Report parameters

Report parameters have two uses:

To specify communication between dashboard reports, without requiring the dashboard to be reloaded.
To create database-independent reports - typically as report templates.

Reports that refer to the same global variable automatically update when the value of the variable changes. This can be used to link reports. For example, you can ensure that, if you jump from a Summary report to a Detail report, a value selected in the Summary report is automatically selected in the Detail report. But, in dashboards, where a mixture of linked and unlinked reports can be displayed side-by-side, using variables alone requires you to refresh the entire dashboard to update the linked reports. You can avoid this problem by using report parameters in addition to variables.

See Report parameters and dashboards

Report parameters and variables are also used to create reports which are not dependent on a particular data source. Such database-independent reports are usually created as report templates or as dynamic reports in dashboards.

To display the Report Parameters dialog:

Open a report in Design Mode.
Right-click the report in the Report Catalog and select Report Parameters.