Dashboard Filters

Admin Settings

Admins and dashboard creators have the ability to control what data the end users can filter on. By selecting the dashboard filter icon in the top right of the dashboard, they will have the option of either adding a filter directly (via the orange Add button) or entering the Settings area where they can fine tune the filters available to the end user.

 

Three options are available:

• All (no restrictions)
  • the end user will have the ability to filter on all the fields present in the datasets on their dashboard
• None (disable filters)
  • the end user will not be able to filter at all, on any field
• Configure Manually
  • the end user will only have access to filterable fields made available to them by the admin or dashboard creator

 

Manual Configuration

If this option is selected, then the admin or dashboard creator has the ability to decide which fields to either allow or forbid from use.

By default, all fields are allowed. If there are any fields that should not be made available for filtering, then the admin simply selected the 'Forbid' option followed by the fields in question. These fields will then not be present to the end user for selection in any filtering of that dashboard going forward.

 

Creating a Filter

To add a filter to a dashboard, the user simply clicks on the orange ADD button located in the top right part of the filter dialog box. The user simply selects the field to filter on and the associated operation

Note: 

• Equals is case sensitive. 
• Contains is not case dependent (and slower in cases with large amounts of data)
• Nested fields
  • If data contains JSON, the nested fields will be shown in the list to filter. A user can therefore filter on inner fields. Please note that this list will only contain a few nested fields as Knowi will not scan the whole dataset for the JSON data. However, Cloud9QL can be used to filter any nested field.

 

If the user is an admin or dashboard creator, then they also have several other options for the filter behaviour:

 

Hidden Filter

This filter will be applied to the dashboard but the definition of it will be completely hidden from the dashboard end users. It will only be available to view and edit by an admin or the dashboard creator.

 

Mandatory (previously 'Locked' filter)

If this option is set, the filter is always present on the dashboard and prevents the end users from removing the filter. However, the end user can still add or remove values from that filter. 

 

Auto-suggestions for another dataset

By default, filter value suggestions are sample from the dataset itself. If, however, you require filter values to come from another dataset, then the admin or dashboard creator would specify it here. Values will come from either the first column of the auto-suggestion dataset or the column name that exactly matches the field to be filtered

To do this:

a. Create a query that returns the values you want to display.

b. Use the database icon next to add/remove filter buttons. This will set auto-suggestions populated as a result of other query or dataset.

If dataset is selected, the list of auto-suggestions appends following the rule:

• if dataset contains a column with the same name as the column to be filtered, the values of that column are added.
• if dataset does not, the first column values are returned.

Note: The icon is available only on edit modes. If dashboard for example, is shared via URL, the set-up icon will not be shown for dataset autosuggestions. In view only modes, the suggestions are shown based on the dataset associated with the auto-suggestions, (if configured) or will default to the sampling method.

 

Save as Global

Once filterable fields are added (via the Add button), the admin or dashboard creator will then have the option to save this particular filter configuration as a Global setting for all end users of the dashboard to see. This, in essence, will be the end user 'default view' when they first enter the dashboard. From here, they will be able to change the default selections and add in their own personal filters on top of the global view configure. Clicking on 'reset' will take the user back to the global default view of the data.

It is similar to a hidden filter in that it would provide a default view of the dashboard, however it differs due to the fact that the end user would not know the filter existed at all and could therefore not change any of the default values configured.

Edit and Delete Filter Defintions

The ability to edit and delete a filter definition is available via the handy icons on the bottom right of each filter box.

 

Enable/Disable

Each filter also has the ability to be temporarily disabled, using the switch in the bottom left corner of the filter box

 

End User Filter Edit

Once the filters have been created and applied to a dashboard, it is very easy for the end user to change the values in the filter itself. To do this, the end user simply clicks on the filter notification icon at the top of the dashboard.