Create a drill rule

A drill rule is a unique type of rule that associates view cells with related data. The related data, which is opened through a TurboIntegrator process, can be a cube view or an ODBC source.

About this task

Drill rules are distinct from cube business rules. While business rules define the data for specified cells in a cube, drill rules identify the relationship between specified cells and related (frequently more detailed) data.

There can be some interplay between business rules and drill rules. For example, you might have a Cube A that uses business rules to pull values from a separate Cube B. You might then create a drill rule (and an accompanying drill process) that lets users drill-through from Cube A to Cube B to review the source values in full context.

Similarly, if the values in a cube were imported from an ODBC source, you could create a drill rule and process that lets users drill-through from the cube to a grid-formatted view of the ODBC source.

A drill rule uses the syntax ['area_definition']=S:'drill_process_name';. area_definition is the section of the cube in which you want to enable drill-through. drill_process_name is the name of the TurboIntegrator process that is executed when you execute a drill-through from a cell that is included in the area_definition. You can learn more about setting up drill processes in Create a drill process.

Procedure

  1. In edit mode, go to the database in the Data tree where you want to create a drill rule and expand the database to reveal the cubes.
  2. Right-click the cube for which you want to create drill rules.
  3. Click Drill, Create drill rules.

    The drill rules editor opens. This editor is identical to the business rules editor, but the icon on the upper left of the editor can help you distinguish between the two.

    • Drill rules editor icon Drill rules icon
    • Business rules editor icon Business rules icon

    For each cube area you want to associate with detailed data, continue with steps 8 - 11.

  4. Enter the area definition for the region of the cube where you want to enable drill-through.

    The area definition can be as broad as the entire cube or as specific as a single cell.

    To specify the entire cube, enter an empty bracket set [ ].

    To specify a single member, enter the member name enclosed in single quotation marks within brackets. For example, ['Price'].

    To specify an area identified by multiple members, enter the members within brackets. Enclose each member name in single quotes and use a comma to separate member names. For example, the area definition ['Price','France','Jan'] applies to any cell identified by the members Price, France, and Jan.

    Tip: You can use the auto-complete or drag-and-drop features of the rules editor to simplify area definition.
  5. After you enter the area definition, type =S: in the rules editor.
  6. After the colon, enter the name of the drill process that will be run when a user initiates drill-through from a cell within the area definition. Enclose the drill process name in single quotation marks.
    Important: When you create a drill process, Planning Analytics creates a control process with the }Drill_ prefix. For example, when you create a drill process named PriceCubeToSource, Planning Analytics creates the }Drill_PriceCubeToSource control process. Do not include the }Drill_ prefix when you specify a drill process name in a drill rule.

    You can associate more than one drill process with an area. Enclose all drill processes, separated by commas, within a set of single quotation marks.

  7. Enter a semi-colon at the end of the rule to indicate the conclusion of the drill rule statement.
  8. Click Save icon.

Results

When a drill rule and associated drill processes are in place, you can right-click a cell that is included in the rule area definition and view underlying data. If the area is associated with a single drill process, the process is immediately run. The underlying data is displayed in either an exploration view for a cube view source, or a grid for an ODBC source.

If you initiate drill-through from a cell that is associated with multiple drill processes, you can choose which process you want to run.

Example

[ ]=S:'PriceDrill'; this drill rule runs the PriceDrill drill process when you initiate drill-through from any cell in the cube.

['Price']=S:'ODBCSourceDrill'; this drill rule runs the ODBCSourceDrill drill process when you initiate drill-through from any cell in the cube that is identified by the Price member.

['Jan']=S:'PriceDrill, ODBCSourceDrill'; this drill rule lets you choose to run either the PriceDrill or ODBCSourceDrill drill process when you initiate drill-through from any cell in the cube that is identified by the Jan member.

['Price','France','Jan']=S:'PriceDrill'; this drill rule runs the PriceDrill drill process when you initiate drill-through from any cell in the cube that is identified by the Price, France, and Jan members.