Implementing Report Part Drill Down

The Report Part Drilldown option in the Hyperlink tab of the Format Editor lets you define a hyperlink so that the Report Part Viewer can emulate the drill-down functionality of Crystal Reports. The Report Part Viewer displays only destination objects; therefore, to make drill down work, you need to define a navigation path from a home object to one or more destination objects. When you have multiple destination objects, they must all reside in the same report section.

The Report Part Drilldown option does not affect the DHTML page viewers since the option emulates the default Crystal Reports behavior for drill down (which the page viewers already support). Page viewers, however, do not limit which objects are displayed — they always show all report objects.

Defining the Home Object

Because the Report Part Viewer shows only destination objects, you must define Initial Report Part Settings (that is, a default home object) for a report before your Report Part Drilldown hyperlinks can work. A report's Initial Report Part Settings define the object that appears first in the Report Part Viewer. Think of this object as the place you'll begin your path of drill-down hyperlinks from.

To define Initial Report Part Settings

1. Open the report whose default home object you want to define.
2. Click the object you want to set as the default home object and copy its name listed in the Name field of the Properties window (for example: Text1, Field1, Graph1, and so on).
3. Right-click in the embedded Crystal Reports Designer, point to Report, and select Report Options.
4. In the Initial Report Part Settings area of the Report Options dialog box, click the Paste Linkbutton.

The name and data context of the report object you selected as your home object are pasted into the appropriate fields.

Include another object from the same section of the report by entering a semi-colon (;) and typing the name of the object.

5. Click OK.

To create a Report Part Drilldown hyperlink

1. Open a report and right-click the intended destination object and select Format from the shortcut list.
2. In the Format Editor, click the Hyperlink tab.
3. In the DHTML Viewer Only area, select Report Part Drilldown.

The Hyperlink Information area changes to show the appropriate fields for this type of hyperlink.

The Available Fields area shows only the sections and report objects you can select for drill down. In general, these objects include field objects, charts, maps, bitmaps, cross-tabs, and text objects contained in the next section down (that is, for example, objects in group two when the object you selected is in group one).

Note   The Available Fields area does not show suppressed report objects.

4. In the Available Fields area, select the section or report object(s) you want to use as your drill down destination.

Tip   Use the Properties Window to quickly identify the default names assigned to each of your report objects.

5. Use the arrow buttons to move the selected section or object(s) to the Fields to Display area.

For ease of identification, the program creates a section node in the Fields to Display area. This node contains the objects that you selected in the Available Fields area.

6. If you want to add another object to the Fields to Display area, select it in the Available Fields list and drag it into position.

Tip   The position an object has in the Fields to Display area determines how it appears in the Report Part Viewer; top to bottom in the Fields to Display area equates to left to right in the viewer. Use the arrows above the Fields to Display area to change the order of objects.

Note   The Fields to Display area can contain only one section at a time. If you try to add a second section, it replaces any existing section in the Fields to Display area.

7. Click OK.

You have established a hyperlink from your report's home object to a destination object or objects. In the Report Part Viewer, you will see the home object first, and when you click it for drill down, you will see the destination object(s).