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. Refer to these selectors as the regional selector and the call center selector. This dashboard is shown below in Design View.
In Interactive Mode in MicroStrategy Web, choose Central in the regional selector. The first Call Center, Milwaukee, is displayed in the Grid/Graph, as
150 Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists © 2012 MicroStrategy, Inc.
shown below in Interactive Mode. Notice that the call center selector automatically shows Milwaukee as selected.
Select Fargo in the call center selector, and the Grid/Graph is updated, as shown below.
Click Central in the region selector to clear it. Since no regions, and therefore no call centers, are selected, the Grid/Graph cannot display any data. A message is displayed that no data exists, as shown below:
Select Northwest in the regional selector. The Grid/Graph displays a message that no data is returned, and no call center is selected in the call
© 2012 MicroStrategy, Inc. Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists 151 center selector. The Grid/Graph tries to return data that is both Region = Northwest and Call Center = Fargo, but no such data exists, as shown below.
To automatically display the first Call Center in the new Region instead, allow the call center selector to be automatically updated. If you follow the same path as before, when you select Northwest in the regional selector, the Grid/Graph is updated to display San Francisco, as shown below. Notice that the call center selector shows San Francisco as selected.
Prerequisites
Before you can allow a selector to be automatically updated, the following requirements must be met:
• The selector that you want to be automatically updated must be both:
– On a panel.
– A slicing selector, not a filtering selector. For a comparison of filtering and slicing selectors, see Applying selections as filters or slices, page 126.
• The selector that updates the automatically updated selector must target the panel stack.
You can create cascading selectors, where one selector updates another, and the second updates a third. To ensure that a selection152 Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists © 2012 MicroStrategy, Inc.
in one selector affects all its targets, you must define the selectors in the order of the attributes’ hierarchy. For an example, see Enabling Grid/Graphs as selectors to control other Grid/Graphs, page 183.
The following procedure re-creates the example shown above, using MicroStrategy Tutorial data.
To allow a selector to be automatically updated when no data exists
Create the dataset report
1 Create a report with Call Center and Region on the rows, and the Revenue metric on the columns.
2 Save the report, naming it Call Center Revenue by Region.
Create the dashboard
3 Create a new dashboard, selecting Call Center Revenue by Region as the dataset. The new dashboard opens in the Document Editor in Design View.
4 Insert a panel stack. For directions, see To insert a panel stack, page 70.
5 Drag the Call Center Revenue by Region dataset from the Datasets pane onto the panel.
Create the Call Center selector
6 From the Insert menu, point to Selector, then choose the Button Bar selector style. When you move the cursor to the Layout area, the pointer becomes crosshairs.
7 Click to the left of the Grid/Graph in the panel. Click and drag to size the selector, using the dashboard samples in Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists, page 149 as a guide.
8 Right-click the selector and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.
9 Click the Selector tab.
10 Specify Select attribute element as the Action type.
© 2012 MicroStrategy, Inc. Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists 153 11 In the Source drop-down list, select Call Center. The Call Center
elements will display as items in the selector.
12 Notice that the Grid/Graph is automatically placed in the Available targets list. The selector will change the call center displayed on the Grid/Graph.
Allow the Call Center selector to be automatically updated
13 Clear the Apply selections as a filter check box. If the selector is not a slicing selector, the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box is not available. For a comparison of filtering and slicing selectors, see Applying selections as filters or slices, page 126.
14 Select the Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box.
15 Notice that the Current State is defined as Use First and Number of Elements is set to 1. By default, when a slicing selector is first displayed in MicroStrategy Web, the first item in the target is selected in the selector, and its target displays data for that item (in this case, Atlanta).
For a complete description of the Current State setting, including
examples, see Determining how the target of a selector displays (current state), page 154.
16 Click OK to return to the dashboard.
Create the Region selector
17 From the Insert menu, point to Selector, then choose the Check Boxes selector style. When you move the cursor to the Layout area, the pointer becomes crosshairs.
18 Click and drag in the Document Header section to size the selector, using the document samples in Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists, page 149 as a guide.
19 Right-click the selector and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.
20 Click the Selector tab.
21 Specify Select attribute element as the Action type.
154 Determining how the target of a selector displays (current state) © 2012 MicroStrategy, Inc.
22 Select Region in the Source drop-down list. The Region elements are displayed as items in the selector.
23 Clear the Show Option for All check box.
24 Click Manual Targets, then select OK at the prompt. The Available targets and Selected targets lists are now available.
25 Select the panel stack in the list of Available targets and click > to move it to the list of Selected targets. The selector will change the region displayed on the Grid/Graph in the selector and update the call centers listed on the Call Center selector.
26 Click OK to return to the dashboard.
Save the document
27 Save and close the dashboard.
To interact with the selectors, you must view the dashboard in Interactive Mode, Editable Mode, or Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web.