MicroStrategy ONE

Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists

Before you begin

You should be familiar with the various properties that define how a selector looks and what it controls, such as target and source. See Defining selectors for descriptions.

A panel displays a Grid/Graph with Call Center and Region as the attributes. The panel also contains a selector that lists Call Centers and targets the Grid/Graph. Outside of the panel stack, another selector lists Regions. Its target is the panel stack and therefore the selector on that panel as well. For this example, refer to the selectors as the regional selector and the call center selector.

In Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web, choose Central in the regional selector. The first Call Center, Milwaukee, is automatically displayed in the Grid/Graph, and the call center selector automatically shows Milwaukee as selected. Select Fargo in the call center selector, and the Grid/Graph is automatically updated. Select Northeast in the regional selector. The Grid/Graph displays a message that no data is returned, and no call center is selected in the call center selector. The Grid/Graph tries to return data that is both Region = Northeast and Call Center = Fargo, but no such data exists.

If you would instead like the Grid/Graph to automatically display the first Call Center in the new Region, allow the call center selector to be automatically updated. In the previous scenario, when you choose Northeast, Boston is now displayed in the Grid/Graph and the call center selector shows Boston as selected.

Prerequisites

  • The selector that you want to be automatically updated must be on a panel. For instructions to create selectors and panel stacks, see Inserting selectors into documents and Inserting and defining panels.

  • The selector that will update the first selector must target the panel stack.

    You can create cascading selectors, where one selector updates another, the second updates a third, and so on. To ensure that a selection in one selector affects all its targets, you must define the selectors in the order of the hierarchy's attributes. For an example, see Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs.

  • The selector that updates the first selector must be a slicing selector, not a filtering selector. For a comparison of filtering and slicing selectors, see Applying selections as filters or slices.

To determine how the target of a selector displays when no data exists

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

  2. Right-click the selector to modify and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.

  3. Click the Selector tab.

  4. The Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box determines how the target 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.

  5. Click OK to return to the document.

You can also use the Property List to change this property, where it is called Autopick.