Relational and DMR modeling in Cognos Cube Designer

Although the primary function of IBM® Cognos® Cube Designer is to create dynamic cubes, you can also use it to create relational and dimensionally modeled relational (DMR) models, as in IBM Cognos Framework Manager.

Use Cognos Cube Designer for relational and DMR modeling when Framework Manager does not satisfy your needs in certain areas. For example, users with limited vision might prefer to use Cognos Cube Designer because of accessibility features that Framework Manager does not offer.

Some objects that are used when modeling dynamic cubes are not compatible with relational and DMR metadata. Such objects include: virtual cubes, parent-child dimensions, relative time dimensions, named sets, calculated measures, and calculated members.

Important: You cannot use Cognos Cube Designer to work with relational or DMR models that were created using Framework Manager.

Differences when modeling with Cognos Cube Designer and Framework Manager

Framework Manager is a mature product that has benefited from many years of iterative improvements to its user experience. The relational and DMR experience in Cognos Cube Designer 10.2.2 is in its early stage and does not currently offer all of the usability features that Framework Manager does, including the ability to:

  • Set properties for multiple items at once.
  • View context diagram for modeling relationships.
  • View data for query items from different query subjects.
  • View generated SQL for a selection of objects.
  • Copy and paste query subjects.

The fundamental approach to relational and DMR modeling in Cognos Cube Designer is different from that of Framework Manager.

Modeling with Framework Manager is an iterative process of refining different views, or layers, of your metadata, starting with the data source view, then the business view, and finally the presentation view that your users consume.

The modeling approach with Cognos Cube Designer is streamlined to focus entirely on the reporting application and ensure that a quality model is defined and deployed. Cognos Cube Designer guides your modeling activities to allow you to succeed in your reporting requirements.

In Framework Manager, you create data source query subjects by importing tables and views from your data source into your model. You also create model query subjects that are not generated directly from a data source, but are based on query items in other query subjects, including other model query subjects.

A query subject in Cognos Cube Designer has similarities to the model query subject in Framework Manager. In Cognos Cube Designer, you first create a query subject and then add query items from your data source to it. Similarly to how model query subjects in Framework Manager provide an insulating layer from schematic changes to the data source, query subjects in Cognos Cube Designer remain static from a reporting perspective while their underlying implementation is updated to reflect the new database structure. In Cognos Cube Designer, you can also create a query item set to obtain an abstract, business-oriented collection of query items.

The security paradigms in Cognos Cube Designer and Framework Manager are different. In Framework Manager, you associate security filters with users, groups, and roles whose unique identifiers are stored within the model. In Cognos Cube Designer, you create security filters within named security views. You then associate the security views with users, groups and roles; these associations are stored in your Content Manager instances. This implementation allows for greater portability of the model between different Cognos Analytics environments. This type of security is similar to the security paradigm used by IBM Cognos Transformer.