SCORECARDS METRICS AND METRIC STUDIO

Organizations embracing the Balanced Scorecard methodology use scorecards to view performance metrics of their organization at different levels.

To develop a scorecard, you must familiarize yourself with and use both Metric Designer and Metric Studio.
*You use Metric Designer to gather metrics from import sources and prepare them for use in Metric Studio.

USE :--
Metric Studio enables users to monitor the business using key metrics and, when necessary, begin to understand more about the performance of the metric by easily reviewing reports created with Report Studio that are linked to the scorecards and metrics.

Introduction to Metric Designer
*You use Metric Designer to gather metrics from your import source to be transferred into Metric Studio.
*This client application is installed on the business manager’s (or the person responsible for working with Metric Studio) desktop.
*You interact with Metric Designer using the Metric Extract Wizard.
(The wizard displays several screens used to identify metrics to be extracted, define scorecards and the metrics to be displayed on each scorecard, map time periods, identify default currency, and optionally filter the data.)

Create Metrics
Loading metrics is a two-step process:
1. Create a metrics extract. Identify and extract the metrics from a data source package or PowerPlay cube to be used with Metric Studio. The metrics extract is stored in a staging area or in flat files that can be ported to other computers using Cognos 8 or other metrics applications that understand the file structure.
2. Import metrics. Import the extract from staging tables or from flat files into the metric store.

You use two Cognos 8 components to accomplish these steps.
* First, Metric Designer is used to extract the metric data from the import source.
* Then, Cognos Connection is used to import the data from the staging area into Metric Studio

You use Metric Designer only to modify or add new metrics asbusiness requirements change.

Metric Types
A metric type defines how metrics are grouped and the behavior of all metrics of that type.You must define all metric types to be used in Metric Studio. To define a metric type, you provide values for metric type attributes.

Attributes of Metrics
• Business Calendar Level The values can be Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. This value identifies how often the metric is updated, also known as the metric scope, and is displayed as the Time Period on the Metric Types page.
• Unit Of Measure Choose between General (the default), Currency, and Percent.
• Unit Symbol If you chose Currency or Percent for the Unit Of Measure, this setting controls whether you see the dollar sign or percent sign with the number.
• Decimal Places Choose how many decimal places should be included with the number when displayed.
• Business Calendar Rollup Calculation When loading metrics from Metric Designer, most of the time this value should be set to Rollup Is Supplied By Client, which defaults to the values provided in the dimensional data source. You must select one of the Value Calculation settings for the Actual, Target, and Tolerance values
• Performance Pattern Identifies when the target value is positive, which provides a green indicator for the value. For example, revenue above target is positive; safety below target is positive; marketing expenditures on target are positive.
• Permissions Identifies which metrics users can see this metric type.

Create a Metric Type
Metric Types can be created in either Metric Designer or in Metric Studio. In this section, we
will use Metric Studio to quickly create two new Metric Types for use in the rest of this chapter, a Revenue Metric Type and a Percent Metric Type.

how to create the Revenue Metric Type from Metric Studio:
1. From the Metric Types pane, click the New Metric Type icon. The New Metric Type screen displays
2. Enter the Metric Type Name (Revenue).
3. Click OK to accept the defaults for all other attributes and create the Revenue Metric Type.

how to create the Percent Metric Type from Metric Studio:
1. From the Metric Types pane, click the New Metric Type icon.
2. Enter the Metric Type Name (Percent).
3. In the Number Format section of the General screen, change Unit to Percent
4. Click the Columns And Calculations tab.
5. In the Actual area, from the Business Calendar Rollup Calculation drop-down menu,select Rollup Is Supplied By Client
6. In the Target and Tolerance areas, from the Business Calendar Rollup Calculation drop-down menus, select Rollup Is Average Of Individual Values.
7. Click OK to create the Percent Metric Type.

Create a Metrics Extract from a Dimensional Source
(You must have created a metric package prior to attempting to extract metrics for use with
Metric Studio)

A metric extract contains all relevant information gathered from a dimensional data source to be used to create scorecards and metrics
how to create a metric extract from dimensional sources using Metric Designer:
1. Choose Start | All Programs | Cognos 8, and then click Cognos Metric Designer.The Metric Designer window opens, displaying all recent projects as well as commands to create or open projects
2. Click on the Create A New Project link and then in the Project Name text box, enter the name for the project. The project file is used to store the definitions related to the extract. You will set the definitions in this procedure.
3. Click the folder to the right of the Location text box. The Select Project Location dialog opens.
4. Choose a location to be used to store the project file and click OK twice. The Logon dialog displays, as shown next. You must pass authentication by logging on before you can create a project.
5. Enter your User ID and Password in the Logon dialog and click OK. The Create Metric Package Reference dialog opens:
6. Click the folder to the right of the Metric Package Location In The Content Store text box. The Select Metric Package In Content Store dialog opens, as shown next. The dialog displays all metric packages available for use with Metric Studio. If none of the packages can be selected, then you may not have created the Metric Package.
7. Select the metric package that you created and click OK. The Select Metric Package In Content Store dialog closes and the Location Entry box displays the path to the project file location in the Create Metric Package Reference dialog.
8. Click OK. Cognos 8 displays a message indicating the metric package reference was uccessfully created. You have the option to open the Metrics Extract Wizard to identify the metric to be created.
9. Click Yes. The Create Extract screen of the Metric Extract Wizard opens, as shown next. The Metric Extract Wizard steps you through the process of identifying the metrics to be extracted and imported into the data store. Using the wizard, you also map time periods, identify default currency, and can optionally filter the data.
10. In the Create Extract - Provide Name screen’s Name text box, enter the name to be given to the extract. This names the metric extract.
11. Click Next. The Create Extract - Select Import Source screen displays
12. Click Create Package Import Source. The Create Import Source - Name window opens. nter a Name to be assigned to the import source and click Next. The Create Import Source - Select Package screen displays
13. Click the folder to the right of the text box. The Select Metric Package In Content Store screen opens, as shown next, with a list of import sources from which you can choose. All packages created for use with Metric Designer display in this screen
14. In the Select Metric Package In Content Store screen, select a metric package and click OK. The screen closes.
15. Click Finish. The Create Import Source screen closes, and Metric Designer displays a message indicating the package is being accessed.
16. Click Next. The Create Extract - Scorecard Mapping screen displays, as shown next.Using the Available Objects, New Scorecard Levels, and Level Attributes panes, you build your scorecard hierarchy.
17. From the Create Extract - Scorecard Mapping screen, drag the objects to be used in the scorecard from the Available Objects pane into the New Scorecard Levels pane. In this example, we use Products, Product line, and Product type
(You can also access the Create Extract screen of the Metric Extract Wizard by opening an existing project from the Metric Designer main page, expanding the hierarchy, right-clicking the
metrics store in the Metric Designer Project Explorer, and selecting Create Metrics Extract from
the menu that displays.)

Scorecards:----
*The objects nest themselves in a hierarchy in the New Scorecard Levels pane based on how they are dragged into the pane.
*The Identification Code attribute indicates the name assigned to the scorecard level.
*If you are not sure that your internal naming conventions ensure unique names, you should set the Append Scorecard attribute to Yes.

