PDF drill-through behavior

PDF drill-through behavior is slightly different in different versions of Cognos® Analytics.

In Cognos Analytics 11.1.7 and earlier versions, PDF drill through is supported only in Internet Explorer, using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Reader provides a mechanism that allows for generation of self-contained PDFs where the drill-through information is encapsulated in the PDF. Drill-through links work as long as the PDF is viewed in Acrobat Reader.

Starting in Cognos Analytics 11.2.0, PDF drill through is available in all supported browsers and their respective PDF viewers. Because some of the viewers don't provide the same functionality as Acrobat Reader, the PDF output needs to be saved in Cognos Analytics for the drill-through links to work.

For cases where the PDF output is not saved in Cognos Analytics, a change is delivered in Cognos Analytics 11.2.4 that allows the drill-through links to work like they did in Cognos Analytics 11.1.7: in self-contained PDF reports that can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader. The drill-through links don't work if the PDF report is opened outside of Cognos Analytics, in a viewer other than Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Downloaded PDF reports can be opened in any PDF viewer. However, drill-through links work only in the following situations:

• The downloaded PDF report is viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• The report output is saved in Cognos Analytics, such as when running a report in the background and selecting the Save delivery option.

PDF reports that are viewed within Cognos Analytics work in all supported browsers.