Creating selectors from attributes in the Datasets pane

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.

You can select an attribute in the Datasets pane and create a selector to allow a user to select which attribute elements to display in the Grid/Graph or panel stack. Selectors work in MicroStrategy Web only.

You can choose to either automatically maintain the targets of attribute and metric selectors, or manually define these targets.

• If targets are automatically maintained in the layout, attribute and metric selectors automatically target all Grid/Graphs and panel stacks that are in the same panel or document section as the selector.

• If targets are not automatically maintained, you must manually select the targets when you create all types of selectors.

For more information on automatically maintaining targets, including instructions to enable or disable it, see Automatically maintaining targets for selectors.

You can choose to either include or exclude the selected elements from the target. This means that the attributes that a user chooses in the selector can display in the target, or they can be hidden. For examples, see Determining whether the selector includes or excludes data: selection type. Instructions to define the selection type are included below.

Prerequisite

You should have added at least one Grid/Graph or panel stack to the document, to use as the target of the selector. For instructions, see Displaying reports in documents: Grid/Graphs or Adding panel stacks to documents. If targets are automatically maintained, and you add a Grid/Graph or panel stack to the same document section or panel after creating the selector, the Grid/Graph or panel stack is automatically added as a target.

To create a selector from an attribute in the Dataset Objects

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

2. Right-click the attribute in the Datasets pane to use as the source of the selector, and select Create Selector.

   A selector is created in the current section. The selected attribute is the source and the Action Type is set to Select Elements.

3. If targets are automatically maintained, the selector is outlined in orange, and all the Grid/Graphs and panel stacks that are automatically defined as the targets have orange sizing handles. Click anywhere in the Layout area to continue.

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

   1. Right-click the selector and choose Select Targets. The selector is outlined in orange to indicate target selection mode is on.

   2. Click the Grid/Graph to specify as the target. The sizing handles of the target are displayed in orange.

   3. Click anywhere in the Layout area to turn target selection mode off.

5. You can choose to either include or exclude the values from the target. This means that the items that a user chooses in the selector can display in the target, or they can be hidden. For examples, see Determining whether the selector includes or excludes data: selection type. In the Property List: Data section, set Selection Type to either Include or Exclude.

   If the Property List pane is not displayed, click Property List at the bottom of the panel on the left. If the panel is not displayed at all, select Property List from the View menu.

6. By default, autosubmission is enabled, which means that once a user chooses an item in the selector, the target immediately updates without any additional user interaction. For instructions to disable it, see Disabling automatic submission for selectors in documents.

Now that you have created the selector, you can modify properties, such as multiple selections and simultaneous display of selector items, and format it.