18. Click Next. The Create Extract - Time Periods Filtering screen displays, as shown
next, in which you identify the time periods to be extracted from the data source.
Use the time period options as follows:
• Use All Time Periods
• Use The Current Time Period
• Use The Last Completed Period
• Use The Selected Time Periods

19. From the Select Time Periods pane, select the time period on which to filter your
metrics
20. Click the Edit Metric Studio Time Mappings link at the bottom of the window. The Time And Currency Mappings window opens with the Specify Business Calendar Mappings screen, as shown next.You must map the Metric Studio calendar to the data in the dimensional data source.
(You need to complete the time mappings only one time per dimensional import source.
However, you need to complete the time mappings for every time level that you want to include
in your scorecard.)
21. Click the ellipsis to the right of an unmapped date range. The screen displays the available objects in the data source.
22. Expand the tree in this screen to navigate to the entry in the data source that matches the Metric Studio range
23. Click OK. The mapped data displays in the Data Mapping cloumn to the right of the Business Calendar Members cloumn.
24. Repeat steps 21 through 23 to map the data in the data source for all levels available in the Business Calendar Levels pane, such as the Year, Quarter, and Month. Your metric package may include weeks and days.
25. When you have completed mapping all levels and members, click Next. The Specify currency Mappings screen display . Use this screen to specify currency to be used in Metric Studio. The default is US Dollars.
26. Click Next. The Select Dimensions screen displays, as shown next, where you identify which standard reports should be created
27. Click the Select All link at the bottom of the list of reports to identify the dimensions you want to display as reports in the scorecard; optionally, click the checkbox next to each report to identify them individually.
28. Click Finish. The Time and Currency Mappings window closes.
29. In the Create Extract - Time Periods Filter screen, click Next. The Create Extract -Metrics Mapping screen displays. You use this screen to identify the true metric value to be used in the scorecard.
30. From the Available Objects pane, drag measures into the Metric Mappings pane
31. From the Metric Type drop-down list, you must select a metric type for each metric.
32. From the Available Objects pane, drag a measure into the Target field of the Metric attributes pane for each metric
33. For each metric, click the ellipsis to the right of the Tolerance attribute
34. In the Expression Definition pane, enter a percentage in decimal format.
35. Click OK. Metric Designer saves the percentage and closes the Expression Editorscreen.
36. Set the value of the Aggregate Function and Rollup Aggregate Function to None.Setting these values to None allows Cognos 8 Framework Manager rollup capabilities to work instead of defining the capabilities in Metric Designer.
37. Click Next. The Create Extract - Filter Data screen displays, as shown in the next illustration. You identify the values to be included in the scorecard in this screen.
38. Click Refresh at the bottom of the screen. The Assign Metric Values To Scorecards pane displays the objects to be included in the scorecard.
39. Expand the hierarchy to verify the objects and optionally deselect an object to remove it from the metrics extract.
40. Click Finish. A dialog prompts you to validate the metric extract definition.
41. Click Yes. Metric Designer checks the metric extract definition for errors and displays
a dialog identifying whether or not errors have been located.
42. Click OK. Metric Designer closes the dialog and displays an Object Diagram showing the data source where the data originates, the name of the data extract, and the name of the package to receive the data:
43. Right-click the name of the metric extract (depicted as Revenue Demo in the preceding illustration) to display a context menu.
44. From the context menu, choose Execute. The Execute Extract window opens. In this
window, identify the location where the data extract should be stored. You can choose from the following options:
• Write To Metric Staging Area Choose to write database files used to load the data directly into Metric Studio.
• Write To Files Choose to create flat files of a specific format that can be moved to any location and uploaded into Metric Studio or any other metric system. The files are given several different extensions. CMV (Cognos Metric Values) is one of them. See the Cognos manual for information about the different file formats.

Add Multiple Metrics to a Single Scorecard
When creating scorecards in Metric Designer, you can identify multiple metric mappings to be shown on one scorecard.
how to add multiple metrics to a scorecard:
1. In the Metric Designer Project Explorer, double-click a metrics package. The Edit Extract window opens with the Scorecard Mapping tab in view.
2. Click the Metrics Mapping tab. All metrics created for this scorecard display in the Metric Mappings pane of the Edit Extract screen
3. Click Create beneath the Metric Mappings pane. The New Metric dialog opens.
4. In the Name pane, type a name and select a Metric type from the list.
5. Click OK. Metric Designer closes the New Metric dialog. The newly named metric displays in the Metric Mappings pane. The metric type and settings for the metric attributes also display on the screen.
6. Click the ellipsis to the right of the Actual property. The Expression Editor screen opens. You define the metric calculation in this window.
7. From the Available Components pane, drag metrics into the Expression Definition pane to create the calculation.
8. Set the Target value.
9. Set the Tolerance value.
10. Set the Aggregate Function and Rollup Aggregate Function to None.
11. Repeat steps 3 through 10 to create additional metrics for the current scorecard.
12. Click OK. Metric Designer saves your work and closes the Edit Extract window.

Ensure Scorecards Have Unique ID Codes
*The identification code must be unique
*You can either have Cognos 8 ensure unique naming or you can name the scorecard yourself.
*Both of these activities are performed from Metric Designer’s Create Extract - Scorecard Mapping screen.
how to have Cognos 8 ensure unique naming:
1. From Metric Designer, double-click the metric extract to open the Edit Extract window.
2. In the New Scorecard Levels pane, select the metric.
3. In the Level Attributes pane, click the drop-down arrow at the right of the Append Scorecard attribute.
4. From the list, select Yes. Cognos 8 automatically concatenates the object names beginning with the top-most object to ensure unique scorecard naming.


Introduction to Metric Studio

(With Metric Studio, shown next, you can monitor and analyze your organization’s business
metrics by creating a scorecarding environment. Metric Studio allows you to establish criteria
and then monitor your organization to see how it is responding as the criteria changes)
Metric Studio is an add-on component to Cognos 8.
Selecting Scorecards at the bottom-left of the screen displays all available scorecards in
the pane.
The first column includes circle, triangle, and square symbols indicating excellent, average, and poor performance, respectively
The second column includes up arrow, horizontal line, and down arrow symbols, indicating whether the performance is better, the same, or worse, respectively, in comparison to the prior month by default
The tabs at the upper-right of the screen let you display other views of the scoredcard information:
• Metrics By default, provides access to all metric reports available for your security
login.
• Projects Create a project and assign metrics for tracking the project.
• Reports View selected Cognos 8 reports that are linked to a scorecard, providing an overview of related data.
• Diagrams Create strategy maps to bring all metrics together as needed to achieve corporate strategy. For more information on strategy maps. As on the main Metric Studio screen, you can move your pointer over any of the strategies to view details of each.
• Details Provides extra information about each scorecard, including a detailed description, technical description, owners, permissions, and the path to the location of the data required to create the scorecard.

Upon selecting a metric from the list, two other tabs become available. The name of the selected metric is displayed at the top of the main area.
• History Provides historical information about the metric. History can be viewed as a diagram or a list. The list provides more details about the metric.
• Actions Allows you to create an action on an issue that can be recorded, tracked, and viewed for improvement in the metric.

