Create Data Actions to Connect Canvases

You can create data actions to navigate to a different canvas in the current workbook or to a canvas in another workbook. You might want to navigate to other canvases to quickly view different visualizations displaying data that's complimentary to the current canvas.

You can also use data actions to pass context-related information such as an order number, to a workbook or canvas with customer-specific data. See Invoke Data Actions from Visualization Canvases. If you don't specify a value, then the data action applies to all data elements in the visualizations. See Tips on Using Data Actions.

  1. On the Home page, hover over a workbook, click Actions, then select Open.
  2. Click Menu on the workbook toolbar and select Data Actions.
  3. In Data Actions, click Create Action and enter a name for the new navigation link.
  4. In Data Actions, enter a name. Select Analytics Link for the Type list.
  5. Optional: In the Anchor To row click Add Data, select a data element or calculation.
  6. In the Target row click This Workbook and select an option. Choose Use This Workbook or Select from Catalog. This choice lets you choose a workbook from the catalog.
  7. Optional: If you chose Use This Workbook in the Target row, click the Canvas Link field and select target canvas to display.
  8. Optional: To retain context when workbook users navigate using the data action, use the Pass Values option to select which values you want to retain. See How Data Actions Affect Filters.
    For example, if in the Anchor To field, you specified order number column, then in the Pass Values field, select Anchor Data to pass the specified column values.
    • All - Dynamically determines the intersection of the cell that you click and passes those values to the target. For example, when the user clicks a data action on a STATE data point 'California', the target canvas is filtered on 'California'.
    • Anchor Data - Ensures that the data action is displayed at runtime, but only if the required columns specified in the Anchor To field are available in the view context.
    • None - Opens the page (URL or canvas) but doesn't pass any data. For example, when the user clicks a data action on a STATE data point 'California', the target canvas shows data for all states.
    • Custom - Enables you to specify which columns to pass.
  9. Optional: Click Supports Multiple Selection to set the value.
    • On - Data data action can be invoked when a user selects one or more data points.
    • Off - Data action can be invoked only when a user selects a single data point.

      This setting is particularly useful when the selection of multiple data points might result in an error (for example, with some third-party REST APIs).

  10. Optional: Click Open in and select an option for opening the data action or use the default Auto to open in a new tab.
  11. Click OK.