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IBM Cognos 10 Platform => Cognos 10 BI => Report Studio => Topic started by: Yasser on 01 Feb 2017 05:54:12 AM

Title: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Yasser on 01 Feb 2017 05:54:12 AM
Hello,

This may seems to be a wired and extremely ridiculous question, But this is the client requirement ! 

We've created dashboards on report studio have some charts and indicators, They need the result in HTML not to be scrolled vertically or horizontally.
I've created it to fit one page when they export to PDF, But How to make it not scroll in any machine with any resolution ! Is that doable?

Thanks,
Yasser
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Lynn on 01 Feb 2017 05:57:02 AM
Quote from: Yasser on 01 Feb 2017 05:54:12 AM
Hello,

This may seems to be a wired and extremely ridiculous question, But this is the client requirement ! 

We've created dashboards on report studio have some charts and indicators, They need the result in HTML not to be scrolled vertically or horizontally.
I've created it to fit one page when they export to PDF, But How to make it not scroll in any machine with any resolution ! Is that doable?

Thanks,
Yasser

You can try putting it inside a block and then select the "Content is clipped" option in the block size and overflow property.
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Yasser on 01 Feb 2017 06:07:41 AM
Quote from: Lynn on 01 Feb 2017 05:57:02 AM
You can try putting it inside a block and then select the "Content is clipped" option in the block size and overflow property.

Thanks for your reply Lynn,

I've tried that with no luck
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Lynn on 01 Feb 2017 06:22:32 AM
Quote from: Yasser on 01 Feb 2017 06:07:41 AM
Thanks for your reply Lynn,

I've tried that with no luck

Perhaps I don't understand the requirement. Wouldn't be the first time  :)
You do need to specify a height and width for the block in addition to setting the clipped option.

If you are referring to the browser's scroll bars then I'm not aware of anything you can do about that, but perhaps others might have suggestions.
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: CognosPaul on 01 Feb 2017 03:29:03 PM
This seems more of a general design question instead of a technical one.

Preventing a user from seeing scrolling, no matter what the resolution, is always an effort in futility. No matter how low a resolution you might design for, there's always someone who has a lower res set up. In cases like these, decide in a minimum resolution in advance. Generally I assume a minimum resolution of 1024x768, which was the standard display of laptops from several years ago.

From there, cut the width by a third and height by a quarter, and assume that's the max you can use for your report. So roughly 700x575 is what I aim for. There is NOT a lot of data you can dump into a screen that small.

The next thing to consider is that Cognos does not support responsive design. Graphs are static images. So, having those two points in mind, design your reports well. You can usually fit four graphs in that space, with a horizontal KPI bar.

Also, one last thing. The layout for the PDF does not need to be the same layout from the HTML. Create a reportOutput() variable and use the conditional layouts.
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: bdbits on 01 Feb 2017 04:40:21 PM
I agree with CognosPaul. Cognos is pretty weak on the responsive design angle.

The properties Lynn referenced are probably the best you can do out-of-the-box. Even if you manage to get rid of the scrollbars, the user may still be able to scroll around with the keyboard. To get around that you delve further into css and javascript, and six months later you emerge from the rabbit hole only to find that your customizations no longer work in the latest version of Cognos.

Don't do that to yourself.  ;D
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Invisi on 02 Feb 2017 04:10:23 AM
I also agree with CognosPaul in the sense that you can't design a dashboard for any resolution, unless you have only 3-4 elements on it. But then it's not a true dashboard, right...

A true dashboard (as Few defines it) usually contains a large amount of visualisation elements. It also is aimed at a specific user group. Normally this user group will have similar devices to consume the dashboard. I think you can start with getting the target user group clear per dashboard and the resolutions of their device. It will give you an optimised and workable dashboard.
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Invisi on 02 Feb 2017 04:12:42 AM
Also, I suggest you ask why you have to make a PDF version. Usually a dashboard is made to be consumed on a screen, as it typically has drill down capacity. My strategy is to design for screen first. The PDF can always be made to fit on a page by some nifty tricks and is mainly a backup for the primary use of the dashboard.
Title: Re: How to avoid scrolling
Post by: Yasser on 06 Feb 2017 05:48:29 AM
Quote from: CognosPaul on 01 Feb 2017 03:29:03 PM
This seems more of a general design question instead of a technical one.

Preventing a user from seeing scrolling, no matter what the resolution, is always an effort in futility. No matter how low a resolution you might design for, there's always someone who has a lower res set up. In cases like these, decide in a minimum resolution in advance. Generally I assume a minimum resolution of 1024x768, which was the standard display of laptops from several years ago.

From there, cut the width by a third and height by a quarter, and assume that's the max you can use for your report. So roughly 700x575 is what I aim for. There is NOT a lot of data you can dump into a screen that small.

The next thing to consider is that Cognos does not support responsive design. Graphs are static images. So, having those two points in mind, design your reports well. You can usually fit four graphs in that space, with a horizontal KPI bar.

Also, one last thing. The layout for the PDF does not need to be the same layout from the HTML. Create a reportOutput() variable and use the conditional layouts.

Totally agree with you... Thanks.