Set up drill-through access in a source report to link
two reports containing related information. You can then access
related or more detailed information in one report (the target) by
selecting one or more data item values from another report (the
source). IBM Cognos passes values from the source to the target
and uses the passed values to filter the target object. If the data
in the source and target is conformed or if the data item names
are the same, then the system may map the source values to filter
the target (dynamic drill-through). If you require greater control,
you may define parameters in the target object (parameterized drill-through). For
instructions about creating parameters in other kinds of targets,
see the IBM Cognos Administration and Security
Guide.
When you define the drill-through path in Report Studio (Professional
authoring mode), you can pass a value from a different data item
that is hidden from the user for display purposes but still in the
query. For example, users see the Product Name data item and can
drill through on that item, but the drill-through definition passes
the Product Number value for the product name the user chose. You
can also define the target parameter to accept multiple values or
a range of values from the data item in the drill-through source
report or to accept a value from a parameter in the source report.
Drill-through definitions that have been authored inside a Report
Studio 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.
You can also drill through within the same report by
creating bookmarks 
. As well, you can create drill-through definitions
in the source package instead of the Report Studio report. Users can
use package drill-through definitions to navigate to a target report
from an Analysis Studio analysis, a Query Studio report, a PowerPlay
Studio report or PowerCube package, or a Report Studio report. For
more information, see the Administration and Security
Guide.
If you have the IBM Cognos 8 software development kit
(SDK) ,
you can use URLs to set up drill-through access to and from third-party
sources.
You can also drill through from a map .
If you are using an SAP BW data
source for the target report and the target report contains a variable
for a hierarchy node, values from the source report can be values
only of the data item representing the leaf-level identifier of
the hierarchy.
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.
In Report Studio (Professional authoring mode), open the
target report.
Create a parameter that will serve as the drill-through
column or that will filter the report.
For example, to drill through or filter Product line, create
the following parameter:
[Product line]=?prodline_p?
In the Usage box, specify what to
do when a value for the target parameter is not passed as part of
a drill through:
Check the drill-through 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.
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 drill-through definitions button, or, from the Properties pane,
double-click the Drill-Through Definitions property.
Click the new drill-through definition button.
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 IBM
Cognos Connection.
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:
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.
For more information, see the IBM Cognos Administration and Security Guide.
