Table of Contents
3. Modeling – Framework Manager
1. Purpose
This document details the various design approaches to be used in Reporting for generating Cognos 8 reports. This is a technical paper that explains different report complexities and the various design options available to achieve them using Cognos Cognos 8 Report Studio. The document explains each option and weighs the advantages and disadvantages for each option. This document is a compilation of various options that were thought feasible keeping in mind the current environment and as per the requirements for reporting.
2. Scope
The design approaches considered in this document include
Ø Report Design – Cognos 8 BI
Ø Performance Tuning of the Reports – Cognos 8 BI
Note: The practices & approaches considered for a particular functionality / operational concept / process may result in trade-off on part of the functionality but will be performance optimal.
3. Modeling – Framework Manager
I. Verify Relationships And Cardinality:
Detect Cardinality from the Data Source
When importing from a relational data source, cardinality is detected based on a set of rules
specified by the modeler.
The available options are:
• Use primary and foreign keys
• Use matching query item names that represent uniquely indexed columns
• Use matching query item names
The most common situation is to use the first two options: primary and foreign keys as well as
query items that represent uniquely indexed columns. When you use these options to import your metadata and generate relationships, remember that you are adding this information to your model (this is important to note for later sections of this paper).
Note: Optional relationships, full outer joins, and many-to-many relationships can be imported
from your database and are supported for query execution. Recursive relationships can be
imported from your database and will appear in the model but they are not supported for query
execution.
Usage of Cardinality in Query Generation
Framework Manager Modeling Guidelines:
The general rule applied to cardinality is as follows:
0-to-n or 1-to-n cardinality implies FACT
0-to-1 or 1-to-1 cardinality implies DIMENSION
These rules are applied in the scope w\of what is included in any given query. Framework Manager supports both minimum/maximum cardinality as well as mandatory/optional.
In cases where minimum/maximum cardinality is defined (as recommended by Cognos’s best
practices) it will be applied to identify facts and dimensions.
The basic rules that apply to the usage of cardinality are:
• Cardinality is applied in the context of a query -- only the cardinalities of items explicitly
included in the query are evaluated.
• Query subjects defined with 1-to-many or 0-to-many cardinalities are identified as facts.
• Query subjects defined with 1-to-1 or 0-to-1 cardinalities are identified as dimensions.
• It is possible to have a query subject behave as a dimension in one query and as a fact in
another.
Note: When only mandatory/optional cardinality is employed, SQL generated will not be able to
compensate for double counting that can occur when dealing with hierarchical relationships and
different levels of granularity.
Identifying Facts and Dimensions:
Within the context of a query, a query subject that has only maximum (n) cardinality on all its
relationships to other query subjects can be regarded as a fact. The implication is that there are
more rows of data in the fact query subject than in the related query subject on the minimum (1)
side of the relationship. Any query subject having at least one relationship to another query
subject with minimum cardinality (1) will be treated as a dimension.
Analyze a Schema for Facts and Dimensions:
Example 1: In this example, all four query subjects are included in a query. The diagram shows
that the query subjects having only maximum (n) cardinalities are treated as facts.
Example 2: In this example, only three query subjects are included in the query. The diagram
shows that the Order Header query subject is now treated as a fact.
Example 3: In this example, query subjects whose cardinality indicates that they are always facts
are circled in blue. Areas where the behavior is dependent on the context of the query are circle
in red. All query subjects that are not circled behave as dimensions in all cases.
II. Simplify the Model with Dimensional Concepts
Framework Manager Modeling Guidelines:
Use the cardinality rules from the previous section to identify areas of the model that ambiguously identify dimensions or facts.
There are often cases in normalized or snowflake data sources where several tables exist to describe a single business concept. Product is a very common example of this. For example, anormalized representation of Product includes three tables related by one to many relationships.Each Product Line has one or more Product Types.
Each Product Type has one or more Products.
An end user may or may not be knowledgeable about the relationship between the individual levels of product, also the necessity to expand and select a query item from each query subject in the model makes more clicks for the end user. A modeler can make the decision to create a model query subject for product that not only simplifies using Product for the purpose of ad hoc query and reporting but also presents the levels of the hierarchy in order to visually cue the end user on the relationship between the levels. If desired, the modeler can use query item folders to clarify which attributes apply to which level. In this example further clarification is not required.
