Understanding data can be tricky because many variables are connected and influence each other. To get a complete view, reports often include multiple data containers, each showing a different aspect of the data. While placing everything in one report makes it easier to access, it can also be challenging to see how the data points relate across containers. That’s where Brushing becomes really helpful.

Consumers can greatly benefit from this feature.  It lets users highlight data in one chart or container, and instantly see related data highlighted in other parts of the report. This visual linking helps users discover insights faster by revealing patterns and relationships across different elements within a single report- eliminating the need for additional reports and enabling true self-service analytics. It makes the analysis more interactive and intuitive, helping users better understand how everything fits together—without needing to manually cross reference each container separately.  Ultimately, Brushing enhances the decision-making process by making complex data more connected and easier to explore.

This 12.1.0 release introduces the first iteration of the brushing feature, which enables users to interact with data by highlighting related data points across visualizations and other objects within the same report page. When a user selects a data point in one object, corresponding data points in other objects are highlighted, and vice versa. The consumer will have the “Interactive brushing” toggle button on the viewer toolbar to enable/disable the interactive mode. The default is set to off. 

In this initial release, brushing supports only highlighting—not filtering across objects. The next iteration will expand functionality to include filtering capabilities across objects on the same report page. Brushing interactions are automatically created based on predefined rules within the product and cannot be customized at this time. However, future releases will offer report authors greater flexibility, including the ability to define custom interactions and exclude specific objects from brushing behavior.

There are 3 types of highlighting applied, each using variations of the base selection color:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary
  

How they are used:

• Primary: This is used to highlight the original data selection and any exact matches. The original selection is also outlined with the primary color, allowing for multiple primary highlights for a single data selection.
• Secondary: This is used to highlight context on edges, helping to provide a clear view of relationships.
• Tertiary: This highlights related measures, offering additional context by focusing on relevant data points tied to the original selection.
  
  

The video above demonstrates a sample report with interactive brushing enabled. You are currently viewing the report in edit mode, where the author can define a specific color to highlight data points when a consumer activates interactive brushing.

In consumer mode, this feature can be triggered by clicking the Interactive Brushing toggle in the toolbar. Once activated, selecting a dimension (such as a descriptive data item) highlights matching data points in other objects with the defined color, if those values exist. Secondary or tertiary data points are displayed in a lighter shade within the same color family.

Chart legends are also interactive, allowing users to trigger brushing by selecting legend items. Additionally, users can click on measures (numeric values), and if the same value exists in other objects, it will be highlighted in the same color. If the exact value isn't present, secondary or tertiary data points will be highlighted in lighter tones, providing visual context and continuity.

This has been added as a capability so the Cognos Administrator can disable this feature for specific users,  user groups or roles as needed.

FAQ:

Q: Can a consumer interact across all objects available within reporting? 

A: In this release, this feature is limited to lists, crosstabs, repeater tables, 11.0 visualizations, and charts. We plan to expand the scope in future releases.

Q. Do all reports support this feature?
A. This feature is only available in interactive reports. Active Reports already offer similar interactive capabilities.

Q. Is this supported across all report formats?
A. Currently, only HTML execution of reports supports this feature.

Q. Can this feature be turned off.
A. Yes, a Cognos Administrator can disable this capability for specific users, user roles, or groups.

Q. Would I be able to use this feature on existing reports after the upgrade?

 A. Consumers can activate this feature by clicking the Interactive Brushing toggle in the toolbar. The default setting is off.

Q. Where can I find more information about this feature?
A. For more details on this newly introduced feature, please refer to the IBM documentation.

We'd love to hear your feedback—please leave your comments below.