Hi,

I mainly use Crystal Reports, but a friend asked me to help her with Cognos.  I have to admit it was totally alien.  Is there a way to see the actual tables and either make joins or write a SQL statement?

I spent about 2 hours poking around and still wasn't able to get it to work.    

Does anyone know a good Crystal/SQL to Cognos book or site? I think I'm thinking in tables and joins and I need the way that Cognos organizes data explained.

Thank you for your help :)
VE

What version of Cognos are you using?  The sql and joins are generally handled in the Model/Catalog although you can do direct SQL if you really want.

There is a huge distinction between Cognos 7 (cubes/impromptu) and Cognos 8/10 (webbased).
However, in all cases Cognos relies on (a) metadata model(s) that generate(s) SQL.
Writing SQL directly is facilitated, but you DO NOT want to go that path (why use a premium BI tool then?)

There is NO migration from Crystal to Cognos. The entire technology is different.

From a user's perspective Cognos differentiates modellers from report writers (though these a roles and can be filled by 1 person)

In Cognos8/10 terms the modellers understands the underlying datamodel and builds a Cognos model. He can then generate packages to the content store that can be used by report writers. The model is designed with Framework manager (client), the package is the runtime web component.

The Cognos model is MUCH more than just the imported set of tables. It is a least a step more sophisticated than the competition enabling modelers to generate a business like presentation and resolve many reporting issue (granularity; multiple languages; multi-fact etc.)

Come and join us on Cognoise.com where most of the action is..   

Ties Blom
 
 

Thank you everyone. this all helps