COGNOS Business Intelligence Series 7

Chapter 4: Deploy Cubes and Reports
Format Parameter
When you have located the reference Ids in the code, you can identify the category codes for
the URL specification. In our code example, the following table shows the filter information.
Dimension Filter RefID Category Code
Years 277 19970101-19971231
Products 413 Tents
MEASURES 4 Measures
Note: The category code for MEASURES is the
default (the first available measure), as no filter was
specified on this dimension.
9. Build the Filter parameter for the URL, using its string format.
For example, using our code example, the Filter parameter would be:
FILTER=Years19970101-19971231ProductsTents
As characters cannot appear in a URL and are typically replaced by the ASCII code
(%09), the full URL specification for our example would appear as:
http:////cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?TARGET=Great%20Outdoors&FILTER=Years%091997010
1-19971231%09Products%09Tents&FORMAT=HTML
3 rd Party Cubes
You can use the same steps to build the filter parameter for 3 rd party cubes, however, the codes
may be quite different.
For example, the URL specification for a Microsoft Analysis Services cube might look like the
following:
http:////cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?TARGET=%2FImported%20Reports%2FFS%20Account%20Per
formance%2F69e_29162&FILTER=2[Financial]%096[Financial].[FS].[Sell%20To%20Account].
%26[10937]%092[Time]%096[Time].[Fiscal].[Year].%26[20030929]&FORMAT=HTML
This URL passes an Account ID from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to
generate a filtered PowerPlay Web report. The first parameter (TARGET) defines the report in the
Imported Reports/FS/Account Performance folder. The Account ID specified in the URL is
[10937] from the Dimension defined by code 2[Financial] and the category defined by code
6[Financial].[FS].[Sell to Account]. The URL also contains a filter on the Time dimension
referenced by code 2[Time], specifying a filter on a particular fiscal year.
The format parameter is required and must be specified as either HTML or PDF. There is no
default.
Example
A full URL specification might appear as:
http:////cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?TARGET=Great%20Outdoors&FILTER=Years%0919970101-19
971231%09Products%09Tents&FORMAT=HTML
Improve Web Performance
You can improve the way PowerPlay Web Explorer displays cube data by changing the Zero
Suppression setting in PowerPlay Enterprise Server. The Zero Suppression setting tells Enterprise
Server whether or not to display calculated zero values.
Performance can be enhanced by disabling the suppression of computed zeros.
Enterprise Server Guide 57