Summarizing data in a visualization

When a visualization is added to an IBM® Cognos® Active Report, you can specify how the data is summarized when users select multiple values in a control that filters the data in the visualization.

About this task

You can specify how data is summarized in a visualization only when you choose to render the visualization on the client. The Rollup Method property is not available when you choose to render a visualization on the IBM Cognos server.

In addition to summarizing data, the aggregation method that you choose affects the range of values that is displayed. For example, if the visualization is filtered by a single select control, Maximum is usually the appropriate aggregation method. With this choice, the range of values is based on the maximum of all values across the filtered items.

Set the aggregation method to the aggregation type of the data item. For example, if the data item is Margin, set the aggregation method to Average. When you are using an OLAP data source, IBM Cognos BI cannot retrieve the aggregation type of a measure. As a result, IBM Cognos BI sets the aggregation method to Total by default.

Procedure

In the visualization data container, in the Values section, click the box that represents the data values in the visualization. For example, in a heatmap, click the Color box.
In the Properties pane, click the Rollup Method property and select the aggregation method that you want to use to summarize data in the visualization.