Planned, professional reports are created in Report Studio, and ad hoc reports are created in Query Studio.
The topics in this section document problems you may encounter when creating reports.
In Report Studio and Query Studio, if you define a chart and render it in HTML or PDF format using the default sizes, the axis labels of the chart may overwrite each other.
To avoid this problem, make the chart wider or taller by modifying the height and width properties of the chart or enable the Allow Skip property.
You create a report that includes a chart. The Allow Skip option is set to false, but when you run the report, labels are skipped.
This can occur if there is not enough room for all labels and the options Allow 45 Degree Rotation, Allow 90 Degree Rotation, and Allow Stagger are also set to false. IBM Cognos 8 has no options for making the labels fit, so it skips every second label.
The solution is to select either Allow 45 Degree Rotation, Allow 90 Degree Rotation, or Allow Stagger.
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In Report Studio, you can define a custom palette for a chart that includes a gradient. When the chart is rendered in HTML format, the chart background appears gray. This is a Microsoft Web browser issue.
To avoid this problem, select the chart and define the color white as the chart background.
For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294714.
If you have a list that accesses a relational data source, a calculation containing a division by zero operation appears as a null value, such as an empty cell. In a crosstab, the division by zero operation appears as /0. This happens when the Avoid Division by Zero property is set to Yes, which is the default.
To have a consistent display of null values in lists and crosstabs, define an if-then-else statement in the expression in the crosstab cell that changes the value /0 to the value null.
When upgrading a report, the following error appears if the report contains data items in the page layout that are not in a data container:
RSV-SRV-0040 An application error has occurred. Please contact your Administrator.
This error occurs when IBM Cognos 8 cannot determine the query reference for a data item. Such data items are identified by a small red circle with a white x icon that appears in the lower left corner.
To correct the error, drag the data items into a container. If the container is a list, we recommend that you drag the data items into the list page header or footer, or the overall header or footer. If you want to see the first row of the item on each page or in the overall report, drag the item to the list page header or overall header. If you want to see the item’s last row on each page or in the overall report, drag the item to the list page footer or overall footer. Tip: If a header or footer does not exist, create it.
When you upgrade a nested list report that contains a data item that is grouped in both lists, the report does not run and an error such as the following appears:
OP-ERR-0199: The query is not supported. The dimensions on the edge are inconsistent. The dataItems from dimension="[Product line]" must be adjacent.
This error occurs when the report is run against a dimensional data source and both lists are using the same query. This error does not occur if the report is run against a relational data source.
For example, you have a list that contains the grouped items Product line and Product type and a nested list that contains the data items Year, Quarter, and Unit sale price. Year, Quarter, and Product line are grouped items in the nested list.
To resolve the issue, delete the data item that is grouped in both lists from the inner list.
Click anywhere in the report.
In the Properties pane, click the select ancestor button and click the List link that represents the inner list.
Double-click the Grouping & Sorting property.
In the Groups pane, select the data item that you want and click the delete button.
When creating a Query Studio template in Report Studio, if you add a list object and change its background color, the color change does not appear when you apply the template to a Query Studio report.
To work around this issue, do one of the following:
Edit the style sheet (CSS) classes for lists in Report Studio.
Do not add any objects to the page body when you are creating a Query Studio template.
Leave the page body blank.
When using a PowerCube that contains a ragged hierarchy, if you group on the first level in the hierarchy, subtotals may appear in the wrong place or show wrong values.
To resolve the issue, group on the second level.
When there is a metadata change on the Essbase server, the change is not immediately reflected in the metadata tree in the studios. In addition, when a report is run, the report does not pick up the republished changes.
To view the new structure, you must restart the Content Manager server.
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In a report, the relationship between nested or parallel sets at overlapping levels in the same dimension may not always be maintained.
For example, a named set in the data source that contains members from both a Year and Month member is nested under Year, but is not properly grouped by year.
In another example, an error message such as this appears: "OP-ERR-0201 Values cannot be computed correctly in the presence of multiple hierarchies ([Product].[B1], [Product].[Product]) that each have a level based on the same attribute (Product)."
This problem occurs in the following scenarios involving non-measure data items X and Y, that overlap in the same dimension:
X and Y together as ungrouped report details
Y nested under X
Y appended as an attribute of a group based on X
When using named sets, or sets that cover more than one level of a hierarchy, do not use sets from the same dimension in more than one place in the same report. They should appear on only one level of one edge.
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SAP BW data sources may have problems with sections in reports under different circumstances:
If a section in a report uses the lowest-level query item in a ragged hierarchy, such as the children of the "not assigned" node, the following BAPI error may appear:
BAPI error occurred in function module BAPI_MDDATASET_SELECT_DATA. Value <valueName> for characteristic <cubeName> unknown
For more information about working with ragged or unbalanced hierarchies, see the Report Studio Professional Authoring User Guide.
