Maps
IBM® Cognos® Report Studio provides a set of maps
that you can use to represent tabular data in a spatial context. For
example, on a map of the world, countries and regions can be colored
to represent the level of revenue.
Maps are not supported for reports run in Microsoft Excel format.
- The Report Studio Map Object
Maps are most often used to show geographical areas, but they can be used to show other spatial information, such as a floor plan in a building, seats in an airplane, or parts of the human body. - Example - Create a Map Report
You are a report author at The Sample Outdoors Company, which sells sporting equipment. You are asked to show how revenue for the company is distributed throughout the world. This information can be shown in tabular format using a list report, but a map will create a more meaningful presentation. You decide to create a report that contains a map of the world showing the distribution of revenue by country and region. - Set Map Properties
When you select an element in a map, you can view its properties in the Properties pane. Some properties are dependent on the existence of other properties. - Example - Define Data Values for the Region Layer
The map that you created in the previous topic is not yet linked to a data source. You will now specify the data values from your data source that will determine the color of each region. - Match Data Values to Names in the Map File
If the Ignore Data with No Features property is set to No, then each object that is called from the data source must have a matching label in the specified layer of the map file. For example, if your data source has a country and region named United States and the layer in the map file labels the same country and region USA, then there is a mismatch that must be corrected. IBM Cognos Report Studio only makes you aware of a mismatch if each object in your data source does not have a corresponding label in the map file. If there are extra labels in the map file that do not have a match in the data source, the report will run without an error message. - Define Data Values for the Point Layer
The Point layer in a map is used to visually represent data for point locations, such as cities or sales outlets. Both the color and size of points can be based on data from your data source. - Add Colors to the Region or Point Layer
You can add colors for regions or points and specify values to determine when those colors are shown. - Add a Legend Title to a Map
There are legend titles for the entire legend, for the color of the regions, for the color of the points, and for the size of the points. - Add a Note to a Map
You can add one or more notes, determine their position in the map report, and specify borders around notes. - Drill Through to Another Report From a Map
You can link regions or points on a map to another report. For example, on a map of the world, you can specify that when you click on China, a map of China opens. - Edit a Map
With IBM Cognos Map Manager you can edit the labels in maps to be consistent with the object names in your database. - Additional Maps
IBM Cognos supplies a set of standard maps that can be used directly with IBM Cognos Report Studio as well as IBM Cognos Map Manager. - Location Intelligence
Sophisticated mapping functionality, known as location intelligence, can be used for a broad range of business applications that extend the mapping capability of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. These include the ability to dynamically create geographic filters and custom areas for aggregating data for ad-hoc analysis. Examples of business applications of location intelligence are listed in the following table.