Building IBM Cognos Analytics applications

You use the IBM® Cognos® Analytics components to build reporting and analysis applications.

The lifetime of an IBM Cognos Analytics application can be months, or even years. During that time, data may change and new requirements appear. As the underlying data changes, authors must modify existing content and develop new content. Administrators must also update models and data sources over time. For more information about using data sources, see the IBM Cognos Analytics Administration and Security Guide and the IBM Cognos Framework Manager User Guide.

Before you begin

In a working application, the technical and security infrastructure and the portal are in place, as well as processes for change management, data control, and so on.

When you use IBM Cognos Analytics to build applications across all of your IBM Cognos Analytics components, you locate and prepare data sources and models, build and publish the content, and then deliver the information. The following graphic provides an overview of the workflow.

Flowchart showing the following three parts. Locate and prepare data sources and models, build and publish the content, and deliver the information.

Procedure

  1. Locate and prepare data sources and models.

    IBM Cognos Analytics can report from a wide variety of data sources, both relational and dimensional. Database connections are created in the Web administration interface, and are used for modeling, for authoring, and for running the application.

    To use data for authoring and viewing, the studios need a subset of a model of the metadata (called a package). The metadata may need extensive modeling in Framework Manager.

  2. Build and publish the content.

    Reports, scorecards, analysis, workspaces and more are created in the studios of IBM Cognos Analytics. Which studio you use depends on the content, life span, and audience of the report, and whether the data is modeled dimensionally or relationally. For example, self-service reporting and analysis are done through IBM Cognos Query Studio, and IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, and scheduled reports are created in IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting. Reporting reports and scorecards are usually prepared for a wider audience, published, and scheduled for bursting, distribution, and so on. You can also use Reporting to prepare templates for self-service reporting.

  3. Deliver and view the information.

    You deliver content from the IBM Cognos portal and view information that has been saved or delivered by other mechanisms. You can also run reports, analyses, scorecards, and more from within the studio in which they were created.

    For information about tuning and performance, see the IBM Cognos Analytics Administration and Security Guide and the IBM Support Portal (www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/support).