Cognos Analytics

 View Only
Expand all | Collapse all

11.2.0 Release: 305 questions from live webinar and more

  • 1.  11.2.0 Release: 305 questions from live webinar and more

    Posted Tue April 13, 2021 06:46 PM
    Hi Cognos Community! 

    We are so excited for all of you to join us today at 11.2.0 Release webinar. You can watch the replay here. We have received 305 questions during the live session and had to extend its time by 15 minutes to respond to many of those live and through chat option. As we were not able to address all of your questions during the session, we have decided to start this thread and share responded questions here.

    Below are some questions that were responded during the session and in the thread we will continue posting our responses and please feel free to ask more questions as we go. 

    Also if you d like to talk to our offering management team live - come to our next Ask Me Anything session on May 4: Register Here

    Question                                       Answer

    Hello, we would like to know whether datasets could be created from query subjects defined in reports

    Yes, copy/paste reportspec, or copy/paste queries from report to dataset editor.  This was added in 11.1.7.

    Does 11.2 come with Windows 2019 support please?

    Yes Windows 2019 server is supported as of Cognos 11.1.7

    When can we share this information with clients?

    Yes you can.

    When is the release date ?

    Should be later this month, just putting the last touches on it.

    When is 11.2 going to production instances?

    Target is by the end of April.

    Hi, Good Morning.  Can you tell when this version would be of Cognos 11.2
    would be supported/compatible with Maximo 7.6.1.2?  Thanks

    I'd check in with Maximo offering team as this is a part of Maximo's roadmap. In theory Maximo can pick up 11.2 when it's generally available

    Are the help videos local or hosted offsite (youtube)?

    Yes we will have 7 short Getting Started videos as launch time, and more will be made available on our YouTube channel over time.

    Does the Assistant is available in Spanish?

    English only for now.

    Do we still have a switch for legacy interface

    If you're referring to the ability to enable Cognos Connection, yes that is still there.  Though I would highly recommend transitioning to the new home and content navigation.

    What browser are you using in this demo?

    Firefox 85

    where is Find command?

    Its in the banner at the very top of the page, always visible no matter where you are.

    is query studio going to be available in 11.2? How do we access it?

    Yes it will be available with 11.2. You can access QS by clicking new -> Other -> query studio. You will need to enable these legacy studios first to show the other option.

    Will 11.2 still support Customizing roles?  We use this for Custom folders which show on the Home Page for specific users.

    Yes it's still supported

    Q#2 There are a few products that we have in the market currently for Data Preparation - such Tableau Data Prep. or Alteryx - Is IBM planning to include any such product upgrades or new product inclusion within the Cognos Product Suite? For example, Cognos Data Manager or IBM DataStage?

    Cognos Analytics offers a data prep capability OOTB in Data Modules. This allows for things like data cleansing, Joins, calculations and more.

    Is conditionl Pallet  in 11.2?

    It is not. Conditional coloring is available in crosstab only in Dashboard. Conditional Palette is still available for older charting engine in reporting

    what is a data folder? How is it different from a file folder?

    Its just a  regular folder, "Data" is just the unoriginal name I gave my folder.

    Any thought of adding who last modified a report in the details panel?

    This is a good idea but not on our roadmap currently. Can you please log this as an Idea on our Ideas portal for public voting?

    Q#3 New Cloud Datasources - Does Cognos now allow connectivity to Datasources such as Snowflake Clouddatawarehouse, Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift, Azure Synapse, Cassandra, Google BigQuery, etc.

    https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1106607#11.1.7fp2r
    This is the latest tested driver for all datasources. We also support web services as JSON end points as datasources

    Can we identify reports and dashboards as favourite that can be displayed on the landing page?

    This will be implemented as the next stage of portal improvements. Not available yet.

    Will there still be support for Analysis Studio?

    Analysis Studio has been deprecated. We do not provide support anymore. It's still available through legacy flag.

