Widget communication

You can connect widgets on a dashboard so that they can interact with each other. That is, a change in one widget, such as a change of date or country, is reflected in the connected widgets.

Report variables

Variables in Application Studio reports can be marked as parameters. In dashboards, these parameters can be combined into parameter connections to control the way in which widgets communicate.

WebView widget parameters

WebView widgets can also have parameters. You can link WebView widgets to report widgets and to other WebView widgets on a dashboard. To link WebView widgets, create parameters from parts of their URLs.

Note: Connections between report widgets and WebView widgets are not automatically detected and must be created manually.

Parameter connections

The parameters of multiple widgets can form a parameter connection. For example, if two or more widgets have Location and Month parameters, there are two possible parameter connections. You could add some or all widgets to either, or both connections. For example, to link widgets by location, add the Location parameter of each widget to the location parameter connection.

For parameters that are not used in a parameter connection, you can specify whether their initial values are stored in the dashboard or set by the widget.

Automatic connection rules

By default, links between report widgets are detected automatically and the parameter connections are created. You can turn off auto-detection and create and edit connections manually.

The automatic connection of parameters is governed by these rules:

  • Parameters from the same content connection are connected automatically.
  • Parameters with lookups are linked if their lookup names are the same, and one of these conditions applies:
    • The parameter values are the same.
    • One or more of their parameters is in the format LookupHierarchy.DefaultMember.
  • Parameters without lookups are linked if their parameter names and types are the same, and one of these conditions applies:
    • Their parameter values are the same.
    • One or more of their parameters is in the format LookupHierarchy.DefaultMember.

The leading widget

By default, when you save a dashboard, the initial values of the parameter connections are saved with it. Those initial values are selected each time you open the dashboard and are unaffected by changes to the source report in the report catalog. But sometimes you want changes in one widget to affect the values of other widgets, for example, if you want the dashboard to update daily.

You can select the leading widget that defines the initial value of the parameter in a parameter connection. Select the leading widget for the parameter connection from the Initial value list. The value of a leading widget drives the value of the parameter in the parameter connection. Other widgets in the connection are loaded with this value.

Note: A WebView widget cannot be the leading widget of a parameter connection.

If the leading widget is removed from a dashboard, the initial value of the parameter is automatically set to be stored in the dashboard.