A Mobile Friendly Dashboard Using IBM Cognos Analytics

 This article addresses how you can turn an existing dashboard that was built using IBM Cognos Analytics into a mobile friendly dashboard with only few steps.

I will be highlighting a new extension that was recently released on the IBM accelerator catalog. The extension will work with IBM Cognos Analytics version 11.1.6.

Before we begin, you will need to download and install the mobile support extension from the IBM accelerator catalog.

If you are not familiar with extensions, they are zip files that can be deployed in your Cognos Analytics environment and can be used to alter or add new functionality. I will be covering more about the IBM Cognos dashboard extensions in future articles, so stay tuned!

After installing the extension, refresh your browser window and open the dashboard that you would like to turn into a mobile friendly dashboard.To learn cognos visit:cognos online training india

Once the extension is installed, launch your dashboard and open the properties panel. Under the page size section, you will see a new property called Responsive layout (experimental).

Image for post
The property to enable the responsive layout

Enabling this property will automatically start adjusting the dashboard layout when it is viewed on a mobile device. No other changes are required to the dashboard itself.

Enabling this extension will automatically improve the tabs, page layout, dialogs and interactivity within your dashboard.

Hold on a second, is that it ?

Yes, that is pretty much it. Although this extension will automatically adjust your viewing experience, you can still further customize your mobile layout. This will be covered later in the article, but before we get into more details, let’s delve into how enabling this property will automatically improve your dashboard mobile consumption.

  • The application and navigation bars will be hidden on a smaller screen (i.e. phones), but will be visible on a larger screen like an iPad.
  • The tabs in the dashboard will be displayed as a menu when viewed on a mobile device.
  • The page content will be displayed in order and will be resized to fit the mobile device screen. The content size will be optimized for smaller screen consumption based on various rules including the existing aspect ratio of the content as well as the type of the content.
Image for post
Desktop vs. Mobile

Toolbars, dialogs and tooltips will be displayed at the bottom of the application and will be resized to fit the screen.

Image for post
Actions, panels and dialogs on a mobile device
  • The visualization’s pan and zoom will be disabled by default. This is to avoid conflicts with the native pan and zoom on a touch device. To pan or zoom a map visualization, the map must be selected first using a tap gesture. Other visualizations can only be panned and zoomed when in maximized mode.
  • Selecting a data point on a chart using a tap will highlight the data point and show the tooltip content and all the associated actions at the bottom of the application window.
  • A second tap on a highlighted data point will select it and filter the other visualizations on the same page.
  • A tap gesture on a selected datapoint will deselect it.

Customizing the mobile layout of the dashboard

Often times, depending on the purpose of the dashboard, you might want to display some content in a specific order. You might also want to display some content like summaries or visualizations side by side for comparison.

Here are some simple steps that will allow you to achieve this goal:

By default, the extension will automatically position the content in the order they were created in the dashboard. You can control and edit the order of the content by using the “Send to front” and “Send to back” actions in the dashboard editor. These actions are typically used for layering content, but are also used to decide which content comes first when viewing the dashboard on a mobile device.

Image for post
Send to back and Send to front actions

The following might sound counter intuitive, but if you are a geek like me, it will make complete sense.

Select the content and then “Send to back” if you want to place the content at the top of your page. Alternatively, use the “Send to front” if you want to place it at the end of the page.

Image for post
Sending a chart to the back will place at the top of the page

The mobile extension will leave any grouped content untouched and will not attempt to adjust the size and position of the the grouped content.

The group action can be accessed in the dashboard editor when selecting two or more widgets.

Image for post
Grouping two content together in the dashboard editor

Grouping widgets together will maintain the same size and position of the widgets as they were authored on the desktop. The following example shows summaries before and after they were grouped together side by side. It also shows how they will be displayed on the mobile device.

Image for post
Two summaries before and after being grouped together

In most cases, you will find that this extension is what you need to render the dashboard properly on a smaller screen with minimal efforts.

There are some cases when this extension will not be suitable. One such case is when the dashboard contains layered content or relies on background images. One possible solution is grouping widgets to maintain the positions and the layering.

This is just one example of how extensions can be very powerful tools for adding new functionality that was not initially part of the released Cognos Analytics offering.

To more information visit:cognos online classes

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advanced Techniques for cognos TmI Scripting

Image
In this lesson, we will discuss Advanced Techniques for TI Scripting Techniques for TM1 TurboIntergrator Scripting ETL Most applications built with Cognos TM1 require some way to perform data ETL which is an acronym for extract, transform, and load. It is a process that involves extracting data from an outside source, transforming it into some form to fit an operational need, and then loading that newly formatted data into a target. OnlineItguru  provides career-oriented  cognos tm1 training​  in order to help you move ahead in your career. TM1 TurboIntergrator review TM1 TurboIntegrator is the programming or scripting tool that allows you to automate data importation, metadata management, and many other tasks. Within each process, there are six sections or tabs. They are as follows: Data Source Variables Maps Advanced Schedule The Data Source tab You use the  Data Source  tab to identify the source from which you want to import data to TM1. The fields and o
Read more

IBM Cognos 10 BI Architecture and Components

Image
This chapter discusses the high-level architecture of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) and its various components. IBM Cognos BI is designed for performance, scalability, openness, and availability required to implement a robust enterprise BI solution. It has a zero footprint, a web-based user interface, and administration capability that make it easy to implement and use. It is based on a mature, proven technology platform and is designed to scale for hardware and software, which can address the growing performance needs of your BI implementation. To learn IBM cognos Course visit OnlineITguru's cognos training online Blog OPEN ARCHITECTURE IBM Cognos BI architecture is completely open to third-party products and custom development. Designed on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that enables organizations to leverage their existing technologies and implement a BI solution that is platform-independent, it uses a set of peer-to-peer services that can be located
Read more

Explain about Cognos TM1 feeders

Image
 The IBM Cognos TM1 calculation engine uses FEEDERS to help manage sparsity in cubes with SKIP CHECK enabled. There may be rule calculations for certain cubes, but they are extremely small or dense and may not need SKIP CHECK,More info go through Cognos TM1 Course . Feeders FEEDERS classify the cells in a cube which may contain a measured value based on a rule and ensure that these values are included in the calculation of the aggregation. SkipCheck SKIP CHECK is a keyword entered at the top of a rule file that makes the sparse data consolidation algorithm of TM1 possible. Usually, cubes using SKIP CHECK would require FEEDERS, another keyword entered in a rule file later on. For more on SKIP CHECK, please refer to section 2.3. Why FEEDERS for use? OLAP cubes can be very sparsely populated as it is very important to handle data within TM1 cubes. Examples of problems facing the construction of the TM1 Cubes are below. Example 1- Cube Sales Take a sales cube with the following dimensions
Read more