Adding Controls to a Dashboard

This documentation is an older version of JasperReports Server User Guide. View the latest documentation.

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 until you explicitly add them, one-by-one. The controls can either be added directly to the dashboard as a dashlet or accessed from the toolbar as a pop-up window. 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.

Keep these points in mind when viewing a dashboard that has input controls:

•

An input control may appear as a text field, a drop-down, a check box, a multi-select list box, or a calendar icon.

•

If one of the dashlets in a dashboard does not refer to an input control, that dashlet does not update when you change that input control’s value. Only dashlets that use the input control reflect the change.

•

The

•

If the

To add controls as a dashlet:

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 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.

In the Filters section, expand the 16. Interactive Sales Report folder.

The input controls associated with the Interactive Sales Report appear.

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.

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.

Click

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.

•

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 have an input control named Country.

Click the Viewing button and select Editing to return to the Dashboard Designer.

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:

With the Sales Dashboard open in the Dashboard Designer, select Product Family in the input control dashlet, filter settings display in Dashlet Settings in the settings panel.

Change the Filter label from Product Family to Type.

Select the Product Department input control, filter settings display in Dashlet Settings in the settings panel. Change the Product Department filter label to Department. The input control labels are updated.