Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

------------------------------
German Rodriguez
------------------------------

Dashboard Views, something like report views, something I have told IBM the product needs from day one of dashboards and still waiting...

In fact we got so fed up of waiting a very talented colleague of mine built it. This integrates a cognos report prompt page and dashboard. Rather than using the dashboard filter bar, the report prompt page is used to apply global filters to the dashboard. The report prompt page and dashboard operate together seamlessly to the user with the report prompt page hiding until the user presses a button and then it slides into view.  They never needs use the dashboard filter bar. Being a report prompt page we can have any type of prompt, unlike the dashboard global filter bar.

And the best bit... The user can save a report view, which creates a report view of the prompt page. And next time they can just open the report view to open the dashboard in the state they prefer. 

At a quieter time I will get him to add the code to the IBM accelerator catalog.

@Shaveta Srivastava - others need dashboard views, not just me!

------------------------------
Marc Reed
Reporting Lead

Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 09, 2025 08:17 AM
From: German Rodriguez
Subject: Cognos Dashboard - Views

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

------------------------------
German Rodriguez
------------------------------

Hi Marc,

Perhaps this evening is a quieter time? ;)

I'm very interested in your solution, while our users are waiting for IBM development too.

Dashboard Views, something like report views, something I have told IBM the product needs from day one of dashboards and still waiting...

In fact we got so fed up of waiting a very talented colleague of mine built it. This integrates a cognos report prompt page and dashboard. Rather than using the dashboard filter bar, the report prompt page is used to apply global filters to the dashboard. The report prompt page and dashboard operate together seamlessly to the user with the report prompt page hiding until the user presses a button and then it slides into view.  They never needs use the dashboard filter bar. Being a report prompt page we can have any type of prompt, unlike the dashboard global filter bar.

And the best bit... The user can save a report view, which creates a report view of the prompt page. And next time they can just open the report view to open the dashboard in the state they prefer. 

At a quieter time I will get him to add the code to the IBM accelerator catalog.

@Shaveta Srivastava - others need dashboard views, not just me!

------------------------------
Marc Reed
Reporting Lead

Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 09, 2025 08:17 AM
From: German Rodriguez
Subject: Cognos Dashboard - Views

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

------------------------------
German Rodriguez
------------------------------

Hi @Marc Reed, 

To get the core of your idea: Do you embed the dashboard in the report by an HTML element (iframe)? How does the report give back the paramter values to the dashboard? I'm not aware of a way out-of-the-box. And your description sounds quite generic or do you need to use fix parameters? 

Regards,

Philipp

Hi Marc,

Perhaps this evening is a quieter time? ;)

I'm very interested in your solution, while our users are waiting for IBM development too.

Dashboard Views, something like report views, something I have told IBM the product needs from day one of dashboards and still waiting...

In fact we got so fed up of waiting a very talented colleague of mine built it. This integrates a cognos report prompt page and dashboard. Rather than using the dashboard filter bar, the report prompt page is used to apply global filters to the dashboard. The report prompt page and dashboard operate together seamlessly to the user with the report prompt page hiding until the user presses a button and then it slides into view.  They never needs use the dashboard filter bar. Being a report prompt page we can have any type of prompt, unlike the dashboard global filter bar.

And the best bit... The user can save a report view, which creates a report view of the prompt page. And next time they can just open the report view to open the dashboard in the state they prefer. 

At a quieter time I will get him to add the code to the IBM accelerator catalog.

@Shaveta Srivastava - others need dashboard views, not just me!

------------------------------
Marc Reed
Reporting Lead

Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 09, 2025 08:17 AM
From: German Rodriguez
Subject: Cognos Dashboard - Views

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

------------------------------
German Rodriguez
------------------------------

Core of the idea is...



BLUE = Report with frames containing RED REPORT and GREEN DASHBOARD.
RED Report = report that just has prompts, using full report prompt types (all the good stuff). This populates parameters. And passes param values back to BLUE report.
RED report has also has slider control so can be hidden by the user when they don't need to set filters. so to not waste screen estate.
BLUE report listens for answered parameters and passes these into the GREEN dashboard using the Dashboard API (we stumbled upon the documentation for this).
BLUE report has ability to save the state as a report view. User can open report view, which is just the same as them using prompts in the RED report.

It's all configurable so we can use any red report and any dashboard.
We have custom controls in the reports to do stuff with the parameters, and a dashboard extension.
The dashboard also hides the filter control - as we dont want users to actually see it.

I'll see if I can get a demo together, and if we get spare time we will upload it to the Accelerator.  

This has made dashboards usable for our organisation. The limitations of the dashboard filter bar, in particular the queries it creates to populate the filter bar, were unacceptable for us. Now we can write our own queries as its just a report that does the filters.

Hi @Marc Reed, 

To get the core of your idea: Do you embed the dashboard in the report by an HTML element (iframe)? How does the report give back the paramter values to the dashboard? I'm not aware of a way out-of-the-box. And your description sounds quite generic or do you need to use fix parameters? 

Regards,

Philipp

Hi Marc,

Perhaps this evening is a quieter time? ;)

I'm very interested in your solution, while our users are waiting for IBM development too.

Dashboard Views, something like report views, something I have told IBM the product needs from day one of dashboards and still waiting...

