BTECML23301:: Business Intelligence

Unit IV :Report Authoring

Unit Contents
• Building a Report,
• Drill-up,
• Drill-down Capabilities.
Building Report
• Reports are used to create view charts, dashboards, documents that
effectively support different roles and responsibilities
• Report Authoring refers to the process of designing, developing, and
delivering analytical reports that convert raw data into meaningful
insights using BI tools.
• They are two types-
• 1. Development Intelligent Report
• 2. Report documents
Building Reports
• Creating a basic reports involves-
• Specifying the data package (meta model)
• Choosing a basic report layout
• Adding data
• Inserting a single data item
• Validating the report
• Saving the report
• Running the report
• Setting ‘pdf’ page option
Relational Reporting style
• Add data
• Group data
• Summarize data
• Focus data with filters
• Sort data
• Add queries
• Use calculation
Relational Reporting Style
• The relational reporting style is recommended for relational data
sources. Relational data is best represented by lists. This data is
organized in IBM® Cognos® Analytics - Reporting by query items.
• In relational reporting, you summarize data by using headers and
footers in lists, summary functions, and within detail aggregation. You
focus data in relational reporting with summary or detail filters.

• IBM Cognos Query Studio is also available to work with relational

data.
Relational Reporting Style
• Limitations when using data modules
• IBM Cognos Analytics data modules can model multiple data sources, including
relational data sources, other data modules, and uploaded files. The following
limitations exist when you use data modules in relational reporting.
• Report bursting, package drill-through definitions, and query properties are not
supported.
• Generated prompts do not use the metadata to generate the proper prompt. Instead, a
text box is used.
• Add Relational Data to a Report
Select the data items to appear in the report.
• Group Relational Data
Group data items in a list report to remove duplicate values. For example, you have a
report that shows all the products purchased and their product type. You group the
Product type column so that each product type cell spans the products purchased cells.
• Summarizing Data Relationally
Summarize data in your reports to obtain totals, averages, and so on.
• Focusing Relational Data
You can limit the data in your report with filters or query parameters. The method you
choose should depend on the capabilities of the data source, the performance
requirements, the persistence of the dataset, and how complex you want the report to
be.
Relational Reporting Style
• Sorting Relational Data
You can sort items to view them in your preferred order. By
default, IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting retrieves items in the
order defined in the data source. OLAP data sources always have
a defined order. Relational and dimensionally-modeled relational
data sources may not always have a defined order. The data
modeler defines the sorting options in the model.
• Working with Relational Queries
Queries specify what data appears in the report. In IBM Cognos
Analytics - Reporting, you create and modify queries using Query
Explorer.
• Using relational calculations
Insert a calculation to make your report more meaningful by
deriving additional information from the data source. For
example, you create an invoice report, and you want to see the
total sale amount for each product ordered. Create a calculated
Dimensional Reporting Style
• Add data
• Summarize data
• Focus data with filters
• Sort data
• Add queries
• Use Calculations
• Enable drilling up and down
Dimensional Reporting Style

• The dimensional reporting style is recommended for dimensionally-modeled relational (DMR) and Online Analytical
Processing (OLAP) data sources. Dimensional data is best represented by crosstabs, maps, and charts. This data is shown in
IBM® Cognos® Analytics - Reporting in dimensions, hierarchies, levels, and members.
• In dimensional reporting, you summarize data by using member summaries and within set aggregation. You focus data in
dimensional reporting by adding only the relevant members to the edge of a crosstab or to the context filter. You can also
enable drilling up and drilling down in dimensional reports.
• Add dimensional data to a report
• For dimensional and mixed model data sources, you can view the full data tree by clicking the Options icon dimensional
data view options icon (Data icon Data icon, Source tab) and then clicking View metadata tree. You can switch to the
dimensional-only data tree by clicking the View members tree option.
• Creating dimensional custom groups
• Create custom groups to classify existing data items into groups that are meaningful to you.
• Summarizing data dimensionally
• Summarize data in your reports to obtain totals, averages, and so on.
• Focusing Dimensional Data
• In IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting, there are three approaches to focusing dimensional data in a crosstab:
Dimensional Reporting Style

