How to Use Linked Reports

While report links are easy to use, there are some items you’ll want to consider before adding them to reports.

When a report link is created, it's applied to a specific column in the parent report. When you click the link in the column, the linked report opens on a new tab, an existing tab, or on the same tab as the parent report in a split window, depending on how the report link is configured. You close a linked report or dashboard by closing the tab or clicking the Top Level link in the report.

Since report links are specific to columns, you can have several links to reports and dashboards in the same report. Your report can also include drill-down links to other levels in the same report. Report links can be added to any of the output levels in the parent report, allowing you to link to a large number of reports and dashboards from one report.

While report links are easy to use, there are some considerations before adding them to reports.

• Report links function normally when added to workspaces, but the links are unavailable if the reports are used in workspace relationship items. See Overview of Workspace and Script Elements for information about using reports in workspaces.
• Just as with drill-down links to other report levels, report links are unavailable when a report is forwarded, exported, published, or sent as a scheduled report. See How You Distribute Reports and Dashboards.
• Report links are unavailable when the columns in are rolled up. See Define Rollups.
• While you can create links to dashboards, you cannot link to a dashboard from a report that is being viewed in a dashboard. Links to dashboards are unavailable when the reports in are viewed in a dashboard.
• You can create links to public or private reports and dashboards. Staff members with permission to view the parent report can view any reports or dashboards linked to from the parent report, whether public or private. Because of this, you should be familiar with the content of the report or dashboard you’re linking to so staff members won’t be able to access sensitive information.
• You can’t create report links from columns that display values from hierarchical fields, such as the incidents product hierarchy field. In addition, columns can be associated with a report link or with a drill-down level in the report, but not both.
• If a report or dashboard is deleted, any links to that report or dashboard are automatically disabled, but the reports containing the links continue to function normally.