. Cognos Connection pages and dashboards provide quick access to Cognos business intelligence and performance management information, such as reports, metrics, or news items. The information is relevant to specific users or business objectives, and can be monitored at a glance.
Dashboards are pages with enhanced functionality. The information is displayed on multiple tabs that are easy to navigate. Each tab can include different segment of information. A dashboards can be accessed as a standalone application through a URL. Users can print selected dashboard pages.
The content for pages and dashboards is provided by Cognos portlets, or supported third-party portlets. Each portlet is an independent application that adds to the page different content and functionality, such as the ability to browse folders and entries, view reports and metrics, and include custom text and images or links to other Web pages.
You can add different types of information to your pages and organize them in a way that is meaningful to you. For example, you may want to see specific Cognos reports and metrics, or have links to your favorite Web sites.
The following table shows the types of content you can add to a Cognos Connection page, and the portlets that provide this content.
Page Content | Portlet | Portlet Group |
Browse Cognos folders, reports, and other entries | Cognos Navigator | Cognos Content |
Search for Cognos reports and other entries | Cognos Search | |
View and interact with Cognos reports and other entries | Cognos Viewer | |
View and interact with different types of performance metrics, such as the metrics you want to monitor closely, or the metrics for which you are directly responsible. | Metric List | Metric Studio Portlets |
Add a metric history chart that illustrates the historical performance of the metric | Metric History Chart | |
View and interact with custom applications created using Cognos 8 Software Development Kit | Cognos Extended Applications | Cognos Extended Applications Portlet |
Register and show active links to other Web pages | Bookmarks Viewer | Cognos Utility |
Add and view custom images, such as logos | Image Viewer | |
Insert any other Web page | HTML Viewer | |
Add and show the content of a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) news feed specified by a URL address | RSS Viewer | |
Add and view custom text and images | HTML Source | |
Create and view a dashboard with multiple tabs | Multi-page | Dashboard |
Add non-Cognos items to a page | Supported third-party portlets | Third-party content |
Note: The portlets can also be referred to as HTML fragments.
The list of pages is cached in a Cognos Connection session.
When the state of a page changes during the current session, users
who have access to the page are affected. For example, when a page
is disabled or deleted, it can no longer be used and its tabs are
deleted or not functional. To update the portal with the most current
settings, use the Cognos Connection refresh button .
When you log on to Cognos Connection for the first time, you access the pages an administrator made available to you. Later, you can create your own pages.
You can perform the following page-related tasks in Cognos Connection:
create pages 
edit pages
share pages with other users
modify portlets
enable communication between portlets
add, remove, or reorder the portal tabs
change your home page
For more information about dashboards, see Create a Dashboard with Multiple Tabs.
For more information about portlets, see Deploying Cognos Portlets to Third-party Portals.
