Framework Manager Key Concepts
The purpose of this post is not to discuss each single detail of Framework Manager, but it is important that you understand some key concepts.
Apart from situations where Framework Manager is just used to publish some definitions to the Cognos Content Store (e.g. PowerPlay and TM1 cubes), you can choose between 2 modelling techniques for more or less standard relational data sources. The first is the easiest and will be used in the sample below, a multidimensional relational model. This is basically a fact table linking to a set of dimension tables. When you use a multidimensionally modelled relational data warehouse, this method is very straightforward. The result is more oriented towards report builders. The other approach is to use the same base for an OLAP style model. In most cases this is more user-friendly for analyst style end-users. However in such a case it is often advisable to use an OLAP style source as well.
Ok, if the gibberish above still makes a bit of sense then these are the key concepts to remember; namespaces, query subjects, folders and relationships. A query subject can be compared with a table and usually combines data items (query items) of a certain topic. These query subjects are then organized within a namespace. Folders don’t have a real function, they are only there to organize other objects. They have no impact when changed. When a query subject or namespace changes, it is possible that you end up with broken reports. Relationships then define the link logic between different query items and subjects.
Next to these key concepts you also have parameters, filters, calculations, dimensions and lots more, but that will not be covered in this post.