
Drill in enables you to refine the results of your Explore report by slicing metrics using extra attributes you choose or by allowing the report viewer to choose from a range of attributes. For example, you create a report showing all of your tickets by assignee name. You could configure drill in to additionally display the status for each ticket or add an optional attribute for the ticket channel.
This article contains the following sections:
Configuring drill in
You configure drill in options for each report you create.
To configure drill in
- In your report, from the Chart configuration menu (
), click Drill in.
- In the Drill in panel, click Enable drill in.
- In the drop-down list under Enable drill in, choose up to 20 attributes
that will be displayed when the report viewer drills in to a metric in your
report.
- You can add more levels to your drill in to dig deeper into your data. For
example, if you added the Ticket status attribute to your drill in, you could
then click the associated metric and drill in by further attributes. If you want
to add more levels to your drill in, click Add more levels. Tip: While there is no limit to the number of levels you can add, Zendesk doesn't recommend using more than 10 levels for performance and administration purposes.
- If you want the report viewer to be able to optionally add other attributes,
click Enable adding attributes, then, from the drop-down list select up
to 20 attributes they can add or remove to the report.
Using drill in
After you've configured drill in on a report, you can drill into a metric to see attributes (information and context) associated with that metric. You can't drill in to an attribute itself.
To use drill in
- In your report, select the data point you want to drill into. In area charts, click and drag to select the data area you want to drill into.
- From the menu, click Drill in. Explore displays the Drill in panel
showing all metrics sliced by the drill in attributes you chose.
For example, if your report contains the Tickets metric and the Ticket status attribute, you can click any "Tickets" value to drill in and show the tickets with that status.
- If you configured more drill in levels, you can click any metric result to show more information.
Drill in example
In this example, you've created a report using the Support: Tickets dataset. It produces a simple table that shows each assignee name and the number of tickets assigned to that person.
You want to allow users to drill into this data by showing the status of each ticket and, optionally, the channel from which each ticket came. Use the following procedure to accomplish this.
To configure the example
- In your report, from the Chart configuration menu (
), click Drill in.
- In the Drill in panel, click Enable drill in.
- First, you'll configure drill in to show the status of the ticket. In the Select attributes drop-down, choose Ticket status.
- Next, choose the ticket channel attribute which report viewers can optionally display. Click Enable adding attributes.
- In the Select attributes drop-down, choose Ticket
channel.
- You can now test your new drill in configuration. In your report, click one of
the Tickets results, then click Drill in.
- The Drill in panel opens displaying the tickets you selected broken down
by status.
- If you want to add the optional ticket channel attribute you configured to the
drill in, click the Select information to show drop-down list and add
Ticket channel.
- If you want to return to your original report, click Cancel.
Exporting your drill in results
You can export your drill in results in comma-seperated values (CSV) or Excel format.
To export your drill in results
- In the drill in panel, click Export > CSV or
Excel.
- Explore prepares the file and adds it to your computer's downloads folder.
Turn on drill in on a dashboard
You might need to proactively turn on the drill in feature on certain dashboards. This applies only to dashboards where you’ve previously turned off other report interactions.
Before turning on drill in on a dashboard, make sure that drill in is also turned on for at least one of the reports on the dashboard. Otherwise, the dashboard-level setting won't be saved.
Drill in isn't available on dashboards shared externally.
To turn on drill in on a dashboard
- Open your dashboard for editing.
- Click the settings icon (
) to open the general dashboard settings.
- Select Allow drill-in on historical data.
57 comments
Katrien
Hi,
do I understand correctly that the drill-in function is no longer available for dashboards?
5
Fernando Martins Martins
I Have the same doubt Katrien, where is the drill-in function on dashboards/panels?! When i click on the graph, nothing appears..
3
Helene H.
Same problem as above comments. I used to be able to click a field > click Drillthrough. After I enabled Drill In, added in all my desired attributes, I click a field and the only option that pops up for me is "Copy" rather than "Drill In" like the screenshot in this article states.
3
Andrew Nash
As per the above. Also only getting a "Copy" message.
