Dashboard filters allow dashboard users to selectively filter the data displayed in Charts or Tables. For example, if you build a chart that displays 'Total Sales by Year', you could add a dashboard filter to filtered the displayed data by Country. You could then use the filter to view Total Sales by Year, by Country.
Different field data types will display different filter selection options.
Options
The following options are available from the Edit Filter dialog.
Settings
Use the Settings tab to generate the filter list that a user can choose from to filter the data displayed in charts and tables in the dashboard. For more information, see Filter Settings.
Fonts
Use the Fonts tab to configure the style of the text elements that comprise a filter dashlet (title and field values). If no settings are defined in the Fonts tab, the dashboard's global font settings are applied to the dashlet. To override the global dashboard font setting for a specific element of the dashlet, set the relevant font family property to a value that is different from the dashboard's global font family.
Note that different options will appear depending on what type of filter dashlet you are creating.
Borders
Use the Borders tab to configure the color and thickness of the dashlet border. If no settings are defined in the Borders tab, the dashboard's global border settings are applied to the dashlet.
Header Color
Use the Header Color tab to configure the background color of the dashlet header. If no color is defined in the Header Color tab, the dashboard's global header color setting is applied to the dashlet.
Filter settings
Filter values by Field Values
This is the default option, which allows you to filter by a field in your data source. Values that populate the filter will be the distinct values found in the selected data source field.
Filter values by Static Values
This option allows you to create a static field with static values. Values that populate the filter will be the values that you add to the Static Values definition.
Static Field Name
This is the name that will be used as the title for the filter dashlet. If you are using this static filter dashlet to activate a card within a card dashlet, this is the name that you should use as the card's Activation Field Name.
Static Values
This parameter is used to create the static string values that you'd like to use in the filter dashlet.
Filter values by Dimension List
This option allows you to use actual field names (i.e., dimensions) from the data source you are visualizing when you create a dashboard as the values that populate the filter dashlet.
Dimension List Field Name
This is the name that will be used as the title for the filter dashlet. If you are using this Dimension List filter dashlet to activate a card within a card dashlet, this is the name that you should use as the card's Activation Field Name.
Dimension List
This parameter is used to select the fields from your data source that you would like to use as filtering values. Note that when filtering, a field's display name will be displayed; however, the actual value that is used for filtering will be the field's name. This should be kept in mind particularly when setting up Activation Field Values for a card within a Card Dashlet.
Value type
When building a filter dashlet that supports multiple selection, you have the option to set the filter dashlet's Value Type:
-
Multiple - you can use the filter dashlet to filter by multiple values at once.
Potential value separators include:
- Comma (,). The default.
- Semi-colon (;).
- Pipe (|).
Choose an alternative separator to comma (,) for values that include the comma character.
- Single - you can filter by a single value only.
The default value is Multiple.
Cascading Filters
A filter dashlet's cascading option allows you to enable filtering of the contents of the filter dashlet itself, based on the filter state of your entire dashboard sheet. The filter state of a dashboard sheet is comprised of all filters applied to the dashboard sheet by drilling, brush selection, or filter dashlets.
Off
Filter Dashlets with cascading set to off will always show all of their values as available to select, regardless of other filters applied to the dashboard. This is the default behavior for filter dashlets.
Based on Parent Value in Drill Hierarchy
When a filter dashlet has its cascading option set to Based on Parent Value in Drill Hierarchy, it will consider all filters, besides its own, that have been applied to the dashboard sheet and that come from fields that are its parent in a drill field hierarchy. Cascading will then apply all of these filters from the dashboard sheet to the filter dashlet itself. After cascading, only records that match the dashboard sheet's filter conditions will remain enabled.
For example, if you had a drill field hierarchy that contained a Grade and a Subgrade field, you could create a filter dashlet with the Subgrade field and set its cascading to Based on Parent Value in Drill Hierarchy. If you then created a chart using the drill field, the Subgrade filter dashlet would cascade every time you drilled past the Grade field in your chart.
For example, if you had Grade values A, B, C, and D and Subgrade values such as A1, A2, A3, etc, drilling in on the A value in your chart would cause the Subgrade filter dashlet to disable all options but those that belonged to Grade A - that is, A1, A2, and A3.
Note that the Subgrade filter dashlet would behave similarly if you created another filter dashlet using the Grade field and made a selection on it.
At the same time, the Subgrade filter would not respond to filtering on fields that were not its parent in a drill hierarchy. For example, if you had another filter dashlet that used an EmployeeId field that was not part of the Grade-Subgrade drill hierarchy, the Subgrade filter dashlet would not cascade at all after making a selection on the EmployeeId filter dashlet.
Global
When a filter dashlet has its cascading option set to Global, it will consider all filters, besides its own, that have been applied to the dashboard sheet. Cascading will then apply all of these filters from the dashboard sheet to the filter dashlet itself. After cascading, only records that match the dashboard sheet's filter conditions will remain enabled.
For example, suppose you created a filter dashlet using an EmployeeId field, another filter dashlet using a FirstName field, and a bar chart that visualized Salary per EmployeeTitle. If you were to set the EmployeeId filter dashlet to Global cascading, it would cascade whenever you made a selection on the FirstName filter dashlet or performed a brush selection on the chart. For example, if you selected ‘John' on the FirstName filter dashlet, the EmployeeId filter dashlet would cascade and disable all ids except those that belonged to employees named John. Or, if you performed a brush selection on the chart, and selected ‘Airline Pilot' as EmployeeTitle, the EmployeeId filter dashlet would cascade and disable all ids except those that belonged to employees with an EmployeeTitle of Airline Pilot.
Show Relevant Entries Only when Cascading
This setting will cause only values that are returned by the cascading query to be displayed in the filter control, each time the filter cascades. Turning this setting off will alternatively display all available values within the filter control, however after each cascading query irrelevant values will be sent to the bottom of the filter control's list and disabled.
Cumulative Effect of Cascading
It is important to remember that when a filter dashlet cascades, it will consider all filters that have been applied to the current dashboard sheet, except its own. This means, for example, that if you make multiple selections on multiple filter dashlets, and brush select, and drill, all of these filters may be considered during cascading (depending on whether you've chosen Global or Based on Parent Value in Drill Hierarchy).
Target Specific Chart/Table
Use this option to apply filters to the selected dashlet or dashlets only. This type of filter will not be considered part of the dashboard's global filter collection and it will not show up in the current filter selections list.