New features - IBM® Cognos® Analytics 11.1.2.

For the business user who needs to easily create compelling visualizations and dashboards. For the business leader who needs a proven, self-service analytics solution they can trust. For the enterprise that needs the scalability and analytics governance the business demands — whether on premises or on the cloud — IBM Cognos® Analytics, delivers it all.

Here are some of the new features in the latest release of IBM Cognos® Analytics, 11.1.2

General

The following features are new in Cognos Analytics 11.1.2, and they affect multiple product components.

Integration with Jupyter notebooks

The notebooks capability integrates Jupyter notebooks within IBM® Cognos Analytics. Using notebooks, users can execute Python scripts against Cognos Analytics data.

The users can:

• Analyze data for actionable insights using Python and save notebooks as a Cognos Analytics asset that can be shared and scheduled.
• Shape data and make new data assets available to Cognos Analytics users. These data assets can be used to build dashboards, reports, data modules, and other content.
• Embed notebook output cells in the Cognos Analytics dashboards.

For a demonstration of how to use Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook, watch this video:

Currently, the notebook capability is supported with on-premises installations of Cognos Analytics. An administrator must give users access to the Notebooks capability before they can perform any of the notebook activities.

For more information, see Notebooks.

Cognos Analytics includes a few notebook samples to help you get started. For more information, see Jupyter notebook samples.

Uploading files to a specific folder

You can initiate a file upload from a folder in Team content or My content. The files are saved to the folder from which you initiated the upload. This feature allows you to keep the uploaded files together with the reports, dashboards, or explorations that use them as a source.

Installing and Configuring

Installing IBM Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook Server

You can install a version of Jupyter Notebook Server that is integrated with Cognos Analytics. After Jupyter Notebook Server is configured, Cognos Analytics users can create and edit Jupyter Notebook in Cognos Analytics.

For more information, see Installing IBM Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook Server.

Administering

The following administration features are new or changed in Cognos® Analytics 11.1.2.

New capabilities

The administrator can assign new capabilities to selected users, allowing them to perform specialized tasks. Two new capabilities are available in 11.1.2:

• The job capability allows a user to create jobs. For more information, see Job capability.
• The notebook capability allows a user to create and edit Jupyter notebooks, which are integrated with Cognos Analytics. For more information, see Notebook capability.

Enabling Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook

Administrators can configure IBM® Cognos® Analytics to connect to a computer that is running IBM Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook Server.

For more information, see Enabling IBM Cognos Analytics for Jupyter Notebook.

Support for new versions of Microsoft Analysis Services data servers

Cognos Analytics now supports the following versions of Microsoft Analysis Services data servers:

• Microsoft Analysis Services (HTTP XMLA)

  Existing connections to a Microsoft Analysis Services 2017 server still work. Reports that were created against previous versions of the data server work after they are switched to use the new server.

• Microsoft Analysis Services 2017 (ODBO)

  Existing connections that are moved to this server might lose signons. Reports that were created against previous versions of the data server still work after they are switched to use the new client and server. The client and server versions must match.

  Similar to other Microsoft Analysis Services MSOLAP versions, the Microsoft Analysis Services MSOLAP client must be installed to the same location as the report server. For this version of Microsoft Analysis Services, the MSOLAP version 14 client is required.

For more information, see Data servers.

Support for JWT authentication with SAP HANA data server connections

A connection to an SAP HANA data server that uses the SAP HANA JDBC driver can be configured to pass a JSON Web Token (JWT) when authenticating to the database.

To use this functionality with an SAP HANA data server connection, Cognos Analytics must be configured to use an OpenID Connect authentication provider. To provide the token, the connection settings must specify the OpenID Connect namespace that was configured as an identity provider. The identity provider namespace must be capable of returning claims in the JWT that SAP HANA requires.

When setting the SAP HANA data server connection, choose the Use an external namespace authentication method. For more information, see Creating a data server connection.

For information about configuring an OpenID authentication provider, see OpenID Connect authentication provider.

Modelling

The following modeling features are new or changed in Cognos® Analytics 11.1.2.

Diagram enhancements

The following features were added to the diagram:

• Focus mode

  In a diagram with a large number of tables, use this feature to work with one or a few selected tables and their relationships.

• Auto-arrange

  A diagram can be redrawn around the tables that you select, allowing you to focus on the selected tables and their relationships. The data module can be saved with the diagram modifications.

For more information, see Modeling user interface.

Calculating values before or after aggregation

When creating a calculation, you can specify if the calculation must be performed before or after values are aggregated. In the first case, the calculation is performed on the most granular level of data. In the second case, the calculation is performed on the aggregated data. The calculation results can be different in each case.

This option is also available for calculations in dashboards.

For more information, see Calculations.

Dashboards and Stories

The following dashboards and stories features are new or changed in Cognos® Analytics 11.1.2.

Create your own custom sort order

From an axis label on a visualization, or from the data slots on an expanded visualization, you can create a custom sort order on the displayed data.

For more information, see Custom sorting.

Create your own custom data group

You can organize column data into custom groups so that the data is easier to read and analyze. Create custom data groups directly in a dashboard without having to open the data modeling component.

For more information, see Creating custom data groups.

Add a Jupyter Notebook cell

You can use the Notebook widget to add notebooks to a dashboard or story.

For more information, see Adding a notebook widget.

Create ordered or unordered lists

From the properties for a text widget, you can select an ordered or an unordered list for your dashboard or story.

For more information, see Adding text.

Automatically refresh the data each time your story starts

You can set your story to refresh the data source each time, that the story starts from the beginning.

For more information, see Refreshing the data each time your story starts.

The all new IBM Cognos® Analytics, driven by AI.

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