    When can we expect 11.1.7 FP3?

    Likely in May/June timeframe. No official date yet.

    We want to sort one column by the value of another (sort order column). Is it possible in 11.2?

    This is available in Reporting today.

    nice performance improvement !

    Thank you!  With even more to come in future releases.

    Heard that new Dashboard and Report Prompts are coming...Will they be customizable?

    They will be customizable in reporting at least.

    can I develop a report and that as a widget in Dashboard?

    Not today. However, you can embed a dashboard inside of a report through URL.

    When adding resports as tabs  is it possible to make them role based accessible

    Not directly.  You'd need to handle that in Javascript code right now.

    the new BoxPlot, does it work with PDF output

    Dashboard PDF outputs are browser rendered PDF. All visuals are rendered by browser PDF plugin. Not the same as reporting PDF rendering engine that's generated on the server side. The answer to your question is yes.

    Is the performance improvement only for dashboards? Has there been any improvements made to the performance of report studio / report rendering?

    Mostly just dashboards.  There are some load-time optimizations that will be across the board, but the main improvements are dashboards.

    Are the baselines also available in dashboarding?

    No.

    Can we export active reports in excel with the new Cognos version?

    Not available.

    If IE11 is not supported, will Edge be?

    Not the legacy Edge which Microsoft is also ending support of. We support Chrimium Edge which is the going forward MS browser.

    Will Event Studio still be available?

    Yes

    Analysis studio available in chrome?

    It's not officially supported but may work.

    Any update for Event Studio?

    No update. But we are looking at Chrome support for ES for the next release.

    Event Studio accessible in Chromium Edge supported?

    Not yet. Targeting next release for this.

    Please explain 'no conformance update for query studio" - no enhancements or support?

    It is still supported, but we are not updating it for additional browsers.

    What about Event Studio ?

    No change in the status or Event Studio for now. It continues to be supported.

    Any possibilities getting dashboard scheduled to send over email? similar to reports..

    This is on our roadmap

    Is forecasting available in reports or only dashboards?

    Only dashboards today.

    Watson studio available on perm customers as well? a separate installation required?

    Sorry, Watson Studio is for cloud only.  However, on-prem does offer support for Jupyter Notebooks,

    When will we be able to add custom python / R visuals that are interactive with dashboard and report filters?

    This is something we are exploring currently in the labs (when embedding notebook output cells). Note, custom Javascript visualizations and schematics can be built to be interactive with OOTB visualizations

    Can the map visualization of the Report be exported to PDF or Excel?

    Unfortunately, not yet. this is along with a few other select visualizations are a priority for us.

    Will there be additional sizing requirements compared to 11.1?

    No changes here.

    Will the upcoming viewer for Active reports feature exports to excel (like report studio)

    no

    Isn't there going to be a big updated to prompting capabilities in 11.2?

    This is what we are targeting next

    Hi,
    Are there any changes regarding the Management console. I.e. are parts of the legacy Cognos Administration incorporated into the Management UI?

    No changes in this area in 11.2.0

    IBM has updated the UI multiple times the past few releases. Why not focus on prompt / visuals / data module updates?

    We will focus on this next

    What's about the future of Cognos Transformer?

    We have no plan to deprecate it any time soon. No enhancement going into Transformer either.

    Has the file size limit for uploaded files increased ?

    No change in this

    Any enhancements to Transformer and Framework Manager in 11.2?

    No enhancements here.. However cubes created in Transformer etc. will be supported in Explore

    Is there updates on Rest API?

    Not this release.

    do you access cognos administration the same way.  Did Cognos administration remain the same - any changes to the UI?

    There's no change in this area for 11.2.0

    can 11.2 home page be customized for each user - a user wants to see only a couple reports they use. not just most recent?

    You can create a custom HTML page and embed reports/dashboards in there. Set this as homepage.

    do we have a time line on active report viewer?

    Targeting end of May...

    Can you please advise if there any major enhancements to Administration functionality in 11.2?

