This section includes updates to documentation for the following components in the IBM Cognos PowerPlay group:
If you click Help on the Drill Through page, the incorrect help topic appears.
To view the correct help topic, in the help window, click the Contents tab, and then click the Drill Through to Other Reports topic.
Note: This topic will include the following corrections in the next version of the PowerPlay Web User Guide.
The steps will now appear as follows:
In addition, the second bullet under Tips: will appear as follows:
Note: This topic will include the following correction in the next version of the PowerPlay Enterprise Server Guide.
In the "Discussion" subheading, the following two sentences are incorrect:
If the file ppes_audit.log exists, it is renamed to ppes_audit.logn when the dispatcher starts. Otherwise, a new ppes_audit.log file is created. A separate log file is created for each server.
The above should be replaced with the following:
A new log file is opened each time the server is started. The previous file is renamed ppes_auditxxx.log, where xxx is an incremental number representing the generation of the audit log.
A number of PowerPlay Transformer 7.4 initial release user documents in products downloaded or shipped prior to October 1, 2006 contain erroneous forward-looking references. To ensure that you have the most accurate, up-to-date product documents, download new versions of these documents from the Cognos Software Services Web site (http://support.cognos.com).
On the Cognos Software Services Web site, click the PowerPlay Transformer Documentation Update link on the PowerPlay 7.4 Downloads page to update the following documents and their associated help files:
Note: This topic will include the following correction in the next version of Step-By-Step Transformer.
In the "Proven Practices" recommendation about cleaning up your model to optimize cube processing, the definition for Categories erroneously states that this option "Minimizes the number of categories in a cube, the default option for models." This was the case for older versions of Transformer but, in Series 7, auto-partition became the default optimization setting. The "PowerCube Optimization Methods" section has the correct information and the stale-dated content will be removed for the next major release.
Note: This correction will be included in the next version of the Transformer for UNIX Guide.
In the -u command line option description, the paragraph that states "To obtain partition information for cubes in a cube group, you must specify the name of an individual cube, not the cube group name" is incorrect and should be ignored.
Note: This correction will be included in the next version of the following documents: Transformer for UNIX Guide, Series 7 Step-by-Step Transformer, and the IBM Cognos 8 OLAP Modeler User Guide.
For the next major release, an amended description will be provided for the command line option -x mdl_file:
Updates the column and measure scales of the MDL model, provided the data source can handle queries about scale. This means that the option is supported for relational or ADO data sources, including Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel, but not ASCII or other flat-file data sources. Begins by verifying that all column scales match those in the source. Then, checks all of the associated measures, updating their output scales as required.
Note: The following corrections will appear in the next version of Step-By-Step Transformer.
Index entries for sorting are misleading or inadequate in the currently released version of Step-by-Step Transformer. In the meantime, readers are directed to use the Table of Contents or the full-text search facility available from the Transformer Help menu to learn more about category sorting.
Note: This topic will include the following information in the next version of Step-by-Step Transformer.
If you use non-compressed cubes in IBM Cognos 8, and they take too long to open in the IBM Cognos 8 Web studios, we recommend that you configure automatic cube optimization by adding an entry to your Windows .ini file or by creating the required environment variable on UNIX.
If you use this method, the optimization process also enables drill-through access on all cube measures by default.
There is an expected, but slight, increase in cube size and build times. However, in most production environments, run-time OLAP performance improves significantly.
Note: A stand-alone command line utility named pcoptimizer is supplied with IBM Cognos 8 to enable optimization when the original model no longer exists or the data used to build the cube is no longer available. For more information, see the IBM Cognos 8 readme or the Transformer help.
EnablePCOptimizer=1trnsfrmr –DEnablePCOptimizer=1 –cm <model_path_and_filename>
EnablePCOptimizer in the trnsfrmr.rc file(s).
Start updating of ‘cube_name’ with optimized metadata.
. . .
