Adding Prompts for Filtering Reports

You can create prompts to allow users to select values to filter an analysis. Prompts
allow users to select values that dynamically filter all views within the analysis.

Inline and Dashboard Prompts

Xactly Analytics offers both inline prompts and dashboard prompts.

 

Inline Prompts

Inline prompts allow users to specify the data values that determine the content of
a report. An inline prompt can be a column prompt, variable prompt, image
prompt, or currency prompt.

When you create an inline prompt, you select the columns and operators for the
prompt and specify how the prompt is displayed to users and how users select the
values. The user’s choices determine the content of the analyses that are embedded
on the dashboard.

note: An inline prompt is an initial prompt, meaning that it only displays when the
analysis is rendered. After the user selects the prompt value, the prompt fields disappear
from the analysis and the only way for the user to select different prompt
values is to re-run the analysis.
Inline prompts are embedded in an analysis and, therefore, cannot be added to
other analyses.

 

Dashboard Prompts

Dashboard prompts are a special kind of filter that filter reports embedded on a
dashboard. A dashboard prompt can be a column prompt, variable prompt,
image prompt, or currency prompt.

Dashboard prompts filter reports that contain the same columns as the filter. Dashboard
prompts are reusable, which means that you can create one prompt and
use it many times. When the prompt object is updated and saved, those updates
are immediately displayed on all dashboards where the prompt is used.

You can use multiple columns in a dashboard prompt to constrain user choices for
subsequent selections. For example, if one column filters on a year, and the next
column filters on quarter, the quarter column can be constrained to show only
quarters in the year the user selects. A dashboard prompt can also be populated
dynamically so that it can be programmatically customized for each user.

You can create and save dashboard prompts to either a private folder or to a
shared folder.

 

Types of Prompts

Xactly Analytics offers the following types of prompts:

How to…

Create a Column Prompt

A column prompt allows users to select values to filter a column in a report. You can
define the range of possible filter values and how the user selects the filter values for
the report.
Column prompts appear on the Prompts tab. When you have multiple column filter
prompts constructed for a report, the prompts are executed in the order they are
listed, from top to bottom.

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Click the  button (New), click the Column Prompt option, and choose a column
using the cascading menu.

Alternatively, choose the More Columns option from the cascading menu. The
Select Column dialog appears. Select a column and click the OK button. The New
Prompt dialog appears.

New Prompt Dialog

note: The number of columns that you include in a prompt can affect performance.
In general, you should limit the number of columns to as few as possible.

4. (Optional) Click the button (Edit formula) to modify the formula for the column.
The Edit Column Formula dialog appears.
Edit the column formula, as appropriate, and click the OK button.

5. In the Label field, change the default label, if necessary.
You can include HTML markup tags in the field, such as <b> and <font>.

6. In the Description field, type a short description for the prompt.
This description is displayed as tooltip text, shown when the user hovers over the
prompt’s label in the dashboard or analysis.

7. In the Operator field, choose the operator using the drop-down list.

8. In the User Input field, choose how you want the prompt interface to ask the user
for input.
The type of the column determines the user input options from which you can
choose.

9. In the Options section, select the prompt options to specify how you want the list
values to be displayed to the user, and how you want the user to interact with the
prompt.
The prompt options vary depending on the user input type that you selected.
In the Default selection field, choose the prompt value or values that users see initially.
If you select a default type, then a field is displayed where you can either
select specific values, or specify how you want the default values to be determined.
For example, if you select SQL Results, you must then supply a SQL statement
to generate the list of values.

10. Click the OK button. The prompt appears in the Definition pane.

11. Click the button (Save Analysis).

Do the following:

a. In the Folders pane, choose a personal or shared folder in which to save the
prompt.
When you save a prompt in one of your personal folders, only you can access
it. When you save it in a shared folder, users with permission to access that
folder can access it too.
Your top-level personal folder is called My Folder. Every user with a unique user
name has a folder called My Folder. This is designed to hold the prompts that
you use most often, and other content that you access frequently.
b. In the Name field, type a name for the prompt.
c. (Optional) In the Description field, type a description for the prompt.
d. Click OK button.

 

Create an Image Prompt

An image prompt provides an image that users click to select their report criteria. For
example, users might click an image that shows several products, with the selected
product used to filter the underlying report.
note: To create an image prompt, you need to know how to use the HTML

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Click the  button (New) and choose Image Prompt using the drop-down
menu. The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog appears.

