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Function documentationDrill-Through Setup Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

You use this function to set up drill through definitions. Drill through definitions allow users to access source data from a report. Source data includes content that can be accessed from a URL, and for the Microsoft version of the system only, a database table.

Prerequisites

You must have proper security rights to define drill through definitions. See the Planning and Consolidation Security Guide for more information. See More Information.

Features

Setting up Drill-Through to a URL (applicable to both the Microsoft and NetWeaver platforms)

You set up URL-based drill through definitions within an application. After you set up at least one drill through for an application, it is available to users of reports that reference that application.

You can map the URL parameters to dimensions or user-defined values.

When you map a parameter to a dimension, you also choose a dimension property, such as ID or EVDESCRIPTION. When the user performs a drill-through in a report, the parameter value is taken from the property value of the selected data cell. For example, if you select the ID property of a dimension, the member IDs are mapped. If you select another property of a dimension, that property value is mapped. Therefore, you can send either the dimension member or the value of a property.

When you map a parameter to a user-defined value, you can hard code a value or use %CurrentUser%, or %CurrentDate%. If you specify a user-defined value in the mapping, when the user performs a drill-through in a report, the parameter value is based on the user-specified value.

Note Note

The system supports the variables Current Date and Current User in the mapping. The format of Current Date is %CURRENTYYYYMMDD%, where YYYYMMDD is replaced by the current year, month, and day. You could then use %CURRENTYYYY% for sending out only the current year. The format for Current User is %CURRENTUSER%.

The system supports using application set parameters and application parameters in a URL. The format is %parameter%. When an application set parameter and application parameter have the same name, drill-through uses the application parameter prior to the application set parameter.

End of the note.

Defining a Drill-Through Definition to a Database Table (applicable to the Microsoft platform only)

A database table drill-though includes data from external databases or the Journals database. You can define one drill-through definition per dimension. Drill-through is available on any cell that is contained within an EvDRE function, as well as cells containing EvGTS, EvGET, and EvINP formulas.

Executing a Drill Through

You can use the EvMNU macro MNU_eTOOLS_DRILLTHROUGH_RUN to execute a drill-through using the syntax MNU_eTOOLS_DRILLTHROUGH_RUN(“drillthrough id”).

Activities

The activities you perform to set up drill-through depend on whether you are drilling through to a URL or a database value.

To define a drill through for a URL (NetWeaver and Microsoft platforms)

  1. Under the desired application, select Drill Through from the action pane, then select Add Drill Through.

  2. Enter a drill-though ID and description.

  3. Move to the next window to enter the target URL and mapping information. For example, you can specify http://www.google.com/search? as the URL. For the parameter, you can enter q (which is a known Google parameter). Select one or more dimensions and associated properties or user-defined values.

  4. After setting the URL and parameter mapping, click TestRun to enter a value and test the URL you configured.

  5. Move to the Finish step to save the drill-through.

To define a drill-through to a database table (Microsoft platform only)

  1. In the Administration Console, add a property named DrillKey to the dimension or dimensions for which you want to use drill-through (see Member Behavior Using Dimension Properties).

  2. Devise a DrillKey value and assign that value to any member of the dimension for which you want to use drill-through (see Maintenance of Dimension Members).

  3. If you are using an external database, create a database query in Interface for Excel by choosing   Data   Import External Data   New Database Query   (in Microsoft Office 2003) or   Data   From Data Source   From Microsoft Query   (in Microsoft Office 2007).

  4. On the Databases tab, click New Data source and give it a name that has some relevance to the database you are querying.

  5. Choose the appropriate driver for the type of database to which you are connecting.

  6. After entering the required data, name your query, then save it to <Planning and Consolidation>/Webfolders/[ApplicationSet]/[application]\queryfiles.

    Note Note

    While defining your query, you can set the query filter to vary based on the current view of a dimension. You do this within the Query Wizard when setting filter data. To base the dimension on the current view, you can use the syntax %DimName%, where DimName is the dimension name you are referencing, such as %Entity%.

    End of the note.

  7. Set up the drill-through and connect it to an application set by editing the following fields in the drill-through table using the Edit Drill-through Table task on the Administration page within the Interface for the Web module:

    • DrillKey

      The value specified in the DrillKey property column for the dimension member on which you would like to drill through.

    • Title

      The title appears at the top of the Drill Through page.

    • FileName

      The name of your query file. For journals, a Journal query file is automatically built for you. For all other external databases, you must create a query file.

    • MaxRows

      The maximum number of rows to display on one page.

    • UserID and Password

      A valid user ID and password on the database to which you are querying.

Example

Example 1

This example describes a scenario of drilling through to a database value.

You have a report that has a row defined for TotalUnitsSold and you want to see this number broken out by customer. As long as you know where that data resides, you can define a drill-through to retrieve it. In the same report, if you have Sales Commission data in a row, you can define a drill-through to show the Journal entries that contributed to the final numbers for the Commission member.

Example 2

This example describes a scenario of drilling through to a URL.

You want to search the member of Category in a Web site called MySite. You can define a drill through, setting the URL as www.MySite.com. The parameter for MySite is q so in the URL Parameters column, you enter q. In the Mapping source column, select the Category dimension.

In the report, users can execute this drill-through to see the search results.

Example 3

This example describes another scenario of drilling through to a URL.

When SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Management (FIM) is used to load data into Planning and Consolidation from external data sources (flat files, tables, 3rd party applications, or other EPM applications), this data is often transformed and aggregated. Planning and Consolidation only stores the final data, and users may want to drill-through into the details of the data that is stored in a FIM repository (staging area). The URL-based drill through makes this possible.

When defining the drill through, the URL is set to the <FIM Application>. URL Parameters are dimensions in the Planning and Consolidation application that pass the context (for example, time, account, etc.), of the data being queried. All data associated with the context is returned and displayed in the FIM drill-through report.