WebFOCUS Online Help > Managed Reporting End User > Creating a Graph With Graph Assistant > Linking Graphs to Other Resources

Linking Graphs to Other Resources

In this section:

How to:

To drill down to a more detailed level of information in a graph, you can link a procedure (FOCEXEC) or a URL to one or more values in your graph. When you run your graph, the selected values become "hot spots" that invoke the underlying procedure or URL.

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Procedure: How to Link a Graph to Other Resources
  1. Click the Field selection tab in the Graph Assistant.
  2. Select a field from the Field value(s) plotted on Y-axis list.
  3. If hidden, click Show graph field options.
  4. Click the Drill down button. The Drill Down dialog box opens.
  5. Select either Execute Procedure (FOCEXEC) or Execute URL option button.

    You can select the No action option button to disable a drill-down link.

  6. If you are linking your graph to a:
    • URL, type the URL in the URL text box. If you do not want the URL to appear when a user moves the mouse over a link in the graph, you can enter different text in the Alternate Comment for Hyperlink text box.
    • Procedure, select the procedure from the hierarchy.
  7. Use the Add button to add any parameters. For details, see Creating Parameters.
  8. Click OK.

Note: You can disable drill-down by following steps 1-3 and then selecting the No Action option button from the Drill Down dialog box.

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Creating Parameters

Parameters enable you to specify criteria and conditions for the associated (drill-down) report. By defining parameters, you can control the amount and type of information to retrieve when you click on a hot spot.

Note: To avoid conflicts, do not name variables beginning with Date, IBI, or WF, as variables beginning with these values are reserved for Information Builders use.

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Procedure: How to Create a Parameter in the Main and Drill Down Procedures
  1. Click the Selection criteria tab.
  2. Create an expression (WHERE statement) that defines a parameter. For details on creating WHERE statements, see Selection Criteria Tab in HTML Graph Assistant.
  3. Select the Field selections tab.
  4. Select the Sort by field that you want to drill down on, for example, Product.
  5. Click Drill down. The WebFOCUS Drill Down dialog box opens.
  6. Click Execute Procedure (FOCEXEC) or Execute URL.

    The following image shows a sample drill down dialog box with Execute Procedure (FOCEXEC) option selected.

  7. Click Add. The Drill Down Parameter dialog box opens as shown in the following image.

  8. Enter the name of the parameter you created in the drill down procedure in the Parameter Name text box, for example, Coffee.

    Note: When passing parameters to a drill-down procedure, you must use local variables (&variables). Global variables (&&variables) cannot be used as drill-down parameters. Also, it is not necessary to type an ampersand (&) before the parameter name. This will create a global variable that cannot be used as a drill-down parameter.

  9. When you pass the parameter to the drill down procedure, you must set a value for it in the Drill Down Parameter Dialog box. If you select:
    • Field, the parameter will be set to the corresponding value of the object the user drills down on in the specified field.
    • Constant value, the parameter is set to the specified value.

    Note: If the drill-down report contains a -DEFAULTS statement that sets a default value to the same variable passed from the main report, the variable value passed down overwrites the -DEFAULTS statement in the target procedure.

  10. Once a value has been supplied, click OK to return to the Drill Down Dialog box. The parameter is added to the With Parameters list box as shown in the following image.

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