Data that you can edit has a white background. Read-only data has a pale gray background.
You can also use Contributor’s cell-based Quick Commands .
If you are not the current owner, the data opens in a read-only view.
You can edit data only if it has
a workflow state of Not started or Work in progress
. The icon indicates the workflow state.
Note: Entering large amounts of text can expand the column width so that the Contributor grid is difficult to use. You may not be able to see the full text within the grid. This is because text formatted cells do not wrap text. Keep text in cells short to avoid this problem.
Tip: To quickly access commands, right-click the required data or cells, and select the appropriate command from the menu.
Click Take Ownership .
Data validation ensures that incoming data in a Contributor application is in the right format and conforms to existing business rules. These rules, which are defined by the administrator in the Contributor Administration Console, represent a single data entry requirement imposed on a range of cells in a single cube of a model.
Validation rules range from the basic checks, such as data type (integer or string) and format (dates), to rules that use sophisticated business logic to verify if submitted data is valid. Validation rules are also associated with actions that ensure contributors conform to the required input, output, and target requirements, and that only valid data is accepted. A fail action that is associated with a specific rule can prevent you from saving the plan or submitting it to the next e.List reviewer.
You can check data entry for your plan at any time by using the Validate Data command from the File menu or the Validate Data button from the toolbar. Because business requirements may change, it is good practice to validate your data regularly. The benefit of validating data on the Web client is that it allows the you to validate input data before transmitting it to the Contributor Web server. If a value is invalid, feedback is provided to assist you with entering information that complies with existing rules.
The data validation functionality is also available from the Cognos 8 Contributor for Excel and while working offline.
Click the dimension tab that contains the target cell range for validation.
Enter new data or change existing data as necessary.
To verify that the data entries or changes conform to existing
business rules and data-format restrictions, from the File menu,
click Validate Data or click the Validate Data
toolbar button .
If errors are detected, in the Validation Error dialog box, double-click the error to view its location in the grid.
Errors that are not resolved may prevent you from saving or submitting the plan. If you are unable to resolve errors based on the error messages, contact your administrator.
The pointer appears in the first offending cell on the first failed rule in the rule set.
Make the necessary changes.
You can print data either using the Print to Excel extension, if enabled by your administrator, or using the standard Contributor Print.
Using the Print to Excel extension, you can print the current view of Contributor data using the Excel print formatting and preview features. You can also choose to print only certain e.List items and include commentary.
From the File menu, select Print. The Print to Excel wizard appears. If this is the first time using this extension, a one-time download from the server will occur.
Note: As two-dimension cubes only have one page to print, Print to Excel forgoes the normal selection wizard and proceeds directly to the Excel Page Setup screen.
The first screen of the wizard displays the tabs that you have selected to print. Each page drop-down list is represented by a tab in the wizard. Select which items you wish to include from each page drop-down list by highlighting them with your mouse (Press Ctrl+click to select more than one page drop-down).
If you would like to include commentary, select the Include Commentary check box. For more information, see Commentary.
If you would like to Include Zero Pages, select the Include Zero Pages check box. Selecting the Include Zero Pages option will print pages that contain only zero data. Including zero pages may cause the application to slow down. If you do not select this option, the pages that contained all zeros will not be printed.
Click Next.
If you would like to exclude a page, clear the check box next to the page. You can also change whether or not you want to include commentary or zero pages by selecting/clearing the check boxes.
Click Finish. The pages are loaded and the Print to Excel-Page Setup dialog box appears.
Format the page, margins, and sheet settings as necessary. You can also preview the page by clicking Preview.
Click Print to choose your printer.
Click OK to print the desired pages.
To print, click File, Print. In Contributor print, only the current tab is printed.
You can set the following print options for Contributor Print:
Fit to page width
Fit to page height
You can cut, copy, paste, and delete data in the grid.
When pasting into multiple cells, the target cells must be compatible with the data you are pasting into it. For example, you cannot paste a number into a cell that expects a date. If the target selection is a multiple of the source selection shape, the data will be replicated to fit the selection.
You can load data, and export data to and from, a text file. If Get Data is enabled by your administrator, you can load data from outside sources and copy data within Contributor.
You can load a text file into the current tab.
The file should be identical in format to a file exported from Contributor as a tab separated text file.
Right-click the grid and click Import from Text File.
You can save data in the current tab to a tab separated text file.
Right-click the grid and click Export to Text File.
Get Data, if enabled, lets you load data into Contributor, either from other Contributor cubes, or from external sources.
If available, click File, Get Data . This option is not available offline.
You can see the latest data in the Contributor grid by using the Update command.
You may need to do this when the data that you are viewing has been updated on the server, and you have received a message such as:
"The data help on the server for <e.List item> is more recent than that displayed".
You may be unable to edit until you have clicked Actions, Update.
You can reset all data in all of the tabs to the last saved version.
Important: This also resets commentary.
Click File, Reset All.