Professional > Data management scripting > Publishing data
 
Publishing data
Data management scripting allows you to publish live data, via data management scripting, to reporting applications (namely IBM Cognos Business Intelligence). The feature is designed to provide enterprise level reporting, analysis, score-carding, and event notification.
Note For information on working with Microsoft Reporting Services, see Creating reports with Microsoft Reporting Services.
The Publish Data feature publishes respondent level UNICOM Intelligence data to the Cognos reporting system.
Publish Data workflow
1 The required Cognos schemas are prepared based on the UNICOM Intelligence RDB2 schema.
2 A Cognos package is published, via Cognos external dispatcher, based on the action log. The package consists of connection information to the physical data (PhysicalView) and the metadata objects (PresentationView) that are used in the Cognos report.
3 The package is published, including the PresentationView, to the Cognos Content Store.
4 The report is rendered in Cognos Report Studio based on the package content.
Limitations
The publish feature requires RDB2 DSC datasets in order to support reporting on live response data. All non-RDB2 datasets must be transformed to RDB2 DSC before being published.
The publish feature requires the RDB2 DSC schema when the database uses the legacy RDB schema. For more information, see Upgrading older databases to the RDB DSC 2 schema.
Derived variables are only supported after they are converted into real case data via a DMOM script.
Non-categorical questions with axis expressions are only supported after they are converted to real variables, with case data, via a DMOM script. The following script illustrates how to convert a question with an axis expression into a derived variable. This derived question can then be converted into a variable with real case data.
FieldName = "visits"
  AxisExpr = "{visits1 '1 to 10' expression('visits > 0 And
      visits < 11'), " + _
      "visits2 'More than 10' expression('visits > 10'), " + _
      "mean 'Mean' mean(visits)}"
NewFieldName= "visits_Category"
Set MdmDoc = CreateObject("MDM.Document")
MdmDoc.Open(MetadataFileName, , 3)
Set AxisExprServices = CreateObject("TabulationServices.AxisExpressionServices")
AxisExprServices.CreateAxisVariable(MdmDoc.Fields[FieldName],
    AxisExpr, NewFieldName, 255)
When exporting labels, variable labels and category labels (but not category names) are exposed for a single Language, Context, or LabelType and for specific MDM versions.
After publishing data to IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, updated labels for categorical questions and DBQs cannot be automatically refreshed in Cognos until an additional export is performed.
Sub-questions in loops, whose root parent loops are different, cannot be used in a single Cognos Report. When required, relationships needs to be manually created in Cognos Framework Manager based on information in the action log.
Key Cognos terms
Package
Consists of connection information to the physical data (PhysicalView) and the metadata objects (PresentationView) that are used in Cognos reports.
Dimension
The short form of regular dimension, which represent descriptive data that provides context for data modeled in measure dimensions. A regular dimension is broken into groups of information called levels. In turn, the various levels can be organized into hierarchies. For example, the time dimension has the levels Year, Quarter, Month, Week, and Day, organized into two hierarchies. One hierarchy, YQMD, contains the levels Year, Quarter, Month, and Day; the other hierarchy, YWD, contains the levels Year, Week, and Day.
Measure
The short form for measure dimensions, which represent the quantitative data described by regular dimensions.
UNICOM Intelligence data type
Dimension
Measure
Single Categorical
Y (default)
Y (if it has a defined factor)
Multiple Categorical
Y
 
Text
N
Y (default)
Date
Y
 
Long
 
Y
Double
 
Y
Bool
Y
 
DBQ Categorical
Y
 
See also
Publishing RDB2 data to Cognos via mrScript
Publishing non-RDB2 data to Cognos via a DMS script
UNICOM Intelligence RDB DCS 2 schema update
Cognos Framework Manager models
ReportingServices.ExposeToCognos component
DPM settings for publishing data
Data management scripting