Configure Selector Dialog Box

After you have defined an item on a report or widget as a selector, you can use the Configure Selector dialog box to select options such as whether to use selections in the report 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 reports) or filters the results of a dataset.

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

• Grid or graph reports. For an example of a report used to control the display of another report, see Using a Grid or Graph as a Selector.
• Widgets.
• Panel stacks
• Selectors

If you choose to have the selector filter the results of a dataset, 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 is re-executed to include only the data for the selected customer.

The following options are available in the Configure Selector dialog box. 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.
  • 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 by choosing items in the selector.

The Configure Selector dialog box contains two lists:

• Available Targets list
  • If the Target Type option is set to Document, the list contains the controls (panel stacks, reports, and selectors) that can be updated when users choose an item in the selector.
  • If the Target Type option is set to Dataset, the list contains the datasets that can be 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. To select multiple targets, hold down the CTRL key and click each target that you want to select.
• Selected Targets list

  The list contains the controls or datasets that will be updated when the user chooses items in the selector.

  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 report 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 report.

  The Apply selections as a filter checkbox 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 checkbox is available when the selector slices data (the Apply selections as a filter checkbox is cleared).
• Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection: Determine whether to allow MicroStrategy to automatically update the element chosen in the selector if no data would be displayed for the current selection. This checkbox is available when the selector slices data (the Apply selections as a filter checkbox is cleared).
  • To display a message that no data is returned, clear the checkbox.
  • To automatically update the selector by selecting the first element for which data can be displayed, select the checkbox.
• Automatically select topmost element in a sorted grid: By default, when defining an attribute in a grid as a slicing selector, the element with the lowest attribute ID is selected. However, due to the sorting defined on the grid, it is not always easy to locate the selected element, and thus not easy to know which element of this slicing selector is controlling the target grid or graph.
  • When the checkbox is selected, the topmost (first) element in the grid is highlighted by default, making it easy to locate the selected element.

  • When the checkbox is cleared, the element with the lowest attribute ID in the grid is highlighted by default.

  This checkbox is available when the data is sliced (the Apply selections as a filter checkbox is cleared). Also note that this setting is ignored if it results in no data in the target gird or graph, regardless of the setting for Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection.

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

1. Open a document in Design Mode.
2. 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.

Related Topics

Dataset Selector Dialog Box