Accessing Metric Studio
You access Metric Studio from Cognos Connection. Metric Studio opens in the same web browser as Cognos

Transfer Metrics
Having launched Metric Studio, the next step is to transfer the data extracted with Metric
Designer into Metric Studio to update your scorecards. When creating the metric extract, the
metrics can be extracted to a staging area or to a set of flat files.

1)Transfer Metrics from the Staging Area
2)Transfer Metrics from Flat Tables

Work with Scorecards
After metrics have been transferred into Metric Studio, you can create new relationships
between the metric data or add new metrics to existing scorecards. Both of these activities
help you create a balanced scorecard

how to create a new relationship:
1. Launch Metric Studio.
2. Click Metrics Types at the bottom left of the screen to display all existing metric types.
3. In the Metric Types pane, click a metric type. The Metric Types pane displays all available metric types for the scorecard.
4. Click the Diagrams tab.
5. Click the pencil (edit) icon, at the bottom right of the page, to edit the diagram. The metric type selected in the Metric Types pane displays in the Edit Impact Diagram pane to the right
6. Click the Impacted or the Impacting button to edit the diagram. The Select Metrics -
Impact Diagram window opens.
7. Navigate to the appropriate metric and select the checkbox next to the item to be
used as the impacted or impacting metric type.
8. Click OK. Metric Studio closes the Select Metrics - Impact Diagram window, and updates the diagram to show the new relationship between the two metric types.
9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 to edit the diagram as desired.
10. Click OK. Metric Studio closes the Edit Impact Diagram screen. The result of creating the relationship between these metrics can be seen throughout the scorecard.

Add Metrics to Scorecards in Metric Studio
(In its simplest form, a scorecard is a collection of metrics. At times, you will find it necessary
to create a scorecard with a unique collection of metrics. You can do this by creating a scorecard and adding shortcuts to metrics.)

how to create a scorecard:
1. From the Scorecards pane, click New Scorecard. The New Scorecard pane displays the General tab.
(The current Cognos 8 security model only passes scorecard security to metrics, not to metric shortcuts. To be safe you must review the metrics that a user can view. Double check the All Metrics scorecard and the Metrics Type navigation area. It is possible for a user to see metrics that you do not want them to see.)
2. In the Name text box on the General tab, enter a name for the scorecard.
3. Click OK. The new scorecard displays at the highest level in the hierarchy in the
Scorecards pane. You must identify the metrics to be added to the scorecard.
4. Click the scorecard to select it to add metrics.
5. Click the Metrics tab. A screen displays in which you can add metrics.
6. Click the Add Shortcuts to Metrics button. The Select Metrics window opens.
7. Navigate to the appropriate metric.
8. Select the check box next to one or more metrics to be added to the scorecard.
9. Click OK. The Scorecard pane updates to display all metrics selected.

Create Scorecard Strategies
*Metric Studio allows strategies and strategy elements in a complex strategy to be created.
*Metrics are assigned to a strategy to track whether the balanced scorecard perspectives are
being improved.
*Strategy elements provide more detail for the perspective and can have metrics assigned to
them as well.
*Strategy maps are developed graphically by selecting strategy “shortcuts” and determining
how the strategies relate to each other, as shown next.
* You can bring the strategy map into play at the metric level, the metric type level, or the scorecard level to see the strategy of the organization

Develop Watch Lists
*Watch lists are used to gather metrics of interest in one location so that they can be “watched”
and potentially corrected.
*You can set alerts on the metric so that you are notified of changes to the metrics in the watch list via e-mail.
*The metrics added to the watch list can be those for which you are accountable or those that impact a perspective that is failing and needs additional oversight.

EVENT STUDIO

EVENT STUDIO
With Event Studio, you can establish a threshold or assign a specific event that sends a notification to the decision makers in your organization. You create agents that monitor your thresholds or event, and when the threshold is reached or event occurs, the agent sends the notification. Notifications can include an e-mail, adding information to the portal or running reports.


EVENT MANAGEMENT THROUGH EVENT STUDIO
Many organizations require up-to-date notification of data changes to drive business decisions. For these organizations, it is important that the information be delivered promptly so that decisions enhance the value of the business.

PURPOSE
*With Cognos event notifications can be sent based on business rules that define areas that need attention.
*Event Studio allows you to create agents that identify critical information and quickly deliver
it to the business.
*With Event Studio, your organization can be alerted to events as they happen to make effective and timely business decisions
*Event Studio is driven by agents that look at data you specify, to detect specific events that may occur within your business.

WHEN EVENT TRIGGERED ?
*An event is triggered when specific actions occur, or when data conditions previously defined are met.
*You specify the event condition or the change in data.
*when the agent detects this change, Event Studio performs a set of tasks, such as sending an e-mail notification, adding information to a portal, running reports, and starting other Cognos administrative jobs.

WHAT EVENT AJENT CONSIST OF?
*An agent is made up of events, conditions, and a list of tasks.

EXAMPLE
for example, that you are part of the sales team for a sporting goods company. You want to be the sales manager for a specific product line, but before that happens, you have to prove that you can sell. A new product is about to hit the market and you think it’s a great one. In fact, you believe this is the product that will get you the promotion you have been working toward. You tell your manager that you can sell $1 million worth of this product every month for the next three months, and that if you do this, you want the promotion. Your manager agrees, and off you go. You do all the things a sales person does, and you wait for the monthly sales results to arrive.

In this example, the event of interest to you, the ambitious salesperson, is the monthly
sales reports, specifically the numbers for your product. The condition, is this:
Did my product produce at least $1 million in sales this month? Finally, the task will be to
send an e-mail to the manager when sales are $1 million or more.

Accessing Event Studio
You access Event Studio from Cognos Connection. Event Studio opens in a separate web
browser.

Navigation in Event Studio
*The Event Studio screen is split into four areas:
I Want To,
Insertable Objects,
Summary, and
Content

1)I Want To area shows the tasks and functions available when you are creating an agent. You can specify an event condition, add additional tasks, manage the task execution rules, and schedule the agent from this area.
2)The Insertable Objects area is divided into six tabs: Source, Data Items, Functions,
Parameters, Run History Items, and Member Search Results.

---• Source tab Displays a hierarchical list of the source items, relational or dimensional,from your Framework Manager package.
• Data Items tab Provides a quick reference to a list of the data items and calculations contained in the agent.
• Functions tab Displays a list of functions, such as operators and summaries,which you can use in event conditions and to create calculated data items.
• Parameters tab Displays a list of the defined parameters, indicated by the parameter icon. Parameters are used when specifying an event condition.
• Run History Items tab Lists system environment variables that you can include in On Error events. These items include the date/time of the error, the person who ran
the task, and other information.
• Members Search Results tab Shows search utility results. The search utility displays at the bottom of the tree when a level has more members than can be displayed due to space onstraints.

3)The Summary area shows the basic sequence for your agent, consisting of the event and
the tasks to be executed when the event is triggered.
4)The Content area displays the details of the item in focus. When specifying an event condition, the expression entered displays here. When viewing tasks, the details of each task display in this area.