Collapse Master/Detail Relationships:
In order to simplify the model in this case, it is better to create a model query subject that combines the foreign keys of both Order Header and Order Details and includes all measures at the Order Detail level.
III. Resolve Ambiguous Relationships
Framework Manager Modeling Guidelines
Cases of multiple relationships or recursive relationships generally imply that the data represented by a query subject can be viewed in more than one context or role and should be modeled accordingly.
Two common examples of ambiguous relationships are:
Multiple Valid Relationships –typically occur between dimensions and facts. Create a shortcut or model query subject for each role with a single relationship specific to the role.
Recursive Relationships – typically imply two or more levels of granularity. As a minimum create a shortcut or model query subject each for the parent and the child roles. For a deep recursive hierarchy, we recommend that the hierarchy be flattened in the database and that you model the flattened hierarchy in a single query subject.
An ambiguous relationship occurs where there are multiple relationship paths between one or more query subjects leaving multiple options for how to write a query. This is a situation that can be responded to by the modeler or in the database by the DBA. If appropriate, the DBA can choose to remove extra relationships (although this can potentially result in another situation that
(IV) DEFINE DIMENSIONAL INFORMATION
The primary purpose of dimensional information in Framework Manager is to prevent double counting. By specifying the internal cardinality or granularity of the data in a query subject, it is possible to enhance the model and allow the query engine to anticipate situations in which double-counting could occur.
- Identify the levels that are relevant for reporting purposes
- Identify the key(s) for those levels and if those keys uniquely identify the members of their respective levels
- Identify any attributes associated to levels.
- Identify the hierarchy of the levels – the relationship between levels.
- Multiple hierarchies may exist, it is recommended that these be explicitly modeled with additional query subjects.
- Star style dimension tables are perfect candidates for dimensional information because they typically have more than one level and they include attributes that are associated to more than one level.
When and How to Use Dimensional Information:
Use dimensional information to specify the relationship between levels in a multi-level dimension.For example, there is a time dimension table that contains keys for days, months, quarters, and years. Day key is the primary key of the table, However, there are also keys for month, quarter and current_year, each of which can uniquely identify the data at their respective levels and could relate directly to facts in the database.
In order to define the behavior expected when querying at a one or more levels of time,dimensional information is used. Levels are defined for years, quarters, months, and days. A key is defined for each level and in this example, that key is sufficient to uniquely identify the level. A hierarchy is defined to specify the relationships between the levels: days roll up to months, months to quarters, and quarters to years. Attributes and facts can also be defined for each level.
Any attribute or fact that is not explicitly associated to a level will be treated by default as if it were associated to the lowest level (day).
When performing multi-fact queries between facts at different levels of granularity, dimension information on conformed dimensions ensures correct behavior when a multi-fact query is submitted and each fact is recorded for a different time period (daily versus monthly, for example). The query engine will use its understanding of the relationship between days and months from the defined dimensional information to ensure that data is rolled up correctly.
How to Avoid Double-Counting
There are several common scenarios that can lead to double-counting:
• multi-fact, multi-grain queries
• aggregate tables
• multiple hierarchies
Multi-Fact/Multi-Grain Queries
Multi-fact queries where de-normalized dimensions are related to fact tables on different keys
(and therefore levels). A de-normalized dimension table typically has internal cardinality – distinct levels of attribute data with keys that have a hierarchical relationship to each other.
Example: Multi-Fact/Multi-Grain Query with Dimensional Information
A multi-fact/multi-grain query is typically the result of multiple star schemas sharing conformed
dimensions but using keys for different levels of the same hierarchy. There is potential for double counting the since an aggregation is required to bring quantitative items from both fact tables to the same level of granularity for reporting.
