Viewing data related to widgets: Using widgets as selectors

Steps to use a widget as a selector

An attribute, metric, custom group, or consolidation on a Grid/Graph can be used as a selector, as explained in Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs. Since widgets are created using Grid/Graphs, you can also use report objects on the Grid/Graph as selectors. In Interactive Mode or Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web, this allows a user to select which elements to display in other Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in the document. In other words, the widget is used as a selector targeting a Grid/Graph or panel stack. 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, see Providing interactivity to users: Selectors.

You can use the following widgets as selectors:

When a user chooses an element in the widget, data related to that element is displayed in all target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks. For example, when a user clicks the bubble for the Southeast region in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget, all target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks display Southeast data. For information on how to use each type of widget as a selector, see the following topics:

Before a widget can be used as a selector, you first choose the target Grid/Graph and/or panel stack in MicroStrategy Developer. You can also do this using MicroStrategy Web in either Design Mode or Editable Mode. For steps, see the procedure below. For Interactive Stacked Graph widgets, you must then switch to Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web to determine which part of the widget is enabled as a selector. This second step must be completed for Interactive Stacked Graph widgets only. For more information about using MicroStrategy Web to specify this, refer to Using Interactive Stacked Graph widgets as selectors.

In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, you can also ensure that target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks are updated when a user hovers the cursor over:

A data point in the primary graph of a Time Series Slider widget.
A bubble or an item in the legend of an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.
The graph or legend of an Interactive Stacked Graph widget.

To access Flash Mode or Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web, the document must have that mode enabled. For steps to enable display modes, see Selecting available display modes for MicroStrategy Web.

Prerequisites

This procedure assumes that you have already created a widget that contains the report objects to use as selectors. For instructions, see Creating widgets.

The widget is one of the following widget types:

You have created the panel stack or Grid/Graph to use as the target. For instructions, see Adding panel stacks to documents or Adding Grid/Graphs to documents.

The selector and target must have an attribute in common.

To use a widget as a selector

Open a document in the Document Editor. (How?)
Double-click the Grid/Graph containing the widget. A red hashed border displays around the Grid/Graph, indicating that edit mode is enabled, and the menu options and toolbar change.

If the Edit icon is displayed in the upper left corner of the Grid/Graph, you can click the icon to enter edit mode.
Do one of the following:
- Right-click the attribute, custom group, or consolidation to use as the selector, and choose Use As Selector. The Selector dialog box opens.
- Right-click the Metrics column in the Grid/Graph, and choose Use As Selector. The Selector dialog box opens.
Select the target Grid/Graph or panel stack in the list of available controls on the left. Click > to add it to the list of selected targets on the right. You can select multiple targets.

The attribute, metric, custom group, or consolidation you selected is the source, and the selected Grid/Graph is the target. The Action Type of the selector is set to Select Element.

If targets are automatically maintained, the Available targets and Selected targets lists are unavailable. All Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in the same document section or panel as the selector are displayed in the Selected targets list. You can disable automatic targets by clicking the Manual Targets button. If you do, all selectors in the layout are no longer automatically maintained. For more information about disabling automatic target maintenance, see Automatically maintaining targets for selectors.
Determine whether the selector filters or slices the data, by selecting or clearing the Apply selections as a filter check box. The difference is briefly described below; for more details on the differences, including examples, see Applying selections as filters or slices.
- 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.
The Apply selections as a filter check box is unavailable and cleared if you selected the Metrics column as the selector.
If the selector slices the data (the Apply selections as a filter check box is cleared), the Show option for Total check box is available. This check box specifies whether the Total option is shown, which allows the user to display totals. For an example and more details, see Showing totals in selectors.
To ensure that the user can select more than one element in the widget, select the Show option for All check box.

The data labels along the X and Y axes of a Bubble Grid widget can be used as selectors if the Show option for All check box is selected.

The attribute names in the headers of a Graph Matrix widget, Microcharts widget, or Weighted List widget can be used as selectors if the Show option for All check box is selected.

A user can select more than one element from the checklist in the Interactive Stacked Graph widget if the Show option for All check box is selected.

The attribute elements in the legend of a Waterfall widget can be used as selectors if the Show option for All check box is selected.
If the selector slices the data (the Apply selections as a filter check box is cleared), the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box is available. This check box determines how the target displays when no data exists. For an example, see Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists.
- To display a message that no data is returned, clear the check box.
- To display an item, select the check box.
Click OK to apply the changes and return to the document.
Press ESC to exit edit mode.

For Interactive Stacked Graph widgets, you must determine which part of the widget is enabled as a selector. This step must be completed in Flash Mode or Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web. For more information, refer to Using Interactive Stacked Graph widgets as selectors.

By default, Time Series Slider widgets use the primary graph as the selector, but you can change it to use the slider instead. Instead of clicking a single data point (in this case, a single month) you can instead select a range of months. You must use Flash Mode or Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web to specify this property.

In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, you can also ensure that target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks are updated when a user hovers the cursor over:

A data point in the primary graph or a range of data in the slider of a Time Series Slider widget.
A bubble or an item in the legend of an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.
The graph or legend of an Interactive Stacked Graph widget.