Receiving Variable Dimension Parameters in Dashboards

Arcadia Enterprise has a built-in approach to adjusting the level of granularity of an application at run-time. To do that,

  1. Creating Visuals with Variable Dimensions
  2. Creating Filters that Control Variable Dimensions

This demonstration uses the US County Population dataset.

Creating Visuals with Variable Dimensions

  1. Open a new dashboard.
  2. In the dashboard, click New Visual.
  3. Under the Data menu, select the US County Population dataset.
  4. Under the Visuals menu choose the Bar Chart visual type.
  5. Populate the shelves of the visual:

    • From Dimension, select and move Stname field onto the X Axis shelf.
    • From Measures, select and move Tot Pop field onto the Y Axis shelf.
    • On the Y Axis shelf, change the aggregation of the Tot Pop field from sum(Tot Pop) to avg(Tot Pop): select Tot Pop field, chose the Aggregates menu, and change the aggregate from Sum to Average.

    • On the Y Axis shelf, click Tot Pop, and under the Field Properties menu select Order, and choose Ascending.
    change aggregation
  6. Click Refresh Visual to see the basic set up of the bar chart.

    Set-up for Visual
    Set-up for Visual
  7. On the X Axis shelf, click Stname field.

    In the Field Properties menu, select [ ] Enter/Edit Expression.

    preparing to edit expression for a dimension field
  8. In the Enter/Edit Expression modal window,

    • Change the text to the following expression: <<dim:[Stname]>>].
    • Click Validate & Save.
    creating a dimension in Enter/Edit Expression interface
    Creating an Optional Dimension in Enter/Edit Expression Interface
  9. Change the name of the visual to Population by <<dim>>.

    To have an informative title for the visual, you may add the parameter placeholders to it. The filter configured in Creating Filters that Control Variable Dimensions supplies the required value.

  10. Click Save.

Creating Filters that Control Variable Dimensions

Before starting on this work flow, complete the steps in Creating Visuals with Variable Dimensions.

  1. In the dashboard, click the Filters tab.
  2. Click Create Custom Filter.

    adding a new custom filter to the dashbaord
    Adding a New Custom Filter to the Dashboard
  3. This creates a New Filter in the filter area of the application, and opens the Settings window modal for that filter.

    Initial Settings for a Custom Filter
  4. In the Settings modal window, switch to Values tab, and enter the following:

    • Under Title, enter Dimension Level.
    • Under Output Parameter, enter dim.

      Note that this is the parameter from Creating Visuals with Variable Dimensions.

    • Under Specified values, enter the following two rows:

      • Value: stname, Label: State
      • Value: ctyname, Label: County
  5. Switch to Display Settings tab, and select the options Permit only one item to be selected.

    Click Apply.

    Configuring Display Settings for the Variable Dimension
    Configuring Display Settings for the Optional Dimension
  6. Name and save the dashboard. We used the name Population by Different Aggregation Levels.
  7. Switch to application View mode.

    Note that the default choice, Stname, displays both on the horizontal axis, and in the title of the visual.

    To check the parameters of the dashboard, hover the pointer over the (filter) icon at the top right corner. They are dim: Stname and dim.alias: State.

  8. In the Dimension Level filter, select County.

    Note that now the title of the graph and the axis changed to use Ctyname.

    You may also notice that your graph does not appear to have any bars. In this particular dataset, there are large differences among populations of various counties; a great majority has populations under one million, and a select few represent urban areas with extremely dense population.

    In the application, scroll to the extreme right of the visual to see the graph.

    If you want to check the status of parameters on this dashboard, hover the pointer over the (filter) icon at the top right corner, and notice that they changes to dim: Ctyname and dim.alias: County.