What Is an Event?
*Events are the driving force behind the agent; they look for conditions in the data that meet
the specifications required for an action to occur.
*When a condition is met, the event tells the agent to trigger the list of actions defined within the agent.
*Events are made up of event instances, an event list, an event key, and task execution rules
*An event instance is a row of data that meets the criteria of the event condition.
*An event list shows the events that have been processed by the agent and are categorized
by the following statuses:
• New This is the first time the event has occurred.
• Ongoing But Changed The event occurred before but the results are different this time.
• Ongoing And Unchanged The event occurred before and the results are the same this time.
• Ceased The event has stopped occurring.

An event key is a unique combination of fields from your data source that identifies an event and is used to determine the status of an event.
Task execution rules define the event status for which each task is executed

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AJENT EXECUTES?
*When an agent executes, it looks at the data for any event instances.
*The agent uses the event key at runtime to compare the most recent event instances to the event instances from the previous run.
*From the comparison, the agent allocates a status to each event and stores the event in the event list.
*The task execution rules then determine which tasks are executed.

Creating an Agent
*Agents can be set to accept prompts, which provide the flexibility to reuse an agent for multiple users or business cases
*Prompt values can be provided through the schedule or by passing in the values of a source item from the events of another agent.
*Within Cognos Connection, you can create a view of the agent
*Views are used to share the specifications of an agent to be used in another agent.
*With an agent view, different prompt values or an alternative schedule can be set.
*The source for an Event Studio agent is a package published in your Cognos Connection
environment.
*Event Studio uses the package, whether it is relational, dimensionally modeled relational (DMR), or a cube, to specify the event condition with data from the source, and then this data is monitored by the agent.
*Items from the source can also be used to define calculations and/or parameters to be included in the event condition.
(Agents monitor data to find instances of an event, and then they perform tasks associated
with the event. These tasks can provide immediate notification of these events to businesses.
When an agent runs, it checks the data for occurrences of the event and, if detected, performs
the tasks using the task execution rules. Tasks can be run at the same time or in the order that
you have specified.)

Specify a Condition
1. In Event Studio, click either the Detail or the Summary tab in the content area. Click Detail if you are defining an event condition that applies to individual values in the data source. Click Summary if you are defining an event condition that applies to aggregate values.
2. In the Expression text box, shown next, create a query expression by dragging items and/or functions from the Insertable Objects pane or by typing directly in the Expression text box. For this example, we define “[Revenue] > 1000000” as the expression.
3. Optionally, from the Actions menu, select Preview to check the event list to ensure that you have specified the event condition correctly.
4. Optionally, from the Actions menu, select Count Events to view the number of event instances for the event condition you have specified.

Define a Parameter
*Parameters can be defined to be used within an event condition.
*When the agent is manually run, the user will be prompted to enter a value for the parameter.

1. From the Insert menu, select Parameter. The Define The Parameter screen displays.
2. In the Parameter Name text box, type a name for the parameter.
3. Click OK. The parameter displays on the Parameters tab in the Insertable Objects pane,
as shown next:

Define a Calculation
A calculation uses multiple data items to derive a single value.
1. From the Insert menu, select Calculation. The Define The Data Item screen displays.
2. In the Name text box, type a name for the calculation. For this example, we name the calculation Gross Profit %.
3. In the Expression text box, define the calculation by dragging items and/or functions from the Insertable Objects pane or by typing directly in the Expression text box. For this example, we define the expression for the calculation as Gross Profit divided by Revenue,
4. Click OK. The calculation displays in the Data Items tab. You can include the calculation when specifying an event condition or task. For this example, we add the Gross Profit % calculation to the event condition.

Test an Agent
*Early testing allows you to find and fix any errors while they are still easy to identify.
*There are two types of errors: logic and syntax
*This test confirms that any functions being used have the correct number of parameters, the
correct data types, available requested parameters, and so on.
*Testing the logic is performedby selecting Preview All from the Actions menu.

TESTING PROCEDURE
1. From the Actions menu, select Validate. If any syntax errors are found in the agent,they display in the View The Validation Results dialog after the validation is complete.
2. From the Actions menu, select Preview All. A new window displays each task in the agent. Examine the steps to determine whether they are correct.

Adding a Task
*Multiple tasks can be added to an agent, but only one condition can be defined per agent.
*Tasks can be used for things such as sending a notification to the business as data changes, providing automation to workflow, or running administrative tasks.
The following tasks are available:
• Send an email
• Publish a news item
• Run a report
• Run a job
• Run an agent
• Advanced
• Update a database
• Call a web service
• Run an export
• Run an import
• Run a content maintenance task
• Run a metric task
• Run a migration task

Run a Job
Add a job task whenever you want the agent to run a job. A job is a group of executable entries, such as reports, that are executed as a batch and share the same schedule settings

1. In the I Want To area, click Add A Task.
2. Click Run A Job. The Select The Job (Navigate) screen displays:
3. Navigate to an existing job that you want to run and select the radio button next to the job.
4. Click OK. The Specify The Job To Run screen displays.
5. Click Save. The agent is saved with a job task. When the task is executed, the job will run.

Run an Agent
Add an agent task when you would like the agent to run another agent. Running more than one agent in sequence allows the output from one agent to be used as the input for another agent. An agent task can also be used to allow agents pulling from different data sources to interact.

1. In the I Want To area, click Add A Task.
2. Click Run An Agent. The Select The Agent (Navigate) screen displays:
3. Navigate to the saved agent that you want to run and select the radio button next to the agent.
4. Click OK. The Specify The Agent To Run screen displays.
5. Optionally, in the Prompt Values area, specify the prompt values to be used to satisfy any parameters of the agent.
6. Click Save. The agent is saved with an agent task. When the task is executed, the agent that you specified runs.

Update a Database
*Add a database task to update the information in a database by executing an existing stored procedure that is part of the database.
*Databases that have a package in the Cognos environment based on them are available for this task
*Stored procedures must be marked as a data modification stored procedure in Framework Manager to be available in Event Studio.

STEPS TO CREATE UPDATE
1. In the I Want To area, click Add A Task.
2. Move your pointer over Advanced. The Advanced submenu displays.
3. Click Update A Database. The Specify The Database To Update screen displays, as shown in the next illustration.
4. From the Package drop-down list, select the Framework Manager package that contains the stored procedure that you need.
5. From the Data Modification Stored Procedure drop-down list, select the stored
procedure to use.
6. Click Save. The agent is saved with a database task. When the task is executed, the
agent executes the stored procedure, updating the database.

Call a Web Service
Add a web service task to run applications on either internal or external web servers using standard Internet protocols.

Run an Export
You can use an agent to run a saved content export process. This is useful when different
installations of Cognos 8 are used for your development and production environments and you want an export to be deployed dependent upon a specific event.

Run an Import
The import task goes hand-in-hand with the export task. You can use an agent to run a saved
import task; this will move migrated content from an export file into the target environment.

Run a Content Maintenance Task
You can use an agent to run a previously defined Content Maintenance task. The Content
Maintenance tasks do one of two things: a consistency check or a report upgrade. A consistency
check can confirm that each Cognos 8 user defined in the Cognos namespace is a valid user in
the Authentication namespace. Report upgrade attempts to upgrade any reports in the defined
location to the currently installed version of Cognos 8. Report upgrades should be done only
for very simple reports, as the conversion process can be complex and usually requires some
sort of manual intervention.

