Query Studio

This tool is made for business analysts who understand the data model and need to generate simple reports quickly. The tool provides easy drag-and-drop methodology for users to create ad hoc reports, quickly analyze data, and apply filtering, grouping, sorting, and simple formatting. This tool also provides limited charting capabilities.

Query Studio is licensed by named users. A single user license comes with BMC Decision Support for Server Automation. You can purchase additional licenses from BMC.

This topic describes Query Studio features that enable you to perform various tasks, such as filtering, grouping, and applying conditional styles to the report results. For more information about performing these tasks, see the IBM Cognos Query Studio User Guide at PDFs.

Filtering report data

You specify criteria for including or excluding data from a report by using report filters. Filtering data makes the required information more accessible and improves performance by minimizing the time required to process a report.

The BMC Decision Support for Server Automation model includes some built-in filters (also called stand-alone filters). These filters are available from the package in the report creation area. You can add these filters to your custom reports. You cannot modify the built-in filters. To include specific data, you add filters and to exclude specific data, you can add a filter with the NOT condition.

An example of a built-in filter is the Audit Job Latest Run filter. If you use this filter in a report, only the data from the latest job run is included in the report. If you apply the NOT condition to the filter, the report includes data from all relevant job runs except the latest.

You can select any field in your custom reports and make that field a filter (also called dynamic filter). This feature enables you to filter the report using that field to set your conditions. You can specify a value or range of values for that field. Only data that satisfies the filter conditions is included in the report.

You can also specify that a filter include prompts. When you run a report, you are prompted to provide specific values to filter the report data. For example, a report that provides information about servers can include a prompt for an OS type. After you specify the OS type, the report includes the data only for the specified OS type.

For information about how to add filters, see Creating a report with filters and calculations.

Grouping data in reports

You can group identical data in a report column if that column contains multiple instances of the same value. When you group data, report rows might be reordered to display identical values together and to suppress the duplicate data.

For example, in a report listing the capacity of servers for all OS types, you can group the report by the OS Name column to suppress the duplicate rows in this column.

For information about how to create groups, see Creating a report with filters, summarization, and groups.

Creating sections in reports

When you create sections in a report, the selected report item is shown as the heading of a section. For example, in a report listing the rules for each template, you can create sections by using the Template(Policy) Name column. Each template is listed as a section heading that contains the rules for that template.

For information about how to create sections, see Creating a report with groups and sections.

Adding calculations

You can perform calculations on one or more items in reports. For example, you can add the values of the Rules Compliant and Rules Compliant with Exception columns to see the total number of compliant rules.

You can also concatenate multiple columns. For example, you can concatenate the Parent Folder Path and Job Folder Name columns to get the full path of a job.

For information about how to add calculations, see Creating a report with filters, summarization, and calculations.

Creating charts

Charts enable you to present your data graphically. For example, you can create a chart to see the trend of weekly Audit Job runs in a particular year.

For information about how to create charts, see Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts.

Adding summaries to reports

You can apply summaries to reports to calculate the total, count, maximum, minimum, or average of the values in report columns. For example, you can count the total number of servers on which an Audit Job was run, by applying the Count summary function to the Server Name column.

For information about how to summarize data, see Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts.

Applying conditional styles to reports

Conditional styles enable you to change the appearance of columns based on the values in these columns. For example, if the value of the % Compliance column is less than 33 percent, you can apply a background color to the column.

For information about how to apply conditional styles, see Creating a report with filters, groups, and conditional styles.