• Sorting Dimensional Data

• You can sort items to view them in your preferred order. By default, IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting retrieves items in the
order defined in the data source. OLAP data sources always have a defined order. The data modeler defines the sorting
options in the model.
• Working with Dimensional Queries
• Queries specify what data appears in the report. In IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting, you create and modify queries using
Query Explorer.
• Using Dimensional Calculations
• Insert a calculation to make your report more meaningful by deriving additional information from the data source. For
example, you create an invoice report, and you want to see the total sale amount for each product ordered. Create a
calculated column that multiplies the product price by the quantity ordered.
• Drilling Up and Drilling Down in Dimensional Reports
• When working with dimensional or dimensionally-modeled relational (DMR) data sources, you can create reports that
allow the reader to view more general or more detailed information on your data within a predefined dimensional
hierarchy (such as Years - Year - Quarter - Month) without having to create different reports.
Relational Reporting style Vs.
Dimensional Reporting Style
Relational Reporting style Vs.
Dimensional Reporting Style
How to choose a reporting style

• When authoring a report, first choose your preferred reporting style

for working with data: relational or dimensional. You can choose a
reporting style from your viewpoint:

• If you think about your data as tables and columns, you have a relational
viewpoint and should use a relational reporting style.
• If you think about your data as a number of dimensions intersecting at cells,
you have a dimensional viewpoint and should use a dimensional reporting
style.
Relational reporting style

• The relational reporting style consists of lists. You focus the data with filters and
summarize with header and footer summaries.

• If your data is purely relational, then only query subjects and query items appear in the
Source tab source tab, and you must use the relational reporting style.
• If your data is dimensional, then dimensions appear in the Source tab source tab, and
you can still use a relational reporting style, but instead of query items (columns) and
query subjects (tables), you use measures, levels, and level properties.
• To see an example of relational style reporting with dimensional data, see the Manager
Profile sample report in the GO Data Warehouse (analysis) package.

• The relational reporting style is similar to report authoring in IBM Cognos Query Studio.
Dimensional reporting style

• The dimensional reporting style consists of measures and members from

different hierarchies arranged in a crosstab with cell values at the intersections.
You focus the data with set expressions that navigate from specific members in
the hierarchy and summarize with set summaries.
• To see an example of dimensional style reporting with dimensional data, see the
GO Balance Sheet as at Dec 31, 2012 sample report in the GO Data Warehouse
(analysis) package.
• The dimensional reporting style is similar to report authoring in IBM Cognos
Analysis Studio.
Report Types
• List
• Crosstab
• Charts
• Type of charts
• Map
• Grouping data and sorting
List
• When you create a list, you use a single drop zone, columns, to create a list of
items. A drop zone is an area where you can drag items to include in a report.
You can add more columns to populate the list with additional information. In a
list, each column shows all the values for a data item in the database.
• Some of the strengths that are associated with lists include drag-and-drop
capabilities and visual cues that are provided by the drop zone in the overview
area. With lists, you can view all the items in the tables of your database easily
and quickly.
• You can open list reports in IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting and IBM Cognos
Workspace Advanced. You also publish lists to Cognos Connection.
• Data sources can be relational, OLAP, or dimensionally modeled relational (DMR).
• Use a list:To create a comprehensive group of items in a query subject or table of
the database
• To enumerate the members of an OLAP dimension
List
• Example - Create a List Report for Quantity
You are a report author at the Sample Outdoors Company, which sells sporting
equipment. You are requested to create a report that shows the quantity of
units sold for each product line in all countries or regions. You can retrieve this
information using a list report.
• Grouped List Reports
A simple list report that contains columns of unique values is easy to
understand. However, after you add more columns, you may find that
duplicate values appear in your report.
• Example - Create a Grouped List Report for Units Sold
You are a report author at the Sample Outdoors Company, which sells sporting
equipment. You are requested to create a report that shows the quantity of
units sold for each product line in three specific countries or regions. You reuse
a list report that already contains some of the necessary data, and add
another column.
Crosstab
• A crosstab report shows a measure at the intersection of each row
and column. This is useful for showing more information in a smaller
area. For example, if a report shows Product line as columns, Country
or Region as rows, and Quantity as the measure, the value at the
intersection of each column and row shows the quantity of units sold
for that product line and that country or region.
Crosstab
• Create a Crosstab Report
• Use a crosstab report to show summary information. For example, you
create a crosstab report to show quantity of units sold by product line
for each country or region.
• Example - Create a Crosstab Report for Units Sold
• You are a report author at the Sample Outdoors Company, which sells
sporting equipment. You are requested to create a report that shows the
quantity of units sold for each product line in three specific countries or
regions. You reuse the grouped report that already contains the
necessary data, and change the layout for improved analysis.
Charts
• Use charts to present information graphically.
• A report requires at least one measure and one non-measure to produce a chart. Measures are quantitative data, such as figures for sales,
costs, and quantities. Non-measures are qualitative data, such as names, addresses, and countries or regions.

