Using Drill-through Access

Using drill-through access, you can move from one report to another within a session while maintaining your focus on the same piece of data. For example, you select a product in a sales report and move to an inventory report about that product.

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 defining the target report or object and then using information from the source report to filter the target. IBM® Cognos® BI can match data from the source to metadata in the target report, or you can define parameters in the target for greater control.

Note: In the dimensional reporting style, you can also enable drilling up and drilling down. For more information about drilling up and drilling down, see Create a Drill-up and Drill-down Report.

What You Should Know

For a drill-through link to work, it is necessary to know

  • the source
  • the target
  • how the data in the packages that contain these objects is related

    Depending on the underlying data, you may create a drill-through definition and have IBM Cognos BI match the data (dynamic drill-through) or create parameters in the target (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 IBM Cognos Report Studio, IBM Cognos Query Studio, IBM Cognos PowerPlay® Studio, or IBM Cognos Analysis Studio. The target of drill-through access can also be a package that contains an IBM Cognos PowerCube, in which case a default view of the PowerCube is created.

  • whether the users of the drill-through link in the source report have the appropriate permissions to view or run the target report
  • if the target is being run, in what format to run it, and what filters to use on the target

If you do not want to run the target report on demand, you may link to a bookmark in the saved output instead of running the report. For more information, see the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide.

Sources and Targets

In IBM Cognos BI, there are many different examples 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 package that contains a PowerCube to a detailed report against a package based on a relational data source
  • from one existing report to another report using definitions created in Report Studio
  • between IBM Cognos Viewer reports authored in Report Studio, Query Studio, and Analysis Studio
  • to and from a package built on a PowerCube
  • from IBM Cognos Series 7 to IBM Cognos BI reports
  • from Metric Studio to other IBM Cognos BI reports by passing parameters using URLs

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

Tip: In the GO Data Warehouse (analysis) package, the Positions to Fill sample report is a drill-through target report and the Recruitment Report sample report is a drill-through source report. For more information about The Sample Outdoors Company samples, see Sample Reports and Packages.