Creating Effective Dashboards

Here's a look at how to create effective Dashboards using Portal feature of Cognos.

Requirement: Create a dashboard showing Product Name, Sales in a list and chart report as tabbed reports with a prompt on Product ID.

Solution:

Step 1: Create folders - Dashboard Reports, Dashboard Portals.

 



Step 2: Create the prompt report under the Dashboard Reports folder. Let us name this as Dashboard - Prompt. Create an optional Product value prompt.

 









Step 3: Create a list report and a chart report under the Dashboard Reports folder. Let us name this as Dashboard - List, Dashboard - Chart. Include optional Produt filters in both the reports.

Step 4: Create a Dashboard Portal page for each of the reports under the Dashboard Portal folder. Name these as Dashboard - List Portal Page and Dashboard - Chart Portal Page. Set the content to Cognos Viewer.

 


Step 5: Edit the Portal Pages and set the Entry to the Dashboard Reports.Hide the title bars in the portal pages.

Step 6: Set the Portlet Communication options under Report Properties for each of the Dasboard portal pages. Provide the channel name for this property. All portlets sharing the same channel name will then be able to communicate with each other and can pass parameter values between them.

 

Step 7: Create the main Portal page (Dashboard) that integrates the prompt report and the reports portal pages.Set the content to use Cognos Viewer for the prompt section and multipage object for the tabbed report output.

Step 8: For the prompt report section, set the Portlet Communication options under Report Properties.