Use prompts on dashboards

Prompts filter dashboard data based on user input.

Use prompts to show the right slice of data. For example, show EMEA sales instead of NA.

To filter dashboard content, the target content must include at least one parameter.

In this article

• Get started with dashboard prompts

• Edit prompts

• Other prompt types

  • Create a toolbar prompt

  • Create a date prompt

  • Create a list prompt

• Link dashboard prompts to Analyzer parameters

Get started with dashboard prompts

1. In the dashboard page, select Edit (the pencil icon).

   The Objects pane appears.

2. Under General Settings, select Prompts.

   The Prompts pane appears on the right.

3. To display a prompt toolbar to users of the dashboard, enable Show Prompt Toolbar.

   The prompt toolbar appears at the top of the dashboard.

4. Select Add.

   The Prompts dialog box appears.

5. Enter a display name for the control label, such as Region.

6. Optional: Enable Display Name as Control Label.

7. Select a control type:

   • Drop-down: Users select one value from a drop-down list.

   • List: Users select one or more values from a scrolling list.

   • Radio button: Users select one value from radio buttons.

   • Check box: Users select one or more values from check boxes.

   • Button: Users select one or more values from buttons.

   • Text field: Users enter a text string or number.

   • Date picker: Users select values based on calendar dates.

Your dashboard now has a prompt.

Edit prompts

1. Locate the prompts pane at the top of the panes in the dashboard.

2. Find the prompt you want to change.

3. Select an alternative prompt from the drop-down menu next to the prompt.

The dashboard updates to match the new prompt selection.

Other prompt types

In addition to standard dashboard prompts, you can use:

• Toolbar prompts

• Date prompts

• List prompts

Create a toolbar prompt

Toolbar prompts let users refine report results in a dashboard.

1. Open a dashboard that contains at least one parameterized report.

2. Select Edit Content to open the editing options.

3. In the Objects pane, select Prompts.

4. Enable Show Prompt Toolbar.

5. Select Add.

   The Prompt dialog box appears.

6. In the Name field, enter the title for the prompt toolbar.

7. In the Control box, select the control type.

8. Under Type, ensure Static List is selected.

Customize toolbar prompts

1. In the Data box, select Add.

   The List Value dialog box appears.

2. In the Label field, enter the option name as you want it to appear.

3. In the Value field, enter the parameter source name.

   If you are using the Steel Wheels sample, enter Classic Cars.

4. Add labels and values for each parameter you want to filter. Select Close.

   If you are filtering an Analyzer report and using a static list, you can add the option All. This option drops the filter from the report and shows all values.

5. Under Control Properties > Initially Selected, choose which item appears first in the prompt list.

   Choose Use First Value to default to the first list value. Choose Specify to set a specific value.

6. Select OK.

7. In the Objects pane, choose the report you want to filter. Select the Parameters tab and choose the correct Source for the parameter.

   The source should match the name of your prompt.

8. Select Save.

Create a date prompt

The date picker prompt lets users select values based on calendar dates.

When you create a date picker prompt, you must set a date format. The default format is yyyy-MM-dd.

The date picker prompt uses Dojo date formats. In the past, this component was based on the jQuery datepicker. To support legacy formats, old formats are converted automatically.

Not all formats are supported or make sense when a date is selected. Anything with less granularity than a unit of "day" defaults to the Dojo format. Use formats from d to y that the date picker control supports. For example, yyyy-MM-dd, yy-M-d, and d/MM/yyyy are valid.

As a result, the pattern can be any combinations of the following patterns of years, quarters, months, and days:

Pattern	Description	Example Date: Monday, January 4, 2016
G	era	AD
y or yy	year (two digit)	16
yyy or yyyy	year (four digit)	2016
q or Q	quarter (one digit)	1
M	month numeric (no leading zero)	1
MM	month numeric (two digit)	01
MMM	month name short	Jan
MMMM	month name long	January
d	day of month (no leading zero)	4
dd	day of month (two digit)	04
D	day of the year	4
E	day of the week	2

Create a list prompt

When you create a metadata list, you define a query to retrieve a list of display names and corresponding values from a metadata data source provided by your administrator.

