Profiles in the Impromptu CatalogThe user profiles in the Impromptu catalog option use the database user ID and passwordstored in the user profiles in an Impromptu catalog. Because you map each user class to a userprofile, this setting specifies that the same database user ID and password are used for all

members of the user class. This means that each user class member receives the same reportdata based on the privileges defined for that user profile in the catalog.Do not choose this option if you intend to use burst reports because it may prevent burst reportsfrom working.Steps1. From the View menu, click Report Project.2. In the left pane, click a report set.3. On the General tab, click User Profiles in the Impromptu Catalog.This is the default.If you previously changed this, you are asked to confirm your change.4. If asked for confirmation, click Yes.5. From the Actions menu, click Save.

16 Impromptu (R) Web ReportsUse Users’ Database Signons in the Access Manager NamespaceThe users’ database signons in the Access Manager namespace option uses the database userID and password assigned to each user in Access Manager. In relational databases that requireuser IDs, the database administrator can control the data that users have access to based ontheir database user IDs.Use this type of database logon when you want each user to have access to different databased on their database privileges, or if you want users to provide their own database user IDand password the first time that they log on. You can grant or deny user privileges to changetheir database signon.You must also use Access Manager Administration to grant users access to the database datasource.For information about who controls database logons, see "Creating Database Signons" (p. 18).For more information about database logons and database data sources, see the AccessManager Administration online help.Steps1. From the View menu, click Report Project.2. In the left pane, click a report set.Chapter 1: Applying Security3. On the General tab, in the Source of Database Logon Information dialog box, click Users’Database Signons in the Access Manager Namespace.If you have not selected this option before, you are asked to confirm your change.4. If asked for confirmation, click Yes.A database data source is created in the Access Manager namespace. Its name matchesthe Database Name field in the Source of Database Logon Information box.5. From the Actions menu, click Save.User Classes and User ProfilesYou must create a mapping between user classes in Access Manager and user profiles in theImpromptu catalog. To do this, you can automatically generate and map Access Manager userclasses, manually add and remove mappings, set implicit user class mapping, or map all userclasses to one user profile.The Impromptu catalog contains user profiles that control data access by• limiting access to tables or columns of data• applying catalog filters and governor settings• applying the data access restrictions in the database, as defined by the database user IDand password set in the catalogThese data access restrictions are defined by the Impromptu catalog creator.To apply these catalog restrictions to a report set, you must set the source of database logon information to User Profiles in the Impromptu catalog (p. 16).When a member of a user class runs a report,

I W Rs uses the user profile mapped from the user class.This is called explicit user class mapping and can be achieved by

automatically generating user classes,

manually adding or removing mappings,or mapping all user classes to one user profile.

If the user class is not explicitly mapped to a user profile,I W Rs searches for a user profile that has the same name as the user class and uses the associated data access privileges to run the report.

This is called implicit user class mapping (p. 20). If a matching userprofile is not found, the report fails.Automatically Generate User ClassesYou can generate user classes using Report Administration if• you do not have a set of user classes already defined in Access Manager• you do not want to use existing user classes in Access Manager• you want to add user profiles from the Impromptu catalog to Access Manager, saving timethat you would have spent manually creating new user classes

As Impromptu Web Reports generates the user classes, each user class is automaticallymapped to its matching user profile in the catalog, and added to Access Manager as a userclass. Impromptu Web Reports uses this mapping to locate the user profile when it runs areport.By default, user classes are generated using the same names as the catalog user profiles theyare based on. All user classes in a namespace must have unique names. If you generate userclasses for a report set that contains a user profile with the same name as an existing userclass, a number is appended to the new user class. This occurs because Impromptu WebReports does not overwrite user classes that already exist in Access Manager.Therefore, before you generate user classes, you should identify user profiles in the catalog thatalready exist as user classes in Access Manager. Instead of generating user classes thatalready exist, you should either manually map them to catalog user profiles, or enable implicituser class mapping.Only members of the root user class have the authority to automatically generate user classes.The user classes generated using Report Administration follow the same hierarchy of the userprofiles in the Impromptu catalog.Chapter 1: Applying SecurityDefault UsersWhen you generate user classes, you can also automatically create a default user for each userclass. A default user has the same name as the user class it is associated with. The user’sdefault password is also the same as the user class name.Creating default users also saves you time, so that you don’t have to manually create users inAccess Manager. You can also use default users to test security before you add users to theuser classes in Access Manager.Creator User ProfileEvery Impromptu catalog contains a Creator user profile. By default, the root user class ismapped to the Creator user profile when you publish a report set. This means the root user canrun reports without having to map itself to a user profile in the catalog. This also means that it isnot necessary to create or maintain a Creator user class in Access Manager.If you select the Creator user profile when you generate user classes, Impromptu Web Reportscreates a user class whose name begins with the report set name and ends with the wordCreator. For example, if the report set name is Great Outdoors Sales, then the user classgenerated for the Creator user profile is Great Outdoors Sales Creator. Do this when you wantto generate a Creator user class in Access Manager that is not automatically granted the samesecurity privileges for Impromptu reports as the root user class. For example, you can modifythe privileges for the Great Outdoors Sales Creator in Access Manager Administration so that itsmembers cannot delete user classes but can create new user classes lower in the hierarchy.Steps to Generate User Classes1. From the Tools menu, click Generate User Classes.2. In the Select a Report Set box, select a report set.

The user profiles that are included in the catalog appear.3. In the Select User Profiles box, select the check box beside each user profile that you wantto generate a user class for.If there is a number in parentheses beside the name of the user class, a user class of thatname already exists in Access Manager.4. If you want to create a default user for each user class, select the Create a Default User forEach User Class check box.Each default user takes the same name as its user class, and has a password of the samename.5. Click OK.Steps to View Generated User Classes1. From the View menu, click Report Project.2. In the left pane, click Report Project 1.3. Click the User Class Mapping tab.Tip: You can click any column heading to sort the mappings in alphabetical order for thatcolumn.Creating Database SignonsIf you automatically generated user classes without first creating the NewsIndex administrator,the user classes are automatically granted all privileges in Access Manager Administration. Thismeans that users can manage their own database signons if you enable user database signons.You may prefer to control the database signons for your users. Users can then run reportswithout being prompted for a database signon. However, if a user does not have a signon savedin Access Manager, the user is prompted for a valid database user ID and password that is notalready saved in Access Manager.To create database signons for users:

Determine which users require a user database signon. This includes anyone who requires execute privileges for any report in the report set.

