Properties dialog box: Selector tab

This tab is available only if the selected control is a selector, which allow users, in Interactive Mode, Editable Mode, and Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web, to flip through the panels in a panel stack or display different attribute elements or metrics in a Grid/Graph. The selector properties include the following:

• Action type: Defines the type of selector. The types are described below:

• Select elements: When the document is displayed in MicroStrategy Web, the selector displays a list of the elements from the attribute selected in the Source field.

• Select metric: When the document is displayed in MicroStrategy Web, the selector displays a list of the metrics available in the Grid/Graphs selected as the Target.

  Metrics in text fields within the target are not listed. For example, a panel stack is selected as a Target and contains a metric in a text field. That metric is not displayed in the Select Metrics list.

• Select panel: When the document is displayed in MicroStrategy Web, the selector displays a list of the panels available in the panel stack selected as the Target.

  If Style is set to Checkboxes, Select Panel is unavailable, since you cannot display multiple panels simultaneously. Select a different Style to display panels.

• Source: Lists all of the attributes or metrics in all of the datasets in the document. The selector displays the attribute elements of the selected attribute or the metric values of the selected metric.

  Available only if Action Type is set to Select Elements.

• Flashstyle is how the selector is displayed in Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web if it is an interactive Flash-only selector. The options are listed below:

• Automatic: The default, which uses the DHTML style for Flash Mode.

• Fish Eye Selector: An interactive style of selector that is displayed only in Flash Mode. It magnifies an item when a user hovers the cursor over it. This style of selector is useful because it allows a user to choose from a large list of elements without having to see all of the elements displayed at the same time. Any item that a user hovers over or selects remains magnified, while the remaining items are minimized and hidden from view.

  • Since a Fish Eye Selector is displayed only in Flash Mode, determine how the selector is displayed in non-Flash modes by specifying a DHTML style.

  • For more information about creating Fish Eye Selectors, see Creating a Fish Eye Selector as a selector.

• DHTML style: Defines how the selector is displayed in Editable, Interactive, and Express Mode in MicroStrategy Web. The options are listed below:

  • Drop-down

  • Slider

  • Listbox

  • Radio Buttons

  • Check Boxes

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

  • Button Bar

  • Link Bar

  • Qualification

For samples of each style, see Defining selectors.

• Orientation: Specifies whether the selector is displayed horizontally (on a single line from left to right) or vertically (in a single column).

  • Available for Slider(not metric condition slider), Radio Buttons, Check Boxes, and Button Bar only.

• Apply selections as a filter: Determines whether the selector filters or slices 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. The selections made in a slicing selectors are used to determine which slices of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph. For more details on the differences, including examples, see Applying selections as filters or slices.

  You can also change whether the selector filters or slices the data on a specific target, by changing the Type in the Selected targets list, described below. This allows you to filter one target and slice another using the same selector.

  If Apply selections as a filter is unavailable, the selector is applied as both a filter and a slice for different targets. Use the Type column in the Selected targets list instead.

• Show option for all: Specifies whether the selector shows the All option, which displays all the attribute elements or metrics in the Target. By default, this check box is selected. For more information, see Disabling simultaneous display of all items in a selector.

  Unavailable if the Action Type is set to Select PanelorMetric Condition, or the Style is set to Slider and the Multiselect check box is selected.

• Alias: Replaces the All option in the selector with the entered text. If no text is entered, (All) is displayed. For more information, see Disabling simultaneous display of all items in a selector.

  Available only if Show option for All is selected.

• Show option for total: Specifies whether the selector displays the Total option, which allows the user to display totals. To display the Total option, select this check box. For an example and more details, see Showing totals in selectors.

  Available only if the Action type is Select attribute element.

• Allow multiple selections: Specifies whether the user can choose multiple items in the selector. The defaults are listed below. For more information, see Allowing multiple selections and autosubmission.

• For the Slider, Listbox, Link Bar, and ButtonBar styles, the Multiselect check box is cleared. You can select the check box to allow multiple selections.

• For Check Boxes, the option is enabled, although the check box is unavailable. You cannot change the setting.

• For Drop-down and Radio Buttons styles, this check box is unavailable and the option is disabled, since those styles do not support multiple selections. You cannot change the setting.

