Example - Run a Report

IBM® Cognos® Connection is the Web portal that gives you access to all the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence functionality. In the portal, you can run reports.

In this exercise, you will learn how to

  • Navigate the portal
  • Run a report
  • Navigate within a report
  • Drill through from one report to another
  • View the report in a different format

You are a business analyst for the Sample Outdoors Company. You are asked to study the percentage of returned products. Returned items reveal important information about the quality of products, especially products that are returned because they are defective or are missing parts.

You will drill down to more detailed information in the pie chart, drill back up to the beginning, then drill through to another report using the data shown in your current report as a filter.

Things to notice:

  • The icon for a report shows the default format and default action of the report.
  • Reports that have saved outputs have an additional icon in the Actions column.
  • At any time, you can click the arrow next to the help button, and click Go to the Welcome Page to return to the IBM Cognos Welcome page.

Procedure

  1. Open IBM Cognos Connection:
    1. Start your Web browser.
    2. In the address bar, type the URL supplied by your administrator, and then press Enter. The URL looks something like this: http://servername/cognos
  2. In the IBM Cognos Welcome page, click IBM Cognos content. In the Public Folders tab, click Samples, Models, GO Data Warehouse (analysis), and Query Studio Report Samples.
  3. Locate the Return Quantity by Product Line Chart report. Tip: The entry's icon identifies its default action. The default action for this report is to open it in IBM Cognos Query Studio. Instead, you want to run the report in HTML format in the viewer.
  4. Under Actions, click the Run with Options icon Run with Options icon next to the report, accept the defaults, and then click Run.

    The report runs and opens with the latest data about product returns.

    An example of a Query Studio report for Return Quantity by Product Line showing outdoor protection with the highest number of returns.

    You notice that Outdoor Protection products have the highest number of returns. You want to drill down to obtain more detailed information.

  5. Click the Outdoor Protection slice in the pie chart to drill down to more detailed information.

    Tip: You can also drill down by right-clicking or by clicking the legend label.

    At a quick glance, you notice that insect repellents have the highest number of returns.

  6. Drill down on Insect Repellents. You notice that the BugShield Lotion has the highest number of returns. You want to drill up to go back to where you started in this report.
  7. Drill up twice to return to the high-level product returns data. To do so, right-click any area on the pie chart and click Drill Up, then repeat this step to drill up again.

Example

Use IBM Cognos Connection to try the following report features:

  • On the toolbar, click the Home or Return icon to return to the portal.
  • Change the report format to PDF.
    Tip: Click Run with Options Run with Options icon on the actions toolbar. From the Format list, select PDF, and click Run.
  • Change the report to a different language. To do so, change the language settings in IBM Cognos Connection or in your Web browser, and then run the report again. Because the sample data is multilingual, all data will be translated.
    Tip: Click My Area Options My Area icon, My Preferences. Under Regional options, change the Product language and the Content language. To see the content language changes, you must run the report.

What to do next

For more information about running reports, see the online help in IBM Cognos Connection.

Parent topic: IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Examples