Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.7
Final enhanced product catalog
Our careful string manipulation and simple font-color change allowed us to create an illu-
sion of word highlighting within a larger text field based on the word search entered by the user at
runtime.
In class, we teach students that query macros can be written to take advantage of the IBM Cog-
nos BI capability to dynamically change the report queries at runtime. Query macros can be
built to integrate information about the report consumer or to enhance the queries that are writ-
ten. Unfortunately, the query macros are not easy to master because the documentation exists
only in the IBM Cognos Framework Manager documentation. In our example, we will show
how the solution to the common business problem can be resolved without resorting to the use
of query macros.
The sales team wants to be able to quickly analyze how each retailer region is performing
according to product quantities sold, revenue produced, and gross profit achieved. The sales team
would like to be able to filter the results in one of three ways: by selected date, by selected order
method, or by selected employee.
The team would like one report where they can select the type of filter and the value to
include for the filter and see the results in a crosstab so that they can quickly compare the num-
bers between the products and the regions. The final prompt result we are trying to achieve should
look similar to Figure 1.8.
Figure 1.8
Main prompt page
