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Working with Clickthrough Reports

In Report Builder, a clickthrough report is a report that provides detailed information about the data contained within the main report. A clickthrough report is displayed when the Report Builder user clicks the interactive data that appears in the main report. These reports are automatically generated by the report server. You, as the model designer, determine what is displayed in clickthrough reports by setting the DefaultDetailAttribute and DefaultAggregateAttribute properties that you assign to an entity in the report model.

Note

Clickthrough reports are available only when running SQL Server Enterprise. If you are unsure of which edition of SQL Server that your organization is running, contact your database administrator.

Using Default Templates

By default, the report server generates two clickthrough template types for each entity: a single instance template and a multiple instance template. The item that you click on determines which template is used. If the person reading the report clicks a scalar attribute, the single instance template is used. If the person reading the report clicks an aggregate attribute, the multiple instance template is used.

Single Instance Templates

A single instance template displays all the attributes of the target entity and all the default aggregate attributes that are specified for the related entities that have a one-to-many relationship from the target entity. A single instance template looks similar to the following image.

A many to 1 clickthrough report.

Multiple Instance Templates

A multiple instance template displays only the default detail attributes of the target entity and all of the default aggregate attributes that are specified for the related entities that have a one-to-many relationship from the target entity. A multiple instance template looks similar to the following image.

A many to 1 clickthrough report.

Customizing Clickthrough Reports

Instead of using the default templates that the report server generates, you can create a report in Report Builder and use it as a customized clickthrough report. Then, you can link your report to the model as a drillthrough report in Report Manager.

To turn a Report Builder report into a clickthrough report, you need to select the Enable Drillthrough to this Report option in the Report Builder Properties dialog box. Once this option is selected, a drillthrough parameter is added to the report and the report can no longer be run in Report Builder directly. The drillthrough parameter is automatically calculated by the report server when the report reader clicks on an item in a Report Builder report. For more information on how to create your own report and use it as a customized clickthrough report, see Tutorial: Customizing Report Builder Clickthrough Reports.

Important

The primary, or base, entity used in the report must be the same entity that you link the report to.