- Launch Query Studio
- Query Studio High-Level Interface
- Report Types
- Open an Existing Report
- Create a List Report
- Run the Report
- Change Layout
- Create a Crosstab Report
- Create Filters
- Summarize Report
- Sort Data
- Create Calculations
- Create Charts
- Define Conditional Styles
- In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Query Studio High-Level Interface
Query Studio interface is easy to use and consists of the following main areas: Menu pane, Standard toolbar, Style toolbar, Information pane, and the Work area, as shown in Figure 5.1.
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Figure 5.1. Query Studio – high-level interface.
The Menu pane has Insert Data, Edit Data, Change Layout, Run Report, and Manage File options. Commonly used features discussed here also display in the Standard toolbar for easy access. Each option is discussed in the sections that follow.
Insert Data
The Insert Data menu enables you to add data items from the data tree to the report. It consists of three options:
- Package Structure: Displays the data tree of data items in the selected package that you can use to build your report
- Insert button: Adds the selected data item to the report in the work area
- Information pane: Displays related information on the selected data items enabling you to confirm that the selected item is the one that you want to work with
Edit Data
The Edit Data menu enables you to work with data in your report and enhance your report by using options such as sort, suppress, filter, create calculations, and so on.
- Filter: Enables you to filter unwanted data from the report, as shown as option 11 in Figure 5.1.
- Combine Filters: Enables you to combine two or more filters to create a complex filter condition.
- Suppress: Enables you to suppress rows with Zero values, Divide by zero, Missing values, and Overflow values from the report, as shown as 12 in Figure 5.1.
- Sort: Specifies sort options as Ascending (A–Z), Descending (Z–A), and Don’t sort. Sort option is shown as 13 in Figure 5.1.
- Summarize: Adds or removes footer values and changes how the footer values are calculated. You can choose a function appropriate for summarizing the data in the report, for example, Total, Maximum, Minimum, Median, Average, Standard Deviation, Variance, Count, Count Distinct, None, as shown as 14 in Figure 5.1. The options available to you are context-sensitive and depend upon the selected item in the report.
- Format Data: Specifies additional data formatting. The options available vary depending upon the item selected in the report. For numeric values you can specify the category of the item, for example. Currency, Number, Percentage, and Scientific. Depending upon the category you specify, the related additional options such as scale, number of decimal places, and more can be specified.
- Calculate: Enables you to create calculations, for example, items not already in the database, as shown as 15 in Figure 5.1.
- Define Custom Groups: Enables you to group columns in the report into other meaningful groupings required by the business for analysis.
- Drill Down: Displays lower level data in a dimensional report, as shown as 16 in Figure 5.1.
- Drill Up: Displays higher level data in a dimensional report, as shown as 17 in Figure 5.1.
- Go To: Displays links to any related target reports; clicking the link takes you to the selected report, as shown as 18 in Figure 5.1.
- Rename Column Heading: Enables you to change the default column heading.
- Cut: Enables you to remove the item and hold it in the clipboard, as shown as 5 in Figure 5.1.
- Paste: Enables you to paste items from the clipboard, as shown as 6 in Figure 5.1.
- Delete: Enables you to delete the selected item and remove it from the report, as shown as 7 in Figure 5.1.
- Undo: Enables you to undo your previous action, as shown as 8 in Figure 5.1.
- Redo: Enables you to redo a change that you undid using Undo, as shown as 9 in Figure 5.1.
Change Layout
The Change Layout menu enables you to enhance the look and feel of the report by adding a title to the report, change fonts and styles, group the data, apply page breaks, and more.
- Chart: Displays the data in a chart form. You can choose from a variety of chart types, for example, pie, bar, line, gauge, scatter, and more, as shown as 19 in Figure 5.1.
- Define Conditional Styles: Highlights important information in the report when a business condition is satisfied.
- Change Font Styles: Formats an object in the report, for example, font, font size, font color, or the font background color, as shown as 29 in Figure 5.1.
- Change Border Styles: Enables you to format the borders of tables and sections in the report, as shown as 36 in Figure 5.1.
- Reset Font and Border Styles: Enables you to restore the styles from the template after making a change.
- Apply Template: Enables you to change the default systemwide Query Studio template to another template and give it a new look. The new template must be created in Report Studio and then used in Query Studio.
- Edit Title Area: Specifies the title and subtitles for the report.
- Set Web Page Size: Enables you to specify the number of rows you want to display on the screen.
- Set Page Breaks: Enables you to specify the page breaks based on a grouped or sectioned column. Each value of the grouped/sectioned column appears on a new page.
- Group: Groups identical values in a report column together, as shown as 20 in Figure 5.1.
- Pivot: Creates a Crosstab report using the data in the list report, as shown as 21 in Figure 5.1.
- Ungroup: Display repeated values in the report by removing the grouping applied via Group option, as shown as 22 in Figure 5.1.
- Create Sections: Enables you to break the report into different sections based on the column you choose to section on. The column used for creating a section displays as the section header, as shown as 23 in Figure 5.1.
- Swap Rows and Columns: Changes the existing rows in the report as column values and columns as rows to get another perspective of the same data, as shown as 24 in Figure 5.1.
- Collapse Group: Temporarily removes progressive levels of detail from the report, as shown as 25 in Figure 5.1.
- Expand Group: Restores the collapsed levels in the report, as shown as 26 in Figure 5.1.
Run Report
The Run Report menu enables you to specify the report output type, such as PDF, Excel, and more. You can also enable or disable drill up, drill down, and drill through options from here as well as control summary options.
