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. By linked objects we mean lists, drill lists and formats.
• These objects will not be found in Public Maintenance menus, such as Maintain Lists unless they are published by the 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 public. In this case Administrator user can publish the linked objects.

A vivid example of how useful Linked objects can be is a report within Multiple Bars & Lines template. For such report, you might need to create 6 lists for the bars and 6 lists for the lines. At the same time, you might need to create a particular format for the bars and for the lines. Very often these lists and formats will be used only within this report.

If you use Linked Objects functionality, the number of your public lists in Maintain Lists menu can be drastically reduced by keeping all linked objects inside one report.

Once you decide to delete the report, you will not need to remove the lists as a separate step after that.