TIPS & TRICKS FOR EFFECTIVE DASHBOARDS

HOW TO BUILD PRACTICAL WIDGETS USING IBM COGNOS REPORT STUDIO

Todays Agenda
Introduction
Understanding the relationship between Cognos
Workspace and Report Studio

Knowing where to focus the development effort

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Workspace and Report Studio

USING REPORT STUDIO EFFECTIVELY

Examine Cognos Workspace

Cognos Workspace is a web-based tool to create selfservice dashboards, or workspaces
Assemble and personalize existing content via a drag-anddrop interface

Copyright 2014 Senturus, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Examine Cognos Workspace

Report parts are added as widgets on the workspace

Widgets can be customized by the end-user

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Good Widget Design in Report Studio

Workspace users typically add report components, not
whole reports to a workspace
Creates new challenges for report authors

Headers and footers do not show up on the dashboard

Naming of objects becomes crucial
List1, Crosstab1, PieChart1 will not work for end users

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DEMO
BUILDING

FIXED SIZE WIDGET

Challenges & Goals

Issues with different resolutions

Reports return more rows than expected

Fixing a widget to a common size
Allows for more flexibility in delivery method

Copyright 2014 Senturus, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CREATE A FIXED SIZE WIDGET

Demo
Purpose:
We need a widget for our users that may return a large number of rows. We want to
eliminate the page down option and keep the screen from scrolling
1.

Create a new Blank report.

2.

From the Toolbox, drag a List to the Page Body. Enter MainList as the Name and click OK.
Center the Page Body.

3.

Use the Query Explorer and rename Query1 to MainListQuery.

4.

Return to Report Page1, select the Page Header and set the Padding property as follows: Top
padding: 10px, Bottom padding: 20px.

5.

Select the Page Footer and set the Padding property as follows: Top padding: 10px, Bottom
padding: 10px.

6.

Save the report as Dashboard Widget.

7.

From the Source tab in the left pane, expand Sales (query), expand Time and drag Year into the
List.

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CREATE A FIXED SIZE WIDGET

Demo
21. Expand Products and drag Product into the List to the right of Year.
22. Expand Sales and drag Revenue to the right of Product. Group the List by Year.
23. Save the report and run it.

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10

CREATE A FIXED SIZE WIDGET

Demo
24. Return to Report Studio and lets compress the report so that it renders on a single HTML page.
25. From the Toolbox, drag a Block onto the Page Body.
26. Select the Block and set the Size & Overflow property to 3in Wide by 4.5in High. Click the
Always use scrollbars radio button and click OK.
27. Drag the List into the Block. Set the Lists Rows Per Page property to 1000.
28. Save and run the report again.

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11

CREATE A FIXED SIZE WIDGET

Demo

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12

Adding the Widget to Workspace

ADDING THE WIDGET TO A WORKSPACE

Demo
Purpose:
Now that we have our widget, lets add it to a workspace
1.

Close Report Studio and return to the portal.

2.

From the icon screen click on Create workspaces on the web. From the main portal screen
(Public Folders), click Launch Cognos Workspace

3.

From the Content Pane, click on My Folders. Expand out Workspace Widget and drag
Dashboard Widget onto the workspace

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14

Widget Recommendations

Widget Recommendations
Remember to name all objects
Improves ease of adding widgets
Can be leveraged when designing templates

Group widgets in similar folders

Dont make folder structure overly complex

Add multiple widgets to single Report Studio reports to

make navigation easier

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Q&A

THANK YOU