IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Over 100 recipes that will show you how to use IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio to build creative, stunning, and sophisticated reports

Overview

• Learn advanced techniques to produce real-life reports that meet business demands
• Learn tricks and hacks for speedy and effortless report development
• Peek into the best practices used in industry and discover ways to work like a pro

In Detail

IBM Cognos Report Studio is widely used for creating and managing business reports in medium to large companies. It is simple enough for any business analyst, power user, or developer to pick up and start developing basic reports. However, this book is designed to take the reader beyond the basics and into the world of creating more sophisticated, functional business reports.

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio Cookbook, Second Edition helps you understand and use all the features provided by Report Studio to generate impressive deliverables. It will take you from being a beginner to a professional report author. It bridges the gap between basic training provided by manuals or trainers and the practical techniques learned over years of practice.

Written in a recipe style, this book offers step-by-step instructions for IBM Cognos Report Studio users to author reports effectively, allowing a reader to dip in and out of the chapters as they desire.

You will see a new fictional business case in each recipe that will relate to a real-life problem and then you will learn how to crack it in Report Studio.

This book covers all the basic and advanced features of Report Authoring. It introduces the fundamental features useful across any level of reporting. Then it ascends to advanced techniques and tricks to overcome Studio limitations. Develop excellent reports using dimensional data sources by following best practices that development work requires in Report Studio. You will also learn about editing the report outside the Studio by directly editing the XML specifications. You will discover how to build and use Cognos Active Reports, a new addition in IBM Cognos 10.

Provide richness to the user interface by adding JavaScript and HTML tags and using the different chart types introduced in IBM Cognos 10. The main focus is on the practical use of various powerful features that Report Studio has to offer to suit your business requirements.

Learn numerous techniques and hacks that will allow you to make the best out of your IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio.

What you will learn from this book

• Learn basic and advanced options around sorting, filtering, and aggregation of data
• Explore the powerful features of Report Studio—Conditional Formatting, Cascaded Prompts, Master-Detailed queries, and more
• Learn how to build and use Active Reports
• Achieve real business demands such as dynamic drill-though links, showing tooltips, minimum column width, prompt manipulation, and merged cells
• Learn to edit reports outside Report Studio using XML editing
• Develop sophisticated printer friendly reports
• Introduce best practices such as inserting comments, regression testing, and version controlling in your reports
• Enhance the features of Report Studio by using macros and Work with dimensional models (DMRs and Cubes)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Report Authoring Basic Concepts
Chapter 2: Advanced Report Authoring
Chapter 3: Using JavaScript Files – Tips and Tricks
Chapter 4: The Report Page – Tips and Tricks
Chapter 5: Working with XML
Chapter 6: Writing Printable Reports
Chapter 7: Working with Dimensional Models
Chapter 8: Working with Macros
Chapter 9: Using Report Studio Efficiently
Chapter 10: Working with Active Reports
Chapter 11: Charts and New Chart Features
Chapter 12: More Useful Recipes
Chapter 13: Best Practices
Appendix: Recommendations and References