IBM Business Analytics

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  • 1.  data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Mon June 29, 2020 05:43 PM

    Cognos provides a lot of visualizations to use.  But I find very little information on how to use them (what data to map to the various attributes fields or suggested file/query layouts to create to use them).  There are some articles, but usually for the simple visualizations.  I jotted down a few of the various attributes needed to make some of the visualizations work.  Some have common names some don't.  Are there any guidelines on how or what to use when mapping fields from a query to the various visualization attributes like the ones below?  Each pair of {} are for attributes needed for a particular type of visualization.

    1 - {bars, length, color}

    2 - {bubble, size, color, extra data}

    3 - {rows, columns, points, heat, size, extra data}

    4 - {x-axis, color, y-axis, extra data}

    5 - {bars, length, width, color, extra data}

     

    I'm looking for something that would say something like, 'usually color takes a type xxxx field and represents yyyyyy.'  Usually extra data takes type xxxx field and represents yyyyyy.  xxxx meaning type (numeric, alpha, unique or non-unique and yyyyy for whatever it represents).



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    jerome roberts
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  • 2.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Thu July 02, 2020 08:26 AM

    Hi Jerome, 

    I have also looked for a more clear and concise list of what data to use and how for various visualizations and not found anything outside of this tutorial from IBM: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/garage/dte/tutorial/ibm-cognos-analytics-1114-getting-started-dashboards.

    I took that tutorial and then started digging into the visualizations and experimenting to find out what to use and where. 

    Thanks,
    Dave



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    Dave Chirayath
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  • 3.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Thu July 02, 2020 03:19 PM

    Thanks for your reply and information.  It looks like visualizations are made easy for Dashboards when correct fields and field types are provided.  I guess one can look at the details after the visualization is created in the Dashboard, then see where the fields mapped to or maybe create in Dashboard then cut and paste to report.  Why they made visualizations in report so different from creation in Dashboard is mystery to me.  And why there are no obvious tutorials on creating the various types of visualizations is a mystery too.  Thanks again for your link.

     

    Jerome P Roberts

    IT Specialist

    Philips Oral Healthcare - Los Angeles

    jerome.roberts@philips.com

    Description: <a href=image002.jpg@01CF4423.BA6A3360">

     



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  • 4.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Wed July 08, 2020 10:24 AM
    Hi Jerome

    It "should" all be documented.... for reports, dashboards and exploration...  so interested in hearing your comments on the documentation, whether we can improve it in any way.

    The overall guidance to which visualization to use is here: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/wa_an_hlp_viz_change.html
    and if you then pick one, like the Marimekko, https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/ca_visualization_marimekko_dash.html , it will explain what it's used for, how, steps including a small video and a link to sample data.

    Mandatory data slots are marked with a red star in Cognos and the icons are telling you whether it's a dimension or measure.

    For R7 of the dashboards, we are also improving the visualization even further by letting you drag&drop into data slots on the visualization to make it clear where each item belongs:

    Let me know your feedback on this

    Thanks

    Torben

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    Torben Noer
    Offering Manager, Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics
    IBM
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  • 5.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Wed July 08, 2020 03:16 PM

    I have not seen this.  I have done many searches but none of them yielded this.  Thanks for the link.  Some of the explanations are good, but some are lacking.  I did not look at all of them. But I did look at the Line visualization and it didn't provide and data mapping information.  And where data mapping is provided (for other visualizations via the visual provided) there is very little information on the data type of the field that should be mapped to the slots (some you can figure out because the measurement icon).  Look at the Line graph (below) data area in the Cognos tool.  What type of data and why should the data represent for the highlighted fields?  What does the highlighted icon mean?  What is Extra Data?  And when you hover over the fields, the tooltip provides zero help, it just parrots the slot label. Maybe the tooltips should refer to the link and maybe some of the link's explanations strengthened up a bit.

     

     

    And I saw that you dashboards work differently, but require a certain type of database connection to function (The provider type "relational (CT15)" is not supported in Dynamic Query Mode).

     

    But I tried to trace one of the visualization via a sample for the data type mapping, but it's kind of hidden, I think because data modules are used. 

     

    It would be great if visualizations all worked the same as the dashboard's does and did not have the above restriction.

     

     






  • 6.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Thu July 09, 2020 05:08 AM

    Thanks Jerome for the input.

    I will have the documentation team take a look at how we can improve this!

    Torben



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    Torben Noer
    Offering Manager, Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics
    IBM
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  • 7.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 07:18 AM
    Edited by MARCO MAAS Wed July 15, 2020 03:13 AM

    Hello Jerome,

    The Extra Field in a visualization in a report is used for:

    Use the Extra Data field to add data that is not displayed in the visualization but can be used to create, for example, a filter.



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    MARCO MAAS
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  • 8.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 01:43 PM

    Good info.  Thanks!

     






  • 9.  RE: data needed to make visualizations work

    Posted Mon July 27, 2020 09:23 AM
    Thanks for your explanation message. This really worked for me.

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    Yunus Özcan
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