Using hyperlinks
When reports are too long and complex in terms of the data they display, it becomes difficult for users to easily find the information they need. If these reports are used online, add interactive viewing features to help users easily navigate and explore detailed and lengthy reports. For example, if you have a multipage report design containing a chart in a report table, using a hyperlink from a data column to the chart helps users access the chart easily, while navigating the report, eliminating the need to page back and forth in the report design.
Using BIRT Studio, you can create hyperlinks in report columns, summary tables, or regular BIRT charts. You can create bookmarks in report tables, cross tabs, summary tables, charts, and sections in a report table. In BIRT Studio, the hyperlinks you create are dynamic, based on data-driven expressions that link to a data field.
BIRT Studio supports the creation of dynamic data-driven expressions using EasyScript. EasyScript is an expression syntax similar to the syntax used in Excel formulas. Like Excel, EasyScript provides functions for performing calculations on report data. In BIRT Studio, EasyScript is supported in Hyperlink Builder. For example, when a drill-through hyperlink is created to an external report containing static filter parameters, you can create an EasyScript expression to specify the data field for which a user selects parameter values. Similarly, when creating a hyperlink that links to a URL, you can specify an EasyScript expression to URL link for each row in a data field. In iHub Release 2, BIRT Studio does not support creating a dynamic data-driven expression for required parameters where no default value is supplied.
You can also create a hyperlink to a bookmark in an external report, as described later in this document. When linking to an external report, you can create a hyperlink to a report design, or report document file, or a file in an output format supported when exporting a report from the Actuate BIRT Viewers. Supported formats include PDF, PostScript, HTML, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so on. BIRT Studio does not support creating hyperlinks in Flash charts.
The example shown in Figure 9-3 displays a source report with a hyperlink to the country section. Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-5 show parts of the target cross tab report. The cross tab contains a bookmark that the hyperlink uses to identify the content to retrieve when a user activates the link in the source report.
Figure 9-3  
Figure 9-4  
Figure 9-5  
Choosing the hyperlink in the source report launches the target cross tab report displaying sales details for all countries. The target report must be stored in the iHub Encyclopedia volume.
Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-5 display the quarterly sales and order quantity details by city, and country for three years. When a user selects the hyperlink in the source report, Actuate BIRT Viewer displays the target cross tab report.

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