Cognos. Active Reports Development. Presented by: Craig Randell

Transcription

1 Cognos Active Reports Development Presented by: Craig Randell

2 Objectives: Understand the purpose and benefits of Active Reports Through theory and demonstration introduce the different Active Report Components Discuss Advanced Approaches and Best Practices to Report Design Utilize a Business Scenario and create a working Active Report Review reference material that will assist Report Developers when building Active Reports

3 What are Active Reports??? Active Reports are a new type of report that was introduced in version 10.1 of Cognos Active Reports generates output that contains both data and layout in a single html file. Active Reports can contain a great deal of animation and display functionality, making them ideal for dashboards and other high-level reports where style and graphical sophistication are important. The basic components of an Active Report are the same as any other Report Studio report lists, crosstabs, charts, etc. However, the way these components communicate and interact with each other is completely different

4 Active Reports Key Features Disconnected Active Report output is a stand-alone, self-contained file. This allows users to fully interact with all of the content without being dependent on connectivity to the application/database servers Improved report performance no server connections means interaction with the report is instantaneous

5 Active Reports Key Features Highly Interactive Active Report controls enable a new level of interactive behavior providing an engaging end user experience. The flexibility provided by the report controls allows a single reporting application to meet the needs of many users, eliminating the need to customize reports

6 Active Reports Key Features Portable Active Reports can be accessed regardless of the users location, connectivity or consumption device. The same Active Report can be consumed in standard web browsers or using a tablet (ipad / Android) application

7 Active Reports Key Features Easy to Distribute Active Report output can be distributed using the existing scheduling, bursting and ing functionality already available in Cognos

8 Active Reports Components Standard Cognos Reporting Objects Lists, crosstabs, charts, etc. that present business data Standard Cognos Formatting Objects Tables, Blocks, Repeaters etc. that control where reporting objects are positioned Selection Controls Controls used to manage the selection and navigation within an Active Report

9 Active Reports Components Data Decks & Tabs Decks and Tabs are the main container in an active report. They are used to hold the lists/crosstabs/charts that present business data Variables Variables are used to control and communicate between the different Active Report Components on a report

10 Let me show you Some Active Reports Examples

11 Accessing Active Reports in Report Studio Blank Active Report à A blank Active Report Active Report à A blank Active report based on a template

12 Accessing Active Reports in Report Studio Convert to Active Report à convert an existing report studio report to an active report. Objects in the report that are not supported in active reports, such as prompt controls on report pages, are removed You must use one of these 3 options in order to access Active Report functionality in Report Studio

13 Active Reports Report Properties Accessed from the File menu Window Title à The title that will appear in the browser window title bar Window Startup Size box à the size of the browser window when an active report is viewed Maximum query rows à the maximum number of rows of data that the report can contain Access code à for security a code that users will have to enter in order to view the report (very rudimentary security) Compress the active report output à Compresses the output of the MHT files so that active reports load faster in browsers and mobile devices Scalable à supports pinch-to-zoom gestures when the active report is viewed on a mobile device Use as default à if selected, will reuse the Window Startup Size and Maximum query rows properties when you create other active reports

14 Right-click mouse to filter the Toolbox to only show Active Report controls Active Reports Toolbox Items

15 Active Reports Variables Tab The Active Report Variables tab shows all of the variables that have been created and allows developer to change the name of a variable, change default values and see what controls interact with each of the variables.

16 Active Reports Controls Tab The Active Report Controls tab complements the variable pane by showing which variables each control is set by and which variables each control sets. This information can also be accessed on a per control basis by hovering over a control s interactive behavior icon on the report canvas. This can be very useful information when trying to debug functionality or understand the interaction within a report

17 Active Reports Debugging For help debugging Active Reports, it s possible to select a run option that shows the state of active report variables in the report as you select the various controls From the Report Studio Run menu, select the Run Options menu selection To Enable debugging, turn on the Enable rightclick debug menu

18 Active Reports Debugging If the right-click debug menu is enabled, when running the report, right-click in the Active Report and the debug menu will appear. Select the Show Variables option to display the variables window which will show the value(s) currently stored in the variable

19 Let me show you Active Reports User Interface

20 Active Reports Components Selection Controls Button Bar Toggle Button Bar Radio Button Group Check Box Group Drop Down List List Box Discrete Values Slider Selection Controls can be defined with either static values or data driven values Static values are hardcoded into the report by the report developer Data Driven values are derived by selecting data from the database

21 Active Reports Components Selection Controls examples Button Bar Radio Button Group

22 Let me show you Active Report Selection Controls

23 Exercise #1

24 Active Reports Components Variables Active Report elements communicate using Active Report Variables. While there are many types of functionality that can be created, all active report interaction features are based on two types of communication: Set a variable à when the user interacts with a control (select a drop down, click on a chart element, etc.) React to a variable being set à (select a card, filter a list, enable a button)

25 Let me show you Selection Controls and Variables

26 Exercise #2

27 Report Objects / Controls` A Deck / Tab Control provides the report author the ability to manually create a desired number of cards. Decks are useful when the content displayed on the cards differ from card to card. The Data Deck / Data Tab Control object is used to automatically create a card for each data item value used to drive the Data Deck. Data Decks are useful if the number of cards is unknown due to changing data. Data Decks are generally used to display the same report data container for different contexts.

28 Active Reports Components Deck / Tab Control A Deck or Tab generates a group of pictures of data A Deck by itself does nothing. A Cognos Reporting object (e.g. list, chart) must be placed within the deck, and thereby determining what pictures are presented within the Deck Data-based example Four sales regions = 4 pictures Sales region by 10 product lines = 40 pictures Sales region by product line w/ Pie, Bar, and Line charts = 120 pictures

29 Active Reports Components Deck / Tab Another good correlation is a deck of cards Each card contains a different view of data User can only view one card at a time from a deck Selection Controls are used to switch decks and views (visible card).

