Catalog Source Configuration > IBM Cognos > Introduction to IBM Cognos catalog sources
  

Introduction to IBM Cognos catalog sources

You can use Metadata Command Center to extract metadata from a source system.
A source system is any system that contains data. For example, IBM Cognos is a source system from which you can extract metadata through an IBM Cognos catalog source with Metadata Command Center. A catalog source is an object that represents and contains metadata from the source system.
Before you extract metadata from a source system, you first create and register a catalog source that represents the source system. Then you configure capabilities for the catalog source. A capability is a task that Metadata Command Center can perform, such as metadata extraction, data profiling, data classification, or glossary association.
When Metadata Command Center extracts metadata, Data Governance and Catalog displays the extracted metadata and its attributes as technical assets. You can then perform tasks such as analyzing the assets, viewing lineage, and creating links between those assets and their business context.
The following table describes the capabilities of the catalog source:
Capability
Description
Data Classification
Data classification is the process of identifying and organizing data into relevant categories based on the functional meaning of the data. Classifying data can help your organization manage risks, compliance, and data security.
Glossary Association
You can associate terms that are in the glossary with technical assets to provide user-friendly business names to technical assets. Glossary Association automatically associates glossary terms with technical assets or recommends glossary terms that you can manually associate with technical assets in Data Governance and Catalog.

Extraction and view process

To extract metadata from a source system, configure the catalog source and run the extraction job in Metadata Command Center. Then view the results in Data Governance and Catalog.
The following image shows the process to extract metadata from a source system:
An image showing the steps required to set up a catalog source for metadata extraction.
After you verify prerequisites, perform the following tasks to extract metadata from IBM Cognos:
  1. 1Register a catalog source. Create a catalog source object, select the source system, and specify values for connection properties.
  2. 2Configure the catalog source. Specify the runtime environment and configure parameters for metadata extraction. Optionally, add filters to include or exclude source system assets from metadata extraction. You can also configure other capabilities such as data profiling and quality, data classification, or glossary association.
  3. 3Optionally, associate stakeholders. Associate users with technical assets, giving the users permission to perform actions determined by their roles.
  4. 4Run or schedule the catalog source job.
  5. 5Optionally, if the catalog source job generates referenced asset objects, you can assign a connection to referenced source system assets.
    6. You can view the lineage with object references without performing connection assignment. After connection assignment, you can view the objects.
After you run the catalog source job, you view the results in Data Governance and Catalog.

About the IBM Cognos catalog source

You can use the IBM Cognos catalog source to extract metadata from the IBM Cognos source system.
IBM Cognos is a business intelligence tool that helps you connect to data sources and create reports.

Catalog source capabilities

You can configure multiple capabilities for the catalog source.
The following table describes the capabilities:
Capability
Description
Metadata Extraction
The metadata extraction capability extracts source metadata from external source systems.
Data Classification
Data classification is the process of identifying and organizing data into relevant categories based on the functional meaning of the data. Classifying data can help your organization manage risks, compliance, and data security.
Glossary Association
You can associate terms that are in the glossary with technical assets to provide user-friendly business names to technical assets. Glossary Association automatically associates glossary terms with technical assets or recommends glossary terms that you can manually associate with technical assets in Data Governance and Catalog.

Extracted metadata

You can use the IBM Cognos catalog source to extract metadata from the IBM Cognos source system.
Metadata Command Center extracts the following metadata from the IBM Cognos source system:
  • - ActiveReport
  • - ActiveReportVariable
  • - Argument
  • - Attribute
  • - BooleanVariable
  • - CalculatedMeasure
  • - CalculatedMember
  • - Calculation
  • - CalculationShortcut
  • - ChartNodeMember
  • - Column
  • - ConditionFilter
  • - Connection
  • - ConnectionPackageDataSource
  • - CrosstabNodeMember
  • - Dashboard
  • - DashboardModel
  • - DataAttribute
  • - DataAttributeMeasure
  • - DataModule
  • - DataModuleModel
  • - DataSet
  • - DataSetModel
  • - DataSource
  • - DatabaseConnection
  • - DatabaseQuery
  • - DatabaseQueryShortcut
  • - DatabaseSchema
  • - DelimitedColumn
  • - DelimitedFile
  • - Dimension
  • - DimensionAttribute
  • - DimensionAttributeCalculation
  • - DimensionMap
  • - DimensionShortcut
  • - Directory
  • - DynamicCube
  • - DynamicSource
  • - Field
  • - FieldBody
  • - Filter
  • - FilterShortcut
  • - FixedWidthColumn
  • - FixedWidthFile
  • - Folder
  • - FrameworkManagerModel
  • - Function
  • - Hierarchy
  • - Identifier
  • - KeyLevelAttribute
  • - LanguageVariable
  • - Level
  • - LevelAttribute
  • - Macro
  • - Measure
  • - MeasureDimension
  • - MeasureDimensionShortcut
  • - Member
  • - Model
  • - ModelConnection
  • - ModelQuery
  • - ModelQueryShortcut
  • - Namespace
  • - OlapSchemaNamespace
  • - Package
  • - Parameter
  • - ProcedureQuery
  • - Prompt
  • - PromptAnswer
  • - Query
  • - QueryItem
  • - QueryPackage
  • - QueryStudioModel
  • - QuerySubject
  • - Relationship
  • - Report
  • - ReportFieldMeasure
  • - ReportFilter
  • - ReportFilterCondition
  • - Repository
  • - ResultColumn
  • - ResultSet
  • - Schema
  • - ScopeRelationship
  • - StoredProcedure
  • - StringVariable
  • - SummaryStoreConnection
  • - Table
  • - Text
  • - TimeDimension
  • - Transformer
  • - TransformerModel
  • - UserAccount
  • - View
  • - ViewColumn