Workshop 1 Working with Cognos Workspace

An IBM Proof of Technology
Workshop 1 Working with Cognos Workspace
What is Cognos Workspace?
IBM Cognos® Cognos Workspace is a web-based tool which allows you to use Cognos content and external
data sources to interact, analyze and build sophisticated interactive dashboards that facilitate collaborative
decision making.
Workshop Objectives
In this workshop, you will:
●
Familiarize yourself with the Cognos Workspace interface.
●
Consume and interact with content within Cognos Workspace.
●
Create a new workspace with advanced features
1.1
Getting started…
__1.
If the following home page appears, select My home.
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__2.
In the Cognos Connection portal, navigate to the sales area by clicking on folders Samples >
Models > Cognos Workspace Samples and finally click on the Cognos Workspace Tabbed
Workspace. Maximize the window to display the entire workspace if it is not already maximized.
Final workspace display should appear as:
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1.2
Interacting with content
__3.
Note the variety of widgets (lists, crosstabs, charts, navigation, and filters) as well as the available
interactivity. See the sliding filters on the left hand side for different date ranges. Modify the filter to see
how the displayed results change.
__4.
In the Select a value box on the left, slide the right indicator to 2013. Notice how the widgets (ones
that contain dates) automatically respond and redisplay based on the selected filtering.
__5.
To demonstrate additional interactivity, change a chart’s color scheme. Click on the Revenue by
Product Line chart widget to display widget main menu bar. Select Change Color Palette > Excel
2007.
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__6.
Now let’s see how we can change the type of a chart. Click on the “Revenue Planned vs Actual”
chart widget and select the “Change Display Type > More”. Select the ALL tab and note the variety
of different chart formats that include (but not limited to) bar, column, gauge and pie. Let’s select Table
to see the underlying numbers. Click OK
The chart then changes to a crosstab view that displays the numbers underlying the chart:
v
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__7.
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In the prior crosstab view, click to right of the text in the cell with Camping Equipment (do not click
directly on the underlined Camping Equipment text as that will execute a drill-down action). Right
mouse click to display a context menu of additional options. Note the various other interactions that are
available including the following list. Do not select any of these options at this point, just click
elsewhere on the workspace to remove the menu.
•
Drill Up/Down
•
Go To (link to another report, drill across)
•
Filter
•
Sort
•
Calculate
•
Swap Rows/Columns
•
Freeze row or column headings
•
Lineage (data derivation)
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__8.
Perform a drill down action within a widget. To see the underlying details that aggregate up to
Camping Equipment, simply click directly on the text for Camping Equipment to drill down into the
details for that product.
__9.
Perform a Drill Up action by clicking directly on the Camping Equipment text at the bottom row of the
table.
__10.
We can add a new comment to any widget. You can add a comment by right-clicking a cell, row or
column, or an overall widget and selecting “Comment.” In this example, on the Revenue Planned vs
Actual widget select to the right of the column header text January 2011. Then the widget’s
icon and select “Add”. Enter “Example comment” and select Done. Once the comment has been
added, hover over the red thumbtack symbol in the upper right corner of the Jun/2011 cell to view the
comment.
__11.
You can use email in addition to comments for collaboration within Cognos Workspace. You can send
the URL of the current workspace by email and customize the email message or copy the URL to the
clipboard so it can be pasted into other documents. Select the main menu
icon on the overall
workspace (not an individual widget) and select “Email Link…” or “Copy Link to Clipboard”. For this
step, select “Email Link…”. When the email screen appears, just review the contents then close the
window without sending.
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__12.
Swap Rows and Columns in our crosstab. Select the crosstab widget we have been working with and
click the
__13.
To see how to print a widget’s content, select the crosstab widget we have been working with and its
main menu
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icon
icon, select the “Print as PDF” option.
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__14.
View the report, then scroll down to the second page which has a full listing of all of the comments for
that particular widget. Close the PDF window when you are finished reviewing the content.