• How the data is plotted depends on the chart type. The maximum number of non-measures is two. You can plot any number of measures in
a report. However, a chart that has more than four or five measures is difficult to understand.

• IBM® Cognos® Query Studio charts plot the most summarized data in the report. Focus the chart by eliminating unnecessary measures from
your report and reordering the columns so that the most significant non-measures are in the outer levels of nesting.

• For more information, see Chart Types.

• Create a Chart
• Use charts to see patterns and trends in data. For example, you can see how actual sales compare to projected sales, or whether sales are
falling or rising over quarterly periods.
• Example - Create a Pie Chart for Units Sold
• You are a report author at the Sample Outdoors Company, which sells sporting equipment. You are requested to create a chart that
illustrates the relative contribution each product line makes to the quantity of units sold. You reuse the units sold report to create a pie
chart that emphasizes the percentage contribution of each product line.
• Download a Chart
• You can download a chart onto your computer. This is useful when you want to send the chart to someone else or view the chart at a later
time.
Types of Charts
• Micro chart
• Pie Chart
• Column Chart
• Marimekko Chart
• Progressive Column Chart
• Pareto Chart
• Bar Chart
• Line Chart
• Area Chart
• Radar Chart etc.
Map
• Maps are most often used to show geographical areas, but they can be used to
show other spatial information, such as a floor plan in a building, seats in an
airplane, or parts of the human body.
• Maps are similar to crosstabs in the way their data is organized. The display is
different, but maps show the intersection of data the same ways as crosstabs; for
example, you can see the revenue for golf equipment in Canada.

• A map in IBM® Cognos® Analytics consists of a collection of layers. Each layer

contains different information and acts like a transparency that is placed over the
map. Each layer adds more information to the map. For example a map of the
world may contain information related to countries or regions on one layer and
information related to cities on another level.
Map
• You can also use maps in the Report Studio to present data for
a particular region, country or a location.
• A map report consists of three parts −
• Region Layer
• Point Layer
• Display Layer
Map
• IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting maps provide the following three types of layers:

• Region layer
• Specifies the regions on a map to be differentiated according to values in the data source. For example, to show the
revenue level for each country and region on a map of the world, choose Country and Region as the region layer and
then specify that the color of each country and region is based on the revenue value for that country and region.
Areas can be set up for drilling through to other reports.

• Point layer
• Specifies the points to be placed on a map. The color and size of the points is based on the data that you select. For
example, you choose to show cities as points on a map and set the color of each point by revenue and the size of
each point by profit. Points can be set up for drilling through to other reports.

• Display layer
• You can show or hide items such as grid lines or capital cities. This layer is determined in the map file and not in the
data source.
 Grouping data and Sorting
• Grouping Data:

• After designing the basic layout, you may decide that grouping
the records by certain fields or other criteria would make the
report easier to read. Grouping allows you to separate groups of
records visually and display introductory and summary data for
each group. The group break is based on a grouping expression.
This expression is usually based on one or more record set fields
but it can be as complex as you like.

