Drag&Relate Navigation 

Drag&Relate™ is a navigation tool that lets you access structured data and relate it to other structured data. Drag&Relate iViews can appear in both the Detailed Navigation and the Drag&Relate Targets areas of the navigation panel.

iViews in the Drag&Relate Targets area have been defined as drop targets for other iViews. They can be one of the following:

            D&R iViews: access company databases

Drag&Relate iViews are based on business objects and are identified by the following icon: .

When you drag a data link (identified by ) onto a D&R iView, the data behind the link interrelates with the data represented by the iView, and the results are displayed in the content area.

·        Web target iViews: access the Internet

Web target iViews represent forms on an Internet site’s Web pages. When you drag a data link from a D&R iView onto a Web target iView, the Web target iView retrieves information from the Internet that relates to the information represented by your dragged link. 

·        OBN iViews: access information related to business objects from back-end systems

In order to navigate with this type of iView, you can click the icon () beside the link you want to use, and select the operation you want from the displayed context menu. If you click the link itself, you activate the first operation in the list. The menu items represent the various types of information that the iView can retrieve from its business object.

It is possible for both iViews and pages to be D&R targets. When you drag a link onto a page, its data is related to each iView on the page, and results are returned accordingly.

The various icons that appear beside drag objects represent the different back-end applications with which you may be working, for example SAP transactions, BW Reports, and iView Wizard-generated iViews.

Example: D&R iView Operation

You launch an iView Company Customers that returns a list of customers and their personal information. If you drag the customer data link Jill Smith onto the Drag&Relate iView Customer Orders, the results should show a list of orders Jill Smith has made. With this Drag&Relate action you are querying data sources, without having to write SQL queries.

Multiple Objects

Sometimes, the D&R iView onto which you drag an object is based on more than one business object (database table). In such a case, you will see a dialog telling you that the relation between the dragged item and the target item contains several objects. To continue navigating, you need to select from a drop-down list the business object to which you want the iView to formulate its query.

To continue the example above, if the iView Customer Orders has two business objects, Orders and Order Details, you need to decide if you want to see how many orders Jill Smith has placed, or which products constituted each order. You select the business object according to the desired information, and receive your result.

Multiple Relations

Sometimes, there are several paths that an iView can take to reach the drag target object and return a result set. In such a case, you will see a dialog telling you that there is more than one relation defined between the Drag&Relate source and the target objects. To continue navigating, you need to select from a drop-down list the relation through which you want the iView to formulate its query.

To further continue the example, let’s assume that you chose Order Details as the business object of your query. It so happens that this choice has three defined relations: the order details of Jill’s orders, the order details of all the orders placed by the company for which Jill works, and the order details of all the orders placed from the country in which Jill operates. Once you have chosen the relation that interests you, the query returns an appropriate result set.

 

Example: Web Target iView Operation

Your navigation panel includes a business object iView that tracks partners. You create a Web target iView that launches a URL to the Web site of an industry magazine. You drag and drop a company name from the business object iView onto the Web target iView to launch a search for the latest news about the partner company.