View lineage information for a data item

View lineage information of a data item to see what the item represents.

Before you begin

Before you can access lineage information for a report, your administrator must configure lineage in IBM® Cognos® Administration. Also, the administrator must enable the lineage capability and grant read permission for you on the report.

Note: The IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson lineage tool shows lineage on a report at its highest level. The lineage does not change after you drill down on a report. Because the selection context used to launch lineage can be affected by drill-down operations, we recommend that you always launch lineage at the highest report level before drilling down on the report. Otherwise, the lineage may not start properly.

About this task

Lineage information traces the metadata of an item back through the package and the data sources used by the package. Lineage also displays any data item filters that were added by the report author or that were defined in the data model. Viewing lineage information ensures that you add the correct data items to a report. For example, you can view the lineage information of a model calculation to see how it was created.

Note: Lineage is available only after your administrator has configured it. In addition, lineage is not supported in reports that are not linked to packages.

You can use the lineage tool that comes with IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson, or you can use another lineage tool by specifying the URL to the tool in IBM Cognos Administration. Note that if the URL source is secured, the source must be able to prompt users for a password because IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson does not pass security information. IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson also supports the IBM Metadata Workbench as a lineage tool.

You cannot use lineage information to troubleshoot queries. For example, lineage information will not explain why a data item is double counted. Also, you cannot view lineage information when running a report from a mobile device.

There are several ways in which you can view lineage information.

  • You can view lineage information for a data item before you add it to a report.
  • You can view lineage information in IBM Cognos Viewer after you run a report.

    For example, you can click a cell in a crosstab to see how the cell value was calculated.

  • You can view lineage information in the Cognos Analytics interactive viewer after you run a report.
  • In the page preview view, you can view lineage information for a data item that was added to a report.

Procedure

  1. To view lineage information for a data item before you add it to a report:
    1. From the Data items tab source tab, right-click the data item and click Lineage.
  2. To view lineage information in IBM Cognos Viewer, right-click an item in the report and then click Lineage.
  3. To view lineage information in the Cognos Analytics interactive viewer or in the page preview view, select an item in the report, and in the report object toolbar, click the Explore icon Explore icon and then click Lineage.

Results

The lineage tool opens showing the lineage information of the selected data item.