• You can group the data in your reports using the

C1ReportDesigner application or using code:

• Adding grouping and sorting using C1ReportDesigner

• Adding grouping and sorting using code
• Here's an example of a report using a group object:
 Grouping data and Sorting
• Sorting Data:
• You can sort data in reports the following two ways:
• Sort the data source object itself (for example, using a SQL statement with an
ORDER BY clause).
• Add groups to the report and specify how each group should be sorted using
the group's GroupBy and Sort properties.
• Group sorting is done using the DataView.Sort property, which takes a list of
column names only (not expressions on column names). So if your grouping
expression is DatePart("yyyy", dateColumn), the control will actually sort on
the dates in the dateColumn field, not on the years of those dates as most
would expect.
• To sort based on the dates, add a calculated column to the data table (by
changing the SQL statement), and then group/sort on the calculated column
instead. See the Sort property for an XML discussion of this, including a
sample.
• This is what the Sorting and Grouping editor looks like in the
C1ReportDesigner application. Note the fields where you can specify group
sorting:
Sorting Dimensional Data
• Sort the item to view them in preferred order
Filtering Report
• Filters are used to limit the results that are displayed in a report
• A report filter sifts the data in your data source to bring back the
information that answers exactly what you require.
• Context filter
• Context Filter is a filter in Tableau that gets applied before any other
filter, applied on a worksheet. Context filter is an independent filter
and all the other filters will be applied to the data that is fetched by
the Context filter. This will improve the performance of Tableau
significantly, especially when there are a lot of filters applied in the
workbook and also when we are dealing with very huge data.
What are Context Filters in Tableau?

• Generally, all the filters that you set in Tableau are independently computed. Basically what it means is that each filter
accesses all rows in your data source without regard to other filters. A context filter is like an independent filter. Any other
filter that is set is termed as a dependent filter due to the fact that they only process the data that passes through the
context filter.

• Now, you can deploy a context filter to achieve either of the following;

• Better Performance: If there are a lot of filters set or the data source is rather large, the queries tend to be slower. In such a
scenario, one can set context filters to improve performance.

• Top N Filter: One also can set a context filter to include only their data of interest, followed by setting a numerical or a top
N filter.

• For instance, if you’re in charge of food products for a really large grocery chain. Your task is to find the top 10 snack bars
by profitability for all stores. Obviously, the data is enormous. Here, you can set a context filter to include only snack bars
and create a top 10 filter by profit as a dependent filter. This would process only the data that passes through the context
filter.
Adding Calculations to Reports
• This function calculates simplified key ratios and indicators and stores them in
the period value database table.
• In this function you define formulas for key ratios and other calculations to be
stored on calculation accounts. These accounts must then be processed and
calculated from the Group/Calculate Fast Formulas menu before the correct
calculated values can be displayed in reports. This is a quick way to generate key
indicators.
• Alternatively you can create reports with other types of formulas and calculation
accounts. These reports need to be generated and calculated from
the Group/Calculate Report Formulas menu.
• When defining calculations for calculating fast formulas you follow these steps:
• define which accounts to retrieve values from
• define which periods to retrieve values from
• define the key ratio to be stored on the calculation account
Adding Calculations to Reports
• Difference between Report Formulas and Fast Formulas
• The differences between the Report Formulas and Fast Formulas are:
• In the Report Formulas you create a user-defined report where you define a
calculation in the Microsoft Excel layout. The calculation is used as input in the
function fCalcVal. The calculation is stored in the database when you run Calculate
Report Formulas. In Fast Formulas you define a calculation on
the Reports/Define Calculation menu and you do not need to create a user-
defined report. The calculation is stored in the database when you run Calculate
Fast Formulas.
• In the Report Formulas you define the calculation in any way you like, while the
calculation definition is more restricted in the Fast Formulas. You can not, for
example, divide two accounts with each other in the Fast Formulas, which lessens
the risk for unexpected results.
• In Report Formulas you can run the calculation on a more detailed level than
in Fast Formulas, for example, you can run the calculation for a specific dimension
in Report Formulas.
Conditional Formatting
• Conditional formatting allows you to highlight exceptional data in a
report.
• You can format parts of your report based on one or more string values, a
report condition, or data values. To define conditional formatting, add a
namedConditionalStyles element to your report specification.
What is Drill Down and Drill up functionality in
Business Intelligence?

