Cognos Framework Manager

Framework Manager is a metadata modeling tool for IBM Cognos BI. Metadata is data about data. Metadata model represent the data to business users in a very simple way, which remove the complexity of data structure.

Framework Manager is a Windows-based developer tool used to accomplish the metadata modeling task. A Framework Manager model can derived data from more than one data sources.

A model structure manages data such a way which is useful for business users.
Example- a model defines business rules, data descriptions, data relationships, business dimensions and hierarchy, and administrative tasks.

The team involve in Framework Manager modeling should have knowledge of database structure and requirements of business users.

When metadata modeling is completed, package is created and then package is published.

Published package is available in IBM Cognos Connection which  makes metadata accessible to report authors. Each package must contain all the information that a specific user or group of users need to create reports.

Example- One package have human resource data and another package have sale data. User of each department can use specific package related to their departments.

Cognos Event Studio

IBM Cognos Event studio is the notification tool used to alert decision-maker in the organization, so that they can make timely and effective decisions on the occurrence of events.

Event studio used to create agent that monitor status changes, priority customers, to detect occurrence of business event, or any other factor which is important to organization or business.

When an event occurs in organization people are alerted to take required action.  Agent detect the event and perform the task like publish the detail to portal, deliver alert by email, run and distribute report based on events and monitor the status of the events.

Example of event- Cancellation of large order or return of product.

Cognos Analysis Studio

IBM Cognos Analysis Studio is the web-based analysis component within IBM Cognos Connection. User can explore, analyze and compare the dimensional data using Analysis Studio. Analysis Studio provides access to dimensional, OLAP( Online Analytical Processing) and DMR (Dimensional Modeled Relational) data sources.

You can use Analysis Studio to compare and manipulate data to understand the relation between data and its relative importance. You can view performance indicator of your business.

Example- revenue, growth, product cost, or top performer. Analysis Studio provides filter, calculations, sorting and drill up and drill down support you need for analysis.

Using Analysis Studio, you can perform following task-

• Find and focus on items which are important to your business.
• Understand the trends in the market.
• Compare the data, such as details to summaries, or actual results to budgeted results.
• Assess performance by focusing on the best or worst results.
• Establish relative importance using calculations such as rank or growth.
• Share your finding and analysis with management.

Analysis created in Analysis Studio can be opened in Report Studio and used to build professional reports.

Difference between Report Studio and Query Studio

Report Studio and Query Studio can be accessed from the cognos connection web portal. Report Studio is used to create sophisticated reports and charts with complex prompts and filters. Query Studio is used to create ad-hoc queries and simple reports and charts.

Report Studio has some special functionality like bursting, prompts and advance charts where Query Studio does not have these options.

Cognos Query Studio

Query studio is reporting tool used for creating simple queries and reports in IBM Cognos. Use of Query Studio is so easy any novice user can create report for business queries. Basically Query Studio is used for ad-hoc reports and it is the lighter version of Report Studio.

We can view data, author simple reports, change the report layout, filter and sort data, add formatting, and create charts with minimum steps. Query Studio can be also used to publish reports for audience who do not required complex layout or formatting.

Cognos Report Studio

Cognos Report Studio is the web product used to analyze and create (advanced) corporate or financial reports based on the requirements. Reports can be simple list reports, dashboards, charts, maps and other graphical elements with full drill through capabilities. 

Report authors can create, edit and distributed wide range of professional reports using Report Studio. Report design created in Query Studio can be read and edited in Report Studio (not vice versa). Creating reports depends on factors like target audience, business requirements, data sources.   

IBM Cognos Connection

IBM Cognos Connection is a single access point to the enterprise level data available for its product. It provides single login point for creating report, for querying, analyzing and organizing data and events. User can run all their  web-based IBM Cognos BI applications through IBM Cognos Connection.

IBM Cognos does not required any plug-in or ActiveX or use of Java for configuration in browser interface. It uses default configuration of browser.

IBM Cognos Connection includes-

Portal Pages- User can create a customize page that uses portlet to show different types of content at the same time.

Public Folder-  It contains all shared content like package, reports, shortcuts, agents and jobs.

My Folder- It contains personal contents like reports, shortcuts, and jobs.

User Preferences- It is a window where we can set priorities and monitor Cognos BI activities.

Launch- This button provides link to the all Cognos BI studios, Drill Through Definitions and IBM Cognos Administration.

Data Tier

The IBM Cognos BI contains data tier contains-

• Content Store
• Data Sources
• Metric Store

Content Store- 

The content store is a relational database. It contains data related to report specification, published models and the packages that contain them. It also stores the connection information of data sources and information about the external namespace, cognos namespace and information about scheduling and bursting the report.

  The IBM Cognos service that uses content store is content manager. Design models and log files are not stored in content store. 

  

Data Sources- 

The data sources contains relational databases, dimensional or OLAP cubes, flat files and other physical data stores. It also contains connection information necessary for accessing data.

Application tier components use data source connections to access data sources.

Metric Store-

Metric store is also a relational database. It contains content for metric package, metric studio setting ( example- user preference) 

Application Tier

The IBM Cognos BI applications tier contains one or more IBM Cognos BI servers. It is responsible for running all the services requested by a gateways. It receives requests from gateways and send it to appropriate service.

Applications Tier Components-

1. Dispatcher, it operates services and routes requests.
2. Content Manager, it manages the storage of customer application data.

IBM Cognos BI server runs requests, eg- report studio, analysis studio, query studio, which are forwarded by a gateway. Apart from that IBM Cognos BI server also renders the IBM Cognos Connection and Metric studio interfaces.

Gateway

    IBM Cognos have below listed gateways-

• CGI-  It is default gateway. CGI can be used for all supported Web servers. To enhance performance or throughput, we may choose other supported gateway types.

• ISAPI-  ISAPI can be used for the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web server.  It delivers faster performance for IIS.

• apache_mod- We can use an apache_mod gateway with the Apache Web server.

• servlet- If Our Web server infrastructure supports servlets or we are using an application server, We can use a servlet gateway.

When an IBM Cognos BI gateway receives a request, it perform below tasks-

• It encrypts passwords to ensure security and did not allow unauthorized user to access.
• It extracts information needed to submit the request to an IBM Cognos BI server.
• It attaches environment variables for the Web server.
• It adds a default namespace to the request to ensure that the server authenticates the user in the correct namespace.
• It passes requests to an IBM Cognos BI dispatcher for processing.

Web Server

A Web server is an application designed to receive incoming browser requests and route them to the intended application (eg. Cognos). It is used to get all the information of user (authentication) via gateways.
      The IBM Cognos web server tier may have one or more IBM Cognos BI gateways. Web communication in IBM Cognos BI is typically through gateways. A gateway is an extension of a Web server, it transfers information from web server to application server.

Gateway-

 IBM Cognos BI supports several types of Web gateways.

• CGI
• ISAPI
• apache_mod
• servlet

GUI or User Interface

It is presentation or final level of Cognos which is used by end user, author or administrator. IBM Cognos BI has two type interface.

1. Web-based interfaces-

• Cognos Connection
• Cognos Administration
• Cognos Query Studio
• Cognos Report Studio
• Cognos Analysis Studio
• Cognos Event Studio
• Cognos Metric Studio
• Cognos Workspace
• Cognos Workspace Advanced

2. Windows-based interfaces

• Cognos Framework Manager
• Cognos Metric Designer
• Cognos Transformer
• Cognos Map Manager
• Cognos BI for Microsoft Office
• Cognos Insight

  

Cognos Architecture

IBM Cognos has a multi-tiered architecture. It can be divided into three tiers:

1. Web server,
2. Applications, and
3. Data.

The tiers are separated by network firewalls. IBM Cognos BI user interfaces comes above the tiers.

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence is web-based, integrated business intelligence suite by IBM. It provides tools for reporting, querying, analysis, scorecarding and monitoring the events. This software consists of many components to meet the different requirements of a customer.

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence's components-

• IBM Cognos Framework Manager
• IBM Cognos Transformer
• IBM Cognos Connection
• IBM Cognos Report Studio
• IBM Cognos Query Studio
• IBM Cognos Analysis Studio
• IBM Cognos Event Studio
• IBM Cognos Metric Studio
• IBM Cognos Business Insight
• IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced
• IBM Cognos Administration 
• IBM Cognos Metric Designer
• IBM Cognos Map Manager
• IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office