Report to Report Linking

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and need your immediate help. I have to build reports in full client i.e Business Objects ver 6.5 and these will be viwed through infoview.

It isreport to report linking. 1st report will contain some hyperlinks on the 1st column, and on clicking on any data, a second report should be opened. The second report will show details for the data clicked on the 1st report.

I have seen such problems being raised in this forum, but could not get definite answers from the post.

Is it possible? If so, then please can anybody give me step by step approach to do so. From the earlier posrts, i understand that we have to make use of Open Document function. Where can i learn about this function and how will that help me?

Thanks in advance
swasti


swasti (BOB member since 2006-02-27)

You can link documents and I recently used it in a project. But it’s a pain :reallymad: . I spent hours getting the urls in the mother report right and getting the prompts in the child report working properly. You have to specify the EXACT prompt names, child document ids and names, OpenDocument parameters etc.
So if you can avoid it, please do, otherwise reserve a reasonable amount of time to implement it right (managing the expectations of your customers :lol: ).

I approached it putting the urls and the prompts in the universe. If you need samples I’ll have to dig into my archive :crazy_face: .

HenkK


HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

You’ll have to Search in the correct WebI sub-forum for past discussions on the OpenDocument syntax that you could use.


Anita Craig :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

Please dig into your archive and provide me with “report to report linking” sample. It will be of immense help if you can help me step by step. :cry: I am not a great expert and i have to do this project and the dealines are very strict. :reallymad:

Thanks a lot in advance
swasti


swasti (BOB member since 2006-02-27)

Well, here we go. I have a main report called “motherreport” with a list of customer_code and customer_name and a report you want to link to called “childreport” which shows
detailed information about a specified customer. These reports are built and “childreport” has a prompt asking for the customer_code.

Lets convert the column customer_code in “motherreport” into an url to “childreport” passing the clicked customer_code to provide detailed information in “childreport” about the customer.

In my universe I have an object “Customer Code” which contains this:


'<a href="'+@Select(Control\WebiServerAdress)+'/scripts/OpenDocument.asp?sDocName='+@Select(Report Names\Name childreport)+'&amp;RepoType=corporate&amp;sType=rep&amp;sRefresh=Y&amp;iDocId='+@Select(DocIDs reports\DocID childreport)+'&amp;lsSSpecify customer code='+customer.customer_code+'">'+customer.customer_code+'</a>'

Basically you create - manually - an url to the child report using the OpenDocument function. You specify the parameters of the OpenDocument function by creating the string above. At the end you specify the database column containing the customer_code (this is what actually is displayed in the report).

As you can see I like objects so here is what is in the objects:
@Select(Control\WebiServerAdress) = url to the Webi server, in my case ‘http://ibiza/wiasp
@Select(Report Names\Name childreport) = File name without extension of the childreport, like ‘Customer detail’
@Select(DocIDs reports\DocID childreport) = Document ID of the childreport, like ‘1885’ (look this up through Infoview/Details/Properties)

The childreport must contain the prompt in EXACT the same case.

My childreports also contains an url which refers back to the motherreport.

Good luck,
HenkK


HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

Gee, if we’ve pointed you in the right direction, I’d consider that a big help.

We don’t exist to spoon-feed each other and do someone else’s work – we all have deadlines to meet! :roll_eyes:

The bottom line is – I think you get more than your money’s worth here on this board – it’s free! :rotf:


Anita Craig :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

That’s the problem with deadlines, who agrees to meet them? Who sets them? Can the BO developer himself estimate the time he needs for his reports?
And if the reports are about an area of expertise you don’t now anything about, well first study before giving a reliable estimate.

And as I said before, it is difficult, but if the deadlines are strict NOW is the time to manage expectations! Maybe based on the info you got from BOB, send an alert to your organisation that this is a difficult and time consuming area. An idea might be to go ahead with the project without the links and shcedule that part after the project deadline. What the users always want is the data and it better be the right data: that is more important than links between reports, which is a luxury and can be added afterwards without a problem.

HenkK


HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

Hi Henk,

Sorry to trouble you again. In your post you had mentioned that your child report contains a url to go back to the mother report. Can you please throw some light on it?

I need to have a “Back” image on each report, clicking on which the child report should be opened.

Thanks a lot in advance
Swasti


swasti (BOB member since 2006-02-27)

Well, the link back is relatively easy. All you have to do is take an url you already have and remove the prompts ("&lsS" code) from it. It could look something like this:

'<a href="'+@Select(Control\WebiServerAdress)+'/scripts/OpenDocument.asp?sDocName='+@Select(Report Names\Name motherreport)+'&amp;RepoType=corporate&amp;sType=rep&amp;sRefresh=Y&amp;iDocId='+@Select(DocIDs reports\DocID motherreport)+'">'+sometext_to_be_clicked+'</a>'

HenkK


HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

Yeah, I had done it already but loads of thanks anyways.

Thanks
Swasti


swasti (BOB member since 2006-02-27)

That was a great information HenkK. I have been looking for a detailed procedure. Thanks to Anita too for her elaborate code break in another post. For future is there any book or guide I can refer to inorder to learn these procedures ?

[Moderator Edit: Duplicate post which was made almost an hour later – deleted. AMC]


DWHUser (BOB member since 2005-08-29)