Specify the Selection Behavior of a Control

Specify the selection behavior of a control to determine what interactive behavior should occur when the control is clicked or when an object in the control, such as a button, check box, or data item, is selected.

Specifying the selection behavior of a control sets the value of active report variables defined in the report. The active report variable values are then used to specify the reaction behavior of controls. For example, you add two drop-down list controls to a report and you create a connection between them. The first drop-down list shows product lines and the second drop-down list shows product types. When a product line is selected in the first drop-down list box, you want to pass that information to the second drop-down list box so that it shows only the product types of the selected product line.

You can specify a selection behavior for any control, except for decks and data decks.

IBM® Cognos® Report Studio automatically sets active report variable values when you define a connection between controls. However, you may need to set the value of other variables to specify additional interactive behavior.

Procedure

Click the interactive behavior icon of the source control.
Tip: The interactive behavior icon is visible only when the visual aid Show Interactive Object Controls is enabled.
The Report Behavior box shows the relationship between the source and target controls when you defined a connection between the controls. You can specify default values for the variable associated with the control by clicking Set Default Value(s).
In the Behavior on Select box, click inside the Set Variable Values box and then click the edit button that appears.
For each active report variable that you want to set as part of the selection behavior of the control, click the Value drop-down list and select one of the following choices:
- If you want to clear the current value of the variable, click Set to Empty.
  Tip: Clearing the current value of a variable is useful when you have cascading controls. For example, if the parent control is reset to a default value, you want to reset the child control to a default value as well.
- If you want to specify your own value, click Type in a value and type the value that you want to use.
- If you want the variable values to be driven by a data item in the report, click the data item that you want to use.
- If you do not want the variable to be used for the control, click Do not set.
To create a new active report variable, click Create a New Variable.