Drill through at Model level

[BigChris]

If this needs to be in a different area please feel free to move it

Is it possible to create a drill through from an item in a project (in Framework Manager) to a standard report? I've created a report which takes an item number and displays some basic information about it (description, dimensions, vendor etc.) and I'd like to make that report available as a drill though from item number wherever it appears.

Obviously there are lots of reports in our environment and whilst I could go through each one and add the drill through, I'd probably still be working my way through the list around Christmas next year. So...I'd like to set up a drill through from the item in the Sales Order Line package (for example) so any report using that package will have that available.

Is that possible? I've looked around FM, but I can't find anything that would let me do that.

[MFGF]

If this needs to be in a different area please feel free to move it

Is it possible to create a drill through from an item in a project (in Framework Manager) to a standard report? I've created a report which takes an item number and displays some basic information about it (description, dimensions, vendor etc.) and I'd like to make that report available as a drill though from item number wherever it appears.

Obviously there are lots of reports in our environment and whilst I could go through each one and add the drill through, I'd probably still be working my way through the list around Christmas next year. So...I'd like to set up a drill through from the item in the Sales Order Line package (for example) so any report using that package will have that available.

Is that possible? I've looked around FM, but I can't find anything that would let me do that.

Hi Chris,

Yep - this is a package-based drill through, and you define it in Cognos Connection, not Framework Manager. In Cognos Connection, click on Launch > Drill Through Definitions. You can then choose the package you want the drillthorugh to be available from, then use the button in the top right corner (New Drill Through Definition) to add one or more target reports for the package to drill through to. You can map package items to be passed as parameters, and you can define the scope (ie when the drill-through is available vs not available). Once defined, the mechanism for drilling through involves using the "Go To" option within the report you are running.

Cheers!

MF.

[BigChris]

Fan flippin' tastic. I'll have a pay with that and post back with either success of problems  :D

[bdbits]

I have used drill-through definitions quite a bit with cubes. The cubes were based on fact and dimension tables in a data warehouse. So we created a report for the fact table(s) behind each cube, with parameters for each related dimension, and associated the report with a drill-through definition. When the user then drilled through off a crosstab or AS query, in effect all of the dimensional selections were passed to the report as parameters. (Note: in the drill-through definition you can choosed to pass various role values rather than MUNs.)

The net effect was that no matter the report, if you had some aggregated cube values, you could drill through and see all the associated detail records that made up the aggregate. This was primarily used for accounting subject areas, and they really liked this and used it quite a bit. I don't think we had a single cube that we did not also have this set up.

It's a lot of detail work to set them up and get them working, especially if you go from a dimensional cube to a relational database, but I think the package level drill-through definitions are a great overlooked feature in Cognos.