1. Cognos Connection and PowerPlay Web
PowerPlay Web Series 7 Version 3

2. Objectives In this module, we will: examine Cognos Connection
organize content in Cognos Connection
personalize Cognos Connection
explore PowerPlay reports and cubes in Cognos Connection

3. Metadata Modeling Tool Web Interfaces for Report Creation & Management
What is ReportNet?
ReportNet is the Web-based business intelligence reporting solution from Cognos.
Cognos Connection
Query Studio
Report Studio
Report Viewer
Framework Manager
Data Sources
Metadata Modeling Tool
Web Interfaces for Report Creation & Management
ReportNet consists of several end-user components:
Framework Manager: used to create and publish metadata models on which reports are based
Cognos Connection: used to access all application-specific data available in ReportNet
Query Studio: used to create ad hoc reports
Report Studio: used to create managed reports
All interfaces interact with and store information in the Content Store on the Content Management ReportNet server.
IG Note:
You access it through Cognos Connection, which is the Web portal. In this portal, you can access two reporting tools: Query Studio (ad-hoc) and Report Studio (managed reporting). Think of these as the new generation of Cognos Query and Impromptu, respectively.
The reports are based on models and packages created in Framework Manager, the metadata modeling tool accessed from Windows. This is basically the new generation of Architect; the main difference appears to be the fact that there aren’t “layers:” i.e., you build and customize the model in one place and then segment it into packages for use in Query Studio and Report Studio.
Content Manager stores all ReportNet information in the Content Store. The Content Store is created in a third party relational database management system (RDBMS) such as SQL Server, DB2 or Oracle.

4. What is Cognos Connection?
Cognos Connection is a Web portal used to:
create and run reports
perform administrative tasks, such as scheduling reports
organize data by creating entries and storing the entries in folders
Cognos Connection is the portal to ReportNet, the Web-based reporting solution.
Its main advantage is that it provides a single access point to all corporate data available in ReportNet.

5. Discuss Centralized Access
You can access all BI content in Cognos Connection.
ReportNet and PowerPlay content
Upfront NewsIndex content
Portal Integration
The Series 7 report runs in the Series 7 application used to create it.
The contents of the Series 7 NewsIndex appear at the bottom of the page in Public Folders.
You cannot combine ReportNet entries and Series 7 entries in a single folder.
How can a user add their personal Newsbox to My Folders??

6. Discuss Roles and Responsiblities
Consumers
Authors
Administrators
Cognos Connection is the portal to ReportNet, the Web-based reporting solution.
Its main advantage is that it provides a single access point to all corporate data available in ReportNet.

7. Organize Content with Folders
You can arrange reports and other content in Cognos Connection by creating folders.
Ensure that your folders are logically labeled and organized to make locating reports quick and easy.
In Cognos Connection, there are two types of folders:
Public Folders: of interest to and can be viewed by many users
My Folders: personal folders that you can organize according to your preferences
When the focus is on the Public Folders tab, the content is grouped by packages or folders.
Each package contains a single model and all related folders, reports, jobs, report views, URLs, and shortcuts to these entries.
My Folders are only accessible when you are logged on.
You must have write access to a folder to create entries in it.
Folders contain ENTRIES. To view a full list of actions that can be performed on an entry, click the More link.
Click the Set Properties link to change the general properties, run options, permissions, and job properties for an entry. Not all properties are available for each type of entry.
To create a new folder:
1) Click either the Public Folders or My Folders link.
2) On the portal toolbar, click the New folder button.
3) In the Name box, type the name of the new folder.
4) Optionally, you can add values for the Description and Screen Tip boxes. The Description text will be shown in the portal when you set your preferences to use the details view. The screen tip is the tooltip shown when you hover your mouse over the folder.
5) If you don’t want to use the target folder (the current folder as indicated under Destination Folder), choose another location by clicking Select another folder and selecting another target folder.
6) Click Finish.
Note that the new folder has the same access permissions as the parent folder in which it was created.
In the slide example, we’ve created a subfolder in My Folders called “My New Folder.”