Specify the Task Execution Rules
Task execution rules define the event status for which each task is executed. By default, tasks are executed for all new and all ongoing instances of events. You can modify this behavior through the Manage The Task Execution Rules option in the I Want To area. This option allows you to define when a specific task will or will not run based on the status of the event.

Here’s how to specify the task execution rules:
1. In the I Want To area, click Manage The Task Execution Rules. The Set The Task
Execution Rules screen displays:
2. From the Task drop-down list, select the task for which you want to modify the execution ules.
3. From the Select When To Perform This Task area, select the For Selected Events option to specify under what circumstances to perform the task, or select the When The Agent Or Any Of Its Tasks Fail option to perform the task when the agent or a task fails.
4. If the For Selected Events option is selected, select or clear the checkboxes for the following options to specify the situation(s) in which to perform the task: New Events; Ongoing Events; Ceased Events; When The Following Item Is True For Selected New, Ongoing, And Ceased Events; and/or No Events.
5. Click the Event Key tab in the content area. The Event Key screen displays, where you can specify the items that uniquely identify the event:
6. From the Event Key area, select the Include All Items (Default) option to include all items or the Include Only Selected Items option to select the items that you want to include.
7. If the Include Only Selected Items option is selected, select or drag the items from the Insertable Objects pane to the text box.
8. Click OK. The Event Studio screen displays.
9. Click Save. The agent is saved with the task execution rules as set.

Scheduling an Agent
Setting a schedule for an agent allows you to set the agent to run at a later date and time or on a recurring basis. The agent monitors data and performs tasks according to its schedule and does not need to be run manually.
Only one schedule can be associated with an agent.

Maintaining an Agent
Requirements for your agent may change over time. The event condition may need to be updated or additional tasks may need to be removed from the agent. Listed here are steps for some of the most common actions performed for an already created agent.

Modify an Event Condition
It is likely that an event condition can change, especially early in the life of a new agent. You might find that a logical condition is not quite what you thought or that the threshold on a condition is set too high or too low. In this case, you can update your condition

Modify a Task
When you want to make changes to a task, you can modify the task. For example, you might need to update the recipient list in an e-mail task or change options on a report task

Change the Order to Run Tasks
In an agent, you can either run tasks all at the same time or in sequence. You can define the order in which tasks are run only when you set them to run in sequence. You should specify
tasks to run in sequence whenever a task in the sequence is dependent upon the outcome of
a task earlier in the sequence.
For example, if you have a database update task that changes the information that will be included in a report, you would want that task to execute completely before the report task executes.

Create an Agent View
An agent view can be created of an agent to share the agent specification. This can be useful
when you want different agents with the same event condition and tasks set with different sets of prompt values or set on varying schedules.

1. In Cognos Connection, navigate to the saved agent for which you would like to create an agent view.
2. In the actions column, click the Create an Agent View of This Agent icon. The Specify A Name And Description screen displays.
3. Edit any properties you want and then click OK. The agent view has been created in the specified location.
4. Optionally, in the actions column of the agent view, click the Schedule icon to specify a different schedule than the original agent or to select alternate prompt values.

QUERY STUDIO

INTRODUCTION
•Query Studio is the ad hoc reporting tool for ReportNet.
•In Query Studio, you can
–View data
•Connect to a data source to view data in a tree hierarchy.
–Create reports
•Use the data source to create reports, which you can save and reuse.
–Change the appearance of reports
•Improve the layout of your report, like creating a chart, addinga title etc.
–Work with data in a report
•Use filters, summaries, and calculations to compare and analyze data.

Launching Query Studio
•Launch your web browser,
•Type the URL provided by your Administrator, this will launch ‘Cognos Connection’
•On homepage, in rightmost upper corner click Query Studio.
•Next page lists available packages, Select the one you require to work on.

URL for CognosConnection
•http://localhost/cognos8/

Creating a Report
•To create a report :
–Select multiple report items from package
–Click Insert
OR
–Double click on individual item
& your basic report is ready for further advanced formatting !

Running a report
•You can run a report to retrieve any recently updated data from the data source.
•Cognos provides following options for execution :
–Run with All Data
–Preview Reports with Limited Data
–Preview Reports with No Data

Report Output Formats
•Once you are satisfied with the report, you can save it, print it, retain it for other usage.
•You can run the report in
–PDF format
–Excel 2000 single sheet format
–Excel 2002 format
–CSV format
–XML format
•For running a report you can:
–click on Run button for All Data & Prompts availability
–or for more options click on Run Reportlink from Menu

Advanced Run Options
•Advanced options under Run Report Menu enable users to deal with Summaries & Drill functionality.
•Query Options:
–Automatically generate footer summaries for measures
–Automatically summarize detail values, suppressing duplicates

•Drill Options :
–Enable drill up and drill down in the report output (If the hierarchy is defined user can navigate from one level to other)
–Enable drill through from a package in the report output (Jumping from one report to other)

Report Types
•In Query Studio, you can create the following report types:
–List reports
–Crosstabreports
–Charts
•You can also combine a chart with either a list report or a crosstab report.

List Reports
•A list report shows data in rows and columns.
•By default, Query Studio builds list reports when you create a report from scratch.
•Query Studio automatically suppresses duplicates, summarizes detail values, and generates footer summaries for measures.

Grouped List Reports
•A simple list report that contains columns of unique values is easy to understand.
•After you add more columns, you may find duplicate values in your report.
•Grouping a report sorts the data and suppresses duplicate values in the grouped column.

Steps to create Grouped List
•From your existing list report, click on the desired column title to select for grouping.
•Click on the Group button .
•For multiple columns to be grouped select them all using ctrl+click.

Crosstab Reports
•A crosstab report shows a measure at the intersection of each row and column.
•This is useful for
–showing more information in a smaller area
–a better view for analysis.

Steps to create a crosstab
•Select desired column to place on X axis
•Click on Pivot button .
•Your crosstab is ready.
•You can have multiple values on X axis as well as Y axis of the crosstab. This is called Nested-Crosstab.

Charts
•Use charts to present information graphically.
•A report requires at least one measure and one non-measure to produce a chart.
•How the data is plotted depends on the chart type.
•The maximum number of non-measures is two.
•You can plot any number of measures in a report.
Steps to create charts
•Click on Charts button or from Menu, click Change Layout& select Chart…
•Select type of chart as per your requirement
•By checking options decide whether your want to display values in chart & want to see only chart or with table.•Click OK.
•To remove chart : –click chart button , select chart type None. Click OK.

ChangingtheAppearance
•You can change the appearance of your reports to make them easier to understand & interpret without changing the underlying data.
•This can be done by –
–changing the title
–collapsing or expanding a report (Multi Group Report)
–reordering report items
–changing the heading name
–swapping rows and columns
–controlling the number of rows per page

Collapse & Expand a Report
•You can view only the details you want by expanding and collapsing a report.
•You can expand and collapse only those reports that contain grouping or crosstab reports that contain nesting.

