Overview: Drill-Thru Support in Reports

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

WHAT IS A DRILL THROUGH?

With regard to SSRS reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a drill-though is a hyperlink embedded directly in the report content. These hyperlinks can be statically defined in the report definition or generated dynamically based on the reporting session context including user security rights, AX metadata, and configuration keys.

Supported URL targets:

  • Forms in the AX rich client
  • Enterprise Portal pages
  • Internet/intranet sites
  • SSRS reports

 

MULTIPLE CLIENT SUPPORT

The AX Reporting Framework is used to support both the rich client as well as the Enterprise Portal environment. AX Forms are accessed using references to Menu Items. The framework also takes care of determining the appropriate destination depending on the context of the report execution. SSRS Reports will direct users to an AX Form when rendered in the Report Viewer control and to an EP Web Part when rendered within the EP client.

Report developers are able to alter the textual formatting and styles used by report navigation links across all AX Reports directly in the report style templates. These settings are honored by the Auto Design templates and will be maintained when transitioning to a Precision Design.

MULTIPLE CONTEXT INDEXES

Most AX Forms rely on a single field reference to establish the navigation context. For instance, you can identify which Customer to high-light in the Customer Details Form using just the Customer Account. This is an example of context derived from a single index. However, there are objects that require multiple field references to establish the navigation context. The Main Account table is a perfect example since it requires both the Main Account ID in addition to the Ledger Chart Of Accounts ID to establish context for a single record.

To provide this flexibility, the AX Reporting Framework allows for a varying number of context arguments to facilitate navigation to an AX Form or EP Web Part.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2012
    Hi TJ, I would very interested if you could comment on extending the drill through. Following the msdn to add the drill through elements works fine msdn.microsoft.com/.../cc582049.aspx but ... I was trying not to modify the SRSDrillThroughCommon but extend it. The compile works fine but deployment fails. Is this something that is supported? If it is supported, this would be a better way of documenting it on msdn. It would make upgrading and merging a lot easier. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2012
    RE: "I was trying not to modify the SRSDrillThroughCommon but extend it" A couple of questions:

  1.  Can you elaborate on the type of extensions you are attempting to make?  
  2.  Have you considered introducing a new shared business logic assembly with your drill-thru extensions instead of modifying the SYS layer assembly?  Of course, your new assembly would need to contain a direct reference to SRSDrillThroughCommon but this will definitely offer greater flexibility and isolation.
  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2012
    Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 takes about 22 hours in Generate Report "Journaled Transactions" of a single day,  due to the large volume of records containing, OpeSystems managed to do it with the same content in approximately 17 minutes. For more information contact us info@opesystems.com.mx