Drill Down Displays

Drill Down Targets

The ability to assign drill down targets to objects allows you to build a customizable hierarchy of displays. Any display (.rtv) file can be targeted as a drill down. Once a drill down target has been set, double-click on the object in the Display Builder or single-click in the Display Viewer to activate the drill down.

Note: To activate drill downs in the Display Viewer with a double-click, select Tools>Options in the Display Builder. If your “Login” doesn't allow you to view a particular drill down display, the drill down display will not open when you click on the object.

Drill down displays can be activated in the same window that contains the source object or open in a separate window. The file drilldown.rtv (located in the tutorials directory) is provided as an example of the different ways that drill down targets can be utilized in a display.

If a command (see “Define/Execute Command” for details) has been assigned to an object, then you must right-click and select Drill Down from the popup menu to open the targeted display.

Drill Down Properties

In the Object Properties window, double-click on drillDownTarget in the Property Name field to bring up the Drill Down Properties dialog.

dd_dialog.gif

 

Field Name

Description

Apply Drill Down To

New Window* - Open the targeted display file in a new display window. A new window will be created each time this drill down is activated.

Current Window - Open the targeted display file in same window as the source object. When viewing in tabbed panels, selecting Current Window in the Apply Drill Down To field (in the Drill Down Properties dialog) opens your specified display in another tab if the display is already open. If the specified display is not already open, it will open in the selected tab. See “Multiple Display Panels” for more information.

Named Window* - Open the targeted display file in a separate window defined by a specific name. The same window will be reused each time this drill down is activated or if you activate another drill down with the same window name. If you choose this option, you must also enter a Window Name.

Window Name

Enter a name for the window. The same window will be reused for all drill down targets that reference this window name.

Entering main as a Window Name will open the targeted display in your top level window. When viewing multiple display panels, main will open the drill down in panelcenter. See “Multiple Display Panels” for more information.

Note: This field is only valid if the drill down is applied to a Named Window*.

Drill Down Display Name

Select the name of the targeted display (.rtv) file. The drop down menu contains the names of files located in the current directory, as well as files located in first level of subdirectories. If a display is not listed, enter the name (including relative path) of the file. If the file path is a URL and it contains spaces, the spaces must be replaced with %20.

Select Current Display to target the display that is currently in the target window. This is most useful when Current Display is used in conjunction with Current Window or Named Window. Only substitutions specified in the Drill Down Properties dialog will be applied when the drill down is activated and this allows you to use the source object to control data displayed by all objects in the window.

To attach the Drill Down Display Name to data, right-click and choose Attach to Data or double-click in the field.

Drill Down Branch Function Name

Enter the name of a function (in your current display) that returns the text string you want appended to the end of the Drill Down Display Name. This enables to you drill down to different displays based on the result of the function. Functions make it possible to perform calculations on your data before it displayed in RTView. For more information, see the Add/Edit Functions section. See “Functions” for more information.

Note: If the Drill Down Display Name is set to Current Display this option will not be enabled.

Remove Existing Substitutions

Select the Remove Existing Substitutions check box to remove existing drill down substitutions on the drill down window.

Note: This option is only enabled when you drill down to the Current Window or a Named Window.

Window Position

Set the position of a new drill down window.

Note: This option only applies when the drill down opens in a new window.

There are five Window Position options:

Default Positioned by OS window manager.

Center of Screen -- Center on the screen the parent window occupies.   

Center of Parent -- Center relative to the parent window.

Relative to Screen -- Position on the screen the parent window occupies, offset from the top left corner by the number of pixels specified in Pixels from left and Pixels from top.

Relative to Parent -- Position relative to the parent window, offset from the top left corner by the number of pixels specified in Pixels from left and Pixels from top.

Window Title

Specify text in the title bar. If this field is left blank, then the title bar will display application name+drill down display file (.rtv) name.

Note: This option only applies when the drill down opens in a new window.

To attach the Window Title to data, right-click and choose Attach to Data or double-click in the field.

Window Mode

Specify modality and stacking order of drill down windows.

Note: This option only applies when the drill down opens in a new window.

There are three Window Mode options:

Normal -- Allow user interaction in all RTView windows. Stacking order is determined by the Drill Down Windows Always on Top setting in the General tab of the “Application Options Dialog”.

Modal -- Allow user interaction only in this drill down window while it is open. Stacking order is on top of all other RTView windows.

Topmost -- Allow user interaction in any RTView window. Stacking order is on top of all other RTView windows. Additionally, all windows targeted from a Topmost window will automatically assume the topmost position.

Note: Some platforms do not support this functionality. If more than one window is set to be in the Topmost position, stacking order is platform dependent.

If this property is used on drill downs in the Display Viewer Applet, depending on your Security Manager, you may need to modify the Java security settings on each client to include the following permission:

permission

java.awt.AWTPermission"setWindowAlwaysOnTop";

Drill Down Substitutions

The Substitutions feature allows you to build open-ended displays in which data attachments depend on values defined at the time the display is run. In this way, a single display can be reused to show data from a number of different sources. The ability to specify substitutions for drill down displays allows you to design a multi-level hierarchy of parameterized displays. For more information, see the “Substitutions” section.

Note: Some drill down substitutions are automatically added for displays targeted from table objects.

Add -- Click Add to create a new row in the Drill Down Substitutions table. Enter a String (e.g. $data) and a Value (e.g. $data1).  

To attach a String or Value to data, right-click on the desired cell in the Drill Down Substitutions table and select Attach to Data.

Note: Substitution strings cannot contain the following:

: | . tab space , ; = < > ' " & / \ { } [ ] ( )

Remove -- Select a substitution from the table and click Remove to delete.

Note: Drill down displays opened in a New Window, or a Named Window (with the exception of main) do not feature menus or a toolbar. Object Properties can be accessed within these drill down displays, but editing is not allowed. You can copy and paste an object, or properties of an object, from these drill down displays into the top level display, however no object or property values can be pasted into these drill down displays. It is possible to double-click on objects within drill down windows to access further displays.

The following describes the Drill Down Properties dialog commands:

Command

Description

OK

Applies values and closes the dialog.

Clear

Clears all fields. Removes drill down target (once OK is selected).

Cancel

Closes the dialog with last values applied.

Help

Open the Help dialog.

Drill Down Column Substitutions Dialog

In many objects that display tabular data, it is possible to specify which column values will be passed as substitutions into drill down displays. In the Object Properties window, double-click on drillDownColumnSubs in the Property Name field to display the Drill Down Column Substitutions dialog.

Once you have selected which column values to pass in as substitutions, double-click on any element in your object to open a drill down window that displays corresponding values.

table_col_sub.gif

 

Field Name

Description

Column Name

This list is populated based on the table's data attachment. If you have not yet attached the table to data, this list will be empty.

Substitution String

Enter the substitution string for the column it applies to and press <Enter>.

Note: Substitution strings cannot contain the following:

: | . tab space , ; = < > ' " & / \ { } [ ] ( )

Add Column

Enter the name of the column and click the Add Column button to insert a column into the table.

Clear

Click the Clear button to remove all substitution strings listed.