In Access Manager Administration, use the Permissions tab in the User Class Properties dialog box to deny each user class the Show and Create privileges for data sources. Now only you can create or change the database signons for the users in those user classes.For more information about setting user class privileges in Access Manager, see the Access Manager Administration online help.

Create a database signon that accesses the database used by the report set for each member of each user class. The user database signon must be a valid signon in the database.

Enable user database signons for the report set.

For more information, see "Source of Database Logon Information" (p. 16).Manually Add and Remove MappingsIf you already have a set of Access Manager user classes, you can map them manually to thecatalog user profiles.You must add mappings manually if the user class names do not match the user profile names exactly.You must do this for each report set, even if you used the same catalog to publish more than one report set.Alternatively, if the existing user classes exactly match the catalog profiles, and you want theirprivileges to be the same as those of the profiles, you can set implicit user class mapping(p. 20).You can also map all user classes to a single user profile (p. 20) if you want all user classes,including the root user class, to share the same data access defined by one of the user profilesin the catalog. You can map a user class to only one user profile per report set, although youcan map a user class to multiple profiles if each profile is in a different report set.For example, if you get a new set of reports with a new catalog, there may be new user profilesthat you want to map existing user classes to. Or, you may have new user classes in Access

Manager Administration that you need to map to user profiles.You can add or remove a mapping at any time. If you remove mappings, you must follow all thesteps in the remove mappings procedure so that reports that run using the removed user classdo not fail. This is particularly important if there are many user classes mapped to a single userprofile, or if implicit user class mapping is enabled.Steps to Add Mappings1. From the View menu, click Report Project.2. In the left pane, click Report Project 1.3. Click the User Class Mapping tab.4. Click Modify.The User Class Mapping dialog box appears.5. In the Select a Report Set box, select the report set that contains the user profile you want.6. In the Select a User Profile box, click Browse to choose the user profile name you want.If you select a user profile that already has user classes mapped to it, those user classesare selected automatically in the Select One Or More User Classes box.7. In the Select One or More User Classes box, ensure that only the check boxes beside theuser classes that you want mapped to the user profile are selected.8. Click OK.The changes appear on the User Class Mapping tab.9. From the Actions menu, click Save.Steps to Remove Mappings1. Disable the report set (p. 38) to prevent reports from being run while you make changes to auser class or access control list.2. From the View menu, click Report Project.3. In the left pane, click Report Project 1.Chapter 1: Applying Security4. Click the User Class Mapping tab.5. Click Modify.The User Class Mapping dialog box appears.6. In the Select a Report Set box, select the report set that contains the user profile you want.7. In the Select a User Profile box, click Browse to choose the user profile name you want.If you select a user profile that already has user classes mapped to it, those user classesare selected automatically in the Select One Or More User Classes box.8. In the Select One or More User Classes box, clear the check boxes beside the user classesthat you don’t want mapped to the user profile.9. Click OK.The changes appear on the User Class Mapping tab.10. From the Actions menu, click Save.11. In Upfront, remove the user class from the Upfront execute, write, and owner control lists forall reports, custom views, and burst reports in that report set.The user class can remain in the Upfront view control list.12. Remove the user class from the Upfront view control list for all burst reports in the reportset.If the user class is not removed, that burst instance will fail.13. Change the execution user class for all scheduled or dependent reports that use that userclass.Set Implicit User Class MappingIf you know that the user classes in Access Manager have the same names as the catalog userprofiles, you can select implicit user class mapping for a report set. For user class names thatmatch user profile names, when a user runs a report, the data that appears in the report isfiltered according to the governors and filters in the catalog. The matching of names is notcase-sensitive.You can use a combination of explicit and implicit user class mapping. For example, you canperform an explicit mapping by manually mapping (p. 19) the user classes in Access Managerthat don’t match any user profiles in the catalog. You can also select the Implicit User ClassMapping option for the report set. Impromptu Web Reports uses the explicit mappings first, and

then implicitly maps the matching user classes to user profiles.If you use the implicit user class mapping option and the Access Manager user class names arenot spelled the same as the user profiles, members of the unmatched user classes will not beable to run reports in the report set.Steps1. From the View menu, click Report Project.2. In the left pane, expand Report Project 1.3. Click the report set that you want.4. On the General tab, select the Implicit User Class Mapping box.If there are any mismatches between the catalog profiles and user classes that are notmapped manually, those user classes will not be able to run reports. For information abouthow to explicitly set the mapping for any unmatched user classes, see "Manually Add andRemove Mappings" (p. 19) or "Map All User Classes to One Profile" (p. 20).

Access Manager provides a centralized environment to define, store, and maintain security information for Cognos business information applications.

Authentication Files No Longer Supported

Access Manager AdministrationWindows based.Set up and maintain

user classes,users,server connection information,access to data sources.

(There are also two automation interfaces, Access Manager Batch Maintenance, and OLE Automation.)

Netscape Directory ServerLDAP -compliant data store.To store and distribute your security information.

Directory Server ConfigurationConfigure your directory server to work with your Cognos

Access Manager Authentication File ConverterTo import authentication files (.aut) into a directory server namespace.

Access Manager Trusted Signon Plug-In SDKExtend Access Manager functionality so you can use your existing security infrastructure with Access Manager.

Access Manager Configuration WizardA must in a secured environment to specify the source for their security information.Can specify whether they will use a

directory server, local authentication export file (.lae),or an authentication file.

Windows Common Logon ServerRecords information about the users of a Windows-based applicationSo that they can log on once and access multiple data sources.

Ticket ServerSingle signons for users of Web-based productsAccess multiple applications without having to reenter authentication data.(Use the Configuration Manager to configure your Ticket Server.)

Available Security OptionsUser Class ProtectionPrevents a user from viewing a data source unless the user provides a user name and password when prompted by the application.

Auto-AccessMethod of accessing a password-protected cube, database, or server without being prompted for logon information.

Eliminates the need to remember and enter user IDs and passwords for multiple locations,

Password ProtectionSecurity that prevents a user from viewing a data sourceHow Cognos Applications Use Authentication DataEx:

The user selects a securedata source (cube, report, or briefing book)

If the Cognos product isusing an operating system(OS) signon, AccessManager compares theuser's network ID to the OSsignon defined in theauthentication source.

If the Cognos product isusing a basic signon,Access Manager promptsthe user for basic signoninformation, as defined inthe authentication source.

