Cognos Powerplay Web 6

8/2/2019 Cognos Powerplay Web 6

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Table of Content

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................ 2

1. ACCESSING COGNOS .......................................................................................................................... 2

2. WORKING WITH CUBES:.................................................................................................................... 3

2.1 POWERPLAY WEB INTERFACE.............................................................................................................. 3 2.2 DIMENSION LINE .................................................................................................................................. 3 2.3 THE TOOLBAR ...................................................................................................................................... 4

3. DRILL DOWN/DRILL UP...................................................................................................................... 7

3.1 DRILL DOWN ........................................................................................................................................ 7 3.2 DRILL UP .............................................................................................................................................. 9

4. FILTERING DATA ............................................................................................................................... 10

5. SORTING................................................................................................................................................ 11

6. HIDE OR SHOW ROWS & COLUMNS............................................................................................. 12

7.1 ADDING NESTING ............................................................................................................................... 14 7.2 REMOVING NESTED ROWS / COLUMNS .................................................................................................. 16 7.3 SWAPPING THE ORDER OF NESTED ROWS ............................................................................................ 17 7.4 IMPORTANT POINTS............................................................................................................................. 19

8. WORKING WITH REPORTS:............................................................................................................ 23

8.1 BOOKMARK A REPORT........................................................................................................................ 23 8.2 EXPORT DATA .................................................................................................................................... 23 8.3 PRINT REPORTS .................................................................................................................................. 23 8.4 SAVING REPORTS................................................................................................................................ 23

Cognos PowerPlay Web 1



PowerPlay Web

Introduction

Cognos’ PowerPlay Web is a powerful data exploration and analytical tool that allows

the user to gather information from a variety of University of Waterloo databases.

Information can be analyzed in variety of ways such as spreadsheet layout, bar graph, piegraph and other form of graphs.

In order to analyze the information, a high level of interactivity is required which can beaccomplished with the help of this manual.

1. Accessing Cognos

PowerPlay Web can be accessed via your browser. The URL and password can be

obtained from your administrator (Furqan Haider or Walter McCutchan). We recommend

you to use Internet Explorer since it has been fully tested.




2. Working with Cubes:

2.1 PowerPlay Web Interface

Once you open a cube, you’ll see a screen similar to the following:

The first dimension (category) listed appears as rows and the second dimension as

columns. In the above example, ‘Years’ is the first dimension and so appears in rowswith its highest level Years categories. The second listed dimension is ‘Faculty’ and so

its highest level appears as columns.

2.2 Dimension Line

The Dimension Line is located above the data and summarizes all of the dimensions (or

categories) that are available in the cube. For example, in the above Dimension Line,

there are 16 dimensions: Years, Faculty, Study Field, Plan Type, Level and so on.




You may view information based on any of the categories listed in the Dimension Lineby clicking on the category. Some of the categories have levels within them allowing a

detailed query. For instance, in the EnrolStat cube, the Faculty dimension has the

following path: Faculty > Department > Program > Plan

You can also think of Dimension Line as a ‘Filter’. If you choose ‘January’ from a Yeardimension then you are filtering the data for January only and ignoring all the othermonths of the year.

On the left hand side of Dimension Line is the Reset Dimension button. It resetsthe Dimension Line to the highest level, i.e. it takes the user back to the starting point.

The Wrap/No Wrap button toggles the Dimension Line wrapping on or off. Thisis only visible if there are many dimensions (or categories) in the Dimension Line. If you

click on this button, the dimension line appears as:

Since not all dimensions show up on one page, you can scroll to the right to see the

remaining dimensions.

2.3 The Toolbar




At the bottom of the Display area is the tool bar that allows you to change displays, swap

rows and columns, highlights exceptional information, bookmarks and saves.

Crosstab Display:

The default is to show the report in this display.

Indented Crosstab Display:

This display removes the borders from the rows/columns and indents the nested

rows/columns.

Pie Display:

Displays a circle with segments representing the percentage each variable occupies of the

total (Pie Graph). This display is useful when you do not have many variables to show.

Simple Bar Display:

Displays a Bar Chart with only one set of bars. It uses only two dimensions (x-axis andy-axis)

Clustered Bar Display:

Displays a Bar Chart with multiple sets of bars. This display is useful when you want tosee the relationship of multiple variables to another variable.

