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What’s New in Cognos

Cognos Analytics – Participant’s Guide

Welcome to What’s New in Cognos!

Illinois State University has undergone a version upgrade of IBM Cognos to Cognos Analytics. All

functionality will remain, but the look and feel will be different. This training session will give an

overview of some of the changes.

Table of Contents: A Few Changes

Welcome Page

Navigation Pane

View a Report

Edit a Report

Welcome Page - Toolbar

Independent Activity

Help and Logging In

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A Few Changes - All browsers are supported

- Set Home/Welcome page to most frequently viewed report

- Keep multiple reports open during a single session

- Stay in report to change prompts

- More report options available when creating a report

- Edit from the report viewing screen (no longer using Workspace Advanced)

- Less time waiting for data to load while editing reports

The Welcome Page After logging in, users will land on the Welcome Page.

Navigation Pane The navigation pane is where you will access your personal reports, all managed reports, reports you have

subscribed to, and more.

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Welcome Page Summary

My Folder is now called My Content.

Public Folders is now called Team Content.

Reports can be accessed by using a series of sliding panels instead of the tabs and folders.

Any report can be set as a user’s homepage/Welcome Page.

Users can easily toggle between reports they have accessed during a session using the dropdown menu in

the middle of the top bar.

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View a Report The following instructions cover how to view a report in IBM Cognos Analytics, the new version of

Cognos.

Navigate to Reports

Overview of Report Viewer

Set Report as Home Page

Create a Bookmark

Subscribe to a Report

Run Options

Edit a managed report from the view screen

Navigate to Reports In Cognos Analytics, all managed reports are housed in the Team Content pane (formally known as

Public Folder.) All personal reports are housed in the My Content pane (formally known as My Folder.)

1. Click the Team Content

icon to view a

managed report, or click

the My Content

icon to view a personal

report.

2. Navigate through the

folder options.

3. Select the report you

wish to view.

4. The prompt screen will appear. Here you will select the prompts for the information you would

like to be displayed in the report.

If you cannot see all the options on this page, simply using the keys Control and “-“ to make the

text on the screen appear smaller.

If you would like to select more than one option, you can hold down the Control key while

clicking on items, or use the Select all option at the bottom.

5. Once you have selected your prompts, click the OK button at the bottom of the screen.

Some reports use the word Finish or Continue instead of OK.

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Overview of Report Viewer

Set Report as Home Page Reports that users frequently view can be set to open up as soon as

the user logs in.

1. From the screen where you are viewing a report, click the

More dots icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

2. Click Set as home.

The report has now been set as your home page.

Create a Bookmark There is no longer a designated option to create a bookmark directly to a report, however it can still be

don’t by copying the link to the report.

1. From the screen where you are viewing a report, click the More dots icon in the upper

right corner of the screen.

2. Click Share.

3. Copy the link that appears.

4. Use the browser settings to create a bookmark and paste the link into the bar for the URL.

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Subscribe to a Report Users subscribe to reports they frequently view. The reports are either sent as emails or saved in Cognos.

Each time the report is sent, it will display the most current data in

Cognos.

1. From the screen where you are viewing a report, click the More

dots icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

2. Click Subscribe.

3. Using the On day(s) field, select the days of the week you would

like the report sent to you.

4. Using the Time field, enter the time you would like the report to run and then be sent to you.

Note: Most data is updated at midnight every day.

5. Using the Format field, select HTML if you would like a link within Cognos, select PDF if you

would like a PDF document of the report, or select

Excel if you would like an Excel document of the

report.

Several format types can be selected at the

same time.

i. If you select HTML, the person does

not have to log into Cognos to view the

information. Be careful who you give

this link to. They may not be

authorized to view the information.

6. Once all desired format options are selected, click the

Done button.

7. Using the Delivery field, select Send report by email.

When two options appear, select Attach the report.

Make sure Save report is selected. Click the Done

button.

8. Click the Create button.

The report will be delivered with the set prompts that were

selected when the user subscribed to the report.