The application reads user and user class information from an authentication source (defined to the application)

(i) If the source is a namespace, the application looks to see if you specified a particular namespace to use.If you did not specify a namespace, the application uses the default namespace specified in the Access Manager Configuration wizard. If it does not find a default namespace there, it uses the default namespace specified in Access Manager Administration.(ii) If the source is .lae, the user must have access to the file before the application can open it.

If there is a match, Access Manager identifies which user class the user belongs to and what access privileges the user has in accordance with the OS signon. It then automatically grants ordenies the user access to the data source without the user having to provide a user ID or password. If there is no match, or you have not defined an OS signon for that user, Access Managerprompts the user for basic signon information.To use OS signons with Cognos Web products, you must enable Windows NT Challenge Response. Without it, Access Manager uses basic signons.

Access Manager prompts the user for a user ID and password and compares them to the basic signon defined in the authentication source. If there is a match, Access Manager identifies which user class the user belongs to and what access privileges the user has in accordance with the basic signon. It then grants or denies the user access to the data source.

For products that do not support the union of user classes, if the user belongs to more than one user class, Access Managerprompts the user to specifywhich user class they want to use during the current session.For products that support the union of user classes, the user’s access rights are the union of all of the rights of the user classes to which the user belongs.If Access Manager doesnot find a match betweenthe user’s network ID andan OS signon, or if thereno valid basic signon, itconsiders the user notvalid.

Access Manager identifies the access privileges for the user class, and then grants or denies the user access to the data source. If the user needs to change user classes, they must exit the datasource and then reopen it again using a different user class.

Configure an Authentication SourceTo be able to use the security information that is stored in Access Manager, every user must indicate to their Cognos products what they intend to use as an authentication source.Otherwise, the products will not be able to locate and validate user select privileges during runtime.

Users indicate the authentication source by using the Access Manager Configuration wizard,which is installed with all Cognos Enterprise Reporting products. There are two main types ofauthentication sources:• a directory server• a local authentication export file (.lae)

The Access Manager Configuration wizard has four modes:• Automated: sets the authentication source based on a Cognos security administration file(.csa).If the .csa file indicates a default directory server and namespace, or a default .lae file, theyare used as the authentication source.• Custom: the user sets the authentication source.• Standard: the authentication sources have already been configured, and the user onlywants to select the type of authentication source to use.• SSL Configuration: the user selects the location of the Netscape Certificate Database file(Cert7.db).

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) SecurityAccess Manager supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security using the secure hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTPS) between the user's browser and the Web server.For more information about setting up SSL for your web server, see the installation andconfiguration guide for your product.Access Manager also supports SSL for exchanging confidential information to and from yourdirectory server.Identify Users: OverviewDifferent signon strategies for identifying users

User levelNamespace level

Can use basic signons, operating, system (OS) signons, or both.

Access Manager NamespacesA namespace in Access Manager :Contains the security information for one or more Cognos applications.Can be stored on a directory server, or in a .lae.Using a directory server - eliminates the need to distribute separate files to eachuser to enforce security.Netscape Directory Server - included as part of the Access Manager installation.LAE files are generally used in situations where a user does not have access to a network, or in a demonstration environment.LAE files are appropriate for single-user operations.

Except for testing purposes, use one namespace for all applications in your business enterpriseplatform. This approach will decrease maintenance effort. For example, if you use onenamespace for Cognos Query and another namespace for Upfront, the information for yourusers must exist in both namespaces.

Basic SignonsFor basic signons, Access Manager stores and manages both the user ID and password foreach user.

External SignonsIf your users already have signons for operating systems or other applications, you may not wantto assign them additional signons for Access Manager.For Windows UsersIf your users sign on to Windows, you can enter the Windows signon information for each user inAccess Manager Administration. When a user opens a secured application, Access Managerlooks for the Windows signon information and compares it to the signon information entered foreach user in Access Manager Administration. If a match is found, the user is granted access tothe secured application.

For Web UsersIf your users access secure applications through the Web, Access Manager can take advantageof Windows NT Challenge Response as well as credentials stored in the REMOTE_USER CGIenvironment variable.

Common Logon or Single SignonUsers can access multiple secured Cognos applications in one session using common logon orsingle signon. Windows products use common logon, and Web-based products use singlesignon.

For Windows UsersIn Windows, the Windows Common Logon server identifies the user and stores relevant securityinformation locally on the user's computer.For Web UsersFor Web users, the ticket server issues a ticket when a user is identified. A reference to the ticketis stored in a cookie in the user's Web browser. When the user opens another Cognosapplication, the application uses the stored ticket information to identify the user, and to enforceany security restrictions. When the user's browser session ends, the cookie is deleted.

UsersYou can adopt one of two basic strategies when defining the types of users you want.

All Users Have the Same RestrictionsYou do this by defining an anonymous user for your namespace. If your namespace is set up for

anonymous users, all users are considered as a group, and share the same security restrictions.Users Have Different RestrictionsYou do this by setting up your namespace for named users, or named users with guest users.Named users are considered individually, and have different security restrictions, depending onwhich user classes they belong to. Guest users are similar to anonymous users because theyare considered as a group, and share the same security restrictions.

User ClassesUser classes represent groups of users with identical authorization rights. Access Managerapplies security at the user class level. You create user classes and add users to those userclasses in Access Manager.

Automate AdministrationYou can automate the administration tasks you perform in Access Manager Administration. Usethe batch command processor for simple automation tasks when ease of use is a consideration.Use OLE automation for more complex automation tasks that require a knowledge of computerprogramming.

Batch MaintenanceWindows and UNIX users can use the batch command processor in Access Manager to createor delete users and user classes, and to set the properties of namespaces, users, user classes,PowerPlay and Transformer servers, and data sources.The batch command processor can set values, but cannot return them. This means thatconditional processing is not possible.

OLE AutomationOLE automation allows access to all functionality in the AccessManager Administration user interface. With OLE automation, you can use collections ofobjects, and you can set and return values for conditional processing.

Local Authentication Export Files: OverviewLocal authentication export files (.lae) provide a portable authentication source for single userswho want to open user class-protected data remotely,

You can only use .lae files locally on a single computer, not on a network or with multiple users.You can store ticket server information in an .lae file.

