Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (C8 BI)

Query Studio

What is C8 BI Query Studio?

C8 BI Query Studio provides a powerful and flexible reporting environment for

querying and viewing data from relational and multidimensional sources. New
options are developed for formatting layout component and highlighting
exceptional data (conditional formatting). Reports on cubes or dimensionally
modeled relational data can also be enabled for drilling up/down on each
dimensional hierarchy. The improved filter that allows AND or OR operator and
the new feature that allows the user to apply a template provide more flexibility in
control and format of report data.
Connecting to C8 Query Studio

For the purposes of this workshop, during a business presentation you are asked
for numbers analyzing the American market performance using Revenue vs.
Profit in 2004. Since this is unexpected you will use C8 Query Studio to quickly
create this adhoc report.

1. On the Start page, double-click the C8 Query Studio icon

2. Once the application is finished resetting, a browser will launch with the
following URL : http://localhost/cognos8

3. To logon, the User ID is: Administrator, there is no password, and click

OK

4. In the main menu bar, click the Query Studio link located at the top right-
hand corner

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Creating a Query Studio Report

1. Select the Great Outdoors Company package

2. Expand the dimensional hierarchy Sales Territory/ Sales Territory under

Insert Data/ Great Outdoors Company package

3. Select the Sales territory which is highlighted in the screenshot below,

and click the Insert button

4. Select the Sales territory column title, and from the toolbar, select the
Filter icon ( )

5. In the Filter (Pick values from a list) frame, check the checkbox for
Americas under the Show only the following selection box

6. Click OK

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Finishing the List Report

1. In the Great Outdoors Company package in the left-hand panel, expand

the Products dimension

2. From the expanded Products dimension, select the Product line and
drag and drop it over to the right of the Sales territory on the right-hand
panel

3. Under the dimensional hierarchy Years, expand Years, select Year and
click the Insert button to move it to the right

4. From the expanded dimensional hierarchy Measures (you may need to

scroll down) , select Gross margin and click the Insert button

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5. Select the Year column title, select the Filter icon ( ), check the
checkbox for 2004 and click OK

• You will now see the Combine filters pane and this is where you can
specify the operator to be used for multiple filters

6. Click OK to confirm the AND operator

7. From the menu on the left, select Change Layout

8. Select the Year column title and from the left-hand menu, click on Create
Sections ( )

9. Select the Sales territory column and from the left-hand menu, and click
on Group

10. Right-click on the data value in the Summary footer, and select the
Summarize link

11. Change Summary for footers from Total to Average and click OK

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12. Edit the Title by clicking on the Title text at the top of the report

13. Change the Title to Gross Margin for the Americas and leave the
Subtitle blank

14. Uncheck the Show filters check box, and click OK

• Your report should currently look like this:

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Highlight Exceptional Date

1. Select the Gross Margin column header, and from the left menu, select
Define Conditional Styles

2. In the New value input box, ente r 0.5 and click the Insert button

3. Click the up arrow next to the inserted new value, and in the Style drop
down list next to the new value, change from Default to Excellent

4. In the New value input box, enter 0.3 and click the Insert button

5. In the Style drop down list next to the new value, change from Default to
Poor

6. Click OK.

Your report should currently look like this:

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Drill Up and Down

Now we want to find out what products in the product line Camping Equipment
made disappointing profit.

• In the Product line column, click on Camping Equipment

Your report should currently look like this:

• To drill up to Product line, select values of Product type column by

clicking on the corner of a cell in the column and click in the top menu
bar

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Apply Templates

1. In the left menu, select Apply template

2. In the Apply template dialog box, click on Select a template

3. Click on the Public Folders link at the top, click on the Query Studio
Templates folder, choose QS Template III by checking the radio button,
and click OK

4. Click OK to confirm the selection

Your report should currently look like this:

5. To close the report, from the File menu, select Close

6. When prompted with message Are you sure you want to navigate away
from this page? click OK to navigate away from the page

Congratulations … you have completed this workshop!