__15.
To see the variety of export formats available for a widget, select the crosstab widget’s main menu
icon, select “Export to” to view the list of options, but do not run any of the exports.
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1.3
Augmenting workspace with additional content
Add additional content to the workspace
There are several ways to locate content for use in a workspace. In these steps you will see how to use the
built-in search functionality as well as how to browse content to find reports and report parts to place into an
existing workspace.
__16.
First you must open the Content pane. From the toolbar menu at the top of the page, select Insert >
Insert Content.
This will open a pane on the right-hand side of the page with content that can be placed onto the
workspace. Only content that the currently logged in user has access to will be displayed in this
content area. This pane can also be viewed/hidden by clicking the blue arrow
bar that separates the Content pane from the workspace.
__17.
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in the middle of the
To reduce clutter in the workspace in preparation for the next several steps, remove the Crosstab
widget we have been working with by selecting the widget’s main menu and “Remove from
Workspace” option and select Remove in response to the prompt. Note this is not required. You can
place widgets on top of widgets if desired.
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__18.
Let’s see how we can locate content by browsing to relevant reports using a Windows Explorer-like
paradigm in the Content pane. Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Sales
(analysis) > Report Studio Report Sample > 2011 Sales Summary > Combination Chart 11111
__19.
Select the “Combination Chart11111” report part and drag it onto the workspace where the Crosstab
used to be and resize it to fit.
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1.4 Create a new workspace using advanced features
Up to this point, we have only manipulated an existing workspace adding widgets etc. This section highlights
how to create a new workspace using some of the more advanced features of Cognos Workspace.
__20.
Select the workspace main menu button and select New. (Or if you have skipped the prior sections
and are opening Cognos Workspace for the first time, start Cognos Workspace from the Launch
menu in Cognos Connection portal
OR
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__21.
A blank workspace will appear with the Content pane expanded. Note the small icon on the left hand
side. Select that icon to expand the Global area pane. This is an area that is common to all tabs in the
workspace. Here you can keep any object in view as you click through the tabs in the workspace. In
addition, this area gives you the flexibility to add filters that apply across all tabs versus just a single
tab. This will be covered in more detail in upcoming steps in this exercise.
__22.
Cognos Workspace provides a variety of ways to customize the aesthetics of the display. You can
customize the style and background of your workspace using styles in Cognos located under Layout
and Style in the main toolbar across the top of the workspace. For this exercise, we will demonstrate
how to add a custom image for the background of the overall workspace. In the main toolbar, select
Layout and Style > Edit Workspace Style.
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__23.
In the Edit Workspace Style screen that displays, select the Widgets tab at the top and note the
variety of options available to format widgets.
__24.
Still in the Edit Workspace Style screen, select the Tabs and Global Area tab. Select the color
dropdown and select Set Colory. Select a background color and press OK button. You may also use
images which demonstrates the flexibility Cognos Workspace offers to use a variety formatting options
to make your workspace more consistent with a company’s web pages or other user interface
standards.
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Add widgets to your custom workspace
One of the powerful features of Cognos Workspace is the ability to insert entire reports or portions of reports
from a variety of different subject areas providing a user-specified consolidated view of data regardless of
source.
__25.
To illustrate, let’s first locate some sales content. In the Content pane on the right side of the screen,
navigate from Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Data Warehouse (analysis) > Cognos
Workspace Source Files and expand the Employee Satisfaction report.
__26.
Drag and drop the Employee Survey to the top portion of the workspace and the Employee
Satisfaction – column chart and Combination Chart to the middle of the workspace. The display
should appear like this:
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__27.
Up to this point we have a workspace with just employee data, but suppose you needed to incorporate
other information you have access to such as sales data that reside in other reports or areas within
IBM Cognos? Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Sales (analysis) > Report
Studio Report Samples and expand the 2011 Sales Summary report. Drag and drop the Americas,
Asia Pacific and Europe charts (not the entire report) across to the bottom of the workspace.
__28.
Double click on Tab 1 in the lower left of the display and rename the tab to Employee Satisfaction.
