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.Drill downs vv7.0.8

Owned by Borja Moro Moreno
Jun 14, 2021
3 min read

By using the drill down functionality, you can easily access different URLs inputting data table values with just a few clicks. You can include a placeholder in a specific URL, then capture a clicked value in a data table and pass it as a placeholder to the target URL (GET request), or use a data table value as a parameter in the body of your request (POST request).

Drill down targets are defined in the Domain Preferences area of the application, which must include the target URL and the type of data to be selected in your data table. Drill down targets are available for all the users in the domain and can be used in every single data table.

Check the following video to start learning about drill downs.

Create a drill down target

  1. Go to Preferences → Domain Preferences. Note that you must be an Admin user to access this area.
  2. Select the Drill down tab in the left area and click New.

  3. Fill in the fields in the New drill down window. All of them are mandatory:

    Name

    The name of the new drill down target.

    Description

    Enter a brief description of the drill down target.

    Url

    The target URL that users will access after clicking a value in a search. If you select GET as the Sending method, the URL must contain the string entered in the Placeholder field, which will be replaced by the values you click in a data table.

    Sending method

    Select the required HTTP method for your request. Choose between:

    • GET - GET requests are sent in the URL, so the provided URL must include the placeholder indicated in the Placeholder field. This value will be replaced by the clicked value in the data table.
    • POST - In a POST request, parameters are stored in the request body, so simply add the required URL and enter the parameter name in the Parameter name field. The indicated parameter will be set to the clicked value in the data table.

    Parameter type

    Select the data type of the search values to be used as placeholders/parameters. Note that the drill down will only be available when you click values that match the selected type. Choose between All types, String, Integer, Float and Boolean. Learn more about data types in Devo here.

    Placeholder / Parameter name

    If you select GET in the Sending method field, enter here the string to be replaced in the URL by a clicked value in a data table. Keep in mind that placeholders must always start with $ (for example, $value). If no placeholder is added, the clicked cell value will be added to the end of the specified URL.

    If you select POST in the Sending method field, enter the parameter name to be filled with a clicked value in a data table (for example, username).

    Hidden

    Check this box if you don't want this drill down target to appear after right-clicking a data table value.

  4. Click Create when you're done.

Use a drill down target in a search

  1. Go to Data Search and access the data table that contains the values to be used as placeholders/parameters in your target URL. 
  2. After querying the data as required to get the necessary results, right-click the cell value to be used as a placeholder/parameter. You will see a window that lists all the available drill down targets that match the selected data type.
  3. Click the required drill down target. If you selected GET as sending method, the clicked value will be added to the URL, replacing the indicated placeholder. If you selected POST, the clicked value will be added to the parameter indicated in the drill down. The target URL will be opened in a new browser window.

Example - using drill down to perform a GET request


We have a data table that tracks visits to the Devo Docs, and we want to make it interactive so that users can click on a column value and access the corresponding Docs article, performing a GET request.

First, we create the drill down target in the Preferences → Domain Preferences area. We enter as target URL https://docs.devo.com/confluence/ndt/$section.

 

Once created, we go to Data Search and access our data table. By just right-clicking any of the paths corresponding to the Devo Docs articles and selecting the created drill down target (Devo Docs) a new browser window will open the target URL with the placeholder ($section) set to the clicked value.