Chapter 3. Data Sources For Your Model; Techniques For Designing Data Sources; Data Source Types - IBM Cognos User Manual

Chapter 3. Data Sources for Your Model

Models contain definitions of dimensions, levels, and measures. They also contain
features such as calculated measures, dimension views, or custom views that you
add to the basic PowerCube definition to meet your particular business intelligence
needs.
By querying the data in the specified sources, you create the multidimensional
PowerCubes or cube groups required by users of the IBM Cognos Business
Intelligence components, such as Analysis Studio.
Data sources can be one of the following:
v Structural (dimensional)
v Transactional (fact)
v Mixed

Techniques for Designing Data Sources

When setting up the data sources for your model, you should take into
consideration three principles.
These three principles are as follows:
v Where possible, design your data so that the structural information for each
v Ensure that each data source contains enough information to generate the
v In addition to database security, be aware that different releases of Cognos

Data Source Types

Cognos Transformer supports IBM Cognos Series 7 data sources as well as
packages and reports that contain IBM Cognos query items.
This section lists the supported data sources, summarizes the information you
must specify for each data source, and identifies associated limitations.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007, 2011
Contain the columns that define the model structure, such as the categories in
each dimension. Structural sources usually contain many columns and few rows.
Contain the columns for the measures to be tracked. They usually contain many
rows and few columns, typically one for each dimension and one for each
measure.
Contain the columns that define the model structure and the columns that
contain the measures to be tracked, using the same data source.
dimension is provided by one source.
categories for a dimension without database joins. If you must use database
joins, join queries from separate database tables using tools such as Framework
Manager, before you import the data.
Transformer offer different options for protecting your cubes and controlling
access to information. For example, Cognos Transformer version 7.x supports
user class views whereas later versions of Cognos Transformer replace this
feature with custom views that can be associated with IBM Cognos security
objects (users, groups, and roles).
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