    No major admin functionality changes in 11.2

    Are there additional server resources (CPU, RAM, disk space) that needs to be taken into account for these new Watson features?

    No.

    Is there a minimum (original) release that is required when upgrading to 11.2 ?

    No. You can upgrade to 11.2 from any release.

    are the data module mutli lingual like in framework manager ?

    Not yet.. This is a high priority gap we are aiming to close in modules at the moment.

    Sorry, I probably missed that. What replaces Framework Manager?

    Data modules is recommended for all new data prep projects.

    That said, FM is not going away as it supports some capabilities that modules doesn't support yet. Gap is narrowing with every release and our goal is to get to feature parity and beyond with Modules

    Are there enhancements to data modules vs. 11.1.7?

    no updates to modules for 11.2

    What criteria do you use in prioritizing the Enhancement requests Do you just go by the number of VOTES ? Do you also check to see if the functionalities requests submitted though enhancements requests do exist in the other competitive BI products and try to get them into CA ?

    We strongly consider RFI votes when prioritizing features for future releases. Additionally, we also factor in market landscape and industry trends as well.

    Does 11.1.2 have different sizing requirements than 11.1.7? Would it be over the top install on 11.1.7?

    Can install on top of 11.1.7. No additional sizing requirements

    Does 11.2 support over the top upgrades from 11.1.x?

    Yes 11.2 will install on top

    Login page can be customized ?

    Yes

    We will be using single sign-on soon, will there be any changes to CAMID's when going to 11.2?

    No changes for 11.2

    in 11.2 is the Visulization be available in PDF output ?

    Most visualizations are available in PDF

    Notebook is now compatible with AIX server?

    currently supported Env' are - Linux, RHEL, CentOS,Windows 10

    Has exporting dashboards to PDF been improved or is it still not "usable"?

    It's using browser PDF rendering still. We plan to enhance this and have similar server side PDF rendering like Reports

    Will Transformer have more cube size?

    No updates on Transformer

    Entire Dashboard can be schedule to auto refreshed and email automatically?

    This is on our long term roadmap

     






    ------------------------------
    Anastasia Komarova
    ------------------------------

    #CognosAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: 11.2.0 Release: 305 questions from live webinar and more

    Posted Fri April 16, 2021 03:13 PM

    Here's some more answers to some of the questions that came in.  More to come, we're still working on them!