Use a Local Authentication Export File Under UNIXDescriptionYou can use a local authentication export file (.lae) as an authentication source in Windows orUNIX. To use an .lae file in UNIX, you must first generate the .lae file in Windows using AccessManager Administration.Steps1. Create a local authentication export file (.lae) in Windows.1. Use file transfer protocol (ftp) to move the file to UNIX.Ensure that you use the binary option when moving the file to UNIX.2. In UNIX, find the CognosDirectoryServer.cfg file in the cgi-bin directory.3. Use a text editor to edit the file as follows:[General]NumberofLAEFiles=<number of .lae files you have in your CognosDirectoryServer.cfg file>DefaultLAEFile=<number (n) of .lae file to use as default authentication source>DefaultSecurityDataSource=LAE4. Add the following section at the bottom of the CognosDirectoryServer.cfg file. Add anothersection for each .lae file you have, incrementing the number of the file each time.[LAEFile1]

ConfigurationName=<name of the .lae file>Path=<path where the .lae file is located>

Import an Authentication File into a Namespace4. In the Options box, select one of the following:• Empty the Target Namespace • Merge Namespaces to add the authentication file information to the information in thenamespaceThis option applies only if you have a namespace on the directory server that has the samename as the authentication file you are importing.Chapter 4: Set Up Authentication DataAuthentication data is the security information that is stored in an authentication source, such asa namespace in a directory server or a namespace in a local authentication export file (.lae).You use Access Manager Administration to define and maintain authentication data, whichenables users to access user class-protected data, such as cubes and reports.Set Up User Classes: OverviewA user class is an object that represents a category of users who have similar functions in anorganization.Each member of a user class has the same access privileges, and users can be assigned to multiple user classes.

User ClassWhen you add a user class, you enable administrators of client applications to restrict access todata or provide auto-access to data sources based on these user classes. Each user class thatyou create is contained within the root user class.

A public user class is a user class to which all users in a namespace automatically belong.When you add new users to a namespace, if there is a public user class, they automaticallybelong to it. Existing users also belong to the public user class.

Set User Class Access TimesThis restriction applies to accessing Access Manager Administration as well as to accessing user class secured data.The time restriction is verified against the user's computer and is applied when the user firstaccesses the data. Users who continue to access data after their time restriction expires will notbe automatically logged off.

User Class PermissionsThe permissions specified in Access Manager do not determine the access permissions thatmembers of the user class will have when using a client application. Those permissions aredefined in the application. For example, permissions within Access Manager Administrationdetermine whether that user, as a member of a user class, can view, create, or delete users anduser classes and view, add, or remove connections to data sources and servers within AccessManager Administration. They do not specify whether that user can view a specific dimensionwhile viewing a cube in PowerPlay. Permissions for viewing a cube must be specified inTransformer when the cube is created.

Users Assigned to Multiple User ClassesUsers who belong to more than one user class may be prompted to select a user class whenthey log on. Some Cognos applications, such as Impromptu Web Reports, require a single userclass. Users who belong to more than one user class are prompted to select a user class eachtime they log on. Other applications, such as PowerPlay and Upfront, allow the user to log onwith all the permissions of the user classes they belong to. This is referred to as a union of userclasses.

For each individual who must access secure data, you must create a user with Access Manager

Administration and assign the user to one or more user classes. Access to the secured data isdefined for each user class in the client application.

Steps to Set Up an OS Signon8. Type the signon information using one of the following formats:• domain\userid (for Windows and Web products)• userid (for Windows products)

Set Up a Data Source: OverviewData sources represent network locations where data is stored. Access Manager only storesconnection information for each data source, not the contents of the data source.

Add MetadataBefore you give users access privileges to a metadata source, you must define the source inAccess Manager.Architect defines what types of metadata can be used, for example, Architect Model, ERwinModel, or Informatica Model.Ensure that you specify a valid metadata type because Access Manager does not validate this parameter.

Set Up a Server: OverviewServers represent server locations on a network. Access Manager stores the connectioninformation for PowerPlay and Transformer servers so that you can control user access to them.

5. Type the name of the server in the Name box.The name must be the name by which the server is identified on the network.

Chapter 5: Set Up Security Across Applications

Setting up authentication data in Access Manager Administration is only one part of providingsecure user access to information. You must also set up your user’s access to the authenticationdata so they can use it.

To configure access to authentication data, users must have• the Access Manager Configuration wizard installed with their Cognos applications. TheAccess Manager Configuration wizard is installed by default.• connections to the required data sources (for example, the directory server on which anamespace is located, or a local authentication export file (.lae) for a remote user)• directory server connection information, such as the host, port, and base distinguishedname (DN)• ticket server information for Web-based access

Use Local Authentication Cache FilesWhen a user connects to a secure data source, such as a cube or a report, Access Managercan automatically create a local authentication cache file (.lac) and stores it on the user’scomputer.

Access Manager automatically creates.lac files for those Cognos applications that can useAccess Manager, such as Transformer, PowerPlay, PowerPlay Web, and Portfolio. Architect,Impromptu Web Reports, Cognos Query, and Upfront do not support.lac files.

Notes• Local authentication cache files (.lac) are read-only. Therefore, if you are disconnected fromthe network and are using an .lac file as your source of authentication data, you will not beable to use Architect, Impromptu Web Reports, or Upfront.• Local authentication cache files (.lac) are intended for use with client tools, such asPowerPlay client, which only need read access to authentication data. Using .lac files on

Cognos servers is not supported as they may cause performance and concurrencyproblems. Local authentication cache files (.lac) can be disabled with the ConfigurationManager.

Step-By-Step Impromptu CatalogsCreate a Database Definition:

Logical Database Name

DB2 database nameDB2 Connect StringCollation sequence

UserID / Pass

TimeoutsChange or Remove a Database DefintionIf you change a database definition, you need to update your users' Cognos.ini files.Connect to the DatabaseEnable Automatic Connection to the DatabaseTools -> Options -> the General tabManually Connect to a DatabaseAccess Multiple Databases Simultaneously:Example:dBASE files in two different folders for two separate database applications. You set them up so that Impromptu views them as a single database.1)Set Up an ODBC Source for the First Database LocationUse ODBC Administrator –User Data Source –configure-2)Define the Logical Database in Impromptu3)Create the Catalog Based on the First Database Source4)Add the Tables from the New SourceTable->Data SourceFoldersstore conditions, calculations, and catalog prompts in folders.What You Can DoYou can modify and organize the folders and items in the folders. You can• create new folders and show the contents of a folder• copy folders and folder items and paste them in new locations• move and remove folders and folder items• rename folders and folder items• generate a folder from a report

Who Can Modify and Organize Folders?