• Drill down and drill up, in case you didn’t know, make reporting both practical and powerful at the same
time. In business intelligence, drill down and drill up are two important features. In data analytics tools, they
both give you the freedom to see information and data. Even though they do things differently, this is
especially true.

• Drill down is a feature that allows a user to go from a broad view of data to a more detailed one with a single
mouse click. A report on sales revenue by state, for example, allows the user to select a state, click on it, and
view sales revenue by city or county in that state.

• Drill down is a feature that allows you to go much deeper into more specific data or information layers being
assessed, and it’s what we call “drill down.”

• Remember that drilling down is a technique for quickly navigating through worksheet data and finding
answers to the questions that your company is facing. You can use the drilling to detail method to look up
the values that make up a particular summary value. You can also drill down to related items, adding data
that isn’t currently included in the worksheet.
Advantages of drill down and drill up function in data
exploration

• When it comes to data discovery, the drill down and drill up functions have numerous advantages.

• The following are a few of these advantages:

• It reduces the amount of reporting required and improves overall reporting performance
• The drill down function can lighten the overall load on the server during the query period by presenting only one layer of data. As
a result, it improves reporting performance while also providing excellent value to end users.

• Examine data from various angles

• Drill up allows users to evaluate the same data across multiple reports, using various features, and even highlighting it using
various visualisation processes. This vastly improves different users’ understanding of the data and the reasons behind the
numbers.

• Get instant access to a variety of data depths

• Drilling down gives users a much better understanding of the data by allowing them to see what makes up the numbers they’re
looking at. For example, drill down answers to questions like Which states are doing better on my national sales figure in a matter
of seconds. Which states are currently lagging behind? Which states’ territories generate the most revenue?
Drill Down Vs. Drill Up Vs. Drill Through the process in
Power BI
• Here’s a quick overview of the major differences between these three:
• Drill Down
• The best way to learn how to use the drill down function is to pretend you’re going through the hierarchy levels. It is
required by definition to use a hierarchical definition in which values are classified into levels.
• Here are great examples of levels:
• Do you have any data that is based on a specific date? Then the level of groupings could look something like this: Year,
Month, Year’s Day, Quarter, and Hour
• Do you have any geographic information? The level might then look like this: Country, Province/State, Postal Code, and City
are all required fields.
• Drill Up
• Drilling up is the polar opposite of drilling down, to put it simply. It can be used as a data exploration entry point for
information that is constantly changing.
• Do you have data on a daily basis? To see the most recent results, it makes sense to default the dataset to show the
bottom level. Drilling down becomes a system that allows the user to easily see new results while exploring more trends.
• Drill Through
• Meanwhile, drilling through is simply another word for navigation. It is, however, a crucial principle because it allows users
to click on a visualization to explore more related information. In other words, you’re taking the user’s clicks and
redirecting them to a different dashboard or report that displays related data.
Drill-Down

• The best way to think about how drill-down works, is to tell yourself that you’re ‘walking through the different
levels of a hierarchy’. To drill-down, by definition, requires the use of hierarchical data where values are grouped
into levels.

• Here are some examples of levels:

• If your data is date-based, your level groupings might be something like:

• Year, Month and Day, OR, Year, Quarter, Day and Hour.
• If your data is geographical, your levels might be something like:
• Country, State/Province, Postal Code and City.
• With these levels, lower-level data is essentially rolled up into the next level, which is then rolled up into the next
level above it, and so on. There’s no new data being presented, but the data is instead just being unrolled as you
drill-down.

• Here’s what that looks like:

 Drill-Down
You can even drill-down multiple times to ‘walk
through the hierarchy’ from level-to-level as you
wish.

For a drill-down to be possible, there needs to

exist at least two levels or else there won’t be a
level to unroll. Conversely, there is no limit as to
the number of levels that you can traverse. When
someone right-clicks on a data point to drill-
down, this kicks off the process of drilling-down
from the general to the specific.

