### Drilling-down on data

A unique feature of the Web Component Server is the ability to perform drill-down analysis on report data to view the details hidden behind subtotals and summary values. Users can click or double-click summary values that allow drill-down to display the detail values on a separate page. A summary report comprising of only a few lines can be expanded to show all of the data used to derive the summaries.

As a web administrator, you can minimize hits on the database server by designing brief summary reports that enable selective drill-downs on GroupBy reports. Calculation of additional data is limited to specific user requests. For example, if a report contains 10 groups, and each group contains 10 detail values, a report designed to display all values immediately will require obtaining or generating 110 pieces of data (10 x 10 detail values plus the 10 summary values). However, if the report is designed as a drill-down report and only the summary values appear when the report is first generated, only 10 values need to be sent. If the client chooses to drill-down on two groups, 20 more values are retrieved from the database, for a total of 30 values. This difference, 30 versus 110, shows how network and database resources can be drastically reduced by designing a drill-down report for distribution.

Seagate Software, Inc. http://www.seagatesoftware.com Please send comments to: techpubs@seagatesoftware.com