Personal -- Create reports, Modify user classes, Edit Folders, direct entry SQLShared --Create reports, Modify user classesDistributed --Create reports, Modify user classes, Edit foldersSecured --Optional with no access to edit user classes

Generate a Content Overview ReportYou can only generate a content overview report for a catalog that you created

User Classes and PrivilegesWhy Do You Use a Password?You can protect a catalog by assigning a password to a user class, which all user class membersmust enter to use the catalog. Passwords can consist of alphanumeric characters and spaces.Providing you have the correct authorization, you can set user class passwords for anysubordinate user classes. For example, from the Creator user class you can set passwords for allother user classes.What You Can DoYou can• create user classes that match the needs of your user community• protect catalogs by assigning passwords to each user class accessing that catalog• store database user IDs and passwords within the catalogControl Editing of the Catalog StructureDescriptionYou can modify catalog structure by editing the folders in the catalog. Any user class that can editthe catalog structure has complete read-write access to that catalog.Place catalogs in a read-only directory to prevent users from changing the catalog, even if theyhave permission to edit the Impromptu folders.Distributed CatalogsBy default, only the Creator user class can modify the structure of a master distributed catalog.User classes can modify certain aspects of their personal distributed catalog structure. You canprevent a user class from editing the catalog structure.Shared CatalogsBy default, only the Creator user class can edit the catalog structure of a shared catalog.While you edit the structure of a shared catalog, all other subordinate user classes cannot openthe catalog. All user classes use the same copy of the catalog, and you cannot edit the folders

until everyone using the shared catalog closes the catalog.

Control the User EnvironmentUser Profiles Menu:

User Classes: Add/edit/remove usersTable access: Grant/Deny access to tables in the catalogsFolder access: Grant/Deny/ access/select values in foldersFilters: Create/edit catalog filtersDatabase: Database passwords

Governor: Set user class permissions such as Modify (users, reports, folders, direct entry sql) Allow/deny (sorting on non-indexed columns, duplicate rows, cross product queries & outer joins) Set (report tables, data retrieval, query execution time limits) and maximum number of characters)

Client server: Database only, flexible or limited

Database Limited FlexibleSummary before details

Cannot Handle Runs 2 queries.Once for details and once for summary and merges both

One query and computes the total by itself

Grouped summary & report level summary

Cannot handle Runs 2 queries.Once for details and once for summary and merges both

One query and computes the total on the computer

Filter with a "sounds like" prompt

May not handle this Impromptu runs the query but you cannot sort on the filter

Impromptu will run the query with no limits

User classes lets u :• provide your users with focused views of your data• restrict access to sensitive dataApply privileges and filters to your user classes to control access to tables, columns, and folders.For more information, see "Use Filters to Control Access to Data" on page 50.To set user environment controls for a hierarchy of user classes, change the user class at the top of the hierarchy.Subordinate user classes inherit controls and settings from the user class at the top.ExampleYou have two groups of users requiring access to the same catalog.However, one group needs view-only access to standard reports,

while the other group needs edit access to the data structure, catalog structure, and reports.What You Can DoYou can control whether a user class can• access certain data in the catalog by setting access privileges at the table, column, database, or folder level within the catalog• edit the catalog structure• create or edit reportsThe Creator user class can control the environment for other user classes.Subordinate user classes inherit the permissions and settings of the parent user class.Any user class with the appropriate permissions, may control the environment for subordinate user classes. For example, as amember of the Managers user class you have permission to control the environment for asubordinate Employees user class

Note• By default, all user classes have access to all data in the catalog.

Control the Retrieval of Large Text ItemsControl the Number of Rows RetrievedYou can also control the text BLOB limit at the query level by typing the limit in the MaximumNumber of Characters to be Retrieved for Large Text Items box

Query dialog box Access tab.

Control the Number of Tables Retrieved

Control Sorting on Non-Indexed Columns

Control the Creation of Outer Joins

Suppress Duplicate Rows of DataControl the Creation of Cross-Product Queries

Control the Time a User Class Can Run QueriesRestrict the Time a User Class Is Connected to the Database

Control the Ability to Enter SQL Directly

User Profiles,-> Governor tab.

Audit Impromptu Performance

1. Create a new data source.2. Create a database file for that data source.Note: If you are using an Access database file (.mdb), create that file using Access, not ODBCAdministrator.3. Check to see if AuditConfig.exe and AudifFileProcessor.exe are in your Cognos\cer1\Binfolder. If they are, skip to step #4. Otherwise, run the Custom Installation of Impromptu 6.0and select the Audit check boxes in the Component Selection dialog box.4. Start the Audit Configuration application (AuditConfig.exe), enable auditing, and specifywhere to store the audit files.5. Start Impromptu.6. Open a report and make some changes.7. Close Impromptu.8. Start the Audit File Processor application (AuditFileProcessor.exe), process the audit files, andstore their data in the database file you created in step 2.9. Start Impromptu and create a database definition using the data source you created in step 1.10. Create a catalog using the database definition you created in step 9.11. Create your report or use one of the sample auditing reports.

Audit Configuration ApplicationAudit File Processor Application

Tables

The tables can be joined:

ManuallyBy the KeyBy the key or the first matching columnNone

You can create table aliases tocreating a self-join between the table and alias.use in a filter expression. This enables you to create a view of part of the data in a table.

Qualify TablesThis option is available only to the databases that support qualifying and is available only to Creator class.Qualifying ranks: Column (least), table, owner, database (highest)<test>.<your name>.<sales> qualifying order as test database, owned by and database name. When you are ready to release the catalog, you remove the database and owner qualifiers to identify the table only as sales.

Work with Joins:Equi joins: An equi-join retrieves all the rows from one table that have matching rows in another table.

Non-equi joins: A non-equi-join retrieves all the rows from one table that meet the criteria in another table.

Outer joins: An outer join retrieves rows from two or more tables even if there are no matching rows.

Self join: Use self-joins to add two or more references to the same table in a catalog.

Complex joins: A complex join uses an expression to join two tables. You must click Definition to create acomplex join.

Compound joins: A compound join is a join containing several columns joining two tables.

What is a Condition?A condition is a true-false expression you can include in a report to filter data.What is a Calculation?A calculation is an expression using existing data items to calculate a new data item.What is a Prompt?A prompt is an expression that you set up so users can filter the data in a report by typing orpicking a filter value when the report opens.Store a Summary in the CatalogYou can store only summaries that already exist in a saved report in the catalog.Prompts:If you are defining a prompt for a stored procedure report, click Advanced and check the settings.

Stored Procedures:You can use the Stored Procedure.imt template to create reports that call stored procedures and show the results in a simple list report.

