Filtering, Prompts and my continual frustration with this tool...

[NYD3030]

I have such a love/hate with this tool. I can build a great demo of it but in the real world I have problem after problem. It just perpetually feels like it's 80% finished...

Okay now that that's out - I'm helping a client with a POC and running into an issue where I can't create value/slide filters when there are more than about eight data items available to the global filters. Is this a tool limitation I'm running into, or a config/hardware problem? For reference this is against a flat file - I suspect it might be related to that - between the widget data items and the _BI_ query I've got a ton of potential filters...

Also, as far as widget manipulation goes - is it still the case that you can't select an item in a widget and have it filter other widgets? I hazily recall a 10.2.2 enhancement that I think addressed this but... I might be crazy.

Finally, I have always thought the technique outlined here is wrong - I can never ever get it to work as described: https://www-304.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_10.2.2/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_cr_rptstd.10.2.2.doc/c_prompts_dshbrds.html%23prompts_dshbrds

This is supposed to go against a Tableau dashboard, which a single user created in a day and has all this functionality. Sigh.

[MFGF]

I have such a love/hate with this tool. I can build a great demo of it but in the real world I have problem after problem. It just perpetually feels like it's 80% finished...

Okay now that that's out - I'm helping a client with a POC and running into an issue where I can't create value/slide filters when there are more than about eight data items available to the global filters. Is this a tool limitation I'm running into, or a config/hardware problem? For reference this is against a flat file - I suspect it might be related to that - between the widget data items and the _BI_ query I've got a ton of potential filters...

Also, as far as widget manipulation goes - is it still the case that you can't select an item in a widget and have it filter other widgets? I hazily recall a 10.2.2 enhancement that I think addressed this but... I might be crazy.

Finally, I have always thought the technique outlined here is wrong - I can never ever get it to work as described: https://www-304.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_10.2.2/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_cr_rptstd.10.2.2.doc/c_prompts_dshbrds.html%23prompts_dshbrds

This is supposed to go against a Tableau dashboard, which a single user created in a day and has all this functionality. Sigh.

Hi,

I haven't seen an issue with creating filters based on numbers of data items. If there are massive numbers of distinct filter values, it can take a little time to populate the list, though.

In 10.2.2 you can now have one widget act as a filter for other widgets on the page - it is termed "Master filter". You should see a button for it on the toolbar of the widget or you can right-click on the widget and select "Turn on Master filter"



I just tried the technique you linked to and it works exactly as I would expect. The trick is to define a name for the prompt. What results do you get?

MF.

[NYD3030]

Heya, thanks for the fast response.

The master widget info is very useful - can you set multiple widgets to use that feature or just one?

As for the filter issue, I am not certain how workspace populates the properties of the filters but it appears to be seriously hampering performance on this client's system. Oftentimes it won't return at all, or it will but the "available values" window is blank, which prevents you from creating the filter. I believe it's killing the datasource connection as a result.

With prompts, I built a simple prompt on "ORD_YEAR" and named it. I then built a new report with a list that contained only "ORD_YEAR". When I import the two into Workspace, the prompt fails to filter the list... although I just had an idea I'll try...

Thanks!

[MFGF]

Heya, thanks for the fast response.

The master widget info is very useful - can you set multiple widgets to use that feature or just one?

As for the filter issue, I am not certain how workspace populates the properties of the filters but it appears to be seriously hampering performance on this client's system. Oftentimes it won't return at all, or it will but the "available values" window is blank, which prevents you from creating the filter. I believe it's killing the datasource connection as a result.

With prompts, I built a simple prompt on "ORD_YEAR" and named it. I then built a new report with a list that contained only "ORD_YEAR". When I import the two into Workspace, the prompt fails to filter the list... although I just had an idea I'll try...

Thanks!

You can set as many widgets to be master filters as you like :)

For the prompt, try this. Create a report with a list containing some data. Add a prompt page and a prompt to filter the list (to the same report). Give the prompt a name. Save the report.

Now drag in the prompt as one widget and the list as another in your workspace...

Cheers!

MF.

[NYD3030]

So what ended up working in the interim is this -

I built a simple list report that contained only the items I want to filter on. I imported that to workspace first, built all my filters, then deleted it. I then added the widgets from my library and it works great.

If I try to add any additional filters after this point it bombs out, but hey - good enough for the POC.