Modifying properties for selectors

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.

Selectors allow a MicroStrategy Web user to flip through the panels in a panel stack or display different elements or metrics in a Grid/Graph. The panel stack or Grid/Graph is the target of the selector.

Prerequisite

You must have added the selector to the document. See Inserting selectors into documents.

None of these properties are available for a selector that filters metric values. For instructions to modify properties for that type of selector, see Creating selectors that filter metric values.

To modify properties for a selector

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

2. Right-click the selector, and select Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.

   You can also set these properties using the Property List.

3. Click the Selector tab.

4. The Action type,Source, andTargetinformation define the selector. For more information on them, see Defining selectors.

5. You can specify how the selector is displayed in Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web, if it is an interactive Flash-only selector. By default, the selector is displayed the same in Flash Mode as in other modes. To select a Flash-only style, change Flash style from Automatic (the default) to either Fish Eye Selector orDate Selection. For a further explanation, see Creating Fish Eye Selectors or Creating Date Selection widgets.

6. You can change the style of the selector by choosing another option from the DHTML style drop-down menu. For examples, see Defining selectors.

   If Action Type is set to Select Panels, Check Boxes is unavailable as a DHTML style option, since you cannot display multiple panels simultaneously.

7. For Slider, Radio Buttons, Check Boxes, and Button Bar selector styles, the Orientation option is available. You can select whether to display the selector horizontally (on a single line from left to right) or vertically (in a single column).

8. A selector can either filter or slice the data:

   • 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. To define the selector to filter data, select the Apply selections as a filtercheck box.

   • The selections made in a slicing selectors are used to determine which slices of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph. To define the selector to slice data, clear the Apply selections as a filter check box.

   • For more details on the differences, including examples, see Applying selections as filters or slices.

9. By default, the selector shows the All option, which allows the user to display all the attribute elements or metrics in the Target at the same time. To disable the All option, clear the Show option for all check box.

   This option is not available if the Action Type is set to Select Panels, or the DHTML style is set to Slider and the Allow multiple selections check box is selected.

10. By default, the All option is displayed as (All) in the selector. You can overwrite this by entering text into the Alias field.

    This option is available only if Show option for All is selected.

11. The selector can display a Total option, which allows the user to display totals. To display the Total option, select the Show option for Total check box. For an example and more details, see Showing totals in selectors.

    If the Action type is defined as Select metric or Select panel, the Show option for Total check box is not available.

12. By default, the Allow multiple selections option is cleared for the Slider, Listbox, Link Bar, and Button Bar styles. To allow the user to choose multiple items in the selector, select the Allow multiple selections check box.

    The Allow multiple selections check box allows the user to choose more than one item in the selector. For all other styles, this check box is unavailable and the option is disabled, since those styles do not support multiple selections. The one exception is Check Boxes, where the option is enabled.

13. For List Box (when Flash view in MicroStrategy Web is enabled), you can allow an item to be selected if the user hovers the cursor over it without clicking. By default, the user must select an item to change the target of the selector. To change this behavior, choose the Change selection on mouseover property.

    If the user points the cursor away from the selector without clicking an item, the target reverts to its previous state.

14. By default, the Display selector docked to its panel stack (iPad only) check box is cleared. In documents displayed on iPads, selectors are displayed in theselector style (such as buttons or links) and in the location on the document defined when the selector was created. A docked selector displays as a selector bar at the bottom of the target panel stack (for an example, see the MicroStrategy Mobile Analysis Help). Select the check box to dock the selector (applies only to iPads with the MicroStrategy Mobile application).

    : This check box is available onlyifAction Typeis set toSelect Panel.

15. You can determine how a target displays when no data exists for the user's selection. Select or clear the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box:

    • To display a message that no data is returned, clear the check box.

    • To display the first item, select the check box.

    • For information on when this property is used, see Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists.

16. By default, when a filtering selector is first displayed in MicroStrategy Web, none of the selector items are selected, so the selector's target displays all of the available items (all the regions, for instance, if the selector's source is Region). If the selector slices rather than filters the data, by default the first item in the target is selected in the selector, and its target displays data for that item (for example, Central, if the source is Region).

    You can change these defaults by using the Current State and Number of Elements properties to define how a slicing selector and its target are first displayed. You can define the Current State to display all items in the target or only a specific number of items. When a user saves the document after selecting items in the selector, the Current State setting is automatically changed to Set to Specific Elements (the ones that the user specified). A filtering selector always displays as Unset (all items are displayed) until a user saves the document after selecting items, when the Current State setting is automatically changed to Set to Specific Elements (user-specified).

    For more detailed descriptions of the different options and examples, see Determining how the target of a selector displays: current state.

    You can define the current state only for selectors that target attribute elements on Grid/Graphs.

17. 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. From the Selection Type drop-down list, select either Include or Exclude.

    : TheSelection Type is unavailable for metric qualification and panel stack selectors.

18. Click OK to return to the document.