Report parameters and dashboards

You can use variables to link reports. For example, to ensure that a date filter selected in one report is automatically selected when you jump to another. But, in dashboards, where two or more linked reports can be displayed side-by-side in widgets, this method requires you to refresh the whole dashboard to update the reports. You can avoid this problem by using report parameters , in addition to variables.

In dashboards, widgets are linked if the reports they contain have parameters which have these properties:

• The same names. That is, they refer to the same variable.
• Different names but refer to the same lookup.

The variables can be global or report variables. Normally, report variables are available only to the report in which they are defined. But, when linked by report parameters which reference the same lookup, report variables can link separate dashboard reports.

We recommend using report variables.

A common practice in dashboards is to use combo boxes in one report to control the values displayed in one or more other reports. The values selected in the combo boxes are passed to variables, which are used as report parameters. The report is placed in a widget on a dashboard. Other reports which have the same parameters, or refer to the same look-ups are automatically linked. Selecting a date, for example, from a combo box will update all widgets which contain a date parameter.

WebViews can also have parameters. In dashboards, users create parameters from parts of the WebView URLs and use them to link WebViews to report widgets.

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. In a dashboard, a user might add some or all widgets to either, or both connections. For example, to link widgets by location, they might add the location parameter of each widget to the Location parameter connection.

By default, links between report widgets are detected automatically and the parameter connections created. In a dashboard, users can turn off auto-detection and create connections manually by dragging parameters into and out of connections.