    Can we customise landing page content by role? Yes some customizations are available by role. But note that extensions are not by role.
    How can you control what shows up on the Home Page to display specific content for specific users when deploying COGNOS as a way to surface a set of curated reports to users?
    What Options are available to organize Content? There are a wide variety of options. There is the 'custom folder' option, which let's you specify different folders for different roles, which will appear on Content page as its own tab. You can also create extensions to add tabs to the home page to point to different folders, which will be global. You can even hide Team Content and/or My Content. You can create extensions that open up specific dashboards and reports as well.
    Can we custom sort /sequence on the content list like in 10.2? Not yet. This is a very popular request from customers that used to be on 10.x, so we are hoping to add this feature sometime soon.
    If "Search" returns more than 50 rows, is there a way scroll through the rest? Not in 11.2, but this is something we hope to add to an upcoming release
    Is it possible to upload extensions for a particular role? Not at this time, only theme extensions are by role.
    do we have capacity in custom log in page now in 11.2 where users can change their passwords? There's new new ability in 11.2 here. You would have to implement this functionality yourself.
    Anything changed in the role-customization? There has been some small changes here. Mostly around new items on the home page (such a s the ability to control the quick launch tiles) and some clean-up of existing properties.
    Here, is AI based on historic data? Our AI features work with a variety of AI techniques. Most of them work with a statistically relevent sample of your data.
    When is the capability to schedule the refresh of uploaded data files going to be available? We don't have anything to announce about this yet. It is a very popular feature request, so its something we hope to offer soon.
    Can you describe your understanding of Query Studio and Analysis Studio going away because of no IE 11 support. Is that correct? Please describe. These studios are not going away at this point in time. But because you can't use IE11 with Cognos anymore, you will have to use Firefox with these studios
    what is the diff between Watson moments and AI Assistant Watson Moments are something that are integrated INTO the Assistant. So when the Assistant detects something particularly in your data, related to your questions, that generates a Watson Moment.
    Can we have Recent tab also under Content? Currently the tab is only on the home page. However you can also access the same recents list from anywhere via the Hamburger Menu.
    what about the administrative console? The administration console continues to be supported just like in 11.1.7.
    Still have support for Portal Pages in 11.2 Yes portal pages continue to be supported. Now they appear as a tab on the Content page.
    Is the search completely new? The search back-end is the same as before, but the UI is completely new.
    Will the visualizations have another grouping? Right now, it's legacy, 11.0, 11.1, etc. There will be no additional grouping for 11.2. The existing groupings and all their visualization types are still there as before.
    Is Query Studio included in 11.2? Yes Query Studio and all the legacy studios continue to be included.
    Joined lately , wanted to see any update on Cognos mobile app ? There have been lots of updates recently. We released performance improvements, Android support, supoprt for 11.1.7FP2 on-premise and more. Coming soon will be support for notifications with OLAP data sources (in addition to our existing support for all other types of data)
    Is it possible to integrate a PAW Application in Cognos in a tab? Anything you can embed in an iframe can be in a tab on the Cognos home page.
    How do you access the legacy Studios? Its very similar to 11.1.7. From the "New" menu in the Hamburger menu, select "Other" and you can launch your legacy studios.
    Can you show customization of the 11.2 UI? Can I customize in such a way to replace Portal Tabs? With our new customization options, you can likely move away from portal pages. You can add tabs that point to different folders, and add custom tabs with Javascript code that can load any content you like.
    Could you provide more details about how AI works? How is data trained into the system? Different aspects of the AI work using different methods, but a lot of AI is driven by using statistically relevant samples of the data in question.
    "Would it be possible to get the complete portal customisation done in 11.1.7 ? Extension with direct access to folder located in appbar and navbar+ full background view using a pictures and text in a perspectives" You can do a lot of these types of customizations in 11.1.7, but 11.2 will give you a lot more. For example, adding custom tabs and quick launch tiles will require 11.2.
    Can custom sorting be applied to folders in Team Content? Not yet. This is a very popular request from customers that used to be on 10.x, so we are hoping to add this feature sometime soon.
    Can we toggle between 11.1.7 UI and 11.2 UI on new 11.2.? No you cannot. The new 11.2 UI is a big improvement. You can use the IBM Classic theme to bring back the white and blue colour scheme though.
    Are there any changes to how the customization of the Home Page, adding company logo, adding custom tabs etc. with 11.2 compared to 11.1.x versions If so Is the documentation available for 11.2 ? The main changes are the ability to customize the welcome section, thw quick launch tiles, and custom tabs. These changes will be fully documented.
    can we make report's descriptions visible without asking user's to go through each report's properties? This was available till Version 10.x Yes. Descriptions are always visible in tile view, and they are also displayed in the new Details panel.
    Is IBM considering making all their functionalities on 11.2 browser agnostic? This is generally the case today. The reality of the web today is that there are still significant differences between browsers, and there is no way to completely make a complex web application like Cognos completely browser-agnostic.
    is now the optional "alert banner" on the top of screen more configurable? (e.g. scheduled) Not yet, but we are looking to provide more options for this in a future release.
    Hi, can we still use custom welcome pages (reports) in the new interface? Yes, this feature still exists, and any custom home pages you can set will continue to work.
    Are those help videos can be replaced with own recorded videos hosted locally? WIth 11.2 they cannot be replaced. But this is something we are considering for a future release.


    ------------------------------
    Tim
    ------------------------------

    Original Message