Can I have my old Drillthroughs back instead?
3
Permanently deleted user
I am actually able to use "drill-in" on my dashboard with no problem. I just recently did a new query and added it to my dashboard on Monday and so far it is still working.
1
Amanda Hollinger
My fellow commenters - if I'm understanding your shared question/issue about the ability of drill in on dashboards correctly (I had the same one!), I believe this article should help? I was having the same issue you describe, but just followed these instructions and can now drill in on the dashboard itself. https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403518292762-Coming-Soon-Improved-drill-in-functionality-in-Explore
I hope this helps! Apologies if I misinterpreted your question
2
Andrew Nash
Thank you @... I have a sneaking suspicion that might be my problem as that first check box for enabling Drill-In on your dashboard was not ticked for mine.
@... Might be worth adding that section from https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403518292762-Coming-Soon-Improved-drill-in-functionality-in-Explore into this guide if you're pointing people here
0
Chuck Todd
Was trying out this new Drill-in capability on some existing queries. Couple questions:
Thanks
1
Erin O'Callaghan
Hi @..., I've confirmed with our product team that it's currently not possible to define a default list of attributes nor to reorder the fields after they've been selected. That said, these are excellent suggestions and I'd highly encourage you to post them in our product feedback section!
1
Shona
I am having some trouble with this. Everytime I export my Drill-In results I get a blank Excel spreadsheet. What am I doing wrong?
0
Diego
Hi,
basically there is a crucial missing information here.
Zendesk improved the drill function but (also if you have previously enabled drill trough) the new capabilities needs to be activated in every dashboard, just as a shortcut follow these instructions to enable it:
Open your dashboard for editing.
Click Tab options > Interaction options ().
Select Enable drill in.
Have a nice day :)
0
Erin O'Callaghan
Hi @..., thanks for pointing this out! I've updated the article with a section on how to enable drill-in on dashboards.
-1
Eugene Orman
@..., I have created a ticket for you so we could discuss the blank export issue.
0
Tina Yates
even though I have enable Drill in some of my reports which had drill through are not showing the drill-in option, super frustrating! OR the results are blank when clearly they shouldn't be
0
MarketSpark
why won't the drill in work? I have in enabled at the dashboard tab level. I have the attributes set. But when I hover it says: Excluded from Drillthrough, Focus All, and Focus all other?
0
Mike Rountree
Hi,
I am also having issues with the "improved" Drill in tool. The drillthrough worked fine IMO. When I try to run the drill in on certain tables, I receive 'Error Code 5' and to contact ZD support, so here I am. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
0
Chris Murray
I'm likely doing something wrong, but when I click drill-in it shows me ALL tickets in the query instead of just the list of tickets from the field I'm selecting.
Is there a way, with this new feature, to drill in to only the field I click on?
(Example, if the report I pull has 1000+ tickets, but the tickets I want to drill into only has 15 tickets, how do I get drill-in to show me that data for just those 15 instead of all 1000+ tickets.)
2
Walter Bellante
Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback for our latest drill-in feature and rollout.
We are listening, and are reviewing and reforming our internal processes to ensure future Explore updates are rolled out with ample time to learn about and adapt to changing features. We acknowledge the challenges this change has caused our users and are working hard to address the incoming feedback.
Why we built this
As of today, there are two available interactions: Drill-in and Decompose. We would like to share context around some of the challenges we are solving for with the new experience:
As a result, we decided to replace all interactions with the single Drill-in interaction that will allow users to achieve the same goals as Drillthrough, Decompose and Focus in a slightly different way. However, it is clear to us that the first phase of this feature has fallen short of expectations from our users and we are working to address this with future planned enhancements.
What’s next for drill-in
We are planning further Drill-in enhancements to meet the needs of our users, with the idea that Drill-in will eventually replace Decompose in the future. Please help us set the right priorities by letting us know which functionality you are missing in the new drill-in feature. You can do so by posting and voting for existing posts in the Explore community section.
0
Ieva Lapukaite
Hi,
I am experiencing same issue as Chris Murray. When I click on the chart, I want to drill into a part where I clicked but instead I get to see ALL tickets rather than the ones from the specific part of the chart.
