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October 2006 Rebecca Raybould Class Notes Page 1

Instructor: Chris
Power Play Transformer

Power Play Transformer (cube creator) has a screen with four regions:
1. Data Sources
2. Dimensions = qualitative criteria, the drill down criteria, ie, year, class, student
3. Measures = actual counts that calculations can be run against, the numeric items
4. Power Cubes

To create a cube.

Begin your design by defining the different dimension hierarchies:


Sch All Distr Ethnic Gendr SPED Low LEP/ Student Migrant Proficient
Year subj Inc ELL Mastery Mastery
Year Subj Schls Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N 1-4 #
students
test Grade code
Class Scaled
score
Studnt %
correct

Before you can create cubes, you need to tell the software what data source to use.
Call up Framework Manager.
1. Open Assessment project to utilize the relationships & links within that project.
2. Click on Project in menu bar and “Logon as”. (If you don’t logon, you will get stopped
when you try to publish.
3. Click on CRT Student Test under Assessment
4. In Properties, change “Externalized Method” to IQD
5. Publish to new package: CRT Student Test PowerPlay
6. Under “Define Objects”, remove (uncheck) anything you’re not going to use, eg, CRT
Concept & Objective.
7. Now take all the defaults until “Select Location Type”
8. Uncheck “enable model versioning” and check “generate the files for externalized query
subjects” and REMEMBER where you are putting the files. We created a directory under
COGNOS8/Data/DataCube 100906
9. Close Framework Manager.

Call up PowerPlay Transformer


(All Programs >> Cognos 8 >> Tools >> PowerPlay Transformer)
1. New file
2. Keep pressing next until you need to browse and locate the
3. COGNOS8/Data/DataCube 100906
4. When you get the PowerPlay Transformer Warning
5. Go to c:\Program Files\Cognos\cognos.ini
October 2006 Rebecca Raybould Class Notes Page 2
Instructor: Chris
6. Edit the cognos.ini file and add this line for the new database you are now pointing to. To
find the exact text, don’t exit Transformer,but Call up Cognos Connection >>Tools >>
Directory >> Data Sources >> Assessment >> More >> View connections >> Test the
connection (this is the icon to the far right)
Highlight the entire “connection string” and paste into the Cognos.ini file:
^User ID:^?Password:;LOCAL;OL;DBInfo_Type=MS;Provider=SQLOLEDB;User ID=%s;Password=%s;Data
Source=localhost;Provider_String=Initial Catalog=Assessment;@COLSEQ=

Note: This will all fit on ONE line at the end of the file. Yes, it is on two lines above, but should
be one line in the .INI file. Anytime you have other data sources, you would have to edit this
line.

Just press the Back button in Transformer and then Next to have it re-run this part without the
warning…

We were well into PowerPlay Transformer before I could take more notes… here are a few
reminders….

We have data for 2004, 2005, and 2006. We want to have data to show the difference from 2006
to 2005. So we added a new field to the diagram for school year. Then right click on it and
“Change to a calculated category”. Drop and drag so it says “2006”-“2005”

Or, for alternate drill down, right click on “Test” under “Subject” hierarchy. Select “Create Drill
Down”. It will warn you that categories must have unique source values. You should answer
“N0” and it should proceed. However, I ended up with a database error that stopped it from
creating.

Right click in the window space of PowerCubes

To publish the cube for access by Cognos Connection, you must know the location of the cube
which has an extension MDC. I put mine in Cognos8\cubes

Cognos Connection >> Tools >> Directory >> Data Sources


Filename of what the users will see. I called it CRT Cube
Select Cognos8 Powercube as the type.
Put in the full path name of where the .MDC file is located.
Test the connection.

Now go into Framework Manager. LOGON. Create a new project for CRT Cube. Publish. Save.
Exit.

Now go to “Home” in Cognos Connection.


October 2006 Rebecca Raybould Class Notes Page 3
Instructor: Chris
Select the new package, CRT Cube
Select Analysis Studio.

Context filters data not in the display. For example, you might want to filter results based on
ethnicity, but ethnicity is neither a column heading nor a row heading.

In the future, if you change the cube you need to save it in your “new cubes” folder.
Then move it into your “cubes” folder.
Then republish with Framework.
Then see it in Cognos Connection.

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