Adding a network diagram

You can create a network diagram in reports. The nodes data container defines the items that you want to link together. The links data container defines relationship between the items that you want to link together.

Figure 1. A network diagram in an active report showing employees by region

Before you begin

Network node drop zones only take numeric data items. Not all data sources have the appropriate data to create a network diagram.

Your administrator must make the visualizations available in the Visualization Gallery.

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view visualizations, you must have Microsoft Silverlight 5 installed on your computer. Firefox or iPad users do not need Silverlight.

About this task

You add data to a visualization by inserting data items in drop zones.

When you add a visualization to an IBM® Cognos® Active Report, you can choose to render visualizations on the IBM Cognos server or on the client. When you choose to render visualizations on the client, additional drop zones appear for extra categories or values when all the required drop zones contain data items. You can use extra categories and extra values to filter data or set variables. Extra items are not visible in the visualization.

When working with dimensional data sources, if the visualization does not contain a measure against which to plot data, you must provide one. For example, if you add a single member to the values drop zone, such as '2012', the default measure drop zone appears in which you must insert a measure.

Attention: The supported properties for a visualization are determined by the visualization definition.

Procedure

From the Toolbox tab , drag a Visualization icon to the work area.
From the Visualization Gallery, select the Network diagram icon and click OK.
From the Source tab , drag items to the appropriate location in the data container:
1. In the Nodes1 data container, drag items to Node (Numeric) and Name. The nodes data container defines the items that you want to link together, such as Employees, defined by an employee code.
2. In the Links1 data container, drag items to From node (Numeric) and To node (Numeric). The links data container defines relationship between the items that you want to link together, such as Employees and Managers.