Building a Custom Dropdown with Flexi-Search Capability in Cognos Analytics Report

Introduction

In the world of business intelligence, dashboarding and reporting, Cognos Analytics is a powerful tool. However, there is always scope for enhancements to each of the software and solutions. One common challenge we faced in Cognos Dashboards and Reports is the need for custom filters or dropdown-based quick search in our tabular report outputs that to multiple columns having independent filters. In this blog post, we will showcase a step-by-step guide to implementing a custom filter dropdown within the Cognos Report studio interface, tailored to our needs.

Understanding the Requirements

Our journey began with a specific business problem. We needed to provide our users with a more intuitive and visually appealing way to select and filter data in Cognos list reports. The default dropdowns in Cognos simply couldn’t deliver the user experience with dynamic and quick filters, it has a traditional approach of defining filters on the prompt page and running reports all the time. We needed a solution that could streamline the reporting process and enhance the flexibility for users to work on the output on the Cognos interface itself and not download the output and do customization, filters etc on the ad hoc disconnected Excels.

Solution

We have developed a Custom Select Extension featuring a powerful search functionality within the dropdown, all made possible through a Cognos Custom Control. To take advantage of this enhancement, simply click the ‘Download’ button below to obtain the extension. Once downloaded, follow the step-by-step video guide for seamless integration with your Cognos Analytics reports.