Press OK.
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__29.
Create a new tab by clicking on the main menu button for the overall workspace in the upper left hand
corner and select New Tab. Double click on Tab 2 and rename the tab to Regional Performance.
Press OK.
__30.
Locate sales rep performance data. Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > GO Data Warehouse
(analysis) > Cognos Workspace Source. Expand the Number of Sales Reps and Sales Data
folder. Drag and drop the Number of Sales Reps chart and Revenue Map list report parts onto the
Regional Performance tab as illustrated below.
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Add action buttons and filtering to the global area on your custom workspace
In this section, we will see that a workspace includes an area that is common to all tabs in the workspace. This
“global” area can be optionally displayed or hidden. Within this global area, you can keep any object in view as
you click through the tabs. This can include report widgets or other toolbox items such as action buttons and
filters. For example, you can add a “Territory” filter in the global area so that you can have that same filter
applied across all tabs, not just a single tab that was demonstrated earlier in the workshop.
__31.
Be sure the global area on the left hand side of the screen is expanded and visible by clicking on the
small arrow icon located in the vertical bar on the left side of the screen.
__32.
Add two action buttons to the Global area. Under the right side Content pane, select the Toolbox tab
located at the bottom of the pane:
. Drag and drop an Action button from the Toolbox to
the global area pane on the far left side of the page. Leave the Action set to Go To First Tab. Enter
“Employee Satisfaction” as the Customized Label. Press OK. Position the button.
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__33.
Drag and drop a second Action button from the Toolbox into the global area. Set the Action to Go To
“Regional Performance”. Enter “Regional Performance” as the Customized Label. Press OK.
Position the button as you see below.
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__34.
Let’s now see how to easy it is to add a filter to the global area with no programming required. Drag
and drop a Select Value Filter from the Toolbox into the global area. In the “Select a data item to
filter on:” area, scroll down until you see Year and select it. Keep all other items at their default
values. Note that in the properties of the filter you have numerous options such as values to be used,
whether the filter is multi-select, and the display format of the filter (list vs checkbox). Press OK.
Position the filter as you see in the screen shot below.
Also note that when the Select Value Filter was activated, the system automatically found all the
appropriate data items across all of the widgets on all the tabs that were candidates for this type of
filter for you. No programming was necessary to create this filter making this a very accessible feature
to business users.
Note
__35.
Let’s see how these buttons and filters operate. In the Select a Value filter, uncheck 2010 and 2011.
Select Apply.
__36.
Click both action buttons to toggle between the two tabs to see that the widgets across both tabs
reflect the filtered values.
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__37.
To review, the content oriented widgets that are available to you in Cognos Workspace include:
•
•
•
•
__38.
BI content
o
Reports and/or report parts
o
Active Reports
o
PowerPlay reports
o
Alerts, Events, Inbox
o
URL’s
o
Folders (will display as navigation panes similar to Cognos Connection)
o
Prompts
Metric Studio Content
o
Watch Lists
o
Scorecards
o
Strategies
o
Metric Types
o
Individual Metrics
TM1 Content
o
TM1 Websheet
o
TM1 Cube view
Cognos for Real Time Content
Furthermore, there are several additional toolbox widgets that could be brought into your workspace
beyond the ones we have dealt with in this workshop. The complete list is illustrated below:
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1.5
Summary
IBM Cognos Workspace is a web-based tool that allows you to use IBM Cognos content and external
data sources (RSS feeds, web pages etc.) to build sophisticated interactive workspaces that provide
insight and facilitate collaborative decision making.
Cognos Workspace provides users with a unified workspace that they can view, interact with and
personalize in ways that support the unique way that they analyze data and make decisions. Historical
information alongside current data and predictive analytics help them to quickly move from insight to
decision—all from within a single dashboard.
In this workshop, you performed the following:
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§
Familiarize yourself with the Cognos Workspace interface.
§
Consume and interact with content within Cognos Workspace.
§
Create a new workspace with advanced features
Workshop 1
IBM Software
Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos
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