Cognos Cube Tutorial Level 2 Institutional Analysis and Planning

Institutional Analysis and Planning: Cognos Cube Tutorial Level II
Cognos Cube Tutorial Level 2 Institutional Analysis and Planning
Contents
Introduction to the advanced Cognos Functions.3 Creating Charts...4 Performing Calculations...13 Ranking Data..16 80/20 Suppression...20 Automatic Exception Highlighting..21 Custom Exception Highlighting...22 Custom Subsets25
1. Introduction to the Advanced Cognos Cube Functions
2. Creating Charts
Cognos allows the user to display the cube data in six different chart forms; Simple Bar charts, Pie charts, Clustered Bar charts, Stacked Bar charts, Multiline charts, and 3D bar charts. For the following examples, the following crosstab will be used.
The column dimension is Faculty, while the row dimensions are Fiscal Year and Attendance.
2.1 Simple Bar Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. This will bring up a menu of chart types. From this menu select Simple Bar
2. The page will refresh to show a column of bar charts. Each chart represents a rows worth of data. For example, each bar chart shows all FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) in each faculty. There are ten bar charts in total; one for each fiscal year from 1996/1997 to 2005/2006.
3. To change the bar charts properties one can access the Display Options dialogue box. This can be done in two ways. Method 1. Click on the Options icon from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and select Options from the menu.
Method 2. Right click on any of the column labels in a chart and select Display Options
Both will open the following dialoge box in the browser.
4. Once changes have been made to suit your needs click the Apply button. The page will refresh with the updated chart. To close the Options dialogue box click the X in the top right hand corner.
2.2 Pie Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon and select Pie from the menu.
2. The page will refresh to show a column of pie charts. Each pie chart represents the data from the summary row for each fiscal year. Each slice of the pie represents the column subdimension, in this case, faculties. The Other slice represents Faculties which are too small to be seen in the pie chart display.
2.3 Clustered Bar Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and select Clustered Bar.
2. The page will refresh to show a column of Clustered Bar charts.
2.4 Stacked Bar Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and select Stacked Bar.
2. The page will refresh to show a column of Stacked Bar charts.
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2.5 Multiline Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and select Multiline.
2. The page will refresh to show a column of Multiline charts.
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2.6 3D Bar Charts

1. Click on the Chart icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and select 3D Bar.
2. The page will refresh to show a column of 3D Bar charts.
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3. Performing Calculations
1. There are two ways to open the Calculations dialogue box. Method 1: Left click the heading of the row or column you wish to use for the calculation.
Click on the Calculations icon from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
Method 2: Right click the heading of the row or column you wish to use for the calculation and select Insert Calculation from the menu.
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Both will open the Calculations dialogue box.
2. Select the type of calculation you wish to perform from the Operation drop down list.
3. Give the calculation a new name by typing in the Calculation Name box. The name will be used as the heading for the new calculated row or column.
4. Select the categories you wish to include by selecting them from the menus next to the Category radio buttons. If you wish to use a constant, click the Number radio button and type a value into the box beside it.
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5. Once finished, click OK. The cube will refresh with the new calculated row or column displayed on the crosstab in italics.
6. To delete the calculated row or column, right click on the heading and select Delete. To edit the calculation, select Edit Calculation or Rename Calculation . To add another calculated row or column select Insert Calculation.
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4. Ranking Data
The ranking function creates ordinal values to indicate the relative positions of cube data. The ordinal values are displayed beside the row or column they are ranking. Totals and summary data cannot be ranked.
4.1 Ranking Rows

1. There are two ways to open the Rank dialogue box. Method 1. Left click the heading of the row you wish to use for the calculation.
Click on the Rank icon from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
Method 2: Right click the heading of the row you wish to rank and select Insert Rank from the menu.
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Both will open the Rank dialogue box.
2. Confirm or change the row you wish to rank by selecting a title from the Rank the rows by the following column menu.
3. Select which ordinals to show from the Show ordinals list box. Type in the number of ordinals you would like displayed into the box beside it.
4. Give the ranking scheme a name by typing in the Rank name box. Press OK when you are finished.
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The Cognos cube will refresh to show the ranking ordinals in a row next to that of the ranked data.
4.2 Ranking Columns

1. Select a column to rank and click on the Rank icon on the toolbar
Unlike rows, column ranks can be sorted in ascending or descending order. After selecting a column and opening the Rank dialogue box, two more options are available. 2. Select which ordinals to show and then type in the number of ordinals into the box beside it.
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3. Select how to sort the ranked data. Press OK when you are finished.
The Cognos cube will refresh to show the ranking ordinals in a column next to that of the ranked data.
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5. 80/20 Suppression
In the previous tutorial, the function Zero suppression was introduced. When this option is selected, rows or columns which consist entirely of zeros are hidden. The Cognos cubes offered by the University of Waterloo have this option automatically selected and have the phrase Zero suppression rows and columns below each cube. 80/20 Suppression hides rows or columns whose absolute values do not contribute to the top 80% of results. The data is sorted from highest value to lowest value. The values are then summed down the list till they add up to 80% of the total. 1. Click on the 80/20 icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
2. The cube will refresh with the lower values collapsed into a single category titled Other. The phrase 80/20 Suppression is added below the cube.
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6. Automatic Exception Highlighting