Rather than sort, group, or filter the stored procedure report directly, you use the report as a data source for other reports. You can save the report and reuse the columns in other reports created from the same catalog.

You can also add the stored procedure report to the catalog using the Tables dialog box and then join this report to other reports or tables from the database.Reusing reports need not be limited to stored procedures; you can reuse any report (except crosstabs) in another report. If you reuse a report in another, then the result set of the reused report has to be locally cached when you execute the final report. This may increase processing time.

Impromptu 6.0 supports stored procedures for the following databases:• DB2• Informix• ODBC• Oracle• SQLbase• SQLServer 6.5 and 7 through both ODBC and DB-Library• Sybase CT-Library• Sybase DB-Library

You can create stored procedure reports in either administrator or user versions of Impromptu, provided that the user class that you used to attach to the catalog permits you to edit SQL. To allow SQL editing, select the Direct Entry SQL check box from the Governor tab of the User Profiles dialog box.Any user class that can create and edit reports can reuse a stored procedure report in another report, using either version of Impromptu.

So, Impromptu// stored procedures in doesn’t support:InterBaseDBASEMS SQL server

Notes• You can still add formats, borders, and patterns to the stored procedure report.• You can't save a stored procedure report as an .iqd file.• Use uppercase to specify the name of an ORACLE stored procedure.• Ensure that the number of parameters you pass from your stored procedure report equals thenumber in the Sybase stored procedure if you connect through CT-Library. For moreinformation, see the Impromptu Readme.• By default, prompts are single select. A Type In prompt response could contain multiple,comma-separated values, but it would require the stored procedure to parse it.

multiple query report???????????

Join Multiple Databases Using HotFiles1. Select one database as the basic database used in Impromptu.2. Create HotFiles of the tables in any of the other databases.Note: Use the same folder so that you can access the tables at the same time. You may wantto give alias names to identical tables from different databases.3. Create a database definition for the HotFiles you create.4. Create a catalog with the basic database and the HotFiles database.5. Open the catalog.

SQL: OverviewOnce you alter the SQL statements, you can only change the query by manually editing the SQL statement.What You Cannot DoOnce you edit SQL statements, you cannot• access some Impromptu tabs (for example, Data, Sort, and Filter). The remaining tabs provideonly limited functionality• access some of the toolbar buttons (for example, Sort, Filter, and Snapshot)• re-establish most of the governor settings that control permissions• schedule reports to be executed on a remote server

Annotation Server:

An annotation server receives the annotation request, searches your external data source for information about the item, and displays the information. You can create the annotation server in any application that can build a COM server or use the one provided as an example.Annotations are descriptions of columns, calculations, catalog filters, and catalog prompts storedin a relational database or metadata repository.

What factors are necessary to allow (external customers) access to IWR on the internet, not just through an internal intranet?

Yes, this can be done. However, there are differences in deploying IWR in an external environment that are not present in deploying PP externally. Security is the biggest difference, in that IWR requires database access to actually run a report. Some places to start might be to consider what kind of reports you are running. Is it possible to automate these reports in a stored procedure format? (Greater database optimization is possible in this case.) What sort of firewall restrictions do you have?

At www.Cognos.com, there is an article on setting up the external IWR gateway.

I have been successful in publishing and using IWR externally, but the large amount of issues were not so much around security, but managing the database access piece.

How do I add a pre-defined view to a catalog?

An existing Impromptu 6.0 catalog does not retrieve database Views when attempting to add new Tables/Views from the database. This problem does not exist with a new catalog.

Solution:

When a catalog is created, Impromptu will by default retrieve all User Tables, Views and Synonyms. The likely cause is that the catalog is not configured to return Views. To resolve this, do the following:

1. From the Tools menu choose Options.2. Go to the General tab, uncheck "Retrieve database tables when editing catalog tables."3. Open the catalog, and from the Catalog menu, choose Tables. The database tables list will now be empty.4. Click Retrieve database tables.5. Click the User (or System Views) radio button.

It should now be possible to add the View to the catalog.

Does anyone have any advice for writing a macro or the commands I need in Cognos Script for automating the cube creation?

Run PowerPlay Transformer in Batch Mode Using Scheduler

DescriptionYou can schedule PowerPlay Transformer to run in batch mode at a specific time. For example, you can schedule Transformer to refresh an existing PowerCube at a specific time each day. Before Scheduling PowerPlay Transformer to run in batch mode, the PowerPlay administrator should set up Auto-access to the required data sources. This ensures that authenticator attempts to identify the user via their OS signon, thereby eliminating the need for user interaction.

The following procedure describes how to schedule PowerPlay Transformer to run in batch mode. Because the macro will run on your computer, you must leave yourcomputer switched on with Scheduler running in order for the task to execute.

Steps1. Open the Scheduler application window.2. From the Insert menu, click Task.3. In the File Name box, type trnsfrmr.exe, the file name of the PowerPlay Transformer executable file. Add the path, if necessary.

You can also click Browse to open the File Name dialog box, where you can locate the file. Type the appropriate batch mode switches, and then type the name of the model file.

For example, you could type:"trnsfrmr.exe" -n -s "national.pye"

4. Type Transformer Batch Mode in the Description text box to identify the task.5. Click Timetable to show the Timetable tab (Insert Task dialog box).6. Select the time at which you want the task to run in the Time box.7. Set the date for the task to be run in the On box.

You must select tomorrow's date for the task to run overnight, as the time has been set after midnight. For example, click the arrow keys to change the date to 22/08/99 (August 22, 1999).

8. If the catalog or the database prompt for user IDs and passwords:* Click Security to show the Security tab (Insert Task dialog box).* Type a user class for the task in the User Class box.* Type the password for the user class in the first User Password box.* If the database supports multiple user IDs, type the database user IDs for the task in the User ID box.* If the database supports multiple user IDs, type the passwords associatedwith the user IDs in the second User Password box.9. Click OK.The Insert Task dialog box closes, and the task description appears in the task list in the Scheduled tab (Scheduler application window).10. Do not close Scheduler. You can click the Minimize button on the top right of the Scheduler application window.

Scheduler runs minimized, and Transformer will run at the scheduled time on your computer.

My cube takes around 16 hours to build. 90 percent of the time the transformer takes is Step 9: "Sorting the Work File" and Step 10: "Counting Category Hits." What could be wrong?

It could be because you are processing so many records.