Steps to expand or collapse
In an open report :
•Click on Collapse Report button
•Repeat it till you go to desired Level.To Expand collapsed Report
•Click on Collapse Report button•Repeat it till you go to desired Level

Steps to Reorder Columns
•Click the heading of the column that you want to move.
•Click the cut button on the toolbar.
•Click the heading of the report item before which you want to insert the column.
•Click the paste button on the toolbar.
•To position a column as the last column, paste with nothing selected.

Swap Rows and Columns
•You can interchange rows and columns in a crosstab, a chart based on a crosstab, or both.
•To Swap :–Click the swap rows and columns button on the toolbar.–If you have both a chart and a crosstab report open, you can specify which to swap.

Specify the Rows Per Page
•You can specify the maximum number of rows of data to appear on the page.
•By default, Query Studio shows 20 rows of data. More the rows to retrieve, more the time is needed to retrieve data.
•You can improve performance by showing fewer rows.
Steps to control Output Rows
•From theChange Layout menu, click Set Web Page Size.
•In the Number of Rows box, specify the maximum number of rows you want to appear on a page.
•Click OK.
•To see row numbers in your report, click the Show row numbers check box.

Sorting
•Sorting columns help in re-arranging them in Ascending or Descending order.
•To sort, select a report item, click on Sort button.
–By default it will sort ascending,
–To make it descending, re-click Sort button while sorted report item is selected.
•A small arrow is displayed (upward/downward) in report item name, when it is sorted.

Filters
•You can use a filter to specify the subset of records that the report retrieves.
•You can filter textual, numeric, or date & time data. When filtering measures, you can apply the filter to :
–details
–groups in reports that contain summaries
–individual records in the database for measures only

Types of Filters
•Detail :
–When you filter on details, you filter the values that appear in the detail rows of your report.
•Grouped Summaries :
–When you filter on summaries, you filter the values in the footers. It Filters groups from your report.
•individual records in the database (for measures only)
–When you use a filter based on individual records in the database, it is these underlying values that are filtered.

So for the filter we learned
•Filtering at value in database
•Filtering at summarized row value in report
•Filtering at group by results

Custom Groups
•You can create custom groups to produce a new report item containing values that are meaningful to you.
•Use custom groups to
–convert a list of numeric results into broader categories
–E.g., break down sales results into Low, Medium, and High.
–reduce the number of values into a smaller, more meaningful set,wiz -change a list of employees into My Team and Others.
•You cannot collapse a report that contains custom groups.

Creating Custom Groups
•Click the heading of the report item for which you want to create a custom group.
•From the Edit Data menu, click Define Custom Groups.
•InCustomization type, choose how to define the values:
•To create a group of values based on individual items, click Individual values.
–In the New group name box, type a name, and click the down arrow link to add it to the Custom groups box. In the Available values box, click the values you want, and click the left arrow to add them to the Custom group values box.
•To create a group of values by defining a range, click Ranges.
–In the New range name box, type a name. In the From and To boxes, specify the criteria you want, and click the arrow to add to the Ranges (in sequential order) box.
•In the Item name box, type a name for your report item. Click OK.

Sections
•Creating sections shows the value of a selected report item as the heading of a section.
•If you create a chart for a report that is grouped in section headings, one chart appears for each section.
•To create a section, select a report item & click on Create Sections button .

Auto Summarization
•Query Studio automatically
–suppresses duplicates.
–summarizes detail values.
–generates footer summaries.
•You can turn this feature Off or On by:
•From the Run Report menu, click Advanced Query.
•In the Advanced Query Options dialog box, choose an option:
–To turn off the automatic generation of footer summaries for measures, clear the Automatically generate footer summaries for measures check box.
–To turn off the automatic suppression of duplicates and the summarization of detail values, clear the Automatically summarize detail values, suppressing duplicates check box.
•Click OK.

Changing Data formats
•You can use predefined formats to change the appearance of numbers, dates, and times without changing the underlying data.
•Supported Formats:
–Default
–Number
–Currency
–Percentage
–Scientific
–Date & Time.
•To change format:
–Click the heading of the report item you want to format.
–From theEdit Data menu, click Format.
–Or just select a report item & right-click it, from the menu select Format.
–Specify the format you want & set other options.

Calculations
•You can perform many types of calculations in Query Studio.
•Calculation results are not stored in the underlying data source.
•The results are always based on the most current data in the data source.
•They can be :
–Summaries (Aggregations)
–Calculations (Arithmetic)

Summaries
•Use the Summarize command to add or remove footer values, or to change how detail values are calculated.
–You can apply a summary to
–detail values (for detail rows )
–summary values (for footers)
•Advanced summaries can be performed using multiple report items to create a calculation & then summarizing it.

Creating a summary
•Click the heading of the report item you want to summarize.
•From the Edit Data menu, click Summarize.
•In the Summary for footers box, click the function you want.
•If you want to apply
–one summary calculation to the detail values and a different summary calculation to the footer values,
–or you want to change the default order of operations in a calculated column,
click the Advanced link.
•Click OK.

Calculations
•You can perform calculations in a report using data from one or more report items.
•You cannot edit a calculation. Instead, you must delete the calculated report item and recalculate it.
Creating Calculation
•Click the headings of the report items you want to include in the calculation.
•Click the calculate button on the toolbar .
•Select Operation Typefrom Arithmetic, percentage & analytics for measure items.
•OrOperation Type from First Characters, Last Characters, Concatenation & Remove trailing spaces for dimension items.
•Depending upon your Operations selection Operation list is updated. Select desired one.
•Specify a name for your calculation, as it will appear in reportas report item.
•Click OK.

Conditional Styles
•Conditional styles are helpful when certain data needs more attention.
•Using this feature one can highlight certain values from report that don’t fulfill or fulfill certain criteria.
•Users can set color, font etc. properties for these specific cells.
Steps to define conditional styles
•Select desired column for styling.
•Click Change Layoutfrom menu, click Define Conditional Styles
•If it is numeric column, define Highest or Lowest value, & select built-in styles or define custom style.
•If it is character value column, you can select values or define range.

Drill Through
•You can navigate from a Query Studio report to another target.
•Before navigating to another target, a drill-through definition must be created in the package.
•This helps in analyzing multiple reports based upon specific query items.

•To drill through the current report,
•Open the report you want in Query Studio.
•Right-click the column from which you want to navigate and click Go To.
•Click the target you want to navigate to.
•& you are navigated to the target report you selected.

Scope Of Report
•The scope specifies where the drill-through links are available in the source reports. For example, if you select Countries as the scope, in every source report that includes Countries, users can access links for Countries and all query items within Countries

FRAMEWORK MANAGER

CREATING PACKAGES FROM FRAMEWORK MANAGER(ABOVE)

Framework Manager
•CognosFramework Manager is a metadata modeling tool.
•A model is a business presentation of the tables/data in one or more data sources.
•Model is used by Reports and Queries to fetch the data.

Framework Manager Components
•Projects
•Models
•Namespaces
•Folders
•Query Subjects
•Query Items
•Data Sources
•Packages

Project
•A project is a set of models, packages, and related information for maintaining and sharing model information.
•Often a single project will span many more data sources or tables than any set of users requires access to.