30 Active Reports Components Connecting Data Deck/Tab to Card Objects If the data element controlling the Data Deck/Tab is used to filter the object on the card, use the master/ detail property on the Card Object, to filter the Card Object based on the Data Deck/Tab Value

31 Let me show you Decks and Tabs

32 Exercise 3

33 Active Reports Active Report Objects Connecting Controls Driving One Control from Another Source: IBM

34 Active Reports Active Report Objects Active Report Control Behaviors Source: IBM

35 Active Reports Active Report Objects Connecting variables and Active Report Objects Cognos adds a Create a New Connection button to Active Report objects. This provides a dialog for setting and reacting to changes in Active Report Variable values. A single variable/selection can influence multiple Target Objects allowing a single selection to change the entire screen

36 Let me show you Connecting Active Report Objects

37 Exercise 4

38 Active Reports Advanced Approaches Default Cards - When the variable that controls the selection of a Deck is empty or does not match a card name, then a default card can be used to show content to the user. This could be useful for displaying summary information to the user before they make a valid selection. When this feature is enabled a new No Data Contents icon appears in the Deck. No value list item - The List and Drop-Down List selection controls can have an additional item added to the list. When it is selected, the variable that is set by the list is cleared. This functionality can be used to accomplish several design goals. For example, if list selection is being used to filter an object then the extra item can be labelled Show All and when it is selected all filters will be removed.

39 Active Reports Advanced Approaches Show/hide columns - The visibility of list columns can be controlled by variables. The Column Visibility property allows this to be set based on a condition. A selection control (e.g. Check Box) can be used to control which columns in the list are visible. This allows the end user to show only the information that they are interested in on the screen. The same concept can be applied to hiding and showing crosstab rows and columns. Sorting List columns can be enabled by selecting the appropriate column and changing the AllowSorting property to Yes. This will allow the user to toggle sorting on or off and enables sorting inboth ascending and descending order.

40 Active Reports Advanced Approaches Visualizations are additional charting and graphing objects available from IBM, created using the Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine (RAVE) technology. They are interactive, animated and have lots of variety, including heat maps, spider maps, tag clouds, bubble charts etc. Visualizations can also allow dynamic filtering of data within a chart/graph something that cannot be done with a standard Cognos chart/graph

41 Best Practices Keep decks simple Decks should only contain data that is unique to a card and keep static content outside the deck to avoid duplicate/redundant content which increases file size Set defaults values to variables to ensure the initial view is set and know by the user Segment (select) vs. filter when displaying large lists helps with performance and user experience Layout Component Reference use this object if you have duplicate items in the report versus creating two items. Changes made to original will apply to other item. This will help reduce file size. Name queries, controls, and variables standard naming convention will help

42 Best Practices Reducing the number of Hotspots on Charts If a Chart or a Map has no interactivity configured for driving selection, it is a best practice to set the number of Hotspots to zero. Note: Setting the value to zero will also disable the use of tooltips, if tooltips are required, setting the property to a smaller value (i.e. 500) will still reduce file size while enabling tooltips to still be used Reusing Queries a new query is created every time an object is dragged into the report. As a result, the number of queries in the report increases quickly and it becomes difficult to ensure that all queries are filtered and implemented properly. This situation can be simplified by reusing the same query for multiple controls that share the same information

43 Best Practices Visual Arrangement Not all cards in a deck are necessarily the same size. When a different sized card is selected for viewing, other displayed objects may move to accommodate the new card. To the end user this appears as objects bouncing on the screen. Easiest way is to start at the bottom of the object hierarchy and then move upwards by using the Ancestor button to ensure that proper sizing propagates through the reporting application

44 Best Practices Visual Arrangement Bouncing can also appear on lists/crosstabs. As data is filtered, the width of the columns will automatically adjust to fit the data that is currently being shown. This can be avoided by assigning a fixed column width to every column of the list/crosstab The amount of data that can be displayed in a list or crosstab can also cause bouncing If the list/crosstab changes to include more data then the height of the object will expand and push down the items below it. To avoid this the real estate allocated to the list/crosstab should be set to the expected maximum size or placed in a scrollable block. Control layout with sections, tables, cells, rows, blocks, sizes, etc. Set horizontal and vertical alignment to improve user experience

45 Best Practices Design / Design / Design!! Building Active Reports is not as simple as a standard report. You need to invest the time and effort into designing the Active Report and the interactions between all the report objects before actually building the report

46 ipad / Tablet Considerations Set page size to 1024x704 Page Body padding set to 0 pixels to avoid possible scroll bars List box will replaced with drop-down list when viewed on ipad Consider size of touch regions (if controls are too small they will be unusable) including charts, list items, buttons, etc. Apple recommends 44px height or width Review ipad Specific Guidance in the Cognos Advanced Cookbook for more information related to building Active Reports specifically for the ipad Source: IBM

47 Business Case Full Active Report Active Reports Business Case

48 Members of the PMO discussed a need to monitor project actual hours. They ve sketched out an idea for a Project monitoring dashboard. Based on this diagram, we need to create an Active Report to achieve their requirements.

49 Active Reports Reference Material

50 Reference Material Cognos Advanced Cookbook Cognos Visualization Reference Guide Active Reports common_techniques source code Remember!! Google is your friend!! Have a question on how to do something? Google cognos active reports xxxxxx Source: IBM

51 Cognos Active Reports Development Thank you!