Analyticsintermediate
Action Links & Navigation
Explain how Action Links enable navigation between analyses/dashboards and invocation of external processes directly from report values.
Action Links are OBIEE's mechanism for turning a passive report into something users can act on — clicking a value doesn't just look at data, it can navigate somewhere more relevant or kick off a real business process. Interviewers ask about this to test whether you think about BI as embedded in workflows, not just as static reporting.
It's like a hyperlink in a PDF report that doesn't just say "see appendix B" — it actually jumps you there instantly, or better yet, calls someone on your behalf to start the next step, instead of leaving you to go find it and act on it manually.
Key Concepts
1
There are two broad categories of actions: Navigation actions, which take the user to another analysis, dashboard, dashboard page, or external URL/BI content, typically passing context (like the clicked row's values) along via navigation with is prompted filters or action link parameters so the destination report automatically filters to the relevant context (click a customer name, land on a customer-detail dashboard already filtered to that customer); and Invoke actions, which call something external — a stored procedure, a web service, a Java method (via the Action Framework and Java Host), or launch another BI Publisher report — optionally passing parameters derived from the clicked data.
Navigation actionsnavigation with is prompted filters or action link parametersInvoke actions
2
Action Links are attached at the column level (so clicking any value in that column triggers the action) or as standalone buttons/links in a Compound Layout. A well-designed action link setup lets an executive drill from a high-level KPI dashboard straight into a transactional system's detail screen or triggers a downstream workflow (e.g., "Reorder Stock" button that calls a procurement web service) without leaving the BI tool.
3
A nuance interviewers probe: Action Links vs. plain navigation via drill-down — drill-down follows the hierarchy automatically, while an Action Link is explicitly configured and can jump to *any* destination (not just "one level down"), and can pass *any* parameter, not just the hierarchy's next-level column — making it far more flexible but requiring deliberate design.
Action Links vs. plain navigation via drill-down