Siebel Analytics User Guide > Filtering Requests in Siebel Answers >
Using Prompts to Simplify Filtering in a Siebel Analytics Request
A filter limits the results that appear when a request is run. Siebel Answers shows only those results that match the criteria. To simplify filtering, Siebel Answers provides two types of prompts, dashboard prompts and criteria prompts:
This section explains how to work with prompts. It contains the following topics:
For information about setting up a dashboard prompt, see Creating a Dashboard Prompt for Filtering Siebel Analytics Requests. Adding a Column Filter Prompt to a Siebel Analytics Request
A column filter prompt allows users to select values to filter a column in a request. You can define the range of possible filter values and how the user selects the filter values for the request. Column filter prompts appear on the Prompts tab. When you have multiple column filter prompts constructed for a request, they are executed in the order they are listed, from top to bottom. To add or modify a column filter prompt in Siebel Answers
- At the Criteria tab in Siebel Answers, modify a request to which you want to add a column filter prompt, and then click the Prompts tab.
- From the Create Prompt drop-down list, select Column Filter Prompt.
The Column Filter Prompt Properties dialog box appears.
- Type a caption for the column filter prompt in the Caption box.
The caption will appear to the user. You can include HTML markup tags in the caption, such as <b>, <center>, <font>, and <table>.
- Type a description in the Description box.
Descriptions are displayed when Siebel Analytics Web administrators use the Catalog Manager.
- From the Filter on Column drop-down list, select the column in the request that you want to filter, and then, from the Operator drop-down list, select the operator to use.
If you want the user to select the operator, select the operator *Prompt User.
- Specify how the user should choose values by clicking the appropriate option.
Users can select values from a drop-down list, or browse through choices and type them into a text box.
- To allow the user to choose only one value for the column filter prompt, click the check box labeled Single Value Only.
- Select the values that should be shown to the user by clicking the appropriate option:
- To show no values, click None.
The user will need to type the value.
- To show all possible values, click All Values.
- To show a subset of values, click Limited Values.
Limiting values is useful when prompting for multiple columns, or when the results already contain a filter. It prevents a user from choosing values that would result in no data. For example, suppose a request contains a country column and a city column, and already contains the filter Country=France. By selecting limited values for the city column filter, the choices are constrained to cities in France only, which prevents the possibility of choosing mutually exclusive filters, such as Country=Italy and City=Paris.
- To limit the values to the results of an SQL statement, click the option SQL Results and type the SQL statement into the text box.
- Make selections for the options in the Other Options area:
- To explicitly limit the number of choices a user sees per page, type the number in the Choices per page box.
- To allow the user to constrain the filter choices, click the check box next to the following option:
Allow user to constrain choices
Constrained choices help the user locate the values to use as a filter. For example, if a filter contains all the cities in France, a user can constrain the filter choices to those cities starting with P.
- To allow a user to skip this column filter, click the check box next to the following option:
Allow user to skip prompt
This causes a Skip Prompt option to appear. The user can then click this option to bypass making a selection for this filter.
- When you are finished, click OK.
The column filter prompt is shown on the Prompts tab.
To modify the properties of a column filter prompt in Siebel Answers
- Click the Properties link to open the Column Filter Prompt Properties dialog box.
- Make your changes, and then click OK.
To move a column filter prompt up or down in the execution order in Siebel Answers
To delete a column filter prompt in Siebel Answers
Adding an Image Prompt to a Siebel Analytics Request
An image prompt provides an image that users click to select their request criteria. For example, from an image that shows products, users can click a product. The selected product is then used to filter the underlying request. To create an image prompt, you need to know how to use the HTML <map> tag to create an image map definition. Image prompts appear on the Prompts tab in Siebel Answers. When you have multiple image prompts constructed for a request, they are executed in the order they are listed, from top to bottom. To add or modify an image prompt in Siebel Answers
- In Siebel Answers, display a request to which you want to add an image prompt, and then click the Prompts tab.
- From the Create Filter drop-down list, select Image Prompt.
The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box appears.
- Type a caption for the image prompt in the Caption box.
The caption will appear to the user. You can include HTML markup tags in the caption, such as <b>, <center>, <font>, and <table>.
- Type a description in the Description box.
Descriptions are displayed when Siebel Analytics administrators use the Catalog Manager.
- Type the location and name of the image in the Image URL box.
If the image prompt is for your use only, you can specify a location that only you can access, such as c:\mycomputer\temp\map.gif. For an image prompt that will be available to other users, specify the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name, such as \\ALLUSERS\graphics\map.gif.
- Type the appropriate HTML <map> tags and data in the HTML box.
- To extract the image map information from the HTML, click the link Extract Image Map from HTML.
The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box expands to show the area titles, shapes, and coordinates entered in the HTML box.
- When you are finished, click OK.
The image prompt is shown on the Prompts tab.
- To preview the image prompt, click the preview button.
When you click an area of the image, the underlying filter constructed for that area displays. You can click the Refresh link to see the results. You can change the filter criteria and then click the Refresh link again to see the change reflected in the results.
To modify the properties of an image prompt in Siebel Answers
- Click the Properties link to open the Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box.
- Make your changes, and then click OK.
To move an image prompt up or down in the execution order in Siebel Answers
To delete an image prompt in Siebel Answers
Related Topics
Using Column Filters in a Siebel Analytics Request
|