Stacked Bar Display:

Displays a Bar Chart with multiple sets of bars stacked one on the top of the another.

Multi-line Display:

Displays a Line Graph with multiple sets of lines. This display should only be used if the

x-axis displays a time variable, in order to show a trend.

3-D Bar Display:

Displays a 3-dimensional Bar Chart that shows trends across columns by plotting the cellvalues of a crosstab in a 3-D bar. One bar is created for each column, with the top of the

bar representing each row value.

Fit Chart:

It is used to print charts on one page.

Rows Per Page:

This button allows you to display x number of rows per page.

Columns Per Page:

This button allows you to display x number of columns per page.




Swap:

This allows you to swap rows with columns. The categories that were in the rows will

move to the columns and the categories that were in the columns will be moved to the

rows.

Custom Exception HighlightingIt allows you to flag rows or columns for exception reporting. Values more than 1.5standard deviations above the expected value for that cell are highlighted in green. Values

more than 1.5 standard deviations lower than expected are highlighted in red.

80/20:

The 80/20 button summerizes the information that PowerPlay Web considers less

relevant into a single category call “Other”. Information that lies outside of 80% of the

data is added together, and a new category (called “Other”) is added to the report. Youcan either turn it on/off

Zero Suppression:This button eliminates rows/columns that entirely contain zeros.

Bookmark:

This button prepares a bookmark. It gives you a different URL so that you can bookmark it for later use.

Export CSV:

It allows you to export the report in CSV form.

Export PDF:

It allows you to export the report in PDF

Explain:

It gives you the explanation of all buttons.

Help:

Opens up detailed up.

Save As:

It allows you to save a report. Since we are not using Cognos Upfront, this function will

not work.




3. Drill Down/Drill Up

3.1 Drill Down

PowerPlay Web has a functionality to view data from a bigger picture down to thespecific, called drilling down. For instance, drilling down on the ‘Term’ dimension

would take you from one particular term to a choice list of terms. Dimensions have a

hierarchical structure built into them, so drilling down will always take you to more detailwithin a dimension.

For the ‘Faculty’ dimension, clicking on any of the hyperlinks will take you to a lowerlevel. Suppose we have the initial screen as:

Clicking on ‘Arts’ hyperlink will take us to the next lower level of Arts and the resultingscreen is shown below:




If a dimension does not have any levels or if you are at the lowest level, then clicking onthe hyperlink will provide you with a summary row/column only in the report. For

instance, clicking on ‘Fall 2003’ will take us to the lowest level of ‘Term’ dimension as

shown below:




3.2 Drill Up

Drill Up changes the analysis to show a higher level of detail. To drill up, click on thehigher level from the summary row/column. For example, clicking on ‘Term’ from the

summary Row will take you to a higher level than ‘Fall 2003’

After selecting Term from the pull down of a summary row gives:




4. Filtering Data

To filter data, select categories from the dimension line. As you do this the dimension

line changes to tell you exactly what you are looking at.

To remove a filter, click on the highest level category under the dimension line heading.

Note: A quick way to revert to the highest level categories is to click on the ResetDimension button

Or

Use Back button on your browser to undo changes and return to the previous screen.




5. Sorting

Information can be sorted using the arrows at the top of each column. Place your cursor

on the arrow that you would like to apply sorting to and it will bring up the next sorting

criteria that will occur when you click on it.

If you click on the arrow the first time, your data will be sorted descending order.

If you click on the same arrow the second time, the column will be sorted ascendingorder.

If you click on the same arrow the third time, the sort will be removed.

The direction of the arrow indicates the direction of the sort. All the unsorted columns’

arrows are blue in colour. Once you apply the sorting to a column, the colour anddirection of the arrow changes.

It is only possible to sort on numeric values.




6. Hide or Show Rows & Columns

PowerPlay Web has the ability to hide the rows/columns from the view. This display will

not be saved in the cube. This option will be available in the next release of Cognos.

