Input Control Tips

When designing input controls for a dashboard, keep these guidelines in mind:

• If you want a single input control on the dashboard to control the data displayed in multiple reports, the reports themselves need parameters with the same name as the input control. For example, you might have a query-based list of employee names that can be used in both sales reports and human resources report.
• When defining a parameter in a report, give it a meaningful name that can be reused in other reports. Then, when two reports that include this parameter are added to the dashboard, their input controls appear as Special Content in the Available Content list. Storing such input controls in the repository encourages reuse in other reports as they are designed and added to the repository.
• Consider the ramifications of designing input controls to use radio buttons. A report’s input control that displays as a radio button set appears as drop-down on a dashboard.
• To pass a value to an external URL, the URL Parameter Name you give to the input control must match the name of a parameter that the URL can accept. The value of the input control must also be a value the URL can accept. The target URL is likely to have additional requirements and limitations. For example, the name of the parameter may be case-sensitive; in this case, the value you enter in the URL Parameter Name field is also case-sensitive. This is the case for Bing’s q parameter that is referenced in Adding a Custom URL to a Dashboard.

The input control must pass data that the URL can accept. Otherwise, the server may be unable to retrieve the correct data from the external URL.

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