Creating a Cognos Partition / Cube Group

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Creating a Cognos Partition / Cube Group:
How often we find that the cubes get bigger and we need to find some way to get the cubes to trim down for performance.
This can be done through Partition / cube groups.
Let's see how to partition the cube. It can be time based partition or the cube groups.

STEPS:
1- Open a Cognos Powerplay Transformer model.
2- Right click the Powercubes area, click on Insert Powercube.
3- Mention PowerCube name as MyCubeGroup. Click on Cube Group tab.

4- You can enable time based partitioning or select any other dimension.
5- Let's enable time based partioning.
6- You can set the levels of partition.
7- You can notice mulitple cubes for Year.

8- Now, lets partition the cubes based on Country. This can also be used to secure the cube data based on various country users.
9- From the cube group select the country dimension.
10- Generate the cube and you will notice multiple mdc files, one for each country.

SO THATS IT.....

Creating a Cognos Time Dimension - Date and Week Level

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Creating a Cognos Time Dimension - Date and Week Level:
This is second part of creating Time Dimensions. Please watch the previous video to create a Time Dimension.

1- Open a Cognos Powerplay Transformer model.
2- Right click the Time Dimension and click on Insert Level.
3- Set Name as Week. Select the source as Date and Check the Unique Level selection box.
4- Click on the "Time" Tab. Select the Date Function as Week. You can see the Time Level Ranking automatically Set to 40.
By Default Cognos sets Time Level Ranking for
Year --> 10,
Quarter -->20
Month -->30
Week --> 40 and
Date --> 50

5- Click on OK and you can see the week level getting created.
6- Similarly Create another level for Date
7- Generate Categories and see Time Heirarchy.
8- Clicking on Show Diagram, now you will find the Year --> Quarter --> Month --> Week-->
Date Levels.

SO THATS IT.....

Creating a Cognos Time Dimension

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Creating a Cognos Time Dimension:
1- Open a Cognos Powerplay Transformer model.
2- Right click the Dimension Map- area, and click on Insert Dimension.
3- Give a name to this Dimension and then select the Dimension type as Time.
4- Click on the "Time" Tab. Select the date column, on which this dimension will be based on.
5- Click on OK and You can see a Time Dimension getting created.
6- Generate Categories and see Time Heirarchy.
7- Clicking on Show Diagram, you will find the Year --> Quarter --> Month Levels.
8- Watch out in the Next video - steps to create Week and Date levels.

SO THATS IT.....

Creating Dimensions Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes (using Flat File)

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Creating Dimensions Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes (using Flat File):
Using Single Flat File:
1- Open the Cognos Powerplay Transformer. Create a New Model.
2- Right click the datasource tab- area, and click on New Datasource.
3- Select source as flat file SalesData.csv
4- Now, create the dimensions & levels. There are multiple ways to create a dimension.
5- Lets create Customer Geo Dimension: Right click the dimension map. Insert Dimension.
6- Give a name to the dimension: Customer Geo Dimension: Drag and drop Country & City
7- Right click the Dimension area and Insert Level. Set source as Cust_id.
8- Next we need to set Label.
9- Click : select label as Customer Name. Source as Customer Code.
10- Now create Product Dimension --> Product Category -- Product Type -- Product
11- Set Product Code as Source and Product Name as Label for PRODUCT LEVEL.
12- Drag Sales Amount and Sales Quantity in the Measures Section.
13- Now we need to create cube.
14- Right click Cube Tab Area. Insert Powercube; Give a name. It is stored as .mdc. Set a path.
15- Right click again the powercube and create powercube.
16- The cube is generated successfully.

SO THATS IT....

Create First Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial

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Create First Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial:

Cognos Transformer is a tool to create Cognos Multidimensional cubes (MOLAP) model; Also, known as Cognos powerplay cubes.
This tool creates a metadata model file with .mdl extension, which generates a physical cube with .mdc extension.

Transformer cubes store data in .mdc file.

Lets create our first Cognos Powerplay Transformer cube.

High level Steps:
Create a Datasource.
Create Dimensions.
Add Levels to Dimensions.
Add Facts.
Inserting a PowerCube.
Create the Powercube: (Inserting data in the cube)
Publishing the cube on Cognos Server.
Accessing the Cube on Cognos Server.

Pre-requisite: You should have Cognos Transformer client installed on your machine and connected to the Cognos server.
We will create our first cube using a .csv file. Keep this file handy.

Detailed Steps:Create a Datasource:
1- Open the Cognos Transformer Client.
2- Click on Create a new model.
3- Give a name of model, MyModel. Click Next.
4- Give a name for the datasource. From the datasource type, select Delimited field text with column titles.
5- Click Next; click Browse and navigate to the .csv file and click next.
6- Uncheck Run Autodesign and click finish.
7- You have successfuly created a datsource.

Create Dimensions:
8- A Dimension consists of one or multiple Hierarchy and a Hierarchy comprises of one or more Levels.
9- Lets create a dimension. Right Click on Dimension Map on top and select Insert Dimension.
10- Give a name to the dimension, Customer Geography Dimension.
11- Keep everything default for now and click on Ok.
12- Similarly, Insert Product Dimension.

Add Levels to Dimensions:
13- Open the datasource and drag and drop Country, City and Customer Name in the Customer Geography Dimension.
14- In the Product Dimension, drag and drop Product Category, Product Type and Product Name.
Please note: This is basic cube, please see further videos; we will use Customer Code and Name both in the Customer level; similarly for Product.

