Object properties
Dashboard element properties
The following list contains descriptions of dashboard element settings and applicable elements (Metric, Iframe, Image, Literal HTML, Dashboard Navigation, and Sticky Page Margin).
Summary
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Name | The element name. | All |
Description | Description of the element. | All |
Sort Order | All dashboard elements include the ability to change the sort order using the Sort Order instance property. This setting sorts the element within its specified zone or position. | All |
Information
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Object ID | System-generated object ID. | All |
Link ID | System-generated link ID. | All |
Type | Object type. | All |
Type UUID | Unique ID of the object. | All |
Object Key | System-generated object key. | All |
Created By (Login) | The user who created the object. | All |
Created Date | Object creation date. | All |
Modified By (Login) | The user who last updated the object. | All |
Modified Date | When the object was last updated. | All |
Content Groups | Whether this object belongs to a content group. | All |
Display settings
These settings allow you to set the sizing attributes for an element on the dashboard page, as well as whether to show the toolbar buttons, title, or border for the element.
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Position | Options: Top (default), Left, Center, Right, Bottom | Literal HTML |
Title | The title that is used on the metric as the displayed title. The default is set to %s which sets it to the element name. | Metric |
Enable Title Link | Enables and disables the links on titles. | Literal HTML |
Show Title | Determines if the title is displayed for the dashboard element. If there is a subtitle defined, the title is always rendered. | Iframe |
Subtitle | Defines the content of a subtitle that is displayed below the toolbar and under the element's title. The value supports using standard HTML tags, as well as custom "ppc" tags, scoped variables, and filter statements. | Iframe |
Toolbar Layout | Defines how the toolbar of the dashboard element (e.g., metric) is displayed.
| Metric |
Width | Defines the width in pixels of the entire dashboard element, including its border. The value can be defined dynamically by using a scoped variable. | Iframe |
Element Disclaimer | Defines the content that appears at the bottom of the element. This content will render on export and printing. | Iframe |
Container Color | The background color of the metric container. This setting accepts HEX, RGBA, or a Fields variable. | Metric |
Border Style | Defines the style of border to display around the dashboard element (e.g., metric).
| Literal HTML |
Css Style Definition | This specifies the CSS Style definition to use for the dashboard element when rendering the toolbar and border area of the element. This setting overrides the value defined in the Metric Service if set to anything other than Default. | Literal HTML |
Toolbar Menu Css Style Definition | Specifies the CSS Style definition to use when rendering the toolbar of the element. This setting overrides the value defined in the Metric Service if set to anything other than Default. | Literal HTML |
Title Style Css | This specifies the CSS Style attributes that will be used by the title of the dashboard element. This allows you to define a custom style (e.g., font, color, etc.) for the title when it is displayed. Scoped variables and dashboard filter statements can also be used in the style attributes to dynamically set style attributes at render time. | Literal HTML |
What To Do | Helpful text on the element to explain what to do with the content. | Metric |
What To Do Display Mode | Defines how to render the What To Do text. Options:
Default: In Pop-out | Metric |
Show Container Border | Y/N | Metric |
Show 'What To Do' Title | Toggles the visibility of the "What To Do" title. | Iframe |
Show Card Styles | Determines if the dashboard element will visually appear inside a card when displayed. | Metric |
Layout settings
The height and width of the content inside a dashboard element will be automatically adjusted when rendered if any of the following settings are set to be not displayed (None or Hidden): Toolbar Layout, Border Style, or Show Title. This will cause the element to use the same amount of space on the dashboard page, regardless of these settings, and it will fully utilize this space, by expanding or shrinking its content to fit. The only exception to this is when the subtitle is defined using more than one line. In that case, the surrounding dashboard elements will have their sizes adjusted for the metrics to line up with each other.
When using a scoped variable to set the height or width of a dashboard element, you need to use a scoped variable that returns an integer value at which you would like the property to be dynamically set. For example, for a scoped variable called, "custom height," to return an integer value based on a SQL server query statement, you would use the following statement in the height property of the dashboard element (e.g., metric): @@VARIABLE (custom height).
