Drill Actions

Drill Actions enhance interactive reporting by allowing users to move beyond analysis and directly initiate actions from within a report. While drill-down helps explore deeper layers of data, Drill Actions empower users to perform operational tasks such as opening records, creating entries, updating information, or triggering workflows.

Drill Action can be configured for Charts, Pivots and Summary Views.

Configuring a Drill Action

Users with Administrator Privileges, Shared Users and Custom Role Users with permission to create views can configure drill actions.

Configuring a drill action in Zoho Analytics comprises of the following 3 steps

Accessing Drill Actions
Configuring the URL
Defining the Request Details

Accessing Drill Actions

Access the view or the report in Edit mode.
Click the Settings icon on the top right corner.
Click General > Drill Actions.
Click Add URL to configure a drill action.

Provide URL Details

Enter a Name: Provide a meaningful name for the Drill action so its purpose is clearly identifiable. This name will appear as the clickable action label in the report.
Specify the Destination URL: Enter the URL that should be triggered when a user clicks a data point.
Select the HTTP Method: Choose the appropriate method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE) based on whether you want to retrieve, create, update, or delete data.You can use placeholders to dynamically pass column values from the selected row.
Configure Request Details: Provide the required Parameters, Body, and Headers based on the selected method and the external API requirements.
Save Configuration: Click Apply to activate the Drill Action.

Note: Whenever a POST action is invoked, an in-app notification will be displayed indicating the outcome of the request. On success, the notification will include the action name and the timestamp of execution. On failure, the notification will display the relevant error message and error code to help identify the issue.

Request Methods

The table below lists the supported request methods and their usage scenarios.

Method	Purpose	Business Scenario	Example
GET	Navigate to a page.	Open a customer record in CRM.	https://crm.company.com/customer/${Customer ID}
POST	Create or add a new record in an external application.	Create a new deal from a report.	https://crm.company.com/api/deals Body:{ "customer_id": "${Customer ID}", "amount": "${Amount}" }
PUT	Completely update or replace an existing record.	Update a deal with new values.	https://crm.company.com/api/deals/${Deal ID} Body:{ "stage": "Closed Won", "amount": "${Amount}" }
PATCH	Update specific fields of an existing record without replacing the entire record.	Update only the deal stage.	https://crm.company.com/api/deals/${Deal ID} Body:{ "stage": "Negotiation" }
DELETE	Permanently remove an existing record from the application.	Delete a lead record.	https://crm.company.com/api/leads/${Lead ID}

Defining the Request Details

When configuring a Drill Action, you can define how data is sent to the destination application using the following options. The below options are available based on the method chosen.

Parameters

This is used to pass requests as key-value pairs. You can also dynamically insert column values in the Value field.

Body

This is used to pass request data within the request payload commonly with POST, PUT, and PATCH methods. The body contains structured data such as JSON. You can dynamically insert report column values in the body fields to create or update records in external applications.

Headers

This is used to send additional information about the request, such as authentication details, content type, or API keys. Headers are sent as key-value pairs and are required when integrating with secure external APIs.

Drill Action Use Cases

Accessing customer records in CRM using the GET method

A sales rep reviewing a Sales Pipeline Report identifies a high-value deal and wants to quickly view the complete customer record in the CRM system without manually searching for it.This can be achieved using a GET method Drill Action configured as follows.

Name: View Customer Records in CRM

URL: https://crm.zoho.com/crm/org123456789/tab/Deals/${"Deals"."Deal ID"."Actual"}

When the user clicks on a deal in the pipeline report,

The ${"Deals"."Deal ID"."Actual"} placeholder is dynamically replaced with the selected row’s Deal ID.
The corresponding deal record opens instantly in the CRM system.

Since the GET method is used, the action only retrieves information and does not modify any data.

Using Drill Actions in a Report

Once a drill action is configured, end users can execute it directly from the report. Here is how:

Click any data point in the report (e.g., a chart bar, pivot cell, or summary row).
From the interactive options panel that appears, select Drill Action.
All Drill Actions configured for the report will be listed. Click the desired action to execute it.

Note: By default, links configured using the GET method open within an iframe inside the application. To access the link in a separate browser tab, click the Open in New Tab icon while configuring the action.