Add Facts.
15- A cube contains atleast a Fact.
16- From the datasource, drag and drop Sales Amount and Sales Quantity into the Facts Area, next to the Datasource.

Inserting a PowerCube:
17- Right click the Powercubes area, click on Insert Powercube.
18- Mention PowerCube name as MyCube.
19- Keep everything default for now and click on Ok.

Create the Powercube: (Inserting data in the cube)
20- Right click on the powercube.
21- Click on Create Selected PowerCube.
22- Cube is successfuly created.

Publishing the cube on Cognos Server:
23- Right the cube and select Publish Powercube as datasource and package.
Keep all default values. We will see the details in the later videos.
Please note, there are other methods of creating a Cube datasource and package; Look at video: Publishing a Cognos Transformer cube / Cognos Powercube.
24- Enter your credentials to connect to the Cognos Server.
25- Click on Ok.

Accessing the Cube on Cognos Server:
26- Logon to the Cognos Portal.
27- Goto Launch and select Analysis Studio.
28- Click on the Package for MyCube.
29- Click on Blank Analysis.
30- Drag and Drop Customer Geography Dimension on the Rows and Product Dimension on the Columns.
31- Drag and Drop Sales Amount in the Intersection of Crosstab.
32- Check the drill up and drill functionality.

So thats it....

Cognos Transformer Self Paced Free Tutorial

1 Basic Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial 1-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_rUNLJAUTU

2 Creating Dimensions Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial 2-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZT-IVWjf4

3 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Time Dimension - Fundamental Tutorial - P3-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex82pQ6Mqic

4 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Time Dimension - Date - Week - Fundamental Tutorial - P4-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDEFKLbQME

5 Cognos Transformer Performance Tuning - Time Based Partition - Cube Groups Security - P5-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdVWBYD1vU

15 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Converting DMR Package to Cubes - Tutorial 15-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWvuFv-p9rg


16 Cognos Powerplay Transformer - Automate cubes generation refresh script - P-16-of-30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqpeavbzxAc

Cognos Powerplay Transformer Free Training Videos

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1 Basic Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial 1-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_rUNLJAUTU

2 Creating Dimensions Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Tutorial 2-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZT-IVWjf4

3 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Time Dimension - Fundamental Tutorial - P3-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex82pQ6Mqic

4 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Time Dimension - Date - Week - Fundamental Tutorial - P4-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDEFKLbQME

5 Cognos Transformer Performance Tuning - Time Based Partition - Cube Groups Security - P5-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdVWBYD1vU

15 Cognos Powerplay Transformer Cubes - Converting DMR Package to Cubes - Tutorial 15-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWvuFv-p9rg

Recovering the Cognos Framework Manager Project File cpf file from existing Package

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Recovering the Cognos Framework Manager Project File cpf file from existing Package - P30-of-30
How often in our projects do we loose the cpf file and we have the package on the cognos server.
Here is a simple step to recover the cognos cpf file.

Steps :
1. Create a new file
<Cognos_Installed_location>/configuration/CQEConfig.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<configuration company="Cognos" version="0.1" rendition="cer2">
<component name="CQE">
<section name="General Options">
<entry name="KeepModelXML" value="1" />
</section>
</component>
</configuration>

2. Restart the Cognos server.
3. There is a package known as Sales Order in Public Folder; we dont have cpf file for this.
4. Open Cognos Report Studio and create a new report on the same package.
5. Run the report.
6. A new xml file will be created under <Cognos_Installed_location>/data/cqe/RTModels 7. 7. Rename this file as model.xml
8. Open Framework Manager and create a new empty project.
9. Close Framework Manager.
10. Locate this Framework Manager project and replace the model.xml with our xml from RTModels.
11. Open the project and your cpf is generated; have fun.

SO THATS IT...

Cognos 10 Administrator - Running a Report via Trigger

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Cognos 10 Administrator - Running a Report via Trigger:
A report can be scheduled based on Daily, Monthly, Weekly, Yearly timeframe or can be event based.
For event based, we use Trigger.
Also, We can also specify the formats in which the reports are to be scheduled.
        
Steps:
1- Click the Scheduling option available in front of every Report --> Sales Report.

2- Specify the run criteria / output format / save method   
For details, watch the video --> Scheduling a Report.

3- Click on the Trigger tab and set a trigger name: bdcs_trigger.
this is the name of the trigger and the command will use this trigger to run the report.
You can have multiple reports with a same trigger name.

4- Now, We need to find the trigger.bat file which is available under
<Cognos_Installation>\webapps\utilities\trigger

5- Open the command line prompt & write the following command
trigger.bat <server_url> <trigger_name>;
trigger.bat "http://<computer_name>/p2pd/servlet/dispatch" bdcs_trigger;

6- You will get a message
Trigger: bdcs_trigger fired successfully

7- You can see the report which are currently running in the Current Activities
8- Future schedules in the upcoming activities.
9- Lets see the output of the report.

SO THATS IT....

New Videos for Cognos 10 Training

29 Cognos 10 Training - Running a Report via Trigger- Tutorial Part 29 of 30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhV8Q5SeTSU
30 Cognos 10 Training - Advanced - Recover Framework cpf file from Package -Tutorial Part 30-of-30
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxGI8D-hOQ