Image Map Prompt Properties Dialog

4. In the Caption field, type a caption for the image prompt.
You can include HTML markup tags in the field, such as and .

5. In the Description field, type a short description for the prompt.
This description is displayed as tooltip text, shown when the user hovers over the
prompt’s label in the dashboard or analysis.

6. In the Image URL field, type the location and name of the image.
The image file must reside on a web server.

7. In the HTML field, type the appropriate HTML

8. To extract the image map information from the HTML, click the Extract Image Map
from HTML link.

The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog expands to show the area titles, shapes,
and coordinates that were entered in the HTML field. For each area, enter the
name of the column to pass when a user clicks it, and the value to use.

note: The column must be a fully qualified column name in the format Folder.Column
Name.

9. Click the OK button. The prompt appears in the Definition pane.

10. Click the  button (Save Analysis).

Do the following:

a. In the Folders pane, choose a personal or shared folder in which to save the
prompt.
When you save a prompt in one of your personal folders, only you can access
it. When you save it in a shared folder, users with permission to access that
folder can access it too.
Your top-level personal folder is called My Folder. Every user with a unique user
name has a folder called My Folder. This is designed to hold the prompts that
you use most often, and other content that you access frequently.
b. In the Name field, type a name for the prompt.
c. (Optional) In the Description field, type a description for the prompt.
d. Click OK button.

 

Create a Variable Prompt

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Click the  button (New) and choose Variable Prompt using the drop-down
menu. The New Prompt dialog appears.

New Prompt Dialog

4. In the Prompt for field, choose the variable type using the drop-down list, and type

the name of the variable.

5. In the Label field, type a label for the variable filter prompt.
You can include HTML markup tags in the field, such as and .

6. In the Description field, type a short description for the prompt.
This description is displayed as tooltip text, shown when the user hovers over the
prompt’s label in the dashboard or analysis.

7. In the User Input field, choose how you want the prompt interface to ask the user
for input.
If you selected the Choice List, Check Boxes, Radio Buttons, or List Box user input
type, specify the list of values for the prompt.

8. In the Options section, select the prompt options to specify how you want the list
values to be displayed to the user, and how you want the user to interact with the
prompt.
The prompt options vary depending on the user input type that you selected.
In the Default selection field, choose the prompt value or values that users see initially.

9. Click the OK button. The prompt appears in the Definition pane.

10. Click the  button (Save Analysis).

Do the following:

a. In the Folders pane, choose a personal or shared folder in which to save the
prompt.
When you save a prompt in one of your personal folders, only you can access
it. When you save it in a shared folder, users with permission to access that
folder can access it too.
Your top-level personal folder is called My Folder. Every user with a unique user
name has a folder called My Folder. This is designed to hold the prompts that
you use most often, and other content that you access frequently.
b. In the Name field, type a name for the prompt.
c. (Optional) In the Description field, type a description for the prompt.
d. Click OK button.

 

Edit a Prompt

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Select a prompt, and click the button. A dialog appears.

4. Modify the settings, as required.

5. Click OK button.

6. Click the  button (Save Analysis).

 

Rearrange Prompts

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Select a prompt, and use the arrow buttons (to the right of the Definition pane) to
reorder the prompt.
The order of the prompts controls how choices are displayed to users at runtime,
so ensure that the order is logical, especially if you are creating constrained
prompts.

note: In cases when two prompts are defined for the same column, Analytics uses
only the second prompt (ignoring the first prompt).

For example, if you define two prompts for the Incentive Date, such as Incentive
Date > 1/1/2007 AND Incentive Date < 12/31/2014, Analytics ignores the first
prompt and returns all results with Incentive Date < 12/31/2014. In this case, you
can use the “between” operator to create a single prompt that defines the
appropriate date range.

4. Click the button (Save Analysis).

 

Select Prompts

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Select the type of layout you want on the prompts page by clicking either the
button or thebutton in the Definition pane toolbar.

4. In the Definition table, select the checkbox corresponding to the prompt item that
you want to display in a new row or column.

5. Click thebutton (Save Analysis).

 

Preview a Prompt

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Do either of the following:

• Expand the Display pane to preview the prompt with sample data.
• Select the prompt that you want to preview, and click the button. The preview
appears in a new window with actual prompt values.

 

Delete a Prompt

1. Create a new report, or open and edit an existing report for which you want to
create a prompt.

2. Click the Prompts tab.

3. Select a prompt, and click the button.

4. Click the button (Save Analysis).