When you view and run a report, scorecard, or agent, the information that you see comes from data sources, the package, calculations, other properties added by the author, and from IBM Cognos Business Intelligence itself.
You use IBM Cognos Connection to organize your reports and other IBM Cognos content such as agents, metrics packages, URLs, and folders. You can access public content on the Public Folders tab or custom portal pages, and store and access your favorite content on the My Folders tab.
Report and Agent Views
If you want to personalize an existing public report or agent, you can create a report or agent view and save the view on the My Folders tab. This allows you to save prompt values, modify the schedule, and change the output format of reports.
Report Outputs
When a report is run, it contains the latest data from the data source. However, viewing the most recent data may not always meet your needs. When you want to view older data, you save and view the report output.
Report outputs are created when you schedule a report, when a report has multiple formats or languages, when a report has a delivery method of save, print, or email, and when a report is burst.
You can produce report outputs in the following formats:
If you are the owner of a report or have the necessary permissions, you can specify the default format for each report. You can also specify how many report output versions to keep.
Drill-through Links
A report can contain drill-through links, also known as Go To links, so that you can easily open related content. A value in the report is linked to more detailed information in another report. For example, a report includes sales information for each continent. When you click a continent name, a more detailed report about
sales for that specific continent opens. When you view report data in IBM Cognos Connection, IBM Cognos Query Studio, and IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, you can also drill down and drill up.
When you drill down, you follow a link from one layer of data to a more detailed layer within the same report. When you drill up, you access a less detailed layer.
Multilingual User Interface and Content
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence is a multilingual suite that lets you author reports once and deploy them globally. When users open a report, it automatically opens in the proper language, based on their locale settings. You can select the language that you prefer for the user interface. If your data and reports are available in multiple languages, you can also select the language that you prefer for the content.
There is also support for bidirectional languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi. Report authors can control the display of native digits and the direction of text, crosstabs, and charts.
Portal Pages
In IBM Cognos Connection, you can create your own custom portal pages. You use these portal pages to view frequently-used content, to group related reports and folders, and to combine IBM Cognos BI and non-IBM Cognos content within a single page. Within your portal pages, you can add IBM Cognos BI portlets, which you use to view and interact with your IBM Cognos BI content. If you have the necessary permissions, you can create public pages that other users and groups can access and even use as their own. You can assign security permissions to allow only certain users to access the pages.
You use IBM Cognos Connection to organize your reports and other IBM Cognos content such as agents, metrics packages, URLs, and folders. You can access public content on the Public Folders tab or custom portal pages, and store and access your favorite content on the My Folders tab.
Report and Agent Views
If you want to personalize an existing public report or agent, you can create a report or agent view and save the view on the My Folders tab. This allows you to save prompt values, modify the schedule, and change the output format of reports.
Report Outputs
When a report is run, it contains the latest data from the data source. However, viewing the most recent data may not always meet your needs. When you want to view older data, you save and view the report output.
Report outputs are created when you schedule a report, when a report has multiple formats or languages, when a report has a delivery method of save, print, or email, and when a report is burst.
You can produce report outputs in the following formats:
- Hypertext markup language (.html)
- Adobe portable document format (.pdf)
- Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (.xls or .xlsx)
- Delimited text (.csv)
- Extensible markup language (.xml)
If you are the owner of a report or have the necessary permissions, you can specify the default format for each report. You can also specify how many report output versions to keep.
Drill-through Links
A report can contain drill-through links, also known as Go To links, so that you can easily open related content. A value in the report is linked to more detailed information in another report. For example, a report includes sales information for each continent. When you click a continent name, a more detailed report about
sales for that specific continent opens. When you view report data in IBM Cognos Connection, IBM Cognos Query Studio, and IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, you can also drill down and drill up.
When you drill down, you follow a link from one layer of data to a more detailed layer within the same report. When you drill up, you access a less detailed layer.
Multilingual User Interface and Content
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence is a multilingual suite that lets you author reports once and deploy them globally. When users open a report, it automatically opens in the proper language, based on their locale settings. You can select the language that you prefer for the user interface. If your data and reports are available in multiple languages, you can also select the language that you prefer for the content.
There is also support for bidirectional languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi. Report authors can control the display of native digits and the direction of text, crosstabs, and charts.
Portal Pages
In IBM Cognos Connection, you can create your own custom portal pages. You use these portal pages to view frequently-used content, to group related reports and folders, and to combine IBM Cognos BI and non-IBM Cognos content within a single page. Within your portal pages, you can add IBM Cognos BI portlets, which you use to view and interact with your IBM Cognos BI content. If you have the necessary permissions, you can create public pages that other users and groups can access and even use as their own. You can assign security permissions to allow only certain users to access the pages.