Modeling user interface

Use the web modeling user interface to view, create, enhance, and edit data modules.

Access to this interface is controlled by the Web-based modeling capability that is managed by administrators. For more information, see the Managing IBM Cognos Analytics guide.

If some of the user interface elements that are discussed in this topic are not available to you, the user interface could be customized for your role. For more information, see Customizing the user interface.

You can enter the web modeling user interface from the IBM® Cognos® Analytics portal in one of the following ways:

In Team content, My content, or Recent, locate an existing data module, which is an object with this icon , and click it to open.
Click New , and select Data module. Then, create a new data module.
Use the Quick launch facility in the Cognos Analytics welcome page to upload a file. Drop the file in the Data module box, and start creating your data module.

When working with data modules, you can use the undo Icon to undo an action and redo Icon to redo an action. actions in the application bar to revert or restore changes to the data module in the current editing session. You can undo or redo up to 20 times.

Data module panel

The data module panel contains the data tree that shows the tables, columns, calculations, folders, and other types of items. This is the main space for editing the data module.

Click the context menu icon Vertical actions menu icon for the module, table, or column to view its modeling and editing context menu options. Here you can start joining tables, creating filters and calculations, or renaming and deleting items.

Click the Add sources and tables icon Icon to create a new object in the panel toolbar to add sources and tables to your data module. Clicking the Identify navigation path members icon Icon to create a navigation path underlines columns that are members of navigation paths. If none of the columns are underlined, the data module does not contain navigation paths.

The list of items in the data tree can be long. To find the data faster, use the search box at the top of the data tree. Or sort the items by label or data type, in descending or ascending order. The Sort option is available from the context menu.

Grid tab

Use the grid view to examine the actual data in table columns and rows.

Select a table or column in the data module tree or in the diagram, and click the grid icon Icon representing data view to open the data view.

Review and explore the columns that are available for you. The data fields that are in the columns are not sorted. To sort this data, click a column heading and select the sort type from the menu.

Relationships tab

This tab shows the data module relationships diagram Icon representing diagram view . The diagram is a graphical representation of table relationships in a data module. You can use the diagram view to examine the relationships, edit the data module, and view the cardinality information for the relationships.

Right-click a table in the diagram to view the table context menu that can be your starting point for creating joins or filters, renaming the table, viewing the table properties, or removing it from the module.

Click any table join to see the join summary information that includes the matching keys. When you right-click the join line, the context menu appears with options for editing or deleting the join.

Right-click one or more tables in the diagram, and click Auto-arrange. The diagram is redrawn around the first selected table allowing you to focus on the selected tables and their relationships.

In the Diagram settings box, select the Cardinality check box to show the cardinality of relationships between different tables in your data module. Move the Degrees of separation slider. Depending on the slider position, the diagram shows different degrees of relationships between tables. Select one or more tables in the diagram, and use the Focus mode to work with the selected tables.

Custom tables tab

The Custom tables tab Icon representing a custom table is the main space for creating, viewing, and managing custom tables in a data module. This tab is displayed by default, even if the module doesn't contain any custom tables. To start creating a new table, click Create custom table. If the data module already contains custom tables, the table names are listed when you click the tab.

For more information, see Custom tables.

Sources panel

The Sources panel Source view icon shows the sources of data that the data module contains. The sources can be data servers, uploaded files, data sets, packages, and other data modules.

Except for packages, you can expand the specific source to view its tables and columns. Drag tables onto the data module panel or onto the diagram to add them to the data module.

From the source context menu Vertical actions menu icon , you can initiate actions such as relinking sources or enabling data caching.

Languages panel

The Languages panel Languages icon is used to view and define metadata translation definitions.

For more information, see Multilingual metadata.

Custom sort order panel

The Custom sort order panel is used to view and define custom sorting definitions.

When custom sort order is defined for a column, in the Data module panel, the column values are sorted in the custom order. However, in the Grid view, the column values are sorted according to the source sort order.

For more information, see Defining custom sort order.

Validation panel

To validate the data module, click the validation icon in the toolbar Validation icon in expression editor , or click Validate from the data module context menu Vertical actions menu icon .

If errors are discovered, the failed validation icon is displayed for tables, columns, expressions, or joins. Click the error icons to view the validation messages. Click the copy icon Icon representing the copy function in the message. in the error messages to copy the messages to the clipboard for easier analysis or printing.

Expression editor

The expression editor is an SQL editing tool that you can use to create or edit SQL-based tables, calculations, filters, or data groups.

You can create expressions by typing the code or dragging items from the data module tree. The validation and data preview capabilities help to quickly verify and troubleshoot the expressions. The code editing capabilities include: inserting comments, auto-complete function, pretty-print, high-contrast mode, and different font sizes. The information panel shows details and provides examples of supported functions that are used in the expressions.