At #IBMInsight in Las Vegas last week, I attended sessions relating to new features in IBM Cognos 10.2.2 and wanted to share with you what is new.
Let’s start with some of the basics – tabbed reports. Reports with multiple pages can now be set up as tabbed outputs. Instead of having to page down to get a different authored page (as opposed to multiple pages for a long list), you can simply click on the current tab.
Setting it up is a simple matter of opening file -> Report Properties, and setting View pages as tabs: top left.
It’s worth noting that in Cognos 10.2.2 this will only work with authored pages. Pagesets are planned to support tabs in a later version.
Next, we have named Excel worksheets. For years people have been asking for a way to output pagesets with the tabs named correctly. At long last it is possible. Cognos will automatically name the Excel Worksheet tabs based on the pageset group or page layers. Pagesets need to have a grouping set up for this to work.
Once that’s set up, everything works as expected, and the tabs are named correctly.
The next biggest piece of news is that IBM is deprecating both Query and Analysis Studio. Instead, they will be giving administrators the chance to define custom profiles for Workspace Advanced. You can create profiles with all the features of Report Studio, without the ability to create new pages. You could build a profile that only allows users to drag items in and filter them. Sadly, the profile creator is not part of my beta environment.
Another new feature important to note, is that Report Studio now has an Active Report preview mode where you an build an active report while seeing how it looks. I suspect this is related to Cognos Workspace Advanced. I can start building an active report, and run it without needing to run it as an MHT. In preview I can set different style and properties, click on various prompts, and even see how the report might appear on different resolutions. A word of warning, it’s not a true iPad simulator, so there may be some slight differences when it renders.
Finally, significant improvements have been made with RAVE in Cognos 10.2.2. You can now modify various attributes of the graph through Report Studio. The VisJZON now includes parameters that generate rows in the properties window, and will actively modify JSON objects. IBM is also considering releasing RAVE as a stand alone tool, meaning we would be able to use it directly inside a browser – without needing to go through Cognos.
Questions or comments regarding new features in Cognos 10.2.2? Email me at info@performanceg2.com.