To hide row(s), click on the pull down at the summary level, scroll down and choose

[Hide/Show…] as shown below:

Another screen will appear. Uncheck the entries that you’ll like to hide:




In the above example, ‘Winter 2004’ will not appear in the report. Click on OK and

you’ll see the resulting screen:

To unhide the rows, follow the same steps but check the hidden rows. To apply thisfunctionality on columns, follow the same steps but use the pull-down from the summary

column rather than summary row.




7. Nesting

7.1 Adding Nesting

Nesting adds more detail to the rows or columns of the analysis. Nesting can be from the

same or different dimensions. There are different ways of creating nesting rows/columns.

Suppose we would like to add nested rows from ‘Gender’ dimension.

First Method:

From the summary row’s pull down, scroll down and look for ‘[+] Gender’. The plus

sign beside the dimension name indicates that it will be added as nested rows.

After selecting ‘[+] Gender’, you’ll see




Nesting categories from the current dimension is nested the next level down of ‘Gender’

dimension.

Second Method:

From the dimension line, click on the dimension that you would like to nest it with. Inour case, we click on ‘Gender’ ‘Nest Rows’ and you’ll get the same results




7.2 Removing nested rows/columns

To remove nesting, click on ‘-‘ sign that appears beside the dimension name

ORClick on the dimension that you would like to remove from the summary row/column and

then choose [Remove]




7.3 Swapping the order of nested rows

Order of the nested rows can be switched by using the ‘Swap’ function. In our case, wewould like to move the ‘Gender’ dimension to the left of ‘Term’ dimension. To do this,

click on the pull down of ‘Gender’ at the summary row. Scroll down the list to choose‘[Swap Left]’ entry.

The resulting screen should appear as:

This provides a different look of the report and often more valuable information when

comparing the data from previous terms.




Suppose you have three nested dimensions:

To move the ‘Attendance’ to the far left, you have to use the [Swap Left] function twice.

The first time, it will move in the middle:

By using the same function on ‘Attendance’ the 2nd

time, it will move it to the far leftside.

You can perform all these functions on columns as well by choosing the pull down from

the summary column




7.4 Important points

a) There are some points which are worth noticing. If your option is set to show 50 rows

and you have more than 50 rows, you’ll see two hyperlinks appearing near the end of your report. These two links take you to the next or last page of your report depending

on which one you click on.

If you are not at the first page of your report, then two hyperlinks shows up near the top

of the report. They take you either to the first or previous page of the report dependingon which hyperlink you click on.




b) Suppose we have the following screen:

If you click on ‘Reset’ button, it will remove the filter and take you to the highest level as

shown below:




c) Faculty dimension has different level underneath it. For instance:Faculty Acad Org Acad Prog Acad Plan

When you do nesting on Faculty dimension, you’ll a ‘+’ appearing on the summary row:

Clicking on ‘+’ sign gives:




Note the special case:

Faculty is the only dimension that has different levels. If you’ve been using ‘+’ sign tocreate the nesting levels, then clicking on any hyperlinks of the last column of ‘Faculty’

will eliminate the previous levels of ‘Faculty’. For instance, suppose we have thefollowing screen:

If we click on ‘KIN’, we get:

The previous level of Faculty has been removed from the page.




8. Working with Reports:

8.1 Bookmark a Report

Bookmarks are used to return to a specific report for a later use. Before adding the URL

to your favourites, you must click on ‘Prepare Bookmark’ button located at the

bottom menu of PowerPlay Web. This allows you to captures the report’s full URLaddress which includes all the report formatting. After capturing the URL, add the

bookmark to the list of bookmarks in your browser.

The report can be opened directly from the favourites. It will contain the most up to dateinformation from the last time the cube was processed.

8.2 Export Data

PowerPlay Web allows you to export the report to be used another application such as

Excel. Exported information is saved as CSV file (comma separated). To export, click

on (Export CSV button) Save Browse to a location where you would like to

save this file.

Once the file is saved, it can be retrieved it in Microsoft Excel.

8.3 Print Reports

NOTE: This function is not currently working.

The best way to print a report is to export it to PDF format and then use the print option

from the Acrobat’s menu. To export the report to PDF, click on (Export to PDFbutton). This will launch Adobe Acrobat in the browser and from there you can print the

report.

ORExport the report to CSV and then open the CSV in Excel to print your report.

8.4 Saving Reports

This option will be available in next release of Cognos

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