Cognos Report Studio

Q. What are the different types of reports in report Studio?

Ø  The different types of reports available in Report Studio are listed as:

            1. List

            2. Crosstab

            3. Chart

            4. Map

            5. Repeater

Q. What are Prompts in Cognos Report Studio? List the different type of prompts?

Ø  Prompts act as questions that help users to customize the information in a report.

Different type of prompts can be listed as:

a)    Text Box Prompt – Retrieves data based on a value that user’s type.

b)    Value Prompt – Retrieves data based on values that user’s select from a list.

c)    Search & Select Prompt – Retrieves values based on search criteria that users specify.

d)    Date Prompt – Retrieves data based on a date that users select.

e)    Time Prompt – Retrieves data based on a time that users select.

f)     Date & Time Prompt – Retrieves data based on a date & time that users select.

g)    Interval Prompt – Retrieves data based on a time interval that users specify.

h)    Tree Prompt – Retrieves data based on values that users select from a list (Returns a set of members from hierarchy). It is used when working with dimensional data.

i)      Generated Prompt – Selects a prompt control based on the data type of the data item.

 

Q. What are Cascading prompts?

Ø  Using cascading prompts, the values in one prompt are driven by what is selected in another prompt.

Q. What are the different types of filters available in Report Studio?

Ø  Report Studio – Report studio provides three types of filtering:

a)     Detail filter – Detail filters are used to filter detail level values within a report. They work at the lowest level of granularity in the selected objects.

Example: We can apply a detail filter on “Sales Month” to extract all transactions which occurred within the specified month.

b)    Summary filter – Summary filters are used to filter summary level values within a report.

Example: We can apply a summary filter to get the highest sold product in a sales region.

We would need to group the “Region” and “Product” fields beforehand.

c)     Slicers – Slicers are used with dimensional models. A slicer filter affects the cell value, not the row or column edges. Slicers are useful if you want some data in a report to be hidden and other data to be visible.

            Example: We can apply a slicer if we want a report displaying all “Product” names but sales data only                    for a few and not all products.  

Q. What are the different types of variables in Report Studio?

Ø  The different variables are :

a)     Boolean Variable

b)    String Variable

c)     Report Language Variable

Q. What are classes in Report Studio?

Ø  Classes in Report Studio provide a default style to be applied to the objects.

Q. What is Condition Explorer in Report Studio?

Ø  Condition Explorer allows you to manage the variables that are being used in the report.

Q. What’s the difference between Drill-through report & Master-detail report?

Ø  Drill-through Report – Links 2 separate reports containing related information. (Target & Source report). Steps to create are listed below:

a)     Create a target report with detail filter that uses the parameter on which you want to filter when drilling through from the source report. Save the report.

b)    Create a source report that contains the item you want to use for drill-through.

c)     Select the item to be used as the drill-through and click on Drill-Through definitions button on the standard toolbar.

d)    Click new drill through definition button. Select the target report and fill the required options.

e)     Click Edit to display the parameters. Select method as “Pass Data item value”. Select value from the source report.

f)     Click Ok and then run the report.

Ø  Master Detail Report – Links information between two data containers (eg. List, crosstab, chart) within a report. Using master-detail, you can use a single report to display information from two reports. Steps to create are listed below:

a)     Create a new report having two data containers E.g. Crosstab and Chart. Insert data items into both containers so that 2 queries are created E.g. Query1 and Query2.

b)    The 2 queries should have at-least 1 Common data-item.

c)     Click “Unlock” icon from Toolbar to unlock page objects. Select 2^nd container object, and drag it into the 1^st container where you want to place it.

d)    Click embedded container object. Click Master Detail Relationships from Data menu. Create “New Link” between the common data-item.

e)     Click Ok and run the report.

Q. How do you set security for reports?

Ø  You can set security from the report properties in Cognos Connection. You can add users / user classes with read/write/execute/traverse/set policy level access.

   Cognos Connection à Report Properties à Permissions

Q. What is a “Layout Component Reference” in Report Studio?

Ø  “Layout Component Reference” is an object in Report Studio which is used to give a reference to another object in the report. It helps to reuse an object instead of creating it again.

Example – It can be used to include a Company Logo on all pages of a report.

Steps:

a)     Create 2 page report; List on first page and Crosstab on second.

b)    Add Company logo on first page and give it a unique name.

c)     On second page, add “Layout Component Reference” object where you want the same logo to be displayed.

d)    Check on “This Report” option and select the “Company Logo” object.