The Literal HTML, Image, and Folder List elements do not require the height and width settings to be set. When height is set to 0, these elements will automatically be resized to fit the full width of their zone and will take up as much height as their content requires.
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Row Group | Defines the horizontal container for metrics. All metrics in the same row group will stay next to each other. If the metrics in a defined row group do not fit within the available resolution the metrics will wrap to the next line. Sort order applies to items within a row group. | Iframe |
Column Width | Defines the relative width of the metric to the screen resolution. Behavior is based on 12 vertical sections of the screen. Setting a metric to have a column width of 12 will allow the metric to take the entire width of the browser. For example, 2 will take up 1/6th of the screen. | Literal HTML |
Column Group | Defines a vertical container for metrics within a row group. All metrics in the same column group will stay next to each other. The width of the largest metric will be used as the width of the column group. | Literal HTML |
Height | Defines the height in pixels of the entire dashboard element, including its toolbar, title, and border. The value can be defined dynamically by using a scoped variable. | Literal HTML |
Metric chart settings
These settings define additional properties that are only used when a chart is rendered for a metric.
Setting | Description | Template type |
|---|---|---|
Style Template | The Metric Style Template to use for this metric. This overrides the Metric Base setting if set to anything other than [default].
| All |
Table Style Template | Specifies the Style Template to use for the chart metric's data table when it is displayed. | Metric Dynamic Style Template |
Chart Tooltip | The tooltip to use for the chart. This overrides the dashboard default for the chart type. | Metric Dynamic Style Template |
Grid Totals | This will determine what totals will be calculated and displayed on the grid, if any. | Metric Dynamic Style Template |
Color Palette | Used to color parts of the chart when colors are needed (e.g., colors the bars on a bar graph, the lines on a line graph). By default, it will use the color palette on your theme. | Interactive Chart Template |
X Axis Label | Label to appear on the X-axis of a chart-type metric. (Allows chart variable replacement.) | Interactive Chart Template |
Y Axis Labels | Label to appear on the Y-axis of a chart-type metric. (Allows chart variable replacement.) | Interactive Chart Template |
Legend Mode | Allows you to override the default display of a legend to forcefully hide it, show it, or reverse its order. | Interactive Chart Template |
Chart Subtitle | The value is displayed as the subtitle of an interactive chart. Overrides the Metric Service setting when defined, set to * to prevent the display of this message. | Interactive Chart Template |
Data Split Columns | Only applicable when you have a dimension on your chart set to split your metric into multiple charts. This value controls how many charts will be shown in each row before going to a new line. | Interactive Chart Template |
Condition Threshold Style | Style to use when applying the thresholds on this metric. If set to Mark or Zone and a condition is set on a column, this will add an additional style to the background of the chart to show condition set thresholds.
| Interactive Chart Template |
Allow Measures as a Dimension | When enabled and there are multiple measure columns and no dimension columns on the Y axis, this will cause each measure column to be treated as a distinct value on the Y-axis. When this occurs, conditional highlighting is based on the name of the measure instead of its value. When disabled, measures are treated as data points regardless of dimension columns on the Y-axis, and conditions are based on the value. | Metric Chart Style Template |
Enable Boost | Enables performance mode. This should only be used on charts that have a lot of data (e.g., a scatter plot with 5,000+ data points). The setting sacrifices animations and certain features to improve rendering performance. Multiple drills will not work, but a single drill for left-click will. | Interactive Chart Template |
Enable Adhoc Mode | This will enable or disable the adhoc feature of the dynamic crosstab. When enabled, users can do things such as adding or removing columns on the fly to change how the crosstab looks. | Metric Dynamic Style Template |
Enable Filters | This will decide if the filter row in the crosstab is shown. This does not affect adhoc mode. We recommend increasing the height of the crosstab if you enable this on a small metric. | Metric Dynamic Style Template |
Query settings
These settings define override settings used by a metric for the query execution and query cache.
