It's a good question, and like everything, what initially sounds like a simple thing has a number of ways of achieving it.
My rule of thumb has always been - if a calculation is used more than once, then it should really go into the data model rather than be coded into the dashboard or report.
In this case the best practice approach would be to put your calculation into the data model and then it can be used by both the dashboard and report. This is easy if you are the data modeller and you have the capability to edit the underlying Data Module or Framework Manager model. If you haven't got this capability then you should ask the modeller. I personally dislike this distinction of roles. In my head every report author is a modeller, and every modeller is an author, due to the cyclic nature of analytics development. And modellers should always be receptive to authors needs.
If you aren't allowed to put this calculation into the existing data model, then you could create your own data module, import the other data model (Package/Module) and add your calculation there. Not ideal, but better than the next suggestion...
If there is no ability whatsoever to put that calculation into a data model, then you will probably need to recreate the calculation within any reports you want to drill through to. Which is why this isn't really the way to do it., as you could end up having to maintain multiple versions of this calculation within reports.
Once you have the calculation in both the dashboard and report drill through should be simple! A case of adding a filter into the report on the new calculation. The filter uses a parameter which you populate from the dashboard drill through definition.
Depending on how advanced your report authoring skills are you could either add a filter using the report toolbar filter option (beginner) or directly into the query used by the report (more advanced).
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Marc Reed
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Original Message:
Sent: Fri January 12, 2024 02:20 AM
From: Ron Macbram
Subject: Setting Up A Drill Through Report On A Dashboard with a Custom-Created Field
Hello,
I'd like to ask for some assistance within Cognos Analytics to set a drill through report for a dashboard that utilizes a custom created Data Group.
For example- Using a particular namespace I've created a data group from a specific namespace called 'Crews' (Please see below for the groupings). Within 'Housing' exist items that begin with the word 'Housing'; Within 'Main Campus' exist items that begin with the word 'Campus'; and within 'Non-University' exist items that begin items with the word 'Non-University'.
They all have a specific number of requests as well, which is the table that appears on my dashboard:
My question then becomes when creating a drill through report. Since this is a custom created data group item; how does one properly design a drill through report using this? It becomes confusing because I'm not sure if I have to custom create a data field within the Report > Pages section (which doesn't seem to be possible); or do something with the 'Crews' namespace within the Queries section under Data Items, Data Filters, etc... Setting the up parameter after is also an issue, so I'm just quite lost with this.
If anyone happens to know if this is possible, I would very much appreciate the assistance. Thank you.
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Ron Macbram
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