Order of Precedence of Drill Maps: Levels

When you change or customize the drill map associated with a grid unit, you can do so at several different levels:

• Project level: If a drill map is associated with grid units at the project level, then all of the grid units in the project will have this drill map. Therefore, when you drill on a report, the default drill paths are those specified in this drill map. This option is found in the Project Configuration Editor.
• Grid unit level: A drill map can be associated with individual grid units such as attributes, consolidations, and hierarchies. When the object is used in a report or template, the grid unit level drill map overrides the project level drill map.
• Template level: If a drill map is associated with grid units on a particular template, it overrides the project level and grid unit level drill maps. The drill paths of this drill map are available in all reports that use this template.
• Report level: If a drill map is associated with grid units on a report level, it overrides the drill maps defined at the project level, grid unit level, and the template level. If a grid unit is not associated with a drill map at the report level, it inherits the map from the report template. If it is not associated with a drill map through the template, then the grid unit drill map is used, and so on.

The Drill Map Editor represents these levels and inheritances when you edit a report's drill maps. If the Name field is grayed out (disabled), the selected report object inherited that drill map from the project, grid unit, or template. When you overwrite it by adding a different drill map to the object, the Name field is enabled.

For example, you create a drill map named Customer Attribute Drills for the attribute Customer. Create a report named Customer Revenue that displays Region, Customer, and the Revenue metric. When you edit the drill maps for the report and select Customer, the Name field is disabled but displays Customer Attribute Drills. No drill paths are displayed for the drill map. Because this attribute does not have a drill map on the report, it inherited the drill map from the attribute level. Because you cannot edit the attribute's drill map from the attribute on the report, the Name field is disabled and the drill paths do not appear. When a new drill map is created for Customer on this particular report, Name is enabled, defaulting to Customer Sales Customer Drill Map.

By default, there is a project drill map containing all of the hierarchies that have been specified as drill hierarchies using the Hierarchy Editor in the project. It cannot be deleted, but it can be modified and overridden.

Drill Maps Associated with Templates

You can also change or customize the drill map associated with a template, rather than the individual grid units on the template. The drill map then controls the drill paths only for the metric values on the template.

For example, the Basic Report contains regions, employees, and the Revenue metric. The drill map contains a drill path to a Personnel report. This drill path is associated with the template, not Region, Employee, or Revenue. If you drill on a number in the Revenue column of the Basic Report, you can drill to the Personnel report only. If you drill on the Revenue metric heading, you can drill in other directions to various hierarchies. If you drill on a region, you can drill up to Country, down to Call Center, or in other directions.

The drill paths of this drill map are available in all reports that use this template.