0
Chris Murray
Hey Leva,
I think the only option we have now is to use decompose to get close to what we used to your drill-through for.
Now what I've been doing is, clicking on the data I used to be able to drill-through into, choosing decompose, then selecting a few things I need to see (Ticket ID, core issue, subject, time, etc). It then basically changes the whole report to zoom in on those numbers for that data point you clicked on.
Not as convenient or helpful as drill-through was in my opinion, but it's better than nothing.
0
Kiko Li
Hi,
In the Zendesk support dashboard - efficiency tab - tickets by first reply time brackets, this bar chart has drill in enabled, but when I clicked on the bars on the dashboard/query editor, it wouldn't show me the drill in option. Any ideas?
0
Cheeny Aban
Hi Kiko Li,
Drill-in can be enabled on a query level. Can you confirm if it was already enabled on the actual query? If yes, and the issue persists, you may reach out to our Customer Support to have a closer look into your account
0
Mark Leci
With this reworked functionality should you be able to use 'drill in' with a KPI in a dashboard? You used to be able to with the previous functionality, but now that option is gone from my dashboard although drill in is enabled in the query I'm looking at
0
Giuseppe
Hi Mark,
Using Drill In is still possible in Dashboards if the option is enabled in the query, but like in other dashboards, you'll have to be in the Edit mode.
0
Kevin Morgan
Hello,
I have been unable to get the drill in function to work in my query when there is a null value in the row. In the example below the PMO Resource row has a null value with a count of 185 open WO's. When I drill in on the ticket count of 185 I am getting the message that no data is available. However, I am able to drill in to the data from the ticket count column where there is a PMO Resource name. Has anyone else ran into this issue and been able to resolve it? If so, how? Thank you!
0
Mike Talbott
Hello,
I'm having a very odd issue that I don't see reported here. When I enable drill-in on my queries and do not select any data for the drill-in to display, it displays a column named "Tickets" with a number below it.
When I do select data for the drill-in to display, such as Ticket ID and Ticket Subject, this "Tickets" column still appears. What's weirder is that the column sometimes displays a number that's not consistent with the number of tickets displayed. So, for example, after clicking on the number of tickets cell in my report, the "Tickets" column on the drill in identifies 1 ticket as 2 tickets and it's messing up the data in the report, as well, by incorrectly reporting the number of tickets. It adds up the number of tickets displayed in this "Tickets" column, which is incorrect.
Please see the attached screenshots. I'm including a screenshot of when I don't select any data for the drill-in and a screenshot of when I do select data (Ticket ID & Subject in this example). This is a pretty significant bug that is jeopardizing the integrity of our reporting.
We've already contacted Zendesk support about this and they basically threw up their hands and said, "I don't know," as if we just have to tolerate this bug because they're unable to figure out what's causing it.
Please help! Thank you.
NO DATA SELECTED FOR THE DRILL-IN:
WITH TICKET ID & TICKET SUBJECT SELECTED FOR DRILL-IN:
0
Dave Dyson
Hi MIke,
Can you point me to the ticket where you were working with our support team on this? Also, can you let me know what your query setup is for this (metrics, rows and columns if any)? Thanks!
0
Chad Susa (Gravity CX - Zendesk Partner)
Quick question, does Drill-in respect dashboard filters?
For example, if I filter the dashboard and the subsequent queries return filtered values, when drilling-in to those dashboard filtered values, does drill-in respect these filters and only shows the drill-in values according to the dashboard filters?
0
Mike Talbott
Hi Dave,
Thank you for the response. The Zendesk support ticket number was 6934122. FYI, my colleague, Richard (fake screen name) contacted Zendesk support in that ticket.
Regarding the ticket setup, please see as follows:
That's for one of the queries. Let me know if you need the other query, as well. Thanks again.
0
Diego Garcia
I have the same situation before something change in zendesk in my dash I was allowed to drill or focus with the select square to select the data in the bars now I don´t know-how is effective this process is only available in the edition
0