Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on

If you install the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on, you and your team can build sophisticated visualizations of your analytics results, communicate the insights that you've discovered in your data on the dashboard, and share the dashboard with others.

Install the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on

To install the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on into Watson Studio Local:

  1. Sign in as root to the first master node of the Watson Studio Local cluster as a user who is a member of the docker group for all nodes of the cluster.
  2. Create a directory called /root/cdi-install.
  3. Download the CDE package ibm-cdi-dsxl-10.12.tar.gz and copy it to /root/cdi-install/.
  4. Extract the contents.
  5. Run /root/cdi-install/cde_package/install.sh.

Uninstall the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on

You can use helm to uninstall the add-on.

To uninstall the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on:
  1. Initialize the helm before you use the helm command.
  2. Delete all PVC and PV that were created by the add-on.
  3. Delete all gluster Volumes that were created by the add-on.
  4. Delete the directory that was created by the add-on under /data/.

Re-install the Cognos Dashboards Embedded add-on

  1. If you want to re-install the add-on, run install.sh from the /root/cdi-install/cde_package directory.
  2. Confirm that all of the pods are running, and then launch the add-on.
  3. Confirm that the following error occurred: {"description":"Invalid sessionCode. It may have expired or the session no longer exists."}.
  4. Delete the /user-home/zen directory on the dsx-core-xxxx pods.

Create a Cognos dashboard

To create a Cognos dashboard from within Watson Studio Local:

  1. In your project assets page, click Cognos dashboards.
  2. Click Add Cognos Dashboard.
  3. Click Blank. Alternatively, you import a preexisting Cognos dashboard JSON file by clicking From File.
  4. Name and describe your dashboard. Click the Create button.
  5. Select a template to help design and align your visualizations. Select the freeform template if you want visualizations to appear exactly as you size and place them, regardless of the screen size of the device that they are viewed in. Select one of the other templates if you want the size and position of visualizations to adjust to fit into the screen size of the device that they are viewed in.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Create visualizations of your source data by using the following options in the left pane of the dashboard:
    Sources
    Enables selecting a data source connection. The data source connection must exist and have been added as a data asset on the Assets page of the project.
    Visualizations
    Opens many different types of graphs that you can use to visualize the data from the selected data source connection. Drill down into your source connection and select the data segments that you want to visualize.
    Widgets
    Enables adding widgets such as text, media, web pages, images, and shapes to the dashboard. You cannot use custom widgets to extend the set of shapes to use on a dashboard.

    From the action bar of the dashboard, you can redo or undo actions, and change the dashboard properties.

  8. To save your dashboard as a JSON file, click the Save icon.

Visualizations

Visualizations communicate comparisons, relationships, and trends. They emphasize and clarify numbers. To choose a visualization type, consider what you want the visualization to illustrate and what will appeal to the audience for the visualization.

Cognos dashboard

To create a new visualization, select a visualization type and add a column to each data slot that has an asterisk (*) in it. Alternatively, you can drag a column onto the canvas to automatically create a visualization to match the column.

Area
Emphasize the magnitude of change over time.
Bar
Compare values by one or more columns, such as sales for products or sales for products each month.
Bubble
Show relationships among columns that contain numeric values, such as revenue and profit.
Column
Compare values by one or more columns, such as sales for products or sales for products each month.
Crosstab
View dimensional objects that have row edges and column edges.
Data player
View an animation of the impact of a column on the other visualizations.
Heat map
Visualize the relationship between columns and you want it to be represented in a matrix type view. A heat map visualization uses color and intensity of the color to show the relationship between two columns.
Legacy map
Represent tabular data in a spatial context. (old)
Line
Show trends over time.
Line and column
Highlight relationships between multiple data series by combining bars and lines with one visualization.
List
View columns of information, such as product lists or customer lists.
Map
Represent tabular data in a spatial context. (new)
Network
View the connections among columns in your data asset. A network visualization is a good choice to show connections, networks, and points of intersection.
Packed bubble
Show relationships among columns that contain numeric values, such as revenue. It is similar to the bubble visualization but the bubbles are tightly packed instead of spread over a grid. A packed bubble visualization shows a large amount of data in a small space.
Pie
Highlight proportions. Each slice shows the relative relationship of each part to the whole.
Point
Show trends over time.
Radial
See values in a circular bar. Each bar starts at 12 o'clock and goes in a clockwise direction for positive values and counter-clockwise for negative values.
Scatter
Plot one measure on a Y-axis and a second measure on an X-axis.
Stacked bar
Compare the proportional contributions for each item to the total, such as sales for products and sales for products each month.
Stacked column
Compare the proportional contributions for each item to the total, such as sales for products and sales for products each month.
Summary
View the total for a measure or the count for a categorical column.
Table
Show detailed information from your database, such as product lists and customer lists, in rows and columns. Each column shows all the values for a data item in the database or a calculation based on data items in the database.
Tree map
Identify patterns and exceptions in a large, complex data asset.
Word cloud
View a text-based visualization of a given column. The text height represents the scale. The name itself is the different members of the column. The data asset should contain at least 15 columns and at least 100 rows to create an effective word cloud.

Widgets

Cognos dashboard

Text
Embed a text box in your dashboard. You can also format the text by double-clicking it.
Image
Embed a JPEG, JPG, GIF, or PNG image in your dashboard. For a URL, use HTTP or HTTPS (secure HTTP) format. URLs are validated for format only; you must ensure that the link is valid.
Media
Embed video or audio such as YouTube URLs, MP4, MP3, AAC, or M4A in your dashboard. Specify the URL in HTTPS (secure HTTP) format because of the security requirements of web browsers.
Webpage
Embed a web page in your dashboard and enter the URL. Specify the URL in HTTPS (secure HTTP) format because of the security requirements of web browsers. Check that the target web site allows being embedded in another application. For example, you can't embed Twitter.com.
Shapes
Embed a shape in your dashboard.

Learn more

The Cognos Dashboard Embedded add-on uses the same dashboard functionality from IBM Cognos Analytics. See Dashboards to learn more.