Configure Selector dialog box

Once you have defined an item on a Grid/Graph or widget as a selector, you can use the Configure Selector dialog box to select options such as whether to use selections in the Grid/Graph or widget to filter or slice data, whether to allow users to view the data for all items in the selector at once, or whether the selector updates the data displayed in document controls (such as panel stacks and other Grid/Graphs) or filters the results of a dataset report.

If you choose to have the selector update the data displayed in document controls, users can select items in the Grid/Graph or widget to update the following:

Grid/Graphs. For an example of a Grid/Graph used to control the display of another Grid/Graph, see Enabling a Grid/Graph to control another Grid/Graph.
Widgets
Panel stacks
Selectors

If you choose to have the selector filter the results of a dataset report, users can choose a subset of relevant data to work with. For example, you can allow users to display the order history for one customer at a time in a document. Each time a user selects a customer, the dataset report is re-executed to include only the data for the selected customer.

The following options are available in the Configure Selector dialog box:

Note: The options available may vary depending on the Target Type of the selector.

Target Type: Determine whether to have the selector update the display of document controls, such as Grid/Graphs or panel stacks, or filter the results of a dataset report.

Document: Select this option to allow users to update the display of document controls by choosing items in the selector.

Dataset: Select this option to allow users to filter the results returned by a dataset report by choosing items in the selector.

The Configure Selector dialog box contains two lists:

The Available Targets list on the left contains the panel stacks, Grid/Graphs, and selectors in the document that are available to be used as the target of the Grid/Graph or widget. If the Target Type option is set to Dataset, the Available list contains the datasets that you can have automatically updated when users choose an item in the selector. Select the targets and click > to add them to the Selected Targets list on the right. You can select multiple targets at once by pressing CTRL and clicking each target that you want to select.

The Selected Targets list on the right contains the controls that will be updated when the user chooses items in the selector. If the Target Type option is set to Dataset, the Selected list contains the datasets that will be updated when the user chooses items in the selector.

Note: If targets are automatically maintained in the document, the Available Targets and Selected Targets lists are unavailable. You can choose to manually select targets in the document instead, as described below.

The Configure Selector dialog box also contains the following properties:

Apply selections as a filter: Determines whether the selector filters or slices the data. The selections made in a filtering selector are used to filter the underlying dataset before the metric values are aggregated at the level of the Grid/Graph that is displayed in the document. The selections made in a slicing selector are used to determine which slices of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph. For more details on the differences, including examples, see Applying selections as filters or slices.

Note: The Apply selections as a filter check box is unavailable and cleared if you selected the Metrics column as the selector.

Show option for All: Select this option to allow users to display data for all elements in the selector at once by clicking the name of the report object used as the selector.

Show option for Total: Specifies whether the Total option is shown, which allows the user to display totals. This check box is available when the selector slices data (the Apply selections as a filter check box is cleared).

Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection: Determine whether to allow an automatic update of the element chosen in the selector if no data would be displayed for the current selection. For an example, see Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists. This check box is available when the selector slices data (the Apply selections as a filter check box is cleared).

To display a message that no data is returned, clear the check box.
To automatically update the selector by selecting the first element for which data can be displayed, select the check box.

By default, targets are automatically maintained for selectors in a document. You can choose to manually maintain targets in the document. To do so, select the click here link at the end of the "If you would like manual control, click here" message. This option is available if the Target Type option is set to Document.

To access the Configure Selector dialog box:

Open a document in Design Mode.
Do one of the following:
- If an object has already been enabled as a selector, right-click that object in the Grid/Graph, and select Edit Selector. The Configure Selector dialog box opens.
- If an object has not been enabled as a selector, right-click the attribute, custom group, or consolidation name (not an element) in the Grid/Graph to use as the selector, and choose Use as Selector. Right-click the object, then select Edit Selector. The Configure Selector dialog box opens.