MicroStrategy ONE

Creating a Date Selection widget as a widget

Before You Begin

This topic discusses Date Selection widgets created to display in MicroStrategy Web. You can also create a Date Selection widget to display on a mobile device with MicroStrategy Mobile. On the mobile device, the widget displays as an interactive calendar. Flash Mode, Interactive Mode, and Express Mode in MicroStrategy Web displays it as the Date Selection widget shown in Creating Date Selection widgets. For a more detailed description of the Date Selection widget for the mobile devices, including an example, see Widgets for mobile devices. For instructions to create it, see the MicroStrategy Mobile Analysis Help.

If a Date Selection widget is created as a widget, the selector can be displayed as a Grid/Graph, which still functions as a selector, in non-Flash modes in MicroStrategy Web. A Date Selection widget created as a widget can target Grid/Graphs and panel stacks, but cannot switch panels on a panel stack. (For more information on Grid/Graphs controlling panel stacks or other Grid/Graphs, see Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs.) If you want the Date Selection widget to display as a standard selector such as a listbox or button bar in non-Flash modes, or to allow multiple selections, create it as a selector instead. For instructions, see Creating a Date Selection widget as a selector. For examples of the differences between the two, see Creating Date Selection widgets.

By default, a Date Selection widget displays in Flash as a widget, although you can specify that it displays as a Grid/Graph instead. You can also define whether or not a Date Selection widget displays as a widget in Interactive Mode and Express Mode in MicroStrategy Web. For instructions, see Determining how widgets are displayed.

To create a Date Selection widget (using a widget)

  1. Open the document in the Document Editor. How?

Create the target

  1. Create the Grid/Graph or panel stack to be used as the target, if it is not already in the document. For instructions, see Displaying reports in documents: Grid/Graphs or Adding panel stacks to documents.

    The target Grid/Graph or panel must contain a date attribute, such as Day or Quarter.

Create the selector widget

  1. Insert the Grid/Graph to be used as the Date Selection widget into the document. For a procedure, see Displaying reports in documents: Grid/Graphs.

    The Grid/Graph must contain an attribute of a date type (examples in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project include Day or Ship Date) in the rows.

  2. Right-click the Grid/Graph to turn into a Date Selection widget, and select Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.

  3. Click the Widget tab.

  4. From the Widget drop-down list, point to Flash, and then select Date Selection. In Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web, the Grid/Graph displays as a Date Selection widget.

Specify the widget display

  1. You can change the Alternative Display property, which determines how the widget looks in non-Flash modes. The widget can display as a placeholder or as a Grid/Graph, or can be hidden. For more information, see Determining how a widget is displayed.

  2. By default, the Date Selection widget is displayed as a widget in Flash. To display it as a grid or graph report instead, clear the Flash check box in the Display Widget As column.

  3. By default, the Date Selection widget is displayed as a widget in DHTML (Express Mode and Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web). To use the Alternative Display option instead, clear the DHTML check box in the Display Widget As column.

  4. Click OK to return to the document.

Connect the selector to the target

  1. Double-click the Grid/Graph to use as the Date Selection widget. A red hashed border displays around it, indicating that the Grid/Graph is in edit mode.

  2. Right-click the attribute or metric to use as the selector, and choose Use As Selector. The Selector dialog box opens.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • If targets are automatically maintained and you added the selector and target to the same document section or panel, the target Grid/Graph or panel stack is automatically added as a target to this selector. Click Create to finish adding the target.

    • If targets are automatically maintained but the selector Grid/Graph and target are not in the same document section or panel, you must disable automatic target maintenance and then manually specify the target, as described below:

      1. Click Manual Targets. A warning message opens, indicating that you will need to manually maintain targets if you disable automatic target maintenance. For the effects of disabling automatic target maintenance, see Disabling automatic target maintenance to allow manual target selection.

      2. Click OK. You are returned to the Selector dialog box. Automatic target maintenance has been disabled for all selectors in the layout.

      3. Select the target in the list on the left, and click > to move it to the list on the right.

      4. ClickCreate.

    • If targets are not automatically maintained, you must manually specify the target of the selector, as described below:

      1. Select the target in the list on the left, and click > to move it to the list on the right.

      2. Click Create.

  4. Press ESC or click anywhere in the document's Layout area outside of the Grid/Graph to exit edit mode.

    • Enable Flash Mode for Web

    • You must enable Flash Mode in the document so that you and other users can view the Date Selection widget in MicroStrategy Web.

  5. From the Format menu, select Document Properties. The Document Properties dialog box opens.

  6. In the Available display modes list on the Document tab, select the Flash check box.

  7. You can specify that this document always opens in Flash Mode when it is initially opened in Web. To do this, select the Default radio button next to Flash.

  8. Click OK to return to the document.

  9. Save the document.

To view and interact with the Date Selection widget, you must open the document in MicroStrategy Web and switch to Flash Mode if the document does not initially open in Flash Mode. You can also interact with the Date Selection widget in Interactive Mode and Express Mode in MicroStrategy Web, if you have defined the widget that way.

You can format the Date Selection widget when it is displayed as a widget; for a list of the available formatting options, see Formatting Date Selection widgets for Flash Mode. The formatting changes can be saved in Flash Mode and Interactive Mode only. Changes made in Flash View in MicroStrategy Developer and in Express Mode in MicroStrategy Web only preview how these changes will affect the widget, and cannot be saved.

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