Model
•A model is the set of related objects required for one or more related reporting applications.
•Most importantly, it provides a business view of the information in the source data.

•The business view can
–organize data items in folders that represent business areas for reporting
–format data items with numeric, currency, date, time, and other formats
–present multilingual folder and item names, description, tips, and data so that users can operate in their language of choice
–automate the generation of SQL queries sent to the database
–specify default prompting.

•The Framework Manager modeler can
–Specify the rules governing query generation
–restrict user access to specific rows or columns of data
–Model data relationships to hide the complexity of data from report authors

Query Subject
•In most cases, query subjects behave like tables.
•Query subjects produce the same set of rows regardless of which columns were queried.
•There are several types of query subjects:
–data source
–model
–stored procedure
•You can refine data source query subjects in various ways.
•For example, you can add calculations or filters, or you can add or modify relationships between query subjects to define the query generation rules for report authors.

Query Items
•For report authors, query items are the most important objects for creating reports.
•Query items are contained in query subjects.
•For example, a query subject that references an entire table contains query items that represent each column in the table.

Namespace
•Namespaces are containers like folders. Objects in a Framework Manager project must be uniquely identifiable. If you have two objects that have the same name, they must reside in two separate namespaces.
•A namespace uniquely identifies query items, query subjects and other objects.
•You import different databases into separate namespaces to avoid duplicate names.

Data Sources
•Database details for connection

Folders
•You can create folders to organize objects by subject or functional area.
•This makes it easier for you to locate metadata in projects that have many query subjects or dimensions.
•You can nest folders by creating new folders in an existing folder.

Packages
•A package is a subset of the query subjects and other objects defined in the project.
•Multiple packages can be published from one Project.
•A package is what is actually published to the CognosReportNetserver, and it is used to create reports and adhocqueries.

Designing a Project
•A project is a set of models, packages, and related information for maintaining and sharing model information.
•You design a project in Framework Manager to organize the metadata and data you want, in a format that is meaningful to report authors.

Metadata Sources
•Framework Model
•Database
•Other XML Definition files
•Erwin Model etc.

Granularity
•Fact Detection enabled
•Required to avoid double counting while using for multiple facts in Model which have different granularity
•E.g. Revenue at Date level and forecast at month level

Security Filters
•You can restrict the data represented by query subjects in a project by creating a security filter.
•The security filter controls the data that is shown to the report authors when they set up their reports.
•For example, your Sales team consists of a Sales Director, and four Sales Managers. You create a security filter that includes the groups directors and sales managers, and apply the filter to the salary query subject. When the package is available for report authors, and a report is generated for the Sales Managers and the Sales Director, only the Sales Director can see the salary information for the sales managers.

Externalize Method
•When publishing a package, you have the option to externalize query subjects and dimensions into formats that you can use in Transformer or other applications.
–CSV Method (Comma separated file)
–Tab Method (Tab separated file)
–IQD (Native SQL file)
The Externalize Auto Summary Property
•You can specify that the output be aggregated. By default, Framework Manager returns rows at the detail level without applying any aggregation.

Add Items to Query Subject
•You can add any combination of objects to a query subject, such as
–query items
–other query subjects
–dimensions.
–You can add stand-alone calculations and filters, and you can also embed calculations and filters in the query subject.

Determinants
•A determinant is the set of query items that can be used to uniquely identify a set of data.
•Determinants are imported based on key and index information in the data source.
•We recommend that you always review the determinants that are imported.
•Model query subjects do not have determinants defined for them automatically. If determinants are needed, you must define them manually.
•Stored procedure query subjects do not have determinants.
•You cannot use determinants with user-entered SQL.

Change How the SQL Is Generated
•You can specify how Framework Manager generates the SQL that retrieves data from relational data sources.
•The SQL Generation type of a query subject can be set to either As View or Minimized. By default, it is set to Minimized.
•When the generation type is set to Minimized, the generated SQL contains only the minimal set of tables and joins needed to obtain valuesfor the selected query items.
•When the generation type is set to As View, Framework Manager generates queries that contain the full SQL statement that defined the query subject.
•Use As View when you want to ensure that the query is run as a block.

Usage Property
•The Usage property identifies the intended use for the data represented by each query item.
•They are also used to set the aggregation rules of query items and calculations.
•For relational query items, the value of the Usage property depends on the type of database object the query item is based on.

Regular Aggregate Property
•The Regular Aggregate property identifies the type of aggregation that is associated with the query item or calculation when you publish it. The report author can either use this default setting to perform calculations on groups of data, or use the reporting application to apply a different type of aggregation.
•For example, if the Regular Aggregate property value of the Quantity query item is sum, and the report author groups it by Product Name, the Quantity column in the report shows the total quantity of each product.
•During metadata import, Framework Manager uses the usage value to determine the value of the Regular Aggregate property of eachquery item.
•During metadata import, Framework Manager uses the usage value to determine the value of the Regular Aggregate property of each query item.
–Fact (Sum)
–Identifiers (Count)
–Attributes (Unsupported)
•The following aggregation values are supported for relational data sources:
–Sum, Count, Max, Min, Average, Variance etc.

Prompt
•Prompts help users quickly find the information they need in a report.
•Prompts are generally defined in the reporting tool. However, you can change the definition of the query subject in the model so that a prompt appears automatically when report authors create filters.

Verifying Relationships
•A relationship describes how to create a relational query for multiple objects, such as dimensions and query subjects.
•Without relationships, these objects are isolated sets of data.
•Relationships work in both directions. You often must examine both directions to fully understand the relationship.
•The different types of relationships are
–one-to-one
•One-to-one relationships occur when one instance of data in a query subject relates to exactly one instance of another. For example, each student has one student Id.
–one-to-many or zero-to-many
•One-to-many or zero-to-many relationships occur when one instance of data in a query subject relates to many instances ofanother. For example, each teacher has many students.
–many-to-many
•Many-to-many relationships occur when many instances of data in a query subject relate to many instances of another. For example, many students have many teachers.

Relationships
•Can be defined Manually
•Can be detected Automatically

Cardinality
•Cardinality indicates the nature of the relationship between two objects.
•The cardinality specified in the relationship between query subjects or dimensions determines how and when Cognos8 generates stitched queries.
•A stitched query uses multiple subqueries, one for each star, brought together by a full outer join on the common keys.
•Stitched queries are needed for multiple-fact querying across conformed dimensions and across different levels of granularity.

•When cardinality is combined with dimensions to control how queries are generated, you can
–prevent double-counting (When Facts are having different granularity)
–automatically resolve loop joins

Detecting Cardinality from the Data Source
•When importing from a relational data source, cardinality is detected based on a set of rules that you specify. The available options are
–use primary and foreign keys
–use matching query item names that represent uniquely indexed columns
–use matching query item names
•The most common situation is to use primary and foreign keys as well as matching query items that represent uniquely indexed columns.