Check the Notifications pane to view the reports that

are saved in Cognos.

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Change Selected Prompts In the new version of Cognos, prompts can be reset from the viewing screen.

1. Click the run button in the upper left corner.

2. Click the Reset prompts and run option.

3. Select from the list of prompts as done above.

4. Click the OK, Finish, or Continue button at the bottom of the screen to

run the report and view the results.

Edit a Report from the Report Viewer Users with ad hoc access are able to edit reports and save them in My Content (formally My Folders) in

the new version of Cognos, as they were able to in the old version. However, now users can enter the

editing screen straight from viewing a report.

1. In the upper left corner, click the Edit in authoring button.

2. The editing tool page will load.

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Edit a Report The following instructions cover how to edit a report in IBM Cognos Analytics.

Overview of Report Editor

IMPORTANT – Set Report Options

Add Data Items

Overview of Toolbar

Preview the Report with Data

Save Report in My Content

Return to Welcome Page

Overview of Report Editor Once in the editor, users will still have the same options, but the location of many tools has changed.

Four boxes appear on the left side of the screen.

Data – contains data items and filters. Expand the folders then drag and drop into the report just like

in the previous version.

Toolbox – contains numerous items that you can add to a report, such as page numbers, additional

titles, and images.

Pages – used to view or create new report pages and prompt pages.

Queries – used to create or adjust queries in reports and to complete complex tasks, such as writing

SQL statements. (Most users will not use this pane.)

The tool bar for editing columns will only appear when a user clicks on a column header. The picture

below shows Student Type after a user has clicked on it.

The Undo button that formally was on the tool bar is now in the top left corner.

The default view does not fill in the data, so that editing can be done faster. To preview how the report

looks with data, use the Page views button in the top right corner.

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!Must be done before editing or creating any report!

Set Report Options For every report you edit or create, you must set your default option for Summarization.

1. Click the More icon on the upper right.

2. Click Options.

3. In the Options window, click the Report tab.

4. Uncheck Automatic group and summary behavior for

lists.

5. Click Apply.

6. Click the OK button.

Add Data Items Data items can be added to a report from the Data Pane.

1. Click the Data pane.

2. Click the arrow in front of Admissions to expand.

3. Continue to click the arrows in front of the desired folders until the data item you wish to

add is exposed.

4. Add a single data item:

By double clicking:

i. Click on the data item header in the report, which the new data item will appear

before.

ii. Double click on the data item that is to be added.

By drag and drop:

i. Click on the data item that is to be added.

ii. Hold down the left mouse button while moving the mouse over the report until a

line is blinking where the data item will appear.

iii. Drop the data item in

place by releasing the

left mouse button.

5. Select more than one data item

to add at once:

i. Hold down the

Control key while

clicking on each data

item.

ii. Drag and drop into the

report as described

above.

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Overview of the Toolbar The toolbar used to make most edits is no longer in a fixed location at the top of the editor. To use the

toolbar, click on the column header of a data item. All options that were previously on the toolbar are still

available. If you do not see the option you are looking for immediately, click on the More dots on

the right side of the toolbar.

Preview the Report with Data The default view while editing a report is the Page design view. This means that the information is not

populated in the report. At any point, the view can be changed so the report looks as it will when a user

accesses it.

1. Click the Page views icon at the top right of the screen.

2. Click on Page preview.

The current view is Page design.

3. Select the answers to fill in the prompts.

4. Click the OK button.

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Save Report in My Content In order to access the report with the edits at a later time, it needs to be saved to My Content.

When saving edited reports, the report query is being saved NOT the data that is displayed in the report.

This data will still be updated when the rest of the package is updated.

1. Click the arrow next to the Save icon .

2. Click Save as.

3. In Save as window, click My content in

the left pane.

4. Use the Save as field to give the report a

meaningful name.

5. Click the Save button.

Return to Welcome Page Return to the home page.

1. Click the dropdown arrow next to the report name.

2. To close an open report,

i. Click the ‘–‘ next to the report to close it.

