Copying and pasting assets

You can reuse an asset that you created by copying and pasting it between a dashboard, report, exploration, or story.

The following table shows how you can copy and paste assets.
From (Source) To (Target)
Dashboard Dashboard, report, exploration, story
Exploration Exploration, dashboard, report, story
Story Story, dashboard, report, exploration
Report Report

The pasted asset can lose properties because dashboards, reports, explorations, and stories do not support all properties. For example, some properties apply only to reports and not to dashboards. A message informs you about the properties that are not supported.

If you copy and paste assets between instances of Cognos Analytics, the instances must have the same version.

Before you begin

Before pasting your asset into the target report, select the location, such as a table cell or the page body.

In a dashboard, exploration, and story, you can't copy and paste from one browser tab to another browser tab or copy and paste between tabs in the same browser. Only in a report you can copy and paste from one browser's tab to another report in another browser's tab.

For copying and pasting between reports, you can use either the same tab or different tabs of the same browser. However, if the source report is larger (typically more than 5 MB), then use the same browser tab for pasting. The following message is displayed: Due to the report size the paste can be done in the same tab only.

When you paste multiple assets in a report, a dialog box is displayed to allow pasting the assets in a new table.

Dialog for creating tables for pasted assets

By default, the table has two columns with the number of rows calculated based on the number of assets that are being pasted. You can override the number of rows and columns. If the table does not have enough cells, then you get the following message: The table is too small for the number of assets. If you click No, then the table is not created and the assets are pasted one below the other. If you close the dialog box by clicking the x icon, the paste action is canceled.

In reporting, data items that do not match the report visualization slot type are dropped.

A certain mix of data sources that are supported by Dashboard, Exploration, and Story are not supported by Reporting. When this happens a proper warning is shown. For example, Reporting does not support a mix of modules and packages or multiple modules or multiple packages by using classic query mode. The following warning for mixing packages looks is displayed: A report can reference multiple packages that use the dynamic query mode, or one package that uses the compatible query mode.

In addition, Reporting does not support dimensional modules, except for IBM® Cognos® Analytics modules.

When you copy from Dashboard, Exploration, and Story to paste in a report, the original widget size is kept only if the size is specified in pixels. If the widget size is set in percentage, then it will not be used during paste, instead the Reporting default is used.

When you copy and paste from a report to another report, all the assets that are referenced by the copied asset from the source report are also pasted in the target report. For example, queries referencing other queries.
Note: IBM Cognos Analytics might change the name of the source assets to avoid name conflict with assets that are already present in the target report.

When you copy and paste from a report to another report, and you select the page body or a table and perform the copy action, then all their assets will be copied over. For example, you have a table with 10 cells each cell with a list, crosstab, visualization. You do not need to select them one by one. Select the table and perform the copy action. A message will display that one asset is copied. Cognos Analytics copied all assets, 10 in this example. Copying and pasting a page, results in similar behavior.

You can paste multiple times in the same or different target Dashboard, report, exploration, or story.

You cannot paste the following widgets and assets from a dashboard to a report:
  • Text
  • Image
  • Media
  • Web page
  • Shape
  • Data player
  • Driver analysis
  • Decision tree
  • Sunburst
  • Spiral
Note: Some attributes such as custom titles, named colors, data sets, stand-alone spreadsheet data sources, and border colors can't be carried over when you paste an asset. Make sure that you review the messages that appear after pasting and if necessary, update the asset in its new location.

Procedure

  1. Select one or more assets.
  2. Use the keyboard shortcut for your operating system to copy.
    A message is displayed that assets are copied.
  3. In the dashboard, report, exploration, or story that you pasting to, use the keyboard shortcut for your operating system to paste.