Create a drill through definition to link two reports containing related information
(the source report and the target report).
Drill through definitions that have been authored inside an IBM®
Cognos® Analytics - Reporting report appear in the source report as blue underlined links. Users click the hyperlink to select
the value they want passed to the target and to drill through to the target report. If a user
selects multiple items within a single column then when the drill through target report is run, the
values from each selected row are passed to the target parameters. This occurs as an and
condition.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you have a report that will
serve as the source report and another report that will serve as the
target report.
Procedure
- Check the drill through target:
- Confirm that the drill through users have access to the target.
- If necessary, check what parameters exist in the target.
- Open the source report.
- Click the element in the report that will serve as the starting point for the drill
through link.
You can select a data item that your report users are likely to choose to drill on for more
detailed information, such as an Employee Name data item.
Click the individual parts of the visualization or the legend to drill through on. You can also
select a combination of visualization parts and the legend.
Click the Data panel in the visualizaton to create a drill through definition.
Tip: If you are passing only parameter values to the target report, you do not have to
drill on a data item. Instead, you can drill on any object in the report, such as the report title.
Therefore, you can drill from outside the context of a query.
-
Click the Show properties icon
, in the
DATA section, double-click the drill through
definitions property.
-
Click the Add icon
.
A drill through definition is created.
Tip: To change the drill through name, click the rename button, type the new name, and
click OK.
-
On the Target report tab, click the ellipsis button next to the
Report box and select the drill through target report.
- In the Action box, decide how users will view the target report
when they click the drill through link in the parent report:
- If the target report contains parameters, then, under the Parameters box,
click the edit button.
Each required and optional parameter
defined in the target report appears in the Parameters dialog
box.
- For each parameter, specify the Method of
treatment:
- To specify not to pass any value, click (Default).
- To specify not to use this parameter, click Do not
use parameter.
The target report will not be filtered
by this parameter.
- To pass values from a data item, click Pass data item
value, click Value, and then click
the data item.
Values for the selected data item are passed to the
target report.
- To pass values from a source report parameter, click Pass
parameter value, click Value, and
then click the parameter.
Values for the selected parameter are
passed to the target report.
- If you choose to pass parameters, and the source report is based
on a dimensional package, then click an item from the drop-down list
in the Source metadata item properties column.
You can pass the default property of the source metadata item (business
key) or another property, such as the member caption.
- Click OK.
- If you chose to run the target report, in the Format box,
click the output format for your report.
Tip: Click (Default) to run the report using the default format
specified for the report in the IBM
Cognos Analytics
portal.
- To open the target report in a new window, select the Open
in new window check box.
- In the Display prompt pages box,
choose how to display prompt pages:
- To always display prompt pages when the drill through action occurs regardless of whether values
were specified for the required parameter values, click Always.
- To use the prompt settings of the target report (specified by the Prompt for
Values check box in the IBM
Cognos Analytics
portal, Report Properties, Report tab) to determine
whether to show the prompt pages, click Based on the default prompt settings of the
target report.
Tip: If you leave the
Prompt for values
check box selected (the default) and run a report that contains the same parameter name that appears
in your
My parameters panel, you are not prompted to provide a value for the
parameter. The system automatically uses the default values that were set for the user’s role. Even
if the parameter on the report is optional, the default value for the global parameter is
passed.
- To not display prompt pages when the required parameter values are provided by the drill through
definition, click Only when required parameter values are missing. This is
the default setting.
Results
The drill through text appears as a blue
hyperlink in text items in the non-chart areas of the report. Report consumers can also start the
drill through action by clicking the Go To button or by right-clicking the
item and clicking Go To, Related links. If you have
the necessary permissions, you can view which parameters were passed from the source and how they
are mapped in the target object from the Go To page using the drill through
assistant.Note: The right-click method is not available for visualizations. Use the
Related links option.
For more information, see
the Administration and Security Guide.