3. To go back to the Home Page,

i. Click the Home icon.

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The Welcome Page - Toolbar There are more options on the Welcome/Home page than were talked about at the beginning of the class.

Some of these options include managing your report subscriptions and viewing the subscribed reports.

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Independent Activity Take a few minutes to try what you have learned on your own.

Search for reports Search for all reports that have the data item Address.

1. Click the Search icon.

2. Type “Address” in the search field.

3. Hit the Enter button on the keyboard.

All reports you have access to with the data items

Address will appear in the search results below.

View a Report Open and view the report List of Applied Students by College.

1. Click the Team Content

icon.

2. Click the Admissions

folder.

3. Click the Reports folder.

4. Click the IDW/Reports

folder.

5. Click the List of Applied

Students by College report.

6. The prompt screen will appear. Select the prompts for the information you would like to be

displayed in the report.

If you cannot see all the options on this page, simply using the keys Control and “-“ to make the

text on the screen appear smaller.

7. Click the OK button.

The report will display.

Change the Selected Prompts Change the prompts that you selected to a different student type.

1. Click the run button in the upper left corner.

2. Click the Reset prompts and run option.

3. Select from the list of prompts as done above.

4. Click the OK button.

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Begin Editing a Report In Cognos Analytics users can edit a report straight from the Welcome screen or from where they are

viewing the report. Practice editing from the viewing screen.

1. In the upper left corner, click the Edit in authoring button.

2. The editing tool page will load.

Set Report Options For every report you edit or create, YOU MUST SET YOUR DEFAUAT OPTIONS FOR

SUMMERAIZATION!

1. Click the More icon on the upper right.

2. Click Options.

3. In the Options window, click the Report tab.

4. Uncheck Automatic group and summary behavior for

lists.

5. Click Apply.

6. Click the OK button.

Add a Data Item Just like in the previous version, reports can be edited. One way they can be edited is by adding data

items. Add the Military Status data item.

1. Click the Data pane.

2. Click the arrow in front of Admissions to expand.

3. Click the arrow in

front of Applicant

and Application to

expand.

4. Click the arrow in

front of Applicant to

expand.

5. Drag and drop

Military Status

between Applied

SubPlan and

Current Program

Action.

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Sort the Report There are several ways you can customize a report. One of

those is to change how the report is being sorted. Currently

the report is being sorted based on the Applied Department

data item. Change it so the report is being sorted based on

the Applicant Last Name.

1. Click on the column header Applicant Last

Name.

2. Click the Sort icon .

3. Select from the sort options.

Change the Report View (Preview the Report) The default view while editing a report is the Page design view. This means that the information is not

populated in the report. At any point, the view can be changed so the report looks as it will when a user

accesses it.

1. Click the Page views icon at the top right of the screen.

2. Click on Page preview.

The current view is Page design.

3. Select the answers to fill in the prompts.

4. Click the OK button.

Save to My Content In order to access the report with the edits at a later time, it needs to be saved to My Content.

When saving edited reports, the report query is being saved NOT the data that is displayed in the report.

This data will still be updated each night the same as the original package.

1. Click the arrow next to the Save icon .

2. Click Save as.

3. In Save as window, click My content in the left

pane.

4. Use the Save as field to give the report a

meaningful name.

5. Click the Save button.

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Where to Get Help

Contact the Technology Support Center (TSC) - Phone: 438-HELP (4357)

- Email: supportcenter@ilstu.edu

Attend a Lab session - One-on-one assistance

- Creating/modifying reports

- General Cognos assistance

- Sign up at https://appointments.illinoisstate.edu/amonline/default.aspx?AG=876

Visit Website for: - Information about packages/reports

- Changes and upcoming releases

- Additional training resources

URL: http://data.illinoisstate.edu/

Email the EDA Team

- Email us at eda@ilstu.edu

You Try! Go to https://insight.illinoisstate.edu/ and log in using your ULID and password.

Questions?

Visit data.IllinoisState.edu/training/ or

Contact eda@ilstu.edu