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What
Is Cognos Report Studio?
Cognos Report Studio is a web-based report writing tool.
Like all Cognos 8 products it’s scaleability is
unlimited, in other words you can run it with as many
servers, processors and whatnot as you like.
All development takes place online, using a standard web
browser. Reports are written in XML - an enhancement of
the universal web page mark-up language HTML. This means
report users don't have to install any software on their
desktops except a web browser such as Microsoft Internet
Explorer. Report specifications are held in a database
known as the Content Store.
Cognos Report Studio works with star schemas (a database
layout used extensively in data warehousing) and can access
stored procedures (database programs) as well as traditional
database layouts. It will also work with any SQL, functions
etc that your database allows.
Report Studio is a full-blown report generation tool.
It is so comprehensive that instead of asking what you
can do with it the real question is "What can't you
do with Report Studio?". Since all development is
in XML, completely in a web environment, you can - theoretically
- build anything into your report that can be built into
a web page, even inserting your own HTML.
So you can have hyperlinks to other pages and websites,
hyperlinks to other reports, 3D animated graphics, news
feeds - you name it.
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