• For metric condition selectors, the check box is unavailable.

• Change selection on mouseover: Specifies whether an item is selected if the user hovers the cursor over it without clicking. By default, this check box is cleared, which means that the user must click an item to select it and change the target of the selector.

  Available only for List Box and if Flash view is enabled. For more information on Flash view, see Viewing and interacting with documents in MicroStrategy Web; for steps to enable Flash view, see Selecting available display modes for MicroStrategy Web.

• Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection: Determines how the target displays when no data exists. The selector that you want to be automatically updated must be on a panel. The selector that will update the first selector must target the panel stack. For an example, see Determining how the target of a selector 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.

The following properties,Current stateandNumber of elements, are available only ifAction typeisSelect attribute element.

• Current state: Determines how the target is displayed when the document is executed. Whena user chooses items in the selector and saves the document, those selections update theCurrent statefield. If the document is not saved, those selections are not saved and therefore theCurrent statefield remains unchanged. For more information, including examples, see Determining how the target of a selector displays (current state). The options are:

• IfApply selections as a filteris selected:

  • Unset (no filter): The target is not filtered and therefore displays data for all items in the selector. None of the selector items is selected.

  • Set to specific elements: The target displays the items that the user chose in the selector. This option is shown only when a user has chosen items in the selector.

• If Apply selections as a filter is cleared:

  • Use first: The target displays the first Number of elements. For example, if the selector source is Region and Number of elements is defined as two, the first two regions (Central and Mid-Atlantic) are displayed.

  • Use last: The targets displays the last Number of elements. For example, if the selector source is Region and Number of elements is defined as one, the last region (Web) is displayed.

  • All: The target displays data for all the items in the selector.

• Set to specific elements: The target displays the items that the user chose in the selector. This option is shown only when a user has chosen items in the selector.

• Number of elements: (Available only if Apply selections as a filter is cleared and either Use first or Use last is selected) Specifies the number of selector items to be displayed. For example, if the selector source is Region, Use last is selected, and Number of elements is defined as one, the last region (Web) is displayed.

• Selection type: (Available only for element selectors or a metric condition slider selectors) Determines whether the selector target includes or excludes the items chosen in the selector. If the selector's title bar is not displayed, then this property is used. If the selector's title bar is displayed, this is the default and a user can change between including or excluding the selections.

• Display selector docked to its panel stack (iPad only): (Available only ifAction Typeis set toSelect Panel; applies only to iPads with the MicroStrategy Mobile application) Specifies whether or not the selector is docked.

  By default, the check box is cleared, which means that the selector displays as the DHTML style (such as buttons or links) and in the location on the document defined when the selector was created.

  When the check box is selected, the selector is docked, which means that the selector bar appears at the bottom of the target panel stack. For an example, see the MicroStrategy Mobile Analysis Help.

• Panel stack: (Available only ifAction typeis defined asSelect panel) Displays the target for the selector. To change the target, select another panel stack from the drop-down list of all the panel stacks in the document.

• Available Targets: Lists the Grid/Graphs, panel stacks, and selectors on the document. Select the target(s) and click > to add them to the Selected Targets list.

  The target of a selector is the object that changes its display based on the user's input.

• Selected Targets: Lists the target(s) of the selector. The Type column allows you to determine whether the selector filters or slices 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. The selections made in a slicing selectors are used to determine which slices of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph. For more details on the differences, including examples, see Applying selections as filters or slices.

If targets are automatically maintained, the Available Targets and Selected Targets lists are unavailable. All Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in the same document section or panel as the selector are displayed in the Selected targets list. You can disable automatic targets by clicking the Manual Targets button. If you do, all selectors in the layout are no longer automatically maintained. You can also then choose a selector as the target of this selector. For instructions to disable automatic target maintenance, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of automatic and manual target selection, see Automatically maintaining targets for selectors.

Other tabs in the Properties dialog box

• General tab

• Layout tab

• Image tab

• Line tab

• Grid tab

• Panels tab

• Widget tab

• Advanced tab

Related Topics

• Inserting selectors into documents

• Providing interactivity to users: Selectors

• Automatically maintaining targets for selectors