Some ideas to try:

1. Try incremental cube builds. 2. Try summarizing the data more at its source if you don't need the full level of detail provided by the CSV file.3. Check you cache size in the COGNOS.ini

2) Adapted from response by Troy on Thu, 6 Sep 2001 http://Groups.ITtoolbox.com/archives/archives.asp?l=cognos-l&i=7976

Turn off your virus scan on your machine before and during build times.(McAffee) This will stop the scanning of the file(s) before they are used.

This cut our build times down to 1/3 the normal time.

3) Adapted from resonse by Thomas on Thu, 6 Sep 2001 http://Groups.ITtoolbox.com/archives/archives.asp?l=cognos-l&i=7977

Check into the SortMemory setting in the Cer1.ini file and make sure it is using your transformer server resources:

[Services]Temporary=E:\TEMPSortMemory=512

What is the difference between an Impromptu Administrator and an Impromptu User?

The Impromptu User is the business user or the client copy and has less rights than the Impromptu Administrator. Basically, the Impromptu User cannot make any significant changes to the catalog. However, they can open, view and create reports. The User can create adhoc reports or run reports created by someone else but they do not have any administrative rights to create reports.

For instance the Impromptu User cannot log in as Creator. Therefore they cannot make changes to the catalog or create a new catalog. An Impromptu User cannot view the Magic SQL and cannot access the three last tabs in the Querybox (Access, Profile, Client/server).

Can anyone explain me the differences between drill through, drill down, and slice & dice?

Drill down is when a powerplay model has several levels within a hierarchy. Given a location dimension with country/ state and city. A starting view will show the summary of countries, Drill down on one country will expose their states, drill down on a state will show their cities. So drill down goes to lower levels of a dimension as designed in the model.

Drill thru is the ability to leave PowerPlay and call a SQL Query, (say in Impromptu) passing the dimension line as filters to the query. If the columns in the query match the columns used to build the dimensions the query will automatically apply those values to the where clause. You can write any query or queries you want to support a drill thru from a cube. Context is important to balance the two.

Slice and dice, is the term used to change dimensions after viewing the cube. See things by location, then change to view by product. You are slicing the data in a different perspective

Please let me know how to change the column Title Direction (i.e. to vertical)? I know one method, such as to go to column properties - column titles - click "ctrl + Enter" after each letter. But it's taking lot of height.

We were able to do this on one report by making images of the title and placing the image in the list header above the column. This does require that you make a column header for each column as you then have to hide the column title header so the list header is directly above the columns.  

You can create your column headers in Excel with the text oriented properly and width sized appropriately. Then copy the cell and paste it into your paint program. Save this image as a bmp and then use it in your impromptu report.

Does anyone have an example of a macro that can be used to a) Build the cube and b) run a batch file that disables / copies / enables the new cube?

This is the core of the script. I pulled this one from Cognos' Knowledgebase.

****** Code Starts here ******

'The ExecCmd is defined prior to this line as well as other variables, etc...

 Sub ExecCmd(cmdline$)   Dim proc As PROCESS_INFORMATION   Dim start As STARTUPINFO

   ' Initialize the STARTUPINFO structure:   start.cb = Len(start)

   ' Start the shelled application:   ret& = CreateProcessA(0&, cmdline$, 0&, 0&, 1&, _

    NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, 0&, 0&, start, proc)

   ' Wait for the shelled application to finish:   ret& = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, INFINITE)   ret& = CloseHandle(proc.hProcess) End Sub  Sub Main ()   ExecCmd "D:\.......\TRNSFRMR.exe -n1 -s D:\Kerrie\Kerrie.mdl"   Shell("C:\......\YourBatchfile.bat")   ExecCmd "D:\......\TRNSFRMR.exe -n1 -s D:\Kerrie\Kerrie2.mdl"   Shell("C:\......\YourBatchfile2.bat") End Sub

****End Code****

The batchfile looks like this:"C:\Program Files\Cognos\cer2\bin\ppadmtool.exe" connectservername:portnumber user password DISABLE CUBENAME

COPY D:\cognos\...\CubesUnpublished\CapacityManagement.mdc,D:\cognos\...\cubes\CUBENAME.mdc

"C:\Program Files\Cognos\cer2\bin\ppadmtool.exe" connectservername:portnumber user password ENABLE CUBENAME

Raplace with your paths and file names.

What are some of the pros and cons of both Impromptu Client and Cognos ReportNet?

With ReportNet you can create very complex reports like invoices. It is good in terms of prompting and it allows multiple selection (limitation with IWR). We have had no issues with drilling, we can drill from upfront environment to a report in ReportNet environment. Currently it does not have any OLAP capabilities.

ReportNet is how Cognos sees the future for reporting. I don't think it will make Impromptu disappear completly because not all companies need a web-based solution to suit their needs.

There are some real advantages to ReportNet from a maintenance point of view. Because it is server based and zero footprint you only need to maintain the software at one location. Users and developers just need a browser to gain access. This means that it is workplace independent, unlike Impromptu client that has to be installed on every computer a user wants to use it on. Also ReportNet gives a better insight into the origin of fields. If you have ever designed several aliases of the same table in an Impromptu Catalog you know what I mean. If you look in the Impromptu SQL, you cannot see which folder the field originates. Also, you can see what the impact of a certain change in framework manager will be on your reports.

However, I have worked with both Impromptu and ReportNet and I think that Report Studio is much more complex than Impromptu and thus allows you to develop much more complex reports than in Impromptu. You also

need to think and develop reports differently. It is like changing from structured programming to object orientated. Your brain needs to get around it. In complexity I would say the order would be: Query Studio, Impromptu, Report Studio. Query Studio is simple to use and users who are familiar with Impromptu would need little training to be able to work with Query Studio. ReportStudio users will definitely need training, as will the developer who makes the packages in FrameWork Manager, it just a somewhat different way of doing things.

For non-savvy users, Query Studio is ideal. You can make it as easy as you want for users through the design of your package- even easier than in a Catalog for Impromptu. In my experience, a user who uses Impromptu always needs to have some basic knowledge of the data. In ReportNet you can define queries that already paste data from different tables together. Of course this is also possible in Impromptu by using a view in the database, but ReportNet allows you to do this within the tool. Lost my point? Say a user makes a financial report in Impromptu: they take data form the folder invoices, the folder customers and the folder payments. In ReportNet you could define a query that already encapsulates this step. So instead of having three folders, you just have one: Invoice payments. In ReportNet you can tune the way you make data available to users much more finely than in Impromptu.

