Problem
When using the standard Reporting Services drill-through navigation the new report is rendered in the current browser window, therefore overlaying the original report. There is no built in way to indicate you want the drill-through report to open a new window. In a standard web browser you can use the (shift-click) functionality to open the link in a new window, but in Reporting Services this functionality is disabled. So how can you launch a new window when you open a drill-through report?
Solution
Use a little javascript with a customized URL in the “Jump to URL” option of the Navigation tab.
Non-parameterized Solution
To get started, let’s pop up a simple non parameterized report. Follow these instructions:
- Instead of using the “Jump to Report” option on the Navigation tab, use the “Jump to URL” option.
- Open the expression screen (Fx button).
- Enter the following:
="javascript:void(window.open('http://servername?%2freportserver%2fpathto%2freport&rs:Command=Render'))"
- Click OK twice, then save and deploy the report.
Note: The link will not work from the designer environment. You must deploy the report (hopefully to a test area) to try the link.
See screenshots below.
That’s the easy part, ready for a more dynamic approach?
Parameterized Solution
Now, let’s say you want to pass a variable to the drill through report. Let’s also assume you have a field called ProductCode. Normally, you might hard code that like this:
http://servername/reportserver?%2fpathto%2freport&rs:Command=Render&ProductCode=123
In this case, you want to pass variables dynamically, using an available value from the source dataset.
You can think of it like this:
http://servername/reportserver?%2fpathto%2freport&rs:Command=Render&ProductCode=Fields!ProductCode.Value
The exact syntax in the “Jump to URL” (Fx) expression window will be:
="javascript:void(window.open('http://servername/reportserver?%2fpathto%2freport&rs:Command=Render&ProductCode="+Fields!ProductCode.Value+"'))"
Note – To avoid confusion between double and single quotes, double quotes are in red above.
Notice, that the static portion of the URL is delimited within double quotes.
Next Steps
- Next time you build drill-through report capabilities look at using this method to open a new browser instead of overlaying the original report
- Look at your existing reports to see if this method makes more sense for your report navigation
- Stay tuned for other Reporting Services tips from this author
Rob has worked with MSSQL since version 6.5 in various capacities (dba, developer, report writer, data warehouse designer) and with SharePoint technologies (WSS2, WSS3, MOSS2007 & MOSS2010 beta) since 2003 as an architect and designer. He has written several articles on MSSQLTips.com and is Editor in Chief (and frequent author) at MSSharePointTips.com. You can contact Rob at rob.fisch [@] yahoo.com.