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Query Timeout | The amount of time in seconds that the query for the metric is allowed to run. This overrides the Metric Service setting if this is set to anything other than 0. Set to -1 for no timeout limit. | Metric |
Query Maximum Rows | The maximum number of rows to retrieve for the query. This overrides the Metric Service setting if set to anything other than 0. Set to -1 for no row limit. | Metric |
Query Cache Timeout | The number of seconds that the result sets generated by the metric will be stored in the query cache. This overrides the Metric Service setting, if set to anything other than 0, set to -1 to never expire the result set from the query cache. | Metric |
Query Cache Idle Timeout | The maximum number of seconds between uses of a specific result set generated by this metric that the result set will remain in the query cache. This means that if a cached result set created from the metric is not used again by the specified amount of time, this result set will be expired from the query cache. This overrides the Metric Service setting if this is set to anything other than 0. Set to -1 to ignore the idle time when determining whether to expire the result set from the query cache. | Metric |
Query Cache Row Limit | Specifies the maximum number of rows returned by a result set that will allow the result set data to be stored in the query cache. This means that if a query result set returns more than the specified number of rows, its result set data will not be cached in the query cache. This is because when retrieving somewhat large result sets from the query cache, the amount of time required to reassemble the result set is greater than the time required to re-run the query itself. This overrides the Metric Service setting if this is set to anything other than 0. Set to -1 to always store the result sets for this metric regardless of the number of rows in the result set. | Metric |
Query Cache Min Runtime (ms) | This specifies the minimum number of milliseconds that a query must run for its result set data to be stored in the query cache. This means that if a query takes less than this amount of time to run, its result set data will not be stored in the query cache. This is because it takes a certain amount of time just to retrieve and reassemble the result set data from the query cache, and if the query takes less than this amount of time to run, it is more efficient to re-run the query again. This overrides the Metric Service setting if this is set to anything other than 0. Set to -1 to always store the result sets for this metric regardless of the time it takes to run the query. | Metric |
Data rule settings
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Data Record Limit | The maximum number of data records allowed to properly render the metric. Returning too many records can result in rendering issues, such as labels overlapping. Set to 0 to ignore this setting. This property requires setting the Data Record Limit Message. | Metric |
Data Context Match Statement | The statement to evaluate on each row of data that sets the value of the @@MATCHEDROWS variable (e.g., '{=Fields("IsRedacted")}' = 'Y'). This statement overrides the Metric Service setting when defined. Set to * to prevent statement evaluation. Scoped variables, page filters, and field context variables can be used in the statement. | Metric |
Data Record Limit Message | The message to be displayed when the metric's query exceeds the maximum allowed rows. | Metric |
No Row Message | The message to be displayed when a query returns no rows. Leave this setting blank to use the setting on the Metric Service. Set to * to render the empty metric content regardless. | Metric |
No Data Handling | Enabling this setting will force this metric to be displayed, even when it has no data returned. Otherwise, an informational message appears if one was defined in the Metric Service. | Metric |
Custom element settings
Setting | Description | Dashboard element |
|---|---|---|
Allow Context Filtering | When enabled, this applies context-sensitive drill values to the metric when a user drills into a dashboard containing the metric from another dashboard. Otherwise, any context-sensitive drill values are ignored when rendering the metric. Disabling this is useful when you want to mix metrics on a single dashboard page that will be adversely affected by the context drill values, with those that will work as designed with context drill values applied. In other words, you can mix context metrics (those that are designed for context-sensitive drilling) with global metrics (those which remain the same regardless of a context drill) on the same dashboard page. | Metric |
Allow Printing | Enables or disables printing. | Iframe |
Enter HTML | This setting contains the HTML content that is rendered at the Literal HTML element's location on the dashboard page. The content can be any text or a valid combination of HTML tags and attributes. | Literal HTML |
Page Margin Type | The type of page margin. This determines the location of the margin around the dashboard page content. | Sticky Page Margin |
Frame Border Width | Sets the width of the border for the Iframe HTML element. | Iframe |
Frame URL | The web address (URL) for the content to be displayed inside the Iframe element. Scrollbars are automatically displayed for the Iframe when needed. | Iframe |
Image src | Defines the location of the image file on a web server. The source URL can be a relative reference to the web application or to a website.
