Use Content Linking to Create Interactive Dashboards
Depending on your needs, you can create a "static" dashboard, which contains content in each panel that is separate but related. For example, you may provide users with a bar chart that contains total sales figures by region. Additionally, you may provide a data table that displays sales details for each state in a specific region. You may also want to provide sales data associated with each salesperson in a specific region. The content in your dashboard is useful to dashboard consumers, but to make it more "interactive," you may want to consider using content linking.
The content linking features in dashboards allow you to associate (link) content in one dashboard panel to content on another dashboard panel as long as query parameters have been defined. These features are particularly helpful for drilling down or for dynamic filtering; for example, when dashboard consumers explode a single slice in a pie chart to launch content in a data table associated with that pie slice. In this instance, dashboard consumers are moving from a summary view to a detailed view interactively.
You can use content linking if your dashboard panel contains a data table, chart, .xaction, .prpt, and Analyzer report.
Get Started with Query Parameters
Query parameters are required for content inside a dashboard panel to receive values used to filter data from a filter control. They are also required when receiving values from content in other dashboard panels that are broadcasting values associated with Content Linking. The way in which query parameters are defined is different depending on the type of content you are placing inside your dashboard panels:
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| You are defining parameters in the Analyzer... | See Adding Query Parameters to Analyzer Reports |
| You are defining parameters for a chart or data table... | Use the Query Editor to define your parameterized query. See Linking Charts and Data Tables and Linking Columns in a Data Table to Content in other Dashboard Panels |
Link Charts and Data Tables
The instructions below explain how to create links to charts and data tables in a dashboard. Adjust the examples show in these instructions, as necessary, when working with your own data.
- Create a simple dashboard that contains a chart and a data table. At this point, none of the content has been linked and you have a "static" dashboard.
Notice the pie chart in the example above. You want dashboard consumers to click a slice (NA, APAC, Japan, EMEA) and have the data table on the right update with the values associated with that slice exclusively. For example, if a report consumer clicks the EMEA slice, the data table will display values associated with EMEA and nothing else. To get the correct filter display, you must first create a parameterized query that drives the content in the data table.
- Click the Edit Button to open up the Edit Pane at the bottom of the screen. Within the Objects pane, choose the report you want to parameterize. Parameterizing a query, as described here, allows you to pass values dynamically and update the chart based on events triggered by other elements of the dashboard such as a user choosing an item from a filter control or following links defined in content associated with another panel in the dashboard.
- Click the {p} button next to the Title box. The parameters will populate after the title in the Title box.
- Click the Parameters tab and ensure that the parameters name is linking to the correct Source.
- Click Apply.
The new source for the parameter corresponds to the title of the dashboard panel that contains the chart as shown in the example above. This new source will now drive the display in the data table.
- Click the Edit button (pencil icon) to exit the edit mode. The filters will appear after the panel titles.
- Save your dashboard. See Saving Your Dashboard.
When users click a pie slice or bar in a chart, the data table displays content associated with that specific pie slice or bar. The currently applied filters appear after the title.
Link an Analysis Report
You can link from either a graphic element or a hyperlink in an Analysis report.
Link a Report from Report Designer
You can link from a report created from Report Designer.