The Interactive Sales Report was designed to be run with input controls. When you add a report that has input controls to a dashboard, the controls don’t appear on the dashboard until you explicitly add them, one-by-one. When the report runs, dashboard users provide input using the control. Data based on the user input appears in the dashboard. For example, using the input control, you select Mexico. The report on the dashboard shows orders from Mexican companies.
To add controls to the dashboard:
| 1. | If the Sales Dashboard created in Creating a Dashboard is not open, locate the /Dashboards folder in the repository. Right-click the dashboard name and select Open in Designer from the context menu. |
| The Open in Designer submenu opens a dashboard or an Ad Hoc report for editing in the Dashboard Designer or Ad Hoc Editor, respectively. |
The Sales Dashboard appears in the designer, as shown in “Simple Dashboard Canvas with three reports”, and the input controls available appear in the Filters section of the Available Content panel.
| 2. | In the Filters section, expand the 16. Interactive Sales Report folder. |
The input controls associated with the Interactive Sales Report appear.
| 3. | Drag the Country input control onto the canvas, and place it above the Product Results by Store Type dashlet. |
The Country input control and its label appear above the Product Results by Store type report on the canvas.
| 4. | Drag the Product Family and Product Department controls onto the Country input control dashlet. These input controls are added to the same dashlet. Resize the dashlets as needed to view all of the input controls. |
| 5. | Click |
| 6. | Click in the Country text box to display the available countries. In this input control, you have the following options: |
| • | The three countries: Canada, Mexico, and USA. |
| • | All, which selects all available values in the input control. |
| • | None, which deselects all available values in the input control. |
| • | Inverse, which deselects any selected values, and selects the unselected values. |
| 7. | Use the options to select Mexico from the values list, and click Apply at the bottom of the dashlet. The data displayed in the Interactive Sales Report changes, but is not updated in the other reports, as they do not refer to an input control named Country. |
| 8. | Click |
You can also change the labels, or display names, of individual input controls and filters within a dashlet.
To rename an input control or filter:
| 1. | With the Sales Dashboard open in the Dashboard Designer, right-click Product Family in the input control dashlet, and select Properties. |
The Filter Properties dialog opens.
| 2. | Change the Filter Label from Product Family to Type, and click OK. |
| 3. | Right-click the Product Department input control and select Properties. Change the Product Department filter label to Department, and click OK. |
The input control labels are updated.
The Filter Manager
When one or more filters are included in the dashboard, the filter manager is available to help refine your filter mapping. With the filter manager, you can specify which dashlets and which parameters are affected by a filter.
To open the filter manager:
| 1. | Open the a dashboard with filters, such as the Sales Dashboard created in Creating a Dashboard, in the Dashboard Designer. |
| 2. | Click |
|
The Filter Manager for the Sales Dashboard |
The filter manager displays the filter-to-dashlet mapping, and includes the following columns and buttons:
| • | Filter, the name of the filter. |
| • | Dashlet Affected, with a dropdown menu including all dashlets that can be affected by that filter. |
| • | Filter/Parameter Affected, with a dropdown menu including all parameters associated with the selected dashlet in the Dashlet Affected column. |
| • | Add button |
| • | Delete button |
From the filter manager you can add, delete, or edit an existing dashlet/parameter combination, and create a new filter to add to the dashboard.
To add a filter using the filter manager:
| 1. | Open a dashboard with filters, and open the filter manager as described above. |
| 2. | In the filter row you want to add the new filter to, click |
A row containing new affected dashlet and filter/parameter dropdown menus appears.
| 3. | Using these new line-items, select the dashlet and parameter combination you want to apply to the dashboard. |
| 4. | Click OK to apply and save or Cancel to discard your changes. |
To delete a filter using the filter manager:
| 1. | Open the filter manager. |
| 2. | In the filter row you want to delete, click |
The filter row disappears from the filter manager.
To create a new filter via the filter manager:
| 1. | Open the filter manager. |
| 2. | click Create New Filter. |
A new row is added to the manager.
| 3. | In the Filter column, enter a name for the new f ilter. Click outside the text box to apply the name. |
| 4. | Click |
| 5. | Click OK to apply and save, or Cancel to discard the new filter. |
To delete a newly-created filter:
| 1. | In the filter manager, click |
The Dashlet Affected and Filter/Parameter affected dropdown menus disappear.
| 2. | Click |
The Filter row disappears.
| 3. | Click OK to apply and save, or Cancel to discard the new filter. |
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