NOTE - sometimes drill-down is referred to as

drill-in.
Drill-Up

• If asked, I would hazard a guess that most people would tell me that drilling-up is simply the
opposite of drilling-down, to undo the drill-down that you just performed. And that’s correct
– people mostly do only use drill-up as an undo system for drill-down. What most people
miss is that drill-up can also be used as a data exploration entry point for rapidly changing
data.

• Think it of this way, if you have daily data, it makes sense to default your dataset to show the
bottom level so users can see the latest results. If you do something like this, drill-up
becomes a mechanism to allow the users to further explore trends while still quickly being
able to see new results.

• Here’s what I mean. The following chart contains data coming in at an hourly basis and as a
default, it is showing all data from ‘today’ as a sliding window. This is perfect as it will allow
the user to see what has just happened.
 Drill-Up
• Having seen the incoming hourly data for the day, the
user might be interested in seeing how they are
trending at the day level. To see the next level up,
they’d click ‘Drill-Up’. In this drill-up solution, we work
our way backward in the hierarchy and move from the
hour level to the day level.
• After drilling-up, the window of ‘today’ no longer makes
sense as it would result in a single data point. Instead,
the chart is automatically expanded to show the next
level available, which in our case is ‘month’. The results
are daily data points for this month.
• Just like before, you might want to take this a step
further and drill up again. The level above ‘month’ is
‘year’ and since there is no level greater than year, we
would move up to the year level and show all data for
the last decade. This is the maximum level that a user
could drill-up to using the hierarchy that we have
provided.
• Wow. Would you look at that? We’ve been trending
down on the year since 2017, and yes, 2020 looks good
now, but we mustn’t forget that it’s only January and a
lot can change throughout the year, so we’ll keep an eye
on it.
 Drill-Through
• Drilling-through is just a fancy
way of saying navigation, but it’s
a very important concept as it
allows users to further explore
related data by clicking on a
visualization. In this experience,
you are taking what the user
clicks and sending them to
another dashboard or report to
show related data.
• In the following dashboard, the
user can see a summary of a key
metric from 5 different
departments on the left half of
the dashboard.
Drill-Through

• As you place your

mouse over a
department, you
can see that the
visualization can
be highlighted to
give our chosen
visualization the
feel and
appearance of a
button.
Drill-Through

• Clicking on
the
visualization
brings the
user
somewhere
completely
different: a
Manufacturin
g Dashboard
where we can
see all the
metrics for
our
Manufacturin
g
Department.
 Drill-to-Detail

• Have you ever looked at a data visualization and wondered, ‘how could that be?’ In the case of the following
data visualization, you can see that there is even a note added to the data point by someone asking for a check.
Something is clearly going on with this outlying data point.
• Drill-to-Detail is the process of going from an aggregated visualization to raw data for
exploration and discovery. The best way to do this is to have a destination view and a lot
of filtering capabilities so that the user can further explore data through self-service based
discovery.
• By clicking on the chart from above, we have implemented just what was described and
have taken the user to a new view and given the option to further explore data by filtering.
 Drill-to-Detail
• It’s also
recommended
to parameterize
Drill-to-Detail
since there can
be a lot of raw
data and you
might as well at
least take the
user to the raw
data that
interests them,
rather than
giving them all
data as an
experience.
Drill-Across
• Good Dashboards can help users in both viewing insights
and taking actions based on those insights. More often then
not, the place where an action is being taken is another
software system like a CRM or an ERP. Your users might have
a chart showing summary data and might want to click on a
data point to go back to the source and make a change.

• Drilling-across is the process by which you can drill from one

application to another from your data visualizations. From
the visualization below, a user can automatically drill across
into a CRM system using the correct customer number.
• Hopefully this helps clear up some common use
cases and definitions for ‘drilling’ in Business
Intelligence. The reality is that you’re likely
going to hear every one of these actions defined
as ‘drill-down’, but as you have seen, specific
definitions exist for each.
• Being concise, especially when it comes to
talking about specific requirements is important
to make sure that users and implementers are
speaking the same language.