- Run with All Data: Runs the report using all the data from the data source, as shown as 10 in Figure 5.1
- Preview with Limited Data: Runs the report using partial data from the data source and works only with relational data source. Rollups are not computed in this mode. Reports based on packages with design filter have improved performance in this mode.
- Preview with No Data: Runs the report using no data and is typically used during designing the report.
- View in PDF Format: Enables you to generate the report output in PDF.
- Specify PDF Options: Enables you to specify the orientation and page size of the PDF report.
- View in Excel 2007 Format: Enables you to generate reports that you can view in Microsoft Excel 2007.
- View in Excel 2007 Data Format: Enables you to render the data for a list report to view in Microsoft Excel 2007.
- View in Excel 2002 Format: Enables you to generate reports that you can view in Microsoft Excel versions earlier than 2007.
- View in CSV Format: Enables you to view list reports in Comma Separate Values (CSV) format.
- View in XML Format: Enables you to view the report in XML format.
Advanced Options: Provides two runtime options that you can enable or disable via check boxes.
Query Options:
- Automatically Generate Footer Summaries for Measure: Turn off the automatic generation of summaries for measures by clearing the check box.
Automatically Summarize Detail Values, Suppressing Duplicates: Turn off the automatic suppression of duplicates of detail values by clearing the check box.
Drill Options:
- Enable Drill Up and Drill Down in the Report Output: Turn off the drill up and drill down functionality by clearing the check box. By default, drill up and drill down is enabled. This is applicable to dimensional reports only.
- Enable Drill Through from a Package in the Report Output: Enables or disables navigation to another report for detail information. By default, this option is enabled. You can navigate to another Query Studio report, Report Studio report, Analysis Studio Analysis, IBM Cognos Series 7 cube action, and a Microsoft Analysis action.
Manage File
The Manage File menu enables you to manage your Query Studio report. For example, from here you can open the Query Studio report with Report Studio, save the currently opened report, create a new report, or open an existing report. Some options available here are also available to you from other menu options.
- New: Enables you to create a new Query Studio report, as shown as 1 in Figure 5.1 on the Standard toolbar.
- Open: Enables you to open an existing Query Studio report, as shown as 2 in Figure 5.1 on the Standard toolbar.
- Open in Report Studio: Enables you to open the Query Studio report in Report Studio.
- Save: Enables you to save the report that you can use later, as shown as 3 on the Standard toolbar in Figure 5.1.
- Save As: Enables you to save the report with a new name and reuse the work done earlier, as shown as 4 on the Standard toolbar in Figure 5.1.
Report Definition: Enables you to troubleshoot report problems. It has two options:
- Report Definition: Displays the expression for each report item.
- Query Information: Displays the query information for each report item. Using this option you can view the XML definition of the report; it is useful when troubleshooting with Cognos Support.
My Preferences: Enables you to specify the default settings for your session. Changes you make here are valid for your session only and do not impact other users. Use this option to change the settings for the following:
Default data display:
- Run with All Data (default)
- Preview with Limited Data
Preview with No Data
Default template:
Apply a template (Select a template)
Default filter dialog for value selection:
- Default (default)
- Pick values from a list
- Search for values
Type in values
Advanced Run-time Options:
Query Options:
- Automatically generates footer summaries for measures
- Automatically summarizes detail values, suppressing duplicates
Drill Options:
- Enables drill up and drill down in the report output
- Enables drill through from a package in the report output
Standard Toolbar Options
The Standard toolbar contains icons for frequently performed actions for easy access. These options are also available via the Menu pane and are discussed there. Standard toolbar options are demonstrated in Figure 5.1.
Options New (shown as 1 in Figure 5.1), Open (shown as 2), Save (shown as 3), Save As (shown as 4), Cut (shown as 5), Paste (shown as 6), Delete (shown as 7), Undo (shown as 8), and Redo (shown as 9), have same functionality as discussed in the section “Menu Pane” earlier in the chapter.
- Run: Enables you to choose the report output type, for example, HTML, PDF, Excel, CSV, or XML.
- Filter: Enables you to define a filter for the report to remove unwanted data. You can combine filters to create complex filter conditions using AND and OR operators.
- Suppress: Enables you to suppress row with Zero values, Divide by zero, Missing values, and Overflow values from the report.
- Sort: Specifies sort options as ascending or descending.
- Summarize: Enables you to create summary calculations for selected sets, for example, Sum, Average, Maximum, Minimum, Median, Variance, Standard Deviation, and Count.
- Calculate: Creates a calculation for one or more columns. Options available depend upon the number of rows (or columns) selected.
- Drill-Down: Displays lower levels of detail in dimensional reports. You can drill down in the report until you reach the lowest level.
- Drill-Up: Displays higher levels of detail in dimensional reports. You can use drill up until you reach the highest level in the report.
- Go To: Enables you to invoke a related Cognos report for further analysis.
- Chart Type: Enables you to choose a chart type appropriate for your analysis, for example, Column, Bar, Pie, Line, Pareto, Area, Radar, and Point.
- Group: Enables you to remove duplicate values in the report and display them as a group.
- Pivot: Creates a Crosstab report.
- Ungroup: Enables you to ungroup the column you grouped using Group.
- Create Sections: Enables you to divide the report based on a column on which you create a section. The sectioned column becomes the header and is removed from the list report. A section is created for each distinct value of the sectioned column.
- Swap Rows and Columns: Changes the existing rows in the analysis as column values and columns as rows to get another perspective of the same data.
- Collapse Group: Enables you to collapse the detail portions of the report and display only the high-level information. You can collapse only those reports that have a measure and do not have custom groups.
- Expand Group: Enables you to restore the collapsed information in the report. This option is applicable to reports that have a measure and do not contain custom groups.