David P. Currie

Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

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New and Notable Features in IBM Cognos 10.2.2

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photo credit: DSC00440.JPG via photopin (license)

photo credit: DSC00440.JPG via photopin (license)

On November 21, 2014, IBM Cognos 10.2.2 was released. It contains all the fixes from the fix packs since 2012 as well as some interesting enhancements. The new features align along four themes:

  1. Data Visualization
  2. Mobility
  3. OLAP
  4. Self-Service
Data Visualization
  • Six new RAVE visualizations: 5 charts (Polar Area, Chord, Tornado, Combination, Marimekko) plus Dynamic Map.
  • More control over the visualizations through an expanded properties list in Report Studio.
  • Visualizations can be converted from one type to another in Report Studio.
Mobility
Active Reports are a key component to providing a Cognos mobile solution so a couple of key enhancements have been delivered in this area:
  • In Report Studio, there is now a preview mode for Active Reports to enhance developer productivity. The report rendering can be emulated on different screen sizes.
  • Active Reports can be delivered in HTML format, easing distribution and making Active Reports available across almost all mobile platforms.
OLAP – Dynamic Cubes 
Several new features make Dynamic Cubes a compelling migration path for PowerPlay cubes.
  • Metadata can be imported from Framework Manager models.
  • Custom relative time categories can be created.
  • A hardware sizing utility is included to ensure that the server has enough resources to support the dynamic cubes.
  • In memory aggregates can be defined manually. There is also an option for autonomic optimization so that the cubes become somewhat self-optimizing.
  • Near real time update of data: new fact data is loaded into the cube from the source automatically and without restarting the cube.
Self-Service
  • Two new filter enhancements in the Cognos Workspace: a master filter, to fitler related widgets, and a custom filter button.
  • Report styles can be administered centrally, making it easier to maintain a consistent ‘look and feel’ across reports, even with user created reports.
  • Workspace Advanced and Report Studio can be customized using user profiles, to restrict or to expand functionality for specific groups of users. This lets the user experience be tailored to the skill sets and specific self-service needs of different users.
  • My Data Sets – this is an improved external data set feature. A greater volume of data can uploaded, the data is persistent and it can be shared with other users. Unfortunately, it only works with DB2.
Other notable new features:
  • Tabbed html reports can be created in Report Studio.
  • For Excel 2007 output, the Excel tabs can be dynamically named.
  • A theme designer tool (also supported for 10.2.1 and 10.2.1.1) for customizing the Cognos user interface.
  • A handful of Framework Manager enhancements:
    • bridge query subjects to deal with many to many relationships
    • filter join optimization
    • parameter map refresh
    • summary query subjects
  • For multi tenancy environments, delegated tenant administration and sharing content across tenants.
  • Report export restrictions
Conformance updates and deprecations
As usual, the supported software environments have been updated and some items have been deprecated.
Interesting to note here:
  • This is the last version of Analysis Studio and Query Studio
  • Tomcat has been replaced with Websphere Liberty Profile
  • Apache Derby is no longer supported as the content store database
  • The quick setup uses DB2 10.5 Advanced Workgroup Server Edition for the content store
Resources for IBM Cognos 10.2.2:
Recorded webinars by Senturus (registration required):