Linked Objects

Linked Objects Concept

The main features of the Linked Objects Concept are:

• Linked Object means that it exists only within a parent, i.e. it belongs to a particular Report.  Linked Objects include Linked Lists, Linked Formats and Linked Drill Lists.
• These Objects will not be found in the Design Studio menus Maintain Lists and Maintain Formats unless they are published by an Administrator.
• Linked Objects will be available only within a particular Report and once the Report is deleted, these objects will be gone as well. This makes the List maintenance easier and less time consuming.
• If necessary, Linked Objects can be made available outside of their particular Report if an Administrator user publishes the Linked Objects.

An excellent example of how useful Linked Objects can be is a Report based on the Multiple Bars & Line Charts template.  This report can include up to 6 Lists for the Bars and 6 Lists for the Lines. At the same time, you might need to create Formats for the Bars and for the Lines that will be used only within this report.

Using Linked Objects functionality, the number of Lists in Maintain Lists and Formats in Maintain Formats can be drastically reduced by keeping Linked Objects inside the Report.

If you decide to delete the Report, you do not have to remove the Lists as a separate step afterwards.

Note that users with the Report Builder role can build reports using existing Lists or by creating Linked Lists.