If you create a section in a report using conformed multicubes with SAP variables, an SAP error message may appear.
The solution is to remove the section from the lowest-level query item.
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The solution is to use one multicube when creating sections in reports.
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When you run a report, you see two dash (--) characters in your report instead of values.
These characters may appear if you use an OLAP data sources other than PowerCube and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS), and you apply aggregation to calculations and measures that use rollups other than Sum (Total), Maximum, Minimum, First, Last, and Count.
All other types of rollup either fail or return error cells, which typically display as two dash characters (--).
This problem occurs in, but is not limited to, the following:
footers
aggregate function
summary filters and detail filters that use a summary
detail, summary, and context filters that select more than one member of a hierarchy that is used elsewhere on the report
If you are working with a SSAS 2005 data source, these characters may also appear in summary cells if you use an OR filter in the summary. To avoid this problem, do not use OR filters in summaries.
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If you create an expression that uses the descendants function with sets, you may encounter unpredictable results. Some expected members may be missing or may have blank captions or labels.
This problem occurs if the descendants function uses a set as its first parameter instead of a single member and if the descendants function is nested under another data item from the same hierarchy.
To avoid this problem, replace the first parameter in the descendants function with the function currentmember(H), where H is the hierarchy of the desired set and under which the expression is nested. For example, use descendants(currentmember(H).
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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) has a feature called AutoExists that removes tuples that have no facts at the intersection of two hierarchies of the same dimension.
Columns, rows, or data can disappear if you set the default member of a hierarchy to a member that does not exist with every other member in the dimension. To avoid this problem, change the default member that caused the disappearance to a member that exists with all other members in the dimension.
Columns, rows, or data can also disappear if members are specified that result in one or more non-existent tuples. There is currently no workaround for this scenario. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944527.
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You may also encounter unexpected results if the default member of a hierarchy is a member that doesn't also exist in all other hierarchies in the dimension, and if you query members from different hierarchies in the same dimension.
For example a Report Studio crosstab includes the following (using the Adventure Works cube):
Rows: Generate([Adventure_Works].[Account].[Accounts],set([Balance Sheet],[Units])) nested with
children([Adventure_Works].[Department].[Departments]->:[YK].[[Department]].[Departments]].&[1]]])
Column: [Adventure_Works].[Account].[Account Number].[Account Number]
Measure: [Adventure_Works].[Measures].[Amount]
You run the report and notice that the query renders with some blanks cells. You then apply the simple detail filter [Amount]>1 and run the report. Only row labels are displayed and all data and columns are missing.
In the Adventure Works cube, the [Account].[Accounts] attribute has a default member set to [Net Income]. When evaluating the GENERATE set expression, SSAS looks in the entire cube space and looks at all coordinates for the [Account] dimension. These coordinates include both [Account][Account Type].&[] and [Account].[Accounts].[Net Income]. Because these two coordinates don't exist within the same hierarchy, SSAS returns an empty set.
To avoid this problem the SSAS administrator must set the default member in the cube to a member that exists in all other hierarchies.
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When using data sources other than OLAP and you run a report, cell formatting may not appear as expected. For example, some cells may appear very small. This could be caused by null values returned from the query.
To specify what appears for a data container when there are null values in a query, refer to the Report Studio Professional Authoring User Guide.
You may also see an "Invalid Dates" message in some cells. This issue is specific to Transformer and occurs when cubes are constructed with unknown date values. For more information, see the Transformer User Guide.
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When using a TM1 data source, comparable reports created in an IBM Cognos 8 studio and in TM1 Executive Viewer may contain different cell values. This occurs because the TM1 Executive Viewer product uses an algorithm for selecting default members for non-projected dimensions that differs slightly from traditional OLAP clients.
To avoid this problem, when filtering your reports in the IBM Cognos studios, use context filters that match the default selections shown in the Executive Viewer user interface. This ensures that the cell values in IBM Cognos 8 match the values in Executive Viewer.
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When using a TM1 data source, the order of members in the metadata tree of the Insertable Objects pane of an IBM Cognos 8 studio may differ from the order shown in TM1 Architect.
By default, TM1 Architect renders members of hierarchies using a slightly different algorithm than does IBM Cognos 8. IBM Cognos 8 automatically renders member metadata from TM1 data sources in hierarchical order.
From within TM1 Architect, if you want to see how an IBM Cognos 8 studio will render a hierarchy, click the Hierarchy Sort button.
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