Notation
•Possible end labels are
–0..1 (zero or one match)
–1..1 (exactly one match)
–0..n (zero or more matches)
–1..n (one or more matches)
•The first part of the notation specifies the type of join for this relationship:
–an inner join (1)
–an outer join (0)

Making Metadata Available to Report Authors
•A package is a subset of the query subjects and other objects defined in the project.
•You then publish the package to the CognosReportNetserver so that the report authors can use the metadata.
•You can create several packages from the same project, each package used to meet different reporting requirements.
•To publish a project:
–Check the project to ensure that the contents are consistent anddo not contain any errors
–Set governors for reports
–Create custom packages to suit different reporting requirements
–Add security to the package
–Specify languages in the package
–Publish the package to a location that report authors can access

Query Governors…..
•Report Table Limits
–You can control the number of tables that a user can retrieve in a query or report.
–A setting of zero (0) means no limit is set.
•Data Retrieval Limits
–You can control the number of rows that are returned in a query or report. Rows are counted as they are retrieved.
–A setting of zero (0) means no limit is set.

•Query Execution Time Limits
–You can limit the time that a query can take.
•Large Text Items Limit
–You can control the character length of BLOBS (binary large objects) that a user can retrieve in a query or report.
•Allow Enhanced Model Portability at Run Time
–This governor is selected upon initial upgrade. It prevents rigid enforcement of data types so that a Cognos8 model can function as a ReportNet1.x model until you update the data types in the metadata

•Allow Dynamic Generation of Dimension Information
–Select this governor upon initial upgrade of a ReportNet1.x model.
–This governor allows consistent behavior with ReportNet1.x by deriving a form of dimension information from the relationships, key information, and index information in the data source.
•Allow Usage of Local Cache
–Select this governor to specify that all reports based on this model should use cached data. By default, this governor is disabled.
•Outer Joins–You can control whether outer joins can be used in your query or report.–If you keep the setting as deny, you are notified if you set the cardinality for outer join & generate SQL.

•Cross-Product Joins
–You can control whether cross-product joins can be used in your query or report.
–A cross-product join retrieves data from tables without joins. This type of join can take a long time to retrieve data.
•Use With Clause When Generating SQL
–You can choose to use the With clause with CognosSQL if your data source supports the With clause.

With Clause
•If the data source supports it, you can use the With clause with CognosSQL.
•The With clause is used to generate more readable SQL and to let the data source generate a more optimal plan for data retrieval.
•The data source can more easily detect the cases where the same tables must be scanned and can then resolve these as an inline view or temporary table.
•Use the With clause for better query performance.

Working with Dimensions
•A dimension is a broad grouping of descriptive data about a major aspect of a business, such as products, dates, or markets.
•The types of dimensions that you can work with in Framework Manager are
–regular dimensions (Business Dimensions)
–measure dimensions (Facts)

Star Schema
•A measure dimension and regular dimensions organized into a cluster is often referred to as a star schema group but can also be referred to as a functional or subject area group.

Types of Framework Manager Dimensions
•If the source of a dimension is SQL statements, the dimension is a data source dimension.
•If the source is other objects in the model, it is a model dimension.
•A model can contain data source regular dimensions, model regular dimensions, data source measure dimensions, and model measure dimensions.

Create a Regular Dimension
•A regular dimension contains descriptive and business key information and organizes the information in a hierarchy, from the highest level of granularity to the lowest.
•It usually has multiple levels and may have multiple key segments to define a level.
•It may also have multiple hierarchies.
•Use regular dimensions to organize and present descriptive information to guide the end user experience in the report authoring tools.

•When creating regular dimensions, you must understand the dimensionality of the data. You must be able to answer the following questions:
•What are the levels in your dimension?
•What is the order and combination of levels that form hierarchies?
•What uniquely identifies a level?

Roles
•The default roles include the following:
•_businessKey
–Represents the key for the level. This role is also used to drill through from one data source to another because the business key should be consistent across your organization.
–The _businessKeyrole can be assigned to only one attribute in a level.
•_memberCaption
–Presents the caption for a member that will be shown in the report authoring tools.
–The _memberCaptionrole is necessary to leverage member functions and to enable dragging and dropping levels in the report authoring tools.
–Ensure that the data type is set to string for the item that will be assigned the _memberCaptionrole.
•_memberDescription
–Returns the description for a member within a dimension.

Steps for Regular Dimension
1. Select a namespace or folder where you want to place the dimension. From the Actions menu,
click Create, Regular Dimension, and then click the Dimension tab.
Tip: In the Dimension Map tab, click the regular dimension button.
2. Click the Dimension tab.
3. Click Add Hierarchy and then drag one or more objects from the Available items box to the
Hierarchies box.
You can define multiple hierarchies for a dimension. The first hierarchy is used as the default,
or primary, hierarchy.
You can also create an alternate hierarchy by copying a level. Click a level and drag it to the
right border of the dimension. You can only copy a level within the same dimension.
Tip: In the Dimension Map tab, drag objects from the Project Viewer to the Dimensions box.
4. Click Add Level and then drag one or more objects from the Available items box into the new
level.
You can also create copies of levels in the Dimension Definition dialog box or in the
Dimension Map tab. Click the level and drag it to another position in the hierarchy. All
attributes of the level are also copied. You can only copy a level within the same dimension.
Tip: In the Dimension Map tab, drag objects from the Project Viewer to the Dimensions box.
•Which data elements are associated at each level?

5. If you want to use a different item in a level, drag it from theAvailable items box to the Select
a level in the hierarchy control to see the query items box.
You are prompted to specify its role.
By default, Framework Manager adds the name of the namespace.
You can explore or change measures. Tip: In the Dimension Map tab, click Measures,
right-click one or more measures, and click the command you want.
You can have a multiple-part key such as first name plus last name. Create a new attribute
that combines these two items and then specify that the new attribute is the business key.
6. If you want to indicate that the keys of the levels above the current level are not necessary to
identify the members in this level, select the item and select the Unique Level check box.
Do this only if the key values are unique regardless of their context, such as postal code
values.
7. Choose the options that you want:
•Specify roles
•Embed calculations by clicking Add and then defining the expression
To change a calculation that has been embedded in the dimension,in the Dimension Map
tab, click Attributes, right-click the query item, and click Edit Expression.
•Embed filters
•Test the dimension
•Edit the SQL and change various options
8. Click OK.
9. To change the default hierarchy for a dimension with multiple hierarchies, do the following:
•In the Properties pane, click the ellipsis (...) button in the Default Hierarchy box.
•Select a different hierarchy, and click OK.

Measure Dimension
•A measure dimension is a collection of facts such as Quantity Sold or Price.
•You can add value by embedding calculations based on existing business rules, such as Profit Margin.
•You cannot define hierarchies or levels for a measure dimension.

Define Scope Relationships for Dimensions
•A scope relationship defines that measure dimensions and regular dimensions can be related for reporting purposes.
•If you set the scope relationship for the measure dimension, the same settings apply to all measures in the measure dimension.
•If data is reported at a different level for the measures in the measure dimension, you can also define a scope relationship for each measure.
•Scope relationships should always be set at the level of the underlying relational join or higher.

Creating Business View of Metadata
•When you create a business view of the metadata, you make it easier for your users to find and understand the data contained in the model.
•The business view represents an organizational structure that mirrors your business and your decision-making processes.
•To Create Business View you can
–Organize objects by creating folders or namespaces
–Include metadata in several folders by using shortcuts
–Organize query subjects by creating query item folders