The example above shows two fact tables sharing a time dimension and a product dimension. The Time dimension has four levels: Year, Quarter, Month, and Day. It has a relationship to Inventory Levels Fact on the Month key and to Sales Fact on Day key. The Product dimension has three levels: Product Line, Product Type, and Product. It has relationships to both fact tables on the Product key. A report on these four tables will, by default, be aggregated to retrieve records from each fact table at the lowest common level of granularity, in this case at the month and product level. Without specifying dimensional information on the time dimension, it is possible that incorrect aggregation could occur – for example monthly fact values could be rolled up based on the lower time level of days. By using dimensional information to specify that days roll up to months, months to quarters, and quarters to years, any request to aggregate based on time will ensure that days are rolled up to months.§ Approach 1 cannot be used in the following scenarios:
If the query include summaries, then there could be a chance that due to multiplication or replication of the records incorrect calculation of summaries in either of the child elements of the Tabular SET and hence the 1. INTERSECT/EXCEPT functionality will fail to not mimic the EXIST/NOT EXIST functionality.
§ Approach 2 cannot be used in the following scenarios:
1. If the query includes an EXIST clause, then since functionality of EXIST clause cannot be implemented using OUTER JOIN, approach 2 cannot be used.
2. If the query has a NOT EXIST clause and if the metadata created to implement the functionality of NOT EXIST is not generic (i.e has any report specific user input filters in the metadata, then approach 2 will not be used.
§ Approach 4 will be used instead of approach 3 if and only if the SQL can be completely reused for another report of the same application (without the need to have any additional joins in the metadata).
(iii) Reports with queries having UNION/UNION ALL clause
Approach 1: Tabular Set
Report Studio Tabular Sets can be used to create reports which have UNION/UNION ALL queries. The tabular set is basically a relational set expression that combines two or more tabular structures like tabular model, tabular SQL and so on. A tabular set produces a single result set, which is the UNION/UNION, ALL of the tabular structures.
Approach 2: Tabular SQL
Report Studio Tabular SQL feature can be used when there is a need to create reports having queries with UNION/UNION ALL. The SQL statement may be expressed by using syntax recognized by the native database, or by using Cognos SQL syntax
Approach 3: Data source Query Subjects in Framework Manager
Data source query subject in Framework Manager can be used when there is a need to create reports having queries with UNION/UNION ALL clause. The SQL statement may be expressed by using syntax recognized by the native database, or by using Cognos SQL syntax. This query subject can be used in report studio to create reports.
§ Approach 1 cannot be used in the following scenarios:
1. If the individual SQL of the query cannot be implemented using either Tabular Sets or Tabular Models, then approach 1 will not be used.
§ Approach 3 will be used instead of approach 2, if and only if the SQL can be completely reused for another report of the same application (without the need to have any additional joins in the metadata).
When a SELECT query is nested inside another SELECT, then it is an inline query.
Report Studio Tabular SQL feature can be used when there is a need to create reports having inline Query. The SQL statement may be expressed by using syntax recognized by the native database, or by using Cognos SQL syntax.
(V) Reports where the query has user inputs in outer join
Macro function #prompt# can be used to define a parameter in the outer join definition in the Tabular SQL. The value to this prompt is set from the prompt page thereby mimicking the functionality of passing user inputs to the outer join.
Macro function #prompt# can be used to define a parameter in the outer join definition in the FM Metadata. The value to this prompt is set from the prompt page thereby mimicking the functionality of passing user inputs to the outer join.
• Approach 2 will be used instead of approach 1, if and only if the metadata can be completely reused for another report of the same application (without the need to have any additional joins in the metadata).
(vi) Reports having complex logic (Unions with multiple save data, Complex Calculations, Loops, nested Conditions, etc).
Approach 1: Summary Table
Summary table can be created. This summary table can be joined with the required tables in order to pull out the report in the report studio. The data in the table needs to be refreshed periodically.
If data retention/volume is less than 1million records.
Data in the report is not real-time / not near real-time.
User volume is high.
Approach 2: Stored Procedure
If the data in the report needs to be real time or near real time report or if the data retention is more than 1 million records, then SP approach would be considered. The stored procedure is defined in the FM Metadata and the report uses this stored procedure query subject to pull out the data. In some cases table variables might need to be used.
(vii) Report Query needs inputs from online applications/batch process
Cognos 8 SDK can be used to pass parameters to the reports.
5. Performance Tuning
(I). Try to set the Processing property to Database Only. It runs faster than Limited Local.