Cognos has developed or is developing a tool with which you can migrate your Impromptu Reports to a ReportNet environment. Envisn has already developed such a tool and this is readily available. In my experience migrating reports and catalogs, can sometimes result in reports not functioning as they should; for example, reduction in performance. You should keep this in the back of your mind. It might not happen, but if it does often the best remedy is to rebuild the report.

I have a cube that is too big. What are some options for reducing my cube size?

There are several options you may consider to reduce cube size. If you have determined that you need all your dimensions and measure for analysis you can:

1 - Create one summary cube and then smaller cube branching within it. This is something called Cube Groups.

2 - You can create drill-through cubes to separate the contents of a PowerCube into smaller more detailed cubes.

3 - You can optimize and reduce the size of your PowerCube by consolidating the information. You can also auto-partition. If you check the help files in Transformer, there is information on how to consoliate and auto-partition cubes.

4 - You can even compress cube in the Transformer model.

5 - You man also want to group the information in your .imr..which would

elimiate duplicate rows.

What can I do to speed up a query in Impromptu reports?

Impromptu is dependant on the database for the speed of results being returned. Below are steps, which may help identify at what point the performance hit is occurring, and a few suggestions for optimizing the query.

1. Run the query in Impromptu, then take the SQL and enter the same SQL (including joins, filters etc) into a native query tool such as SQL*Plus for Oracle, or WISQL for Sybase. This is to determine how long the query takes directly against the database. Compare the results.

2. Save the report as IQD, then compare the SQL and IQD to determine what is being processed locally. Local processing occurs when functions or queries cannot be processed on the database and are therefore handled locally on the PC. This may add to the query time.

3. If you determine the addition of complicated calculations is causing a performance issue, consider the use of views on the database, so that only the results are being returned to Impromptu. The use of Hotfiles may also assist in this situation.

4. It may be the join structure that is causing the performance hit. Examine the joins and use Table Weighting where applicable to help optimize the join structure. Remove any Loop joins, as these may not only cause performance issues, but may result in invalid results.  Information on Table Weighting can be found in the Online help or in our support document titled: Table Weighting.

5. All database's have specific rules re joins etc. Confirm that you are not setting up a join structure that will be in violation of a rule, therefore causing the query to be processed locally, or a split select to be issued. For example: Oracle states that a table cannot be the inner table of two outer joins. Therefore two SQL statements will be issued perhaps resulting in a performance hit. The use of aliases or views may assist in this case.

6. Running the report at peak network and database traffic times may also incur a performance hit. Use Scheduler to run the report at 'off hours' if it is a large or complicated report. Compare results.

7. Confirm that the table is correctly indexed etc on the database.

8. Optimize the PC. Free up hard drive space, swap file space, delete all temp files, free up conventional memory, and check system and GDI resources. Run a scandisk and defrag on the system.

9. If you are using ODBC, confirm the latest ODBC driver is being used, and use a native gateway where possible.

Access Series 7 Reports from Cognos ConnectionIf ReportNet is configured properly to use the Cognos Series 7 namespace, you can allow usersto access NewsIndexes and NewsBoxes of the Series 7 version of Cognos Upfront from Cognos

Connection.We recommend that Cognos Connection and Upfront use the same Web server if Upfront is setup to use relative URLs. If Cognos Connection and Upfront use different Web servers, configureSeries 7 to use fully qualified URL. This allows users to use the Web browser back button tonavigate from Upfront back to Cognos Connection. For information about configuring Series 7,see Cognos Series 7 Configuration Manager User Guide.For information about running Series 7 reports, see "Series 7 Reports in CognosConnection" (p. 80).For information about using a Series 7 namespace, see "Series 7 Roles" (p. 46).20 Cognos ReportNet (TM)

Chapter 1: ReportNet AdministrationSteps1. In Cognos Configuration, configure ReportNet to use your Cognos Series 7 namespace. Formore information, see the configuration tool online help.2. In the Properties window, under Cookie Settings, ensure that the Secure Flag Enabledproperty is set to false.3. From the File menu, click Save and close Cognos Configuration.4. Ensure that the ticket server for Cognos Series 7 namespace is running.5. Ensure that the timeout value of the Series 7 ticket server is set to the same value or to ahigher value than the ReportNet passport timeout value.6. On the computer where ReportNet is installed, open thecrn_location/templates/ps/system.xml file in an editor.Ensure that your editor supports saving files in UTF-8 format.7. Find and edit (with an XML editor) the series7 parameter as follows:<!-- Series 7 Integration parameters --><param name="series7"><enabled>true</enabled><!-- character encoding used by series7 --><encoding>series7_character_encoding</encoding><!-- host and port to connect to Upfront server --><host>Upfront_host_name</host><port>Upfront_dispatcher_port_number</port><!-- Upfront gateway location --><gateway>Upfront_gateway_location</gateway><!-- prefix for ReportNet back URLs when linking to series 7 content. (eg.http://ReportNetMachine) --><back-prefix>http://ReportNet_server</back-prefix></param>To view the character encoding used by Series 7, in Series 7 Configuration Manager, on theProperties tab, click Cognos Shared, click Locale, and then click the Encoding property.8. Save the system.xml file in UTF-8 format.9. Using Cognos Configuration, stop and then restart ReportNet.For more information about stopping ReportNet, see the configuration tool online help.In Cognos Connection, users can now log on using the Series 7 namespace. In the PublicFolders area, content from the Series 7 Upfront NewsIndex is available. In the My Foldersarea, content from the users' personal NewsBox is available. In the My Pages tool, in the Add

content page, Cognos Series 7

1982 PowerhouseQTP

1988 Architect

Note: Still to work on Action Item 7(Macro for using template on report). As this is not providing required results.

Action Item 12 is also pending

Shwetab

How do you allow access to "SQL Editing" to users in Impromptu"?2) Lets say a user comes to you and says "My report was workingproperly yesterday evening, one of the columns is suddenly showingstrange characters today", How will you go about solving that(Whatwill be your stepwise approach).3) One thing in your whole career as a COGNOS developer/Admin you arereally proud of doing.4) When did you clear your BI certification.5) How do you publish cubes over the web?6) What is the difference between PPR and PPX powerplay reports?7) How will you know which Catalog is the user running? (Not thruAudit file processor or the value displayed at the bottom)

Udaya

1) Where do u see the SQL view of the impromptu reports2) Cognos.ini3) Impromptu.ini

4) What kind of security you will provide to the user at catalog level5) ODBC logs 6) Different kinds of catalogs7) Different kinds of security measures at report level8) Windows Sign-on