8. Organize Content with Shortcuts
Create a shortcut to point to another entry in Cognos Connection, such as a report or Web link.
Use shortcuts to organize information that you use regularly. For example, if you frequently use a report in Public Folders, you can create a shortcut in My Folders.
A shortcut is a pointer to another entry such as a report, report view, folder, job, or URL.
Use shortcuts to organize information. In the slide example, we’ve created a shortcut to a report that is in the Public Folders (“Low Revenue Products”). We put this shortcut in My Folders, so a user can access it in either place.
If you want to make a new report, it may be easier to make a copy of an existing report and then modify it and resave it as something else.
If you want to run an existing report with a different format, language, or delivery method, create a report view.
You CANNOT update the source entry by clicking the shortcut. Updating the SOURCE (in this case, the original “Low Revenue Products” report in the Public Folders) updates all shortcuts to the entry (for example, the “Shortcut to Low Revenue Products” that we created).
If a source report has been deleted or moved to another location, the shortcut icon changes to indicate a broken link and the properties link to the source report is removed.
You can change access permissions for a shortcut entry, but this will not change the access permissions for the source entry (in this case, the original Low Revenue Products query).
To create a shortcut:
1) In Public Folders or My Folders, locate the report that you want to create a shortcut to.
2) In the Actions column, click the More link, and then click Create a shortcut to this entry. This opens the New Shortcut Wizard.
3) Specify a name and (optionally) a description and screen tip for the shortcut, and specify what folder you’d like to put it in. In this example, we’ve put it in the My Folders folder.
4) Click Finish.

9. Organize Entries
To organize content in Cognos Connection, you can copy and paste entries, just as you can with files and folders in Windows Explorer.
You can create copies of reports and store them in multiple folders. You can create a replica of a report or other entry in another location in the portal. This is what we’re doing in the slide example.
When you make change to a report in one folder, the change is not reflected in copies of the report in other folders.
It’s important to plan how to best organize entries in the portal. Review the entries on a regular basis and attempt to group them in a logical way. Consider grouping the entries by type or frequency of use.
You may decide to create a FOLDER HIERARCHY of nested folders. The folder structure should be logical and should support the chosen method of grouping.
Copying is also useful if you want to use a report as the underlying structure for a new report. You can also copy other stuff, like URLs and folders.
You can copy either one item or multiple items. The slide depicts using the copy and paste buttons, which are necessary if you want to move multiple items. If you just want to copy one item, you can also click the More link and specify where you want it to go.
You must have read permissions for the entry you are attempting to copy. You must also have traverse permissions for the current folder (in this case, the Public Folders), and write and traverse permissions for the target folder (in this case, My Folders).
Moving entries basically involves cutting and pasting them from one place to another. This functionality is especially useful if you have a lot of stuff in a particular folder and it’s hard to find things.
You can create a series of subfolders to reorganize stuff. For example, you can take a folder containing weekly sales reports and add subfolders for sales reports by month or by author.
You must have read permissions for the entry you are attempting to move. You must also have write and traverse permissions for the current folder and the target folder (i.e., the place to where the entry is being moved).
To move an entry, select it (or them, if more than one), and use the cut and paste buttons. If you’re just moving one entry, click the More link and then click the Move link. This opens the Select a Folder dialog box, and then you can decide where you want to put the entry.
In the slide example, we used the cut and paste functionality to move the Expand and Collapse report from the Public Folders to My Folders.

10. Access External Files with Links
Create links to make external files and Web sites easily accessible from Cognos Connection.
Click the link to open the file or Web site in your browser.
All you’re doing here is creating URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). A URL is a standard way of identifying the location of any external file or Web site.
Create URLs to keep the files and web sites that you most frequently use at your fingertips.
Click the URL to open it in your browser (does NOT open a new browser instance), then click the Back button to return to Cognos Connection.
In the slide example, we’ve added a URL that points to the Cognos corporate site. This URL is stored in My Folders, although we could have put it in Public Folders.
To create a URL:
1) Click either My Folders or Public Folders, depending on where you want to put the URL.
2) Click the New URL button. This opens the New URL Wizard.
3) Give the URL a name (in this case, Cognos Corporate Site), and then specify the actual location in the URL box. If the URL is a web site address, the protocol (in this case, MUST be included.
4) Specify the folder (in this case, we’re going with My Folders).
5) Click Finish.

11. Specify Properties of a PowerPlay Entry
In Cognos Connection, you can set the default properties for a PowerPlay entry.

12. Disable Entries
Disable an entry if you want to prevent users from accessing it.
Disabling is useful when Administrators and Authors want to modify an entry in Public Folders.
Disabling an entry is useful if you want to perform maintenance operations, such as reorganizing content. When you disable a folder, everything in the folder is disabled as well.
If an entry is disabled, all shortcuts to that entry show the disabled icon.
To disable an entry, in the Actions column, click the Properties button, and then click the Disable this entry box.
You must have read and write privileges to an entry to enable or disable it.
If you only have read, write, or traverse permissions for a disabled entry, you won’t be able to see the entry in the portal. If you have write or set policy permissions for the disabled entry, it will appear in the portal with the disabled icon.

13. Delete Entries
Delete an entry if you want to permanently remove it from the portal. For example, you may want to remove entries that are outdated.
You can move or delete reports and folders.
NB: an entry often refers to ANOTHER entry, such as a package, model, report, report view, or data source. These references are HARD-CODED in the specification for the entry.
As a result, if you rename, delete, or move a referenced entry, the entries that refer to this somehow altered entry may no longer run properly.
For example, if you rename or delete a report, shortcuts and report views that refer to this report will no longer run. Also, if you rename or delete a package or data source, reports that refer to that package or data source will no longer run.

