Overview
What is Bursting?
Data Access Studio provides a powerful way to utilize or combine data across multiple reports called Bursting. Bursting designates one report, the Burst Driver, to control the data selection of one or multiple target reports. You can think of the Burst Driver as the "list of items" to operate on, and the burst target as "what to do for each item."
The Bursting pattern:
- Define a list of things to report over — this is the Burst Driver.
- Design one or more target reports that do something useful with each item in the list. Target reports are separately designed DAS reports or ProReports that can run independently of, or in conjunction with, the Burst Driver.
- Add a Burst calculation to the driver report to call a target report.
- Configure the Burst calculation to perform one or more of the following actions:
- Distribute — export the target report's results and copy them to a directory or email them
- Bring back — return column summary values from the target report to the Burst Driver
- Drilldown — interactively show the details of the row item in the target report
Choosing a Burst Type
Bursting comes in three flavors, and they map directly to the three actions above. The right one depends on what you want to happen to the target report's output once it's generated:
| If you want to... | Use... |
|---|---|
| Send different data to different people or locations automatically | Distribution Burst |
| Pull summarized data from a sub-report back into your main report as new columns | Master (Bring Back) Burst |
| Let a viewer interactively open supporting detail on demand, without automatically generating it | Drilldown Burst |
It's common for a single Burst calculation to combine more than one of these actions — for example, bringing back a summary value and distributing the underlying detail in the same burst.
The Three Burst Types at a Glance
Distribution Burst
A Distribution Burst uses a primary or main report (the driver) that, when run, distributes sub-reports to a target audience or output directory. The sub-report is designed and attached to the driver as a Burst calculation. When the driver report runs, a sub-report is generated for each intended target — for example, an Employee Master driver report sending a benefits sub-report to each employee, or a Business Unit (BU) Master driver report sending inventory or sales sub-reports to each BU manager.
When Automator runs the scheduled report, recipients may receive the sub-report and any associated email. The output can also go to a file directory instead of, or in addition to, email.
Master (Bring Back) Burst
A Master Bring Back Burst assembles content from one or more sub-reports into a single main report — a Designer-defined "bring back," or lookup, from other reports. The sub-reports are attached through Burst calculations, and the master report may be run manually or scheduled on Automator; either way, it retrieves the sub-report columns of data at the time it runs and returns them into the Driver report.
Drilldown Burst
A Drilldown Burst gives a viewer a way to reach a sub-report for audit or analysis on data related to a row in the main report. In addition to, or instead of, DAS's default drilldown sub-reports, a Designer can create a custom drilldown report and attach it via a Burst calculation to a regularly run report. When a user reviewing the main report needs supporting detail, they highlight the relevant row(s), right-click, and select the drilldown report. The sub-report opens in a new window or tab for analysis.
All three burst types share a common set of setup concepts — Report Selection, Burst on Run, Which Rows to Burst, Activation Condition, Lookup Values, and Output Types — covered once in Concepts Common to Every Burst before the type-specific walkthroughs.
Examples
| Burst Driver Report | Burst Target Report | Action |
|---|---|---|
| List of customers | Invoice for customer | Distribute: Email invoices to each customer |
| List of employees | Benefits report for employee | Distribute: Store to a file the benefit reports by company in a company directory |
| List of items | Does item need to be re-ordered | Distribute: Email consolidated list of items needing re-order to purchasing contact Bring back: Quantity of items needed |
| List of accounts | Posted and unposted balances | Bring back: Total posted and unposted amounts by account |
| List of transactions | Transaction detail | Drilldown: Interactively show transaction details for the selected transaction(s) |