SECTIONSAbout Common Names and Drilling
Drilling is the ability to left-click or right-click on a cell and open a new results tab displaying further analysis of the row clicked on. Reporting uses common names to provide context when drilling. The more common names you use, the narrower your drill results will be. For example, you might run an action view to inquire on opportunities for all users in your org with the following results:
| User | Opportunity Number |
Opportunity Total |
Opportunity Currency |
Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mary | 1 | 175.00 | EURO | HOWARD LTD |
| Mary | 2 | 60.00 | GBP | STOREY & CO |
| Mary | 3 | 450.00 | EURO | MANNING INC |
| George | 4 | 2000.00 | GBP | HOWARD LTD |
| George | 5 | 260.00 | EURO | MANNING INC |
For example, you may assign the common name User to all fields representing "User" in your dataviews, and that the "User" column has a drill action view template to display Opportunity details. At this stage no other common names have been used. Clicking on Mary in row 1, 2 or 3 will drill to results displaying only Opportunities created by Mary. Therefore, Opportunities created by George will be excluded.
If you also assign the common name Currency to all fields representing "Opportunity Currency" in your dataviews, when you click on Mary in row 1, 2 or 3 the currency on that row will be added to the selection context. If you click on Mary in row 1 or 3, the selection context will be User=Mary AND Opportunity Currency=Euro. The drill results will display Opportunities 1 and 3. Opportunity 2 will be excluded because its currency is GBP.
If you also assign the common name Account to all fields representing "Account Name" in your dataviews, when you click on a User name, the account and currency on that row will be added to the selection context. If you click on Mary in row 1, the selection context will be Use rname=Mary AND Opportunity Currency=Euro AND Account=HOWARD LTD. The drill results will display only Opportunity 1.
Creating Common Names
To decide what common names you need, you must have a good understanding of the structure of your Salesforce data. Common names are similar to keys on database tables; they allow you to map a field on one object (or dataview) to a field on another object (or dataview).
When assigning a common name, the fields to which is it assigned must be of the same datatype. It is worth running each of your action view templates individually to check that the datatype of each field is what you expect (e.g. you are not getting Account ID where you expected to get Account Name) before you start assigning common names. If you are getting an ID where you expected to get a Name, you will need to edit the dataview to include a lookup join to the appropriate object so that you can add the Name field from that object. If you do accidentally assign the same common name to fields of different datatypes, that common name will be discarded from the selection context when you drill.
When you know what common names you need, add them to the picklist on the Dataview Field custom object:
- From Setup, click Create | Objects | Dataview Field.
- Scroll down to the Custom Fields & Relationships section, then click on Common Name.
- Scroll down to the Picklist Values section, then click New.
- Enter your new common names, one per line.
- Click Save.
You assign common names to fields when creating or editing a dataview. For details see Creating Dataviews. You can override the assignment later on the action view template if needed.
Deleting Picklist Values for Common Names
Picklist values for common names are created in different ways, and behave in different ways when you delete them. System Administrators who manage picklist values should be aware that:
- When you delete a Salesforce picklist value and that picklist is in use, for example on a dataview field object, then Salesforce removes that value from wherever it is used.
- When you delete a value that is sourced from the custom common name table, it appears to be deleted from the dataview or action view template that you are working with. However, when you next save, it reappears in the picklist and is available again from the custom common names table.
- When you delete a value that is sourced from another application, for example HCM, the value is deleted from the original application. However, when you next save, it reappears in the picklist.
Drilling
You can drill by:
- Left-clicking in a cell where the
icon is displayed in the column heading. The drill results are displayed using that column's drill action view template which may be based on the same dataview or on a different dataview. - Right-clicking in a cell. The drill results are displayed using the action view template you select from the popup list that appears. Only templates based on the same dataview as the current results are available for selection.
At least one column in the dataview being used must have a common name otherwise you will not be able to drill. For an example of how to set up common names for drilling see Example Setup for Common Names and Drilling.