Cognos TM1 is an ideal technology with a client-server environment that integrates enterprise planning software. The IBM Cognos TM1 provides a dynamic solution to meet all enterprise-level budgeting & forecast planning. Moreover, it is useful in corporate planning, reporting & analysis of various tasks.
The Cognos TM1 is quite used by large enterprises to small business units. In this article, we will try to understand data representation and reporting in Cognos TM1.
To learn complete IBM Cognos tm1 course visit ITGuru Training Blog.
Basic data browsing in Cognos TM1
This part of the data representation and reporting deals with the methods of browsing data in Cognos TM1 cubes. Moreover, it uses either the Cube Viewer or In-Spreadsheet Browser for this purpose.
Cube Viewer
In Cube viewer, the following steps needed to browse data.
- Opening TM1 Server explorer
- Under tree pane, we need to select the Cube that we want to browse
- Next, click on the cube and select
- Now, the Cube viewer window opens along with the cube system
- Here, we need to click on the Recalculate to display various cell values.
Spreadsheet Browser
Using this tool, we can browse data in the following way.
- Open the TM1 server explorer
- Open tree pane, select the cube to browse
- Click on the cube & select Browse in the Excel option.
Modifying view of data
Cube Viewer, allows the user to perform the following.
- To see more details along with rows or columns of view, use Stack Dimensions.
- Drill-through to view data in detail
- Drill down the consolidated elements displayed in the view.
- Changing title dimension elements in the Cube view
Stack title dimension as row dimensions
To stack the title dimension as a row dimension within the Cube Viewer, this needs to click on the name of the element in the title dimension. Later, drag the element towards the right/left of the row dimension name.
Stack title dimension as column dimension
To stack title dimension as a column dimension under Cube Viewer in Cognos TM1, the user needs to click on the element name & drag the element to the right/left of the column dimension name.
Drilling down by consolidations
In Cognos TM1, under Cube Viewer, the + (plus) sign next to the name of the element, represents the element as a consolidation. To view the element in detail, the user needs to click the + sign. Moreover, he can hide the element details viewing by clicking (-) minus sign.
Change of title dimension elements in the Cube Viewer
To alter the title dimension element that displayed on the Cube viewer, simply click on the element’s name row, select it by pressing the F9 key.
Drilling through to view data in detail
It needs to drill the TI process & drill association rule to implement viewing detailed data for a selected cell under Cube Viewer in Cognos TM1.
Saving View
To save the view from Cube Viewer, the user needs to click on the File and select Save. Cognos TM1 will show the TM1 Save View dialog box. This dialog box allows the user to do the following.
- The user can set it as a default view of the cube
- He can save the view for public view or privately.
- He also can promote the view name.
Format view cells
The common feature that Cognos TM1 provides to format the displayed data within Cube View is Zero Suspension, Column orientation & Cell formatting.
Cell formatting
The Format attribute is used for customizing the data display within the Cube view cell. Moreover, the Format attribute is a special kind of element attribute that defines how to display data. Besides, the Format attributes value can be applied to various elements such as a row, column & title.
Column Orientation
The column orientation can be changed from right to left or vice versa by clicking on the MENU option. Moreover, it depends upon the current view position.
Worksheets: The data can be moved from Cognos TM1 Cube Viewer to MS Excel for analysis and presentation.
Moving or Slicing a View
To move a view from the Cube Viewer to an Excel Worksheet, the users need to click on File and later on SLICE. The Cognos TM1 will copy the existing view from Cube View to the Excel sheet. Moreover, these sliced views are also connected to TM1 as it tries to add some TM1 functions to the worksheet to collect data from a cube view.
Snapshot is the alternative to the slice. Moreover, the data can be copied from the Cube Viewer to Excel within a moment while using Snapshots.
Active forms
These forms help to view the Cube data directly in Excel. This facilitates when the user is connected to the Server where Cube data resides. Furthermore, some special TM1 worksheet function groups that support Active forms are there. These are;
- TM1RptView
- TM1 RptTitle
- TM1RptRow
- TM1 RptFilter
- TM1 RptEllsExpanded
- TM1 RptEllsConsolidated
- TM1 RptElLev
Refreshing and recalculating
After saving the Active forms, the user can once refresh the data by clicking the F9 key. Moreover, the user has the option to rebuild the existing worksheet using Active Form and selecting the Rebuild Current Sheet option within it.
Deleting an Active form
An Active Form can be deleted from the Worksheet using the format, Click on Data area of Active Form, select Delete option there.
Active Forms and special formatting
This special formatting includes various tasks such as spreading and holding data, suppression of zero values, drill, editing of the rows using subsets. Moreover, it includes static lists, changing title elements, insertion of columns, and a dependent section, etc.
Formatting Active Forms
These forms are hidden within the Active Form Worksheet. The forms are formatted through clicking Active Form and selecting Show Format Area within that.
Active Form limitations
The Active Forms contain some limitations in their usage. They are;
- Here, worksheet names do not include a dash (-) character.
- To merge cells in Active Forms, it needs to rebuild the worksheet.
- These Active Forms requires at least a row dimension.
TM1 Reports
These reports are created using a TM1 slice. From this point, the Cognos TM1 reports use a Report generation wizard too to,
- Select worksheets to include in the report
- Select title dimensions for the report
- Select worksheet printing options
- Select the printing destination i.e. device to print
- Save the settings of the report
TM1 Print Report
To use the printing report wizard, Click on TM1 from the menu bar, select the Print Report option from there. From this, the user can select as many options by clicking the Next step. Moreover, after selecting all the report options, click on the Finish option.
Selection of Sheets
The user has the option to select the worksheets for printing from the Cognos TM1 Report Print Wizard. If the user wants to print all the worksheets to include all in one report, then he can select the Select All option to print. Moreover, there are multiple options available for printing the workbook.
TM1 Web
It allows the user to access the cube data, also provides the ability to view and edit the data through Excel reports, pivot, drill, select, etc.
TM1 Websheets
The web sheet version of the Excel sheet may have some visual differences but it also supports some Excel features. These are;
- Hiding columns
- Conditional formatting
- Hyperlinking
- Cell protection
- Freeze panes
TM1 Web Cube Viewer
The user can use the Web Cube Viewer under TM1. Here, the user can log in to the TM1 Web and open Views in the Navigation panel. Later, the user can expand the cube views to access the cube. Moreover, the user can create a new TM1Web Cube View using TM1 web view building wizard. Further, the TM1 Web view can also be viewed in Charts.
There are Custom Display Formats also available. These various formats will apply to all the cells within the defined data intersection.
Thus, the above article explains data representation and reporting in Cognos TM1 using various options and wizards. This helps to display data and reports in a cube view. It also gives an idea of changing data from a cube view to an excel sheet in a different way. To get more practical insights about Cube View and data presentations and reporting, one can opt for cognos tm1 certification training from industry experts like IT Guru. This learning may help to gain excellent skills in this regard along with planning towards a great career.
