Strategy ONE

Using List controls as selectors

You can enable a List control as a selector. When a user selects items in the List control, data in the control's target is updated.

For example, you create a document that allows users to sign up for a corporate event. You can add two List controls to the document, one for the user's country and another for the user's state or province. When the user selects his country in the first control, the second control is updated to display only states or provinces for the selected country.

The List control must display attribute elements from a selected dataset as choices in the control (this is called a data-driven input control). For steps to define options for a List control, see Formatting a List control.

List controls can update:

  • Grid/Graphs

  • Selectors

  • Panel stacks

  • Other data-driven input controls. This includes List controls created based on a field group or based on a dataset object in a Grid/Graph.

You can also have a selector update the items displayed in a List control. Users can select items in the selector to filter the choices in the List control. For a detailed introduction to selectors, including examples and steps to create them, see the Dashboards and Widgets Creation Guide.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a Transaction Services-enabled document that contains a List control to enable as a selector. The List control must display attribute elements from a selected dataset as items in the control. For steps to create a Transaction Services-enabled document, as well as steps to create a List control, see Creating a transaction-enabled document.

  • You have added the objects (such as Grid/Graphs, selectors, and other List controls) to update when items are selected in the List control.

To enable an List control as a selector

  1. In MicroStrategy Web, open the document in Design or Editable Mode.

  2. Do one of the following, depending on whether the List control is based on a text field or a Grid/Graph:

    • If the List control is based on a text field, complete the following steps:

      1. Right-click the text field used to display the List control, then select Properties and Formatting. The Properties and Formatting dialog box opens.

        If you have defined input object controls based on text fields in a document, each text field is displayed with a gear icon in the bottom right of the field, to signify that it displays as an input object control.

      2. From the left, click Selector.

    • If the List control is displayed in a Grid/Graph, on the Grid/Graph, right-click the header of the dataset object used to display the List control, and choose Use as Selector.

  3. From the list of Available targets on the right, choose the target(s) to update when users select items in the List control and click > to add it to the list of Selected target.

    The name used to identify List controls in the Available targets list varies depending on whether the List control was created based on a text field or dataset object on a Grid/Graph:

    • If the List control was created based on a text field, it is listed using the name of the text field.

    • If the List control was created based on a metric in a Grid/Graph, it is listed as GridGraph:Metric, where GridGraph is the name of the Grid/Graph and Metric is the name of the metric.

    • If the List control was created based on an attribute in a Grid/Graph, it is listed as GridGraph:Attribute@AttributeForm, where GridGraph is the name of the Grid/Graph, Attribute is the name of the attribute, and AttributeForm is the name of the attribute form.

  4. For a List control based on a text field, determine whether the List control filters or slices the data, by selecting or clearing the Apply selections as a filter check box.

    • The selections made in a filtering control 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 control 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 to use as the selector.

  5. For a List control displayed in a Grid/Graph, the All option allows the user to display all the elements in the target at one time. To enable the All option, select the Show option for All check box in the Configure Selector dialog box.

  6. Click OK to apply your changes.