Drill-Through

Applies to: Planning and Consolidation connections.

The drill-through feature enables you to view information on source data that make up the content of a selected cell in a report in Microsoft Office Excel.

The drill-through feature is also available for the EPM functions that retrieves data, such as EPMScaleData, EPMRetrieveData, EPMSaveData and EPMSaveDataOnly.

Drill-through definitions are previously set up in the Planning and Consolidation Administration view.

There are two types of drill-through: drill-through to URL and drill-through to table.

Drill-through to URL

A drill-through to URL enables you to display information in a web browser, for any URL and specific parameters that have been specified in the Administration view. For example: a Planning and Consolidation web report; the URL to the SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Management server (this particular case is called: Drill through to origin); a google page, a BEx report.

As soon as you are connected to a Planning and Consolidation model, if a drill-through to URL has been defined in Planning and Consolidation Administration on this model, a command appears in Start of the navigation path EPM Next navigation step Drill Through Drill Through to URL End of the navigation path . The command is named after the description entered in Planning and Consolidation Administration.

To access the drill-through information, select a cell that belongs to the report, then select the command from the ribbon. A web browser opens. The information displayed depends on the following items:

The URL that was previously specified in the Administration view.
The URL parameters that were previously specified in the Administration view.
Note The URL and the URL parameters appear in the browser address bar.
In some cases, the data cell that you selected in the report.

Note If the cell you have selected in the worksheet is out of the report, an error message appears.

Example for a Google search on the account member description. The drill-through definition has been set up as follows in the Administration view:

URL: http://www.google.com/search?
URL parameter 1: member description for the Account dimension. The member description will vary, depending on the cell you select in the report.
URL parameter 2: 2010. The time period is hard-coded. Even if the report contains data on 2009, the search is performed on 2010.

In a report:

when you select a data cell for the Account member "Operating Costs", then select the drill-through to URL command, the web browser opens and the results of the Google search on the "Operating+Costs+2010" terms are displayed.
when you select a data cell for the Account member "Advertising Costs", then select the drill-through to URL command, the web browser opens and the results of the Google search on the "Advertising+Costs+2010" terms are displayed.

Note Even if the selected cell does not contain any data, the drill-through is performed.

Drill-through to table

Applies to: Planning and Consolidation, version for the Microsoft platform, connections.

A drill-through to table enables you to display information from external databases or the Journals database, for a specific query file and specific properties (called drillkeys) that have been specified on dimension members in the Administration view. You can display the table either in a web browser or in in a Microsoft Office Excel sheet.

When you connect to a Planning and Consolidation model, if a drill-through to table has been defined in Planning and Consolidation Administration on this model, two commands appear in Start of the navigation path EPM Next navigation step Drill Through Drill Through to Table End of the navigation path .

To access the drill-through information, select the appropriate cell. Then click one of the two commands in the Drill Through to Table command in the ribbon. Depending on the link selected, the drill-through information is displayed in a web browser or in another sheet of the current workbook. The information displayed depends on:

The drillkey properties that have previously been specified in the Administration view. A drillkey is defined for one or more members for a specific dimension.
Note If several drillkeys have been defined on several dimensions, when you view the drill-through information, a dialog box appears prompting you to select the dimension for which you want to view the information.
The data cell that you have selected in the report.

Note If the cell you have selected in the worksheet does not correspond to any member for which drillkeys have been defined, a message appears, indicating that no drill-through information is available.

Example for viewing information from an external database on the Actual member of the Category dimension. In the Administration view, the drillkey property has been added to the Actual member of the Category dimension, and the name of a query file has been specified.

In a report:

when you select a data cell for the Actual member, then select one of the drill-through to table commands, the web browser or sheet opens and displays the table for Actual data.
when you select a data cell for the Budget member, then select one of the drill-through to table commands, a message appears, indicating that no drill-through information is available.

Note For more information about drill-through setup, see the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation help.