14. Search for Entries
You can search for entries in Cognos Connection whose name, description, or both, match the string entered in the search criteria.
You can also find types of entries by leaving the search string empty and selecting a specific entry type in the Advanced Search criteria.
Note that the search is not case-sensitive.
As noted on p. 19 of the draft version of the ReportNet User Guide, you can basically use three methods to find what you’re looking for:
1) CONTAINS exact string
2) STARTS with exact string
3) MATCHES exact string
Entries for which you have access permissions are included in the search results.
To perform a search:
1) Go to the highest level folder you want to include in your search. You can increase or limit the folders to include in your search by changing the Scope when you enter the search criteria.
2) Click the Search button on the toolbar.
3) In the Search string box, type the phrase you want to search for.
4) Choose the type of match (contains, starts, or matches).
5) In the Scope box, click the folders you want to include in the search.
6) In the Find text in box, click the field you want to search.
7) In the Type box, click the type of entry to search for.
8) In the Modified box, click the date that the entry was last modified (e.g., click In last week if you want to see the entries that were updated in the last week).
9) Click Search. To open an entry returned by the search, click its link.

15. Personalize Cognos Connection
You can change the portal preferences to customize the way entries appears.
When you change the preferences of the portal, the changes take effect immediately in the current session. The preferences are stored and used for future sessions unless you change them.
You can set the portal home page, language, and time settings, as well as the preferred output format of reports.
There are general settings and personal settings. Personal settings are shown only if you are logged on.
The screen cap shows the General tab. Details re: each of these settings are outlined on pp of the draft version of the CRN User Guide.
Personal settings are:
1) Primary logon: shows namespace and credentials that you used to log on to ReportNet. Also shows given name, surname, and address if they have been defined.
2) Secondary logon: shows a list of secondary logons. This section is present only when a secondary logon exists.
3) Groups and roles: shows a list of the groups and roles from both your primary and secondary logons.
4) Capabilities: shows a list of secured functions and features that you can use based on both your primary and secondary logons.
To modify preferences, go into Cognos Connection and then click the Preferences link.

16. Add Pages You can customize the portal by creating your own pages.
Choose the information that is most important to you and make it available from personalized pages.
For example, you may want to view tools and reports and apply a filter to limit the entries being shown in the portal.
You can choose from the following types of content:
1) Folder: Shows the content of the selected RN folder.
2) Report: Shows the output for the selected report.
3) Filter: Shows all entries matching the specified filter string.
4) Tools: Shows all tools available to you in the portal.
5) Bookmarks: Shows up to 5 URLs.
6) Web page: Shows the specified Web page in the portal.
7) RSS channel: Shows the Rich Site Summary (RSS) channel for the specified URL. Web publishers use RSS channels to provide a summary of their site in a standard XML format.
8) Cognos S7: Shows the content of the specified S7 NewsBox. This content type is available only when S7 integration has been configured.
Click Reset to default on the General tab of the Set Preferences page to reset My Pages back to the default settings.
To add CONTENT:
1) Click the My Pages link at top of portal.
2) Click the add content button.
3) Select the box beside the content types you want to add and click OK. The customized frames you chose appear on your customized portal page. You can click the new page and delete page buttons to add or remove portal pages.
To change LAYOUT:
1) Click the Edit the layout button on the toolbar of the portal.
2) Type the name of the portal page and click the number of columns to show on the page.
3) Under Content Arrangement, use the arrows to move the content frames between columns.
4) If you want to change a column width, specify the percentage of the screen to use in the Column width box.
5) Click OK.
You can click the edit button on the toolbar of each content frame to edit the properties.
In the slide example, we created a new page with folder and tools information. We can later edit the page by renaming it, adding more content, or modifying the layout.

17. Demo 1
Explore Cognos Connection

18. Run or Open PowerPlay Reports or Cubes
Run in PDF
PowerPlay report

19. Demo 2
Access PowerPlay Entries in Cognos Connection

20. Summary In this module, we have: examined Cognos Connection
organized content in Cognos Connection
personalized Cognos Connection
explored PowerPlay reports and cubes in Cognos Connection

21. Question
Why would you use shortcuts?

22. Answer
Why would you use shortcuts?
Shortcuts let you:
Access an entry from many locations.
Simplify report maintenance by making changes to only one report and viewing these changes in more than one place

23. Question
How can you customize Cognos Connection?

24. Answer
How can you customize Cognos Connection?
You can:
Change the interface and report languages.
Create your own personalized pages.
Choose your home page and how entries are displayed.
Add, rename, and remove folders according to your needs.