Linking to other documents and to reports

You can link to other documents and reports from a text field in a document, from an image in a document, or from objects on a Grid/Graph or widget in a document.

The link connects an object in one document (the source) to another document or a report (the target). You can have the link answer prompts in the target document/report. Answering prompts allows the link to pass information from the source document to the target. For details on how prompts can be answered by a link, with examples, see Specifying how prompts are answered in the target.

You can have the link specify selector values in the target document. Specifying selector values allows the link to pass information from the source to the target. For details on how selector values can be passed in a link, with examples, see Passing selector values from the source to the target.

Links can connect to reports and documents on any level. A regional document can contain a link to its underlying dataset, which displays profit and cost values as well sales, all at the regional level. Another link in the same document can execute a document with additional information about the selected region, such as employees, market saturation, and so on.

Using links as a form of drilling

You do not need to use links to provide drilling from a document's Grid/Graph. You can enable drilling for a Grid/Graph, which allows users to drill up, down, or across attributes, custom groups, and consolidations displayed in the Grid/Graph; for steps, see Drilling in Grid/Graphs. Links are one way to simulate drilling in a document.

Links can provide drilling in documents, when you define the links to navigate from data at one level to different levels of aggregation. For example, if a user is viewing a document containing regional revenue, he can click a link on a particular region to execute another document that displays sales for the call centers in that region. Essentially, the user has drilled down from Region to Call Center. The original document is shown below, in Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web.

After the user clicks the link on Central, this document is executed:

The drilling is accomplished by linking to a prompted document and passing prompt answers in the link. For details on passing prompt information, see Specifying how prompts are answered in the target.

A second link on region in the source document can take the user from the regional sales document to another document that displays sales by country. The user has then drilled up from Region to Country. In the following sample, the user has drilled from Central to all countries.

In previous versions, linking or drilling to reports and documents was accomplished with drill links.