Drill-through access helps you to build business intelligence applications that are bigger than a single report. Drill-through applications are a network of linked reports that users can navigate, retaining their context and focus, to explore and analyze information.
Drill-through access works by passing information from the source to the target object, usually a report. You define what is passed from the source report by having the system match information from the selection context of the source report to the content of the target (dynamic drill through) or by defining parameters in the target (parameterized drill through). You define drill-through access for the source, either at the package level, in Reporting Center (Launch, Drill-through Definitions) or at the report level (Report Studio Professional authoring mode). Within a package, you control the scope of the data for which drill-through access is available in the drill through definition. Within a report, you define the drill-through access on a report item.
What You Should Know
For a drill through link to work, it is necessary to know:
what the source report is or is going to be
what the target report is or is going to be
whether the users of the drill through link in the source report have the appropriate permissions to view or run the target report
how the data in the two reports is related
Depending on the underlying data, you may create a drill through definition and have ACI match the data (dynamic drill through) or map the source metadata to parameters defined in the target report or package (parameterized drill through)
whether to run the target report or to open it
The target of drill-through access is usually a saved report definition. The report can be created in Report Studio (Professional authoring mode), PowerPlay Studio, or Query Studio. The target of drill-through access can also be a package that contains a PowerCube, in which case a default view of the PowerCube is created.
if the target is being run, in what format to run it and what filters to run it with
If you don’t want to run the target report on demand, you may link instead to a bookmark in the saved output.
Sources and Targets
In ACI, there are many different combinations of source and target. For example, you can drill through
between reports created in different packages against different data source types, such as from an analysis against a cube to a detailed report against a relational data source.
from one existing report to another report using Report Studio (Professional authoring mode)
between Report Viewer reports authored in Report Studio, Query Studio, and PowerPlay Studio
from Series 7 PowerPlay Web cubes to ACI reports
from Metric Studio to other ACI reports by passing parameters using URLs.
For more information, see the Metric Studio User Guide.