In fact we got so fed up of waiting a very talented colleague of mine built it. This integrates a cognos report prompt page and dashboard. Rather than using the dashboard filter bar, the report prompt page is used to apply global filters to the dashboard. The report prompt page and dashboard operate together seamlessly to the user with the report prompt page hiding until the user presses a button and then it slides into view.  They never needs use the dashboard filter bar. Being a report prompt page we can have any type of prompt, unlike the dashboard global filter bar.

And the best bit... The user can save a report view, which creates a report view of the prompt page. And next time they can just open the report view to open the dashboard in the state they prefer. 

At a quieter time I will get him to add the code to the IBM accelerator catalog.

@Shaveta Srivastava - others need dashboard views, not just me!

------------------------------
Marc Reed
Reporting Lead

Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 09, 2025 08:17 AM
From: German Rodriguez
Subject: Cognos Dashboard - Views

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

------------------------------
German Rodriguez
------------------------------

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German

I have three solutions for you, two of them are CogBox and the third way works straight out of the box.

Let's start with the CogBox ones because a man's gotta eat.

1. Set Filters with Global Parameters
   This solution uses the global filters in Cognos against whatever filters you have in your tabs. I have two global parameters set:
   
   In the dashboard, I have to make calculated items with those exact names:
   
   Once I have both in the filters section, I can drag in my widget:
   
   Now the dashboard will automatically filter to whatever my global parameters are set to. 
   It works by first taking the filters on the dashboard and matching them by name to the global parameters. Then it loops through trying to match either the display or use value of the parameter to the selected value in the global parameters.
   
   
   
2. Set Dashboard Filters
   The second widget I wrote allows you to easily embed the parameters directly into the URL of the dashboard. 
   https://cognos.pm2analytics.com/sandbox/bi/?perspective=dashboard&objRef=iE61A51A8295444D89C6C4712521E5420&globalFilters=[{"pRegion":["Americas","Northern Europe"]},{"pProductLine":["Camping Equipment"]}]
   
   Like with the global filter solution, it will loop through the filters attempting to match based on the name.
   
   
3. Non-Cogbox URL Parameters
   Now if you don't want to buy CogBox for some crazy reason, it's still possible to do this, but a little more complicated. I'll paste in a full example, then step through explaining each piece.
   

   https://cognos.pm2analytics.com/sandbox/bi/?perspective=dashboard&objRef=i9030997F096541ADA7C18C4ACA29CDC8&filters={"options":{"overrideExistingFiltersOnly":false,"matchMetadataAcrossSources":true},"filters":[{"scope":"model00000197f3cb3fb2_00000000","columnId": "Products_Sales.Product_line","operator": "in","values": [{"u": "Products_Sales.Product_line->[Camping Equipment]","d": "Camping Equipment"}]},{"columnId": "Time_Sales.Year_","operator": "in","values": [{"u": "Time_Sales.Year_->[2021]","d": 2021}]},{"id": "Order_Methods_Sales.Order_method_type","columnId": "Order_Methods_Sales.Order_method_type","values": [{"d": "E-mail","u": "Order_Methods_Sales.Order_method_type->[E-mail]"}],"excludedValues": [],"operator": "in"}]}
   
   The URL parameter &filters={} is native Cognos, and works from at least 12.0 - and I suspect it will work from at least 11.2. 
   overrideExistingFiltersOnly when set to true it will only override previously defined filters. In my dashboard definition I don't have anything applied in the filters sections, so I'm leaving this false.
   |I'm not sure what matchMetadataAcrossSources does.
   
   Now the filters themselves.
   The scope defines where in the dashboard this filter is applied. model00000197f3cb3fb2_00000000 in my dashboard is the unique identifier for my first tab.
   
   The scope could also be a widget. Use the developer toolbar to get the IDs as needed. If the scope is omitted, the filter is applied as a global filter to the entire dashboard.
   
   The available operators are in, notin
   between/notbetween: {"id": "Sales.Revenue", "columnId": "Sales.Revenue", "values": [ { "d": 96884, "u": 96884 }, { "d": 301069, "u": 301069 } ], "excludedValues": [], "operator": "between", "preOrPost": "pre" }
   less than (lt)/greater than (gt): { "id": "Time_Sales.Date_", "columnId": "Time_Sales.Date_", "values": [ { "d": "2021-01-01T08:00:00", "u": "2021-01-01T08:00:00" } ], "excludedValues": [], "operator": "gt", "preOrPost": "pre" }

    If you want to pass a static filter defined in the module, you can use something like:
   {
       "id": "Time_Sales.Date_.Current_Week",
       "columnId": "Time_Sales.Date_.Current_Week"
   }

It's a lot more complicated than my CogBox solutions, but it is far more flexible and let's you specify exactly what you want.  

Hello Everybody,

Does anyone maybe know a way to start the same master dashboard with differents optional values filter ?  For reports, we have ReportViews to exécute différents default values for a master report and we would definitevely need the same behaviour for Dashboards. Anyone has a clue how to do this ?

As far as I couldn't found a way, I asked for an enhancement so if this option could help you too, please vote for it 

Cognos Dashboard - Views

Thank you for any help,

German