What's new and changed in Cognos Dashboards

The 4.6.2 release of Cognos Dashboards includes the following features and updates:

Adjust the size of the dashboard

When the dashboard is in View mode, you can use the Zoom icon in the toolbar to adjust the size of the dashboard canvas.

For details, see Zoom levels on the dashboard canvas in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

New zoom bar in visualizations

You can now enable a zoom bar for the following visualizations:

• Bubble
• Line and column
• Scatter

When this property is enabled, a bar with a left and right handle is added to the chart. You can drag the handle on the bar to zoom horizontally.

When the zoom bar is enabled, mouse scrolling is disabled.

For details, see Zoom bar in bubble, line and column, and scatter visualizations in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Specify bubble size limits in bubble and scatter visualizations

In bubble visualizations, you specify the minimum and maximum values for the bubble size.

In scatter visualizations, all points in the scatter visualization display at the size you specify. The default bubble size in scatter visualizations is 3px.

For details, see Bubble size limits in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Alignment position for zero in line and column visualizations

In line and column visualizations, you can use Align axes zero option to control whether the line and column sections have zero in the same position.

If you disable the zero alignment poison, the line and column values are independent, which can make the relevant values more visible in some scenarios.

For details, see Alignment position for zero in line and column visualizations in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Handling missing values in line visualizations

You can specify how lines display missing values on line and line and column visualizations. You can choose from the following options:

Interpolate

The line displays an interpolated value based on adjacent data points. This is the default option.

Show as gaps

The line displays a gap between the adjacent data points.

Show as zero

The line displays missing values as zero.

For details, see Handling missing values in line visualizations in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Showing value labels in visualizations

You can show value labels in line visualizations and in line and column visualizations so that the data values are clearer. You can also customize the format of the value labels.

For details, see Showing value labels in visualizations in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Top/bottom calculations can no longer reference different fact tables

You can no longer create a top/bottom calculation that references a fact table that is different from the fact table for the metadata items that are used in the visualization.

The 4.6.0 release of Cognos Dashboards includes the following features and updates:

Filter improvements

The release includes the following filtering enhancements:

Cascading filters

You can now allow filter selections in the All tabs area on the Filters tab to affect the available selections in a different category. For details, see Cascading filters in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Select filter values from a drop-down list

You can use the drop-down list visualization tool to filter other visualizations based on the values that you select. For details, see Select filter values from a drop-down list in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Area visualization enhancements

You can now use a gradient fill effect in an area visualization.

Area visualizations now support the following interpolation options:

• Basis open
• Cardinal open
• Monotone

For details, see Set the interpolation between data points in a visualization in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Handling null values in area and line visualizations

Now you can choose whether to interpolate null values or show null values as a gap in area and line visualizations. By default, null is shown as zero.

New value label formats in bar visualizations

The bar chart visualization now includes the following value label formats:

• Value and percentage of category
• Value and percentage of color
• Value delta of target
• Percentage delta of target

Changed default for the contrast label property in some visualizations

The Contrast label property is now turned on by default for Line and column visualizations and Waterfall visualizations. The property makes it easier to see the value.

For details, see Changed default for the contrast label property in some visualizations in the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Zoom bar in area, line, and bar visualizations

The Enable zoom bar property is now available for area, bar, and line visualizations. When this property is enabled, a bar with a left and right handle is added to the chart so that users can zoom horizontally.

Leaf label formats in treemap visualizations

Leaf labels in treemap visualizations can now be shown as value, item, or a combination of value and item.

Display multiple measures on rows instead of columns

You can now display the measures on the rows instead of the columns in the Crosstab visualization. For details, see Display multiple measures on rows instead of columns in the Cognos Analytics documentation.