Images can be placed in the "Resources" folder of the File Repository, and can then be referenced with an application relative path: "Resources/[Additional Image Path]/[Image_Name].[file_extension]" (e.g., "Resources/Images/student.gif"). | Image |
Image alt text | Alternative text that describes the image. | Image |
First Level Parent Location/Link ID | Specified the link ID or search path (resolving to a link ID) for the item that this folder listing will be displayed from. | Dashboard Navigation |
First Level Parent | The name of the object that the above ID resolves to. | Dashboard Navigation |
First Level Object Types | Items of this type below the first level parent will appear in the navigation listing. | Dashboard Navigation |
Second Level Object Types | Items of this type below each of the first level items will appear in submenus in the navigation listing. | Dashboard Navigation |
Navigation Listing Style CSS | The CSS style rules to use when this item is displayed in a Dashboard Navigation element or a custom PPC tag on a dashboard page. This property supports using scoped and system variables, as well as user filter variable replacement. | Dashboard Navigation |
Miscellaneous object properties
Launch window
Some of the Portal objects allow you to define the location of where the target's content is displayed in the user's browser.
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Launch Target Type | Indicates whether the report opens in a new tab (Popup Window) or within the same tab's Content section (Content Window). |
Target Window Name | The name of the popup window, if used. Use "_blank" to create a new window every time. Otherwise, any window with this name is used to load the content for the target. Deprecated. |
Target Window Height | Popup window height, if used. Deprecated. |
Target Window Width | Popup window width, if used. Deprecated. |
Target Window Options | Custom window open options to be used when creating a popup. Enter the options as a comma-delimited list. By default, all options are disabled; include the option in the list to enable it. |
Display rule
A display rule is an object that is created under a dashboard element (e.g., metric) that allows you to define logic statements that are evaluated at render time to determine certain display characteristics for that element. A display rule can determine whether an element is hidden or displayed, or whether its actions (on a toolbar) are hidden or displayed. Multiple display rules can be defined under a single dashboard element.
Rule settings
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Is Enabled | Determines whether this rule is to be applied when display rules are processed. |
On Success | Specifies the resulting action that will be performed when this rule's statement evaluates to true.
|
On Failure | Specifies the resulting action that will be performed when this rule's statement evaluates as false.
|
Logic type/evaluation statement
There are two logic types that can be used for the evaluation statement:
- Predefined – Allows you to create a logical statement that is executed directly on the application server without the need to access a database server, thus increasing performance and response time.
- SQL Query – Uses an SQL statement as the evaluation logic.
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Predefined Statement | This is a customizable statement that uses predefined logic processing, to evaluate the result of the display rule as either true or false. Predefined statements can use scoped and system variables, as well as user filter statements.
|
| Connection | Specifies the data connection that will be used by the custom SQL statement to evaluate the result of the access rule. |
| Custom SQL Statement | The custom SQL statement to evaluate for this rule, using the defined connection. Evaluates to true when the statement's first result value is: yes, y, > 0, or true. Custom SQL statements can use scoped and system variables, as well as user filter statements. Available placeholders (replacement values):
|
Generic page
A generic page allows you to define a custom page to be displayed to the user instead of a dashboard page. This type of page is customizable using standard HTML and style sheet rules. You can also include custom dashboard tags that will be replaced at run time with the proper HTML tags or use scoped or system variables on the page to be replaced at run time.
Custom content settings
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Default Icon | Sets the icon that will be displayed in the Navigation tree for this item. This allows you to choose an icon that more closely resembles the type or usage of the content this page displays. |
Customized HTML Content | The custom HTML content that renders in the user's web browser. |
Property viewer
SQL viewer
Use the SQL Viewer to see the actual SQL query statement that is used to populate the dataset of a metric. The query is specific for the instance (i.e., specific to the current user and any user filters applied) of the metric, as well as its cache statistics.
To access the viewer:
- In the Portal, click the Card Tools button on the metric, choose Metric Tools, then Show Query.
- In the Developer Tools application, click the Show Query button on the metric.
- When accessing the SQL Viewer from the developer interface, