Creating a Drill Through Definition Report

In Bullhorn Reporting, a Drill Through Definition means to "click through" to another report, usually by clicking a link in the parent report. You might want to use this reporting technique to pull up additional details about a result in your main report.

This article will walk you through creating two reports, a child report and a parent report. You can create any two reports you like with your desired fields as long as you ensure that both reports have a field in common that you’d like to use for the connection. In our example, we use the recruiter’s name.

The example we will be using is our parent report will show you the recruiter name, # of placements, # of jobs added, and Fill Rate. From this report, you’ll be able to click on the recruiter name and it will take you to the child report that shows you the recruiter name, placement ID, Placement date added, and job title.

If you already have two existing reports and a field in common to connect them, you can skip ahead to Creating the Drill Through.

Building the Child Report

We’re going to build the child report first. If you already have a report you’d like to use, you can skip the final section. The only thing a Child report requires is a prompt based on the field in common.

We are going to use the Placement Analysis package because the fields we’re reporting on are stored in the placement record.

We will be adding our chosen fields. You can select other fields as desired to customize your own report.

Steps

1. In Canvas, click Add.
   
   
2. In Add Report > NAME, enter the a name that contains "child report" then click NEXT.
   • Labeling the report "child report" will ensure users aren't running it independently.
3. Under Insertable objects, from the Toolbox tab, double click List.
4. In the Object and query name pop-up, under the Name field enter a name for your list, then click OK.
   
5. Under Insertable objects, from the Sources tab, click Placement Analysis > Placement Job Owner, then double click name.
   
6. Still under Insertable objects > Sources > Placement Analysis, click Placement, then double-click Placement ID and Date Added.
   
7. Still under Insertable objects > Sources > Placement Analysis, click Placement Job, then double-click Job Title.
8. Rearrange the columns, as desired.
9. Select the data rows for the Name column.
10. Click More and then Build prompt page.
    
11. Click Save and close the report.
12. Note the report number as it shows on your Canvas report list.
    
    

Building the Parent Report

We are going to use the Placement Analysis package because the fields we’re reporting on are stored in the placement record. If you already have a parent report, skip to creating the drill through.

We will be adding our chosen fields. You can select other fields, as desired, to customize your own report.

1. Create a new report by clicking Add.
   
   
2. In Add Report > NAME, enter a name of your choosing. In the DESCRIPTION, enter "parent report" then click NEXT.
3. Under Insertable objects, from the Toolbox tab, double click List.
4. In the Object and query name pop-up, in the Name field enter a name for your list, then click OK.
5. Under Insertable objects, from the Sources tab, click Placement Analysis > Placement Job Owner, then double-click Name.
6. Still under Insertable objects > Sources > Placement Analysis, click Placement, then double-click Placement Count.
7. Still under Insertable objects > Sources > Placement Analysis, click Placement Job and then double-click Job Count.
8. In the table, press and hold CTRL and click Placement Count and then Job Count.
   1. Canvas places the first header you click on as the dividend and the second as the divisor, so click them in the correct order.
      
9. Click Insert Calculations and then Placement Count/Job Count.
   
10. In the table, click header Placement Count/Job Count.
11. Click More > Edit Data Item Label....
    
12. In the Data Item Label pop-up screen, under the Data item label field type in “Fill Rate” and click OK.
    
13. Highlight the Fill Rate data rows, then under Show properties > Data, click Data Format > More.
    
14. In the Data format pop-up screen, click the drop-down Format type, then select Percent.
15. Click Number of decimal place. From the drop-down that appears, select 1.
16. Click OK.
    
    

Creating the Drill Through

We will now create the drill through that will link the parent report to the child report. In order to create a drill through you will need to identify a common variable. In our example, the common variable is name so we're going to use that in the steps below.

1. Still in the created parent report, in the table, select the data rows Name.
2. Click More > Drill-through defintions....
   
3. In the Drill-through derfintions pop-up screen, click New Drill-Through Definition.
4. In the Target report tab, click More.
   
   
5. In the Open file pop-up screen, click the report by ID number you noted previously, then select Open.
6. In the Drill-through derfintions pop-up screen, click Edit.
   
7. Wait a few moments for the next screen to load.
8. In the Parameters pop-up screen under Method, click the drop-down and then select Pass data item value.
• This is what allows the parent to pass the desired common variable to the child report’s prompt.
  
9. Under the Value select the variable both reports have in common.
• In our example it’s Name.
  
  
10. Click OK twice.
11. Click Save and run your report.

You have now finished your drill through report!

For more information about advanced Bullhorn Reporting techniques you can search for “Cognos Workspace Advanced” on your desired search engine, such as Google.