Exceptions are highlighted if they are significantly higher or lower than the expect values. This is determined by the row and column totals. Significantly low values are displayed in a red bolded font, while significantly high values are displayed in a green bolded font. 1. Click on the Automatic Exception Highlighting icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
2. The cube will refresh with the exceptions highlighted in red or green. The phrase Exception Highlighting is added below the cube.
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7. Custom Exception Highlighting

1. To create a custom exception, click on the Custom Exception Highlighting icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
2. The Custom Exceptions dialogue box will open at the bottom of the screen.
3. To create a new custom exception click Add in the dialogue box. Each Cognos cube can have up to 20 different custom exceptions.
4. A new dialogue box will open. Give the new exception a name by typing in the Exception Name text box.
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5. For each custom exception, upto five value ranges can be specified. For each value range, a text colour and cell colour can also be chosen. In the From box, type in a minimum value. In the To box, type in a maximum value. From the Text box, select a font colour. From the cell box, select a background colour.
6. Define up to four more ranges. Once finished click OK. The Cognos cube will refresh to display the previous dialogue box with the new custom exception listed under Defined Exceptions.
7. Select the row or column you wish to apply the exception to. If you wish to apply the exception to the entire table, click in the title of the cube.
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8. Click the Apply button in the Custom Exceptions dialogue box to show the excepted values. Click OK to close the dialogue box. The cube will now look like this:
9. To remove the custom exception, re-open the Custom Exceptions dialogue box. Reselect the area you wish to clear. Select (none) from the Defined Exceptions list. Click Apply.
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8. Custom Subset
Custom subsets allow users to isolate certain segments of data and view them together in the Cognos cube. There are three different ways to create custom subsets; Using search criteria, using measure values, and selecting categories. After defining the criteria for your custom subset, Cognos returns all values which match your criteria.
8.1 Creating a Custom Subset using Search Criteria

1. Select the Custom Subsets icon from the toolbar at the bottom of the page.
2. This will open the Custom Subsets dialogue box. Type a name into the Custom Subset Name box.
3. From the Dimension drop down list, select the dimension from which you wish to create the custom subset.
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4. Select the Define Rule by Search Criteria radio button and click Next.
5. The Create a Custom Subset By Name dialogue box will open. Click Add
6. From the Search String drop down list, select the criteria for your search. Type the text you wish to search for in the box beside the drop down list. The string is not case sensitive.
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7. From the Choose a Starting Point for your Search box, select the category you wish to search.
8. In the Select a scoping option for your search drop down list, select the level of categories you wish to search. Click OK.
9. The new definition will be visible in the Search Definitions box. The number of results returned will be displayed below. Once all relevant definitions have been added, click Next.
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10. The returned categories will be displayed in the Results Set box.
11. To add categories that were not returned in the results set, add them from the Available Categories box using the forward arrow. Once done, click Finish.
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12. The cube will refresh to show only the categories defined by the custom Subset. Note how the custom subset appears as a subcategory filter along the dimension selector line under the FACULTY dimension.
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8.2 Creating a Custom Subset using Measure Values

1. From the Custom Subsets dialogue box, select the Define Rule by Measure Value radio button.
2. The Create Custom Subset By Measure Value dialogue box will open. Select the measure on which to base the rule from the box. Typically, there will only be one measure available. In this case, the measure is FTE (Full Time Equivalents).
3. From the Include only the following values drop down list, select the appropriate value range.
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4. The following options will be displayed depending on whether you choose By Range or By top or bottom.
5. Choose a starting point for your search. All subcategories within the selected dimension (Faculty) will be displayed. However, these subcategories can only be selected if they have subcategories of their own. Typically there will only be one possible starting point for the search, in this case, Faculty.
6. Select the scope for the search from the Select a scoping option for your search drop down list.
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7. Apply any appropriate filters from the dimension selector line. Once finished, click Next.
8. The returned categories will be displayed in the Results Set box.
9. To add categories that were not returned in the results set, add them from the Available Categories box using the forward arrow. Once done, click Finish.
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10. The cube will refresh to show only the custom subset. Note how the custom subset appears as a subcategory filter along the dimension selector line under the FACULTY dimension.
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8.3 Creating a Custom Subset using Category Selection

1. From the Custom Subsets dialogue box, select the Select Categories radio button and click Next.
2. To create the custom subset, select categories from the Available Categories box and add them to the Results Set using the forward arrow. Use the backwards arrow to remove any unwanted categories. Once done, click Finish.
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3. The cube will refresh to show only the custom subset. Note how the custom subset appears as a subcategory filter along the dimension selector line under the FACULTY dimension.
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8.4 Removing a Custom Subset

1. To remove the custom subset click on Waterloo Custom Subset from the dimension selector line. Select FACULTY from the drop down menu. This will restore the Cognos cube to its original layout.
2. To reselect the custom subset, click on FACULTY on the dimension selector line. Scroll down and click on the Waterloo Custom Subset.
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8.5 Modifying a Custom Subset

1. Open the Dimension Selector Tree by clicking on the tab at the top left corner of the web page.
2. Right click on the name of the subset you wish to edit. Select Edit Subset from the menu.
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3. The Custom Subsets dialogue box will open with the settings for the specific subset selected from the Dimension Selector Tree. After making changes to the subset settings, click Finish.
4. The cube will refresh with the modified subset.
Prepared by Institutional Analysis and Planning, June 1, 2006.

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Institutional Analysis and Planning: Cognos Cube Tutorial Level II