Selectors allow users to choose which elements to display in Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in a document. An attribute, metric, custom group, or consolidation on a Grid/Graph can be used as a selector, as explained in Enabling a Grid/Graph to control another Grid/Graph. Since widgets are a type of Grid/Graph, you can also use the objects on a widget as selectors.
In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, when a user chooses an element in the widget, data related to that element is displayed in all Grid/Graphs and panel stacks targeted by the widget. For example, when a user clicks a bubble for the Southeast region in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget, all target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in the document display data for the Southeast. When the widget is displayed as a Grid/Graph in Editable Mode, the user can click on the name or elements of an attribute, custom group, or consolidation, or the name of a metric, to display data as described in Enabling a Grid/Graph as a selector to control another Grid/Graph.
When a widget is used as a selector, the widget performs in a manner similar to a selector, but does not actually become a selector object. For a more detailed description of selectors, including examples, see Providing interactivity to users: Selectors.
In some instances, you can specify which part of a widget to use as the selector. For example, in the Time Series Slider widget, a user can use either the slider or the graph to display data. For more information and steps to specify which part of a widget to use as the selector, see:
To determine which part of an Interactive Stacked Graph widget is enabled as a selector
To determine which part of a Time Series Slider widget is enabled as a selector
For certain types of widgets, you can specify that the targets are updated when a user hovers the cursor over a part of the widget that is enabled as a selector. You can hover over the following widget objects to make a selection in a widget:
A bubble or an item in the legend of an Interactive Bubble Graph widget
A data point in the primary graph of a Time Series Slider widget
For more information on how each type of widget can be used as a selector, see:
About using an Interactive Bubble Graph widget as a selector
About using an Interactive Stacked Graph widget as a selector
To use a widget as a selector, you must first enable the widget as a selector in Design Mode or Editable Mode. You can also enable the widget as a selector in Desktop. For steps, see the Desktop Help.
The procedure below lists steps to enable a widget as a selector in MicroStrategy Web.
The document must contain a widget with the report objects that you want to use as selectors. For instructions to add a widget, see Inserting a widget into a document. The widget must be one of the following types:
The document must also contain the panel stack or Grid/Graph to use as the target. The selector and target must have an attribute in common. For instructions, see Inserting a panel stack into a document or Adding a Grid/Graph to documents.
Open the document in Design or Editable Mode.
Do one of the following:
In the widget's Grid/Graph, right-click the header of the attribute, custom group, or consolidation that you want to use as the selector, and select Use as Selector. The Configure Selector dialog box opens.
Right-click the Metrics column in the Grid/Graph, and select Use as Selector. The Configure Selector dialog box opens.
Note: If targets are automatically maintained in the document, the selector is automatically created and the Configure Selector dialog box is not opened. To specify selector options, such as the target of the selector, right-click the new selector and select Edit Selector. The Configure Selector dialog box opens.
Select the target Grid/Graph
or panel stack in the Available Targets
list on the left, and click >
to add it to the Selected Targets
list on the right. You can select multiple targets.
Note: If targets are automatically maintained in the document,
the selector automatically targets all Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in
the current panel or section of the document. You can disable automatic
target maintenance and choose targets manually by clicking click
here in the Configure Selector dialog box. For more information
on automatically maintaining selector targets, see
Automatically
maintaining targets for selectors.
You can specify whether the selector is used to filter data displayed in the target, or determine how the data is sliced. For more information, see Applying selections as filters or slices. Do one of the following:
To use the selector to filter data, select the Apply selections as a filter check box.
To use the selector to slice data, clear the Apply selections as a filter check box.
The All option allows the user to display data for every element in the selector. For example, the Region attribute is enabled as a selector. If the user selects the All option, data for every region is displayed in the selector's target. To enable the All option, select the Show option for All check box. If the check box is selected:
A user can select more than one element from the checklist in an Interactive Stacked Graph widget.
The data labels along the X and Y axes of a Bubble Grid widget can be used as selectors.
The attribute names in the headers of a Graph Matrix widget, Microcharts widget, or Weighted List widget can be used as selectors.
The header names of attributes, consolidations, or custom groups in a widget's Grid/Graph can be used as selectors in Editable Mode.
The attribute elements in the legend of a Waterfall widget can be used as selectors.
The Total option allows the user to display the total for all attributes, custom groups, consolidation elements or metrics in the targeted Grid/Graph or panel stack. To display totals, select the Show option for Total check box.
You can determine the behavior of the selector's target when no data exists for the current selection. This option can be used to create selectors that update other selectors. For more information, see Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists.
To display a message that no data is returned, clear the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box.
To automatically update the selector and display an item, select the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box.
Click OK to apply the changes.
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