You must have a data table or chart that contains at least one parameter. Otherwise, the prompt control will not work.

Filter dialog box

1. In the dashboard page, under General Settings, select Prompts.

   The Prompt Editor appears on the right.

2. To display a prompt toolbar to users of the dashboard, enable Show Prompt Toolbar.

   A placeholder for the prompt toolbar appears at the top of the dashboard.

3. Select Add to add a prompt.

   The Prompts dialog box appears.

4. In the Prompts dialog box, enter a Name for your prompt.

5. Under Data Type, choose Metadata List.

6. Select Select to choose the data source that contains the content you need, then select OK.

   The Query Editor opens.

7. In the Query Editor, build a query to choose either:

   • A single column, which represents both a name and a value

   • Two columns, representing the display names and corresponding values

   If a single-column query is defined, the values of that column are used for both display names and values.

8. Select OK to exit the Query Editor.

   Your options appear under Selected Items in the Prompts dialog box.

9. Under Control Properties, enter a default Label and Value for the initially selected option.

10. Select a Label to display in the prompt control.

    This is the user-friendly name that users will see in the dashboard.

11. Select the Value.

    This is the value in the database that is associated with the label.

12. Optional: Choose a Display type.

    Some prompt controls let you choose the position of prompt options. If you have a long list of options, such as a list of cities, options may not appear correctly in the user console unless you change Display to Horizontal.

13. Select OK.

The list of values appears in the prompts toolbar in the dashboard.

Create a cascading list prompt

A cascading prompt changes based on the value a user selects. For example, when the value in the drop-down list Country changes, that prompt is automatically applied to the second prompt, City, which changes its values.

This task uses the example of creating a country-city cascading prompt.

Cascading prompt example

1. For Type, select Metadata List to create the drop-down prompt Country.

   

   Filter from metadata list
2. For Type, select SQL List, which includes a parameter, ${selected_country}, in its associated query for the check box prompt City.

   

   Filter from SQL list
3. Set the Default Value for the selected_country parameter to USA with New York City (NYC) as the initially selected value for the check box prompt.

To link the City prompt to the Country prompt, choose another Source for the selected_country parameter. Choose the Country prompt as the alternate source. When the prompts are linked, users can choose a country, then choose one or more cities in that country.

Using this example, you can now add a data table, chart, or other content in the dashboard that can be driven by the prompt you created. If you add a pie chart to the dashboard, the pie chart can show the percentage of sales per city. In the Query Editor, create a parameter, {City}, with an extended default value: NYC|Las Vegas. The resulting pie chart displays values for New York City and Las Vegas. Under the Parameters tab associated with the pie chart, change the Source value for the City parameter to the City prompt.

When the report is saved, dashboard users can see results for a country and multiple cities in that country.

Link dashboard prompts to Analyzer parameters

The instructions below explain how to parameterize an Analyzer report.

Note: This process only applies to dashboards that include parameterized Analyzer reports. You must have a query parameter in the Analyzer report to proceed.

1. In your Analyzer report, right-click a field you want to link to, then select Filter.

   The Filter dialog box opens. In this example, data will be filtered by Territory.

   

   Analyzer filter
2. Enter a name for the parameter in the Parameter Name field and select its checkbox to enable it.

3. Select the values you want associated with the parameter. Use the arrow buttons to add and remove values.

4. Select OK to save and close the Filter dialog box.

   Be sure to save your report.

5. In the upper-left corner of the report, confirm that a filter is in use.

   Optional: Select Edit (pencil) to change the filter, or Delete (X) to remove it.

6. Create a dashboard and drag the Analyzer report into a panel.

   The parameter name appears under Parameters.

   If a Between operator is parameterized, two parameters are automatically created with the suffixes _START and _END.

7. Add a filter to the dashboard based on the parameter you created in your Analyzer report.

   The filter appears in the dashboard.