IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes

60 IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes

4.1 Introduction to IBM Cognos Cube Designer

IBM Cognos Cube Designer is a new modeling environment that is built for the design and

deployment of dynamic cubes. Cognos Cube Designer contains a number of features to

streamline the modeling process and help users ensure that a quality model is defined and

deployed.

Users can explore the structure of their data and examine the relationships between the

tables in their data warehouse to determine the objects to be used in their cube model.

Auto-design features in Cognos Cube Designer use primary-foreign keys, if they exist, in the

data source of the users to create a cube model as a starting point for users to further refine.

Cognos Cube Designer modeling workflow

To design and deploy a dynamic cube application to your IBM Cognos BI environment, you

must first model your cube definition in Cognos Cube Designer. Here, you select the

database schema that contains the data against which you want to report or perform analysis,

import the required metadata, and then define the dimensions and measures that will be

included in your dynamic cube. After the cube is defined, you may deploy your dynamic cube

to your server and then perform additional operations, such as use Dynamic Query Analyzer

to recommend aggregates, or apply security in Cognos Connection.

The following sections describe these steps in greater detail and provide step-by-step

examples of how to perform these tasks.

4.2 Working with Cognos Cube Designer

We will be working with the gosldw_sales data source that is included in the IBM Cognos BI

10.2 Samples. A model is used to illustrate points and to allow you to get experience with

Cognos Cube Designer. This model is similar to the sample Cube Designer model that is

included with the IBM Cognos BI samples. If you want to follow along with the activities in this

chapter, you can use the Cognos Cube Designer sample model. The assumption is that you

have access to the gosldw_sales data source as you work through this chapter.

The end of this chapter has a collection of tasks, in tutorial format, to guide you through

building the entire Cognos Cube Designer model that is used in this chapter.

4.2.1 Launching Cognos Cube Designer

Cognos Cube Designer can be launched from the Programs Menu in the Start Menu or from

within IBM Cognos Framework Manager, by selecting the Run IBM Cognos Cube Designer

option from the Tools menu. If you installed Cognos Cube Designer correctly, you see this

additional menu option available in the Tools menu. If it is not present, reinstall Cognos Cube

Designer on top of your Framework Manager. After starting Cognos Cube Designer, the

Welcome window opens and you have the option of creating a new project or opening an

existing project from the file system.