End updating of ‘cube_name’ with optimized metadata.
object.AddToReportAtSpecificNestingLevel InsertItem, InsertPoint, LevelAction
Adds query results to a report at a specific nesting level.
Use this method to add query results to the rows or columns in a report. You can specify where to insert the subset in the report and how it is to be inserted. Also, you can specify at which nesting level to insert the query results.
You define a subset using the AdvancedQuery, FindQuery, or ParentageQuery objects, and then use the Execute method to run the query based on the properties specified for the subset definition. This method inserts the subset into the report at a specified location.
The AddToReportAtSpecificNestingLevel method should be the last component within the subset definition for a query.
Required. Specifies where to insert a subset in a report.
0 = Row
1 = Column
Type: Integer
Required. Specifies the index in the report to add the subset. Rows and columns start at index 1.
Required. Specifies the action to perform when adding a row or column into a set.
0 = None (nothing is allowed)
1 = (reserved for future use)
2 = Insert Before (short drop zone nesting (parent))
3 = Insert After (short drop zone nesting (parent))
4 = Add sibling category Before (same level)
5 = Add sibling category After (same level)
6 = Group Before (insert a new nesting group - long drop zone)
7 = Group After (insert a new nesting group - long drop zone)
Note: Using 0 inserts the subset into the rows or columns where no rows or columns currently exist. If the rows or columns exist, then using this value does nothing.
Required. Specifies the nesting level at which to insert the query results.
The numbering for the OLE nesting levels starts at the category furthest from the report edge. For example, for a report that contains the following nesting on the row axis:
Products -> Retailers -> Locations
The corresponding OLE nesting levels will be:
This example creates a FindQuery (type 1) subset definition that searches for all products that begin with the name "Star". The subset of Products that the query finds beginning with Star is then added to the report as columns.
Sub Main()
Dim strCubePath As String
Dim objPPRep As Object
Dim objFind As Object
Dim objAdvanced As Object
strCubePath = "C:\Cubes and Reports\Great Outdoors.mdc"
Set objPPRep = CreateObject("CognosPowerPlay.Report")objPPRep.New strCubePath, 1
objPPRep.ExplorerMode = False
objPPRep.Visible = True
Set objFind = objPPRep.ReportQueries.Add(1)
With objFind
.Name = "Find Star"
.Dimension = "Products"
.SearchShortName = False
.SearchText = "Star"
.Pattern = 2
End With
Set objAdvanced = objPPRep.ReportQueries.Add(3)
With objAdvanced
.Name = "Star Products"
.Dimension = "Products"
.Level "Product Id"
.Find objFind.Name
.Execute
.AddToReportAtSpecificNestingLevel 1,1,3,1
End With
Set objAdvanced = Nothing
Set objFind = Nothing
Set objPPRep = Nothing
End Sub
Note: The following corrections will appear in the next version of PowerPlay for Windows User Guide.
The PowerPlay for Windows User Guide incorrectly states that page margin settings are determined by the printer settings. Margin settings are controlled by the page setup settings in PowerPlay for Windows.
Note: The following addition will appear in the next version of PowerPlay for Windows User Guide.
In Reporter mode, you should not use the Select Subset menu to create a calculation while the suppress zeros option is activated. Instead, first create the subset calculation without zero suppression, and then apply zero suppression.
Note: The following note will appear in the next version of the PowerPlay User Guide and the Impromptu User Guide.
Note: In Excel 2007, if you open an .xls file that was exported from Series 7 by double-clicking on the file or by selecting File, Open, you may see a warning that the file is of a different format than specified in the extension. Click Yes to open the file. The file opens without error.
Note: In the next version of Discovering PowerPlay for Excel, this topic will contain the following note in the table of commands, under Save As.
Under Save As Type, click Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook to save the cube as a workbook with its macros enabled. If you click Excel Workbook (the default Save as Type setting), an error message appears. Click Yes to save the cube as a macro-free workbook.