BrightStar Partners Logo

March 2008 Newsletter
In This Issue
Finance and Performance Management
Register for Forum and Save
Dynamically Sort Reports
Streamline With MetaManager
Did You Know...

News

Subscribe to BrightStar Partners newsfeed. Point your favorite RSS news reader here

View our online MetaManager product demonstration here.
 
Join COGNOiSe.com, the largest independent, worldwide FREE Cognos Support Community by clicking here.

Past Newsletters

Join our mailing list
Greetings!
 
We hope you enjoy the new format of the BSP Newsletter. We would love to receive suggestions from you about the content. Please e-mail us if you would want to have a particular topic discussed in future newsletters.

        BSP Announces Our Newest          Professional Services Offering

Finance & Performance Management Practice Debuts in Chicago
 
In our continuous effort to provide professional services and implementation-based solutions to our customers around the globe, BSP is proud to announce the opening of our Finance and Performance Management Practice. We have launched this practice area to serve our clients with the ever-changing demands placed on their Office of Finance and Planning Functions.We are pleased to broaden our consulting capabilities and our offerings to include all the building blocks of Performance Management.
 
Adding to our tremendous competencies on the Cognos Business Intelligence suite, our new practice will focus on helping clients solve critical business challenges throughout the planning and budgeting lifecycle:  from strategy, to process/change management, through technical implementation and training.  Utilizing our team's core strength in Cognos Enterprise Planning, we are committed to partnering with our clients to provide real world, cost effective solutions.
 
To set up an Opportunity Assessment, or if you are looking to find out more, contact Courtney Kurtz at 847.439.0308 Ext. 152.  We look forward to your inquiries.
 

Register for Cognos Forum and Save $600!

BrightStar Partners is proud to announce Silver Sponsorship of the 2008 Cognos Forum held in Las Vegas May 12th - 15th.
 
Early bird registration is now open and will save you $500 if you register before March 21st. In addition, using BrightStar Partners' preferred customer code PPBRIGH on your registration form will enable you to save an additional $100 on the registration fee! 
 
We look forward to seeing you at the conference this year!
 

Dynamically Sort a List Report Without Using JavaScript

Contributed by Mike Vilhauer, Sr. Consultant
 
You can use the technique described below to dynamically sort a list based on a selected column after the report has been run. The technique also allows you to change the sort order to Ascending or Descending. This allows tremendous flexibility, and best of all, NO JavaScripting is required! 
 
To dynamically sort the report, follow the steps below.
  • Create a simple list report based on the 'Go Sales and Retailers' package.
  • Add 'Product Line', 'Product Type', 'Product Name', 'Quantity' and 'Revenue' to the report. 
  • Add a value prompt to the report page above the list report. Name the parameter p_sortcolumn. Do not create a parameterized filter and a new query.
  • Add another value prompt next to the one above and name the parameter p_asc_desc. Do not create a parameterized filter and a new query.
  • Add a prompt button after the value prompts above. Set the type property to Reprompt.
  • Set the static choices for the first value prompt.  The Use Value should equal what is displayed for the column headings. The display value does not need to be set.
  • Set the static choices for the second value prompt.  The first value should be Use=ASC and Display=Ascending.  The second value should be Use=DESC and Display=Descending.
  • Add a calculated member to the list report.  The expression should be as follows: 

case
when ?p_sortcolumn? = 'Product line' then (RANK([Product line] #prompt('p_asc_desc','token','ASC')#) )
when ?p_sortcolumn? = 'Product type' then (RANK([Product type] #prompt('p_asc_desc','token','ASC')#) )
when ?p_sortcolumn? = 'Product name' then (RANK([Product name] #prompt('p_asc_desc','token','ASC')#) )
when ?p_sortcolumn? = 'Quantity' then (RANK([Quantity] #prompt('p_asc_desc','token','ASC')#) )
when ?p_sortcolumn? = 'Revenue' then (RANK([Revenue] #prompt('p_asc_desc','token','ASC')#) )
else 0
end

  • Highlight the calculated column and header and set the box type to none.
  • Save and run the report. 
  • You can select the column you want to sort on, from the first prompt and the order of sorting from the second prompt.

 Additional Information

In the above calculated member, the values after ?p_sortcolumn? = correspond to the values you enter in for the Use values of the first value prompt.  The values used in RANK([xxxxxx]) is the data item referenced in the query.  These values can be dragged in from the Data Items tab when you are editing the expression.

Interested in Streamlining and Automating Your Cognos Administration Role?  Try MetaManager!

MetaManager was created to streamline and automate the administration process within a Cognos ReportNet or Cognos 8 environment.
 
With MetaManager's Command Line Interface, you can integrate MetaManager with external scheduling packages that initiate MetaManager processes. Using the command line interface, you can access the following product modules:
  • Report Validator
  • Global Name Changer
  • Screen Tip Generator
  • Find Replace
  • Backup / Restore

And even more, the results are captured in an XML format, so you can use your Cognos environment to view the results.  Click here for an example.

Did You Know...
 
In Cognos 8.3...
  • Model Advisor is a new tool that allows the modelers to adhere to the Cognos best practices.
  • Model Advisor is linked directly to Cognos documentation to enable modelers to quickly reference best practices.
  • Model Advisor is not the same as Verify Model.
Human Memory...
  • Is of three kinds.
  • Sensory Memory
    • Acts as buffers for stimuli received through the senses.
    • A sensory memory exists for each sensory channel.
      • iconic memory for visual stimuli.
      • echoic memory for aural stimuli.
      • haptic memory for touch.
    • Passes the information into short-term memory by attention. 
  • Short-Term Memory
    • Acts as a scratch-pad for temporary recall of the information under process.
    • Decays rapidly (200 ms.) and also has a limited capacity.
    • Can increase with chunking of information such as hyphenating a phone number.
    • Retention can be disturbed by interference.
  • Long-Term Memory
    • Is intended for storage of information over a long time.
    • Gets information transferred after a few seconds from short-term memory.
    • Has little decay unlike short-term memory.
BrightStar Partners is committed to bringing you quality content month after month. If you have ideas for topics or if there is something you'd like to learn more about, please contact us and we'll do our best to address your request!  We hope you enjoy this newsletter as much as we enjoy bringing it to you.