Set Up Drill-through Access in a Report

Use Report Studio to create a source drill-through report to link two reports containing related information. You can then access related or more detailed information in one report by selecting a value or multiple values in the source report. You can also drill through within the same report by creating bookmarks.

Before you begin

For more information, see the IBM® Cognos® Report Studio User Guide.

Tip: To use a Report Studio report as a source in a drill-through definition in IBM Cognos Connection, the option Allow package based drill-through must be selected (Data menu, Drill Behavior). This option is selected by default.

Procedure

In Report Studio, 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?

Tip: Use the operators inor in_rangeto enable the target report to accept multiple values or a range of values.
In the Usage box, specify what to do when a value for the target parameter is not passed as part of a drill through:
- To specify that users must select a value, click Required.
  If a value for the target parameter is not passed, users are prompted to choose a value.
- To specify that users do not need to select a value, click Optional.
  Users are not prompted to choose a value and so the value is unfiltered.
- To specify not to use the parameter, click Disabled.
  The parameter is not used during the drill-through. It will also not be used in the report for any other purposes.
  
  Tip: If the parameter is needed in the report for other reasons, then you can also specify not to use it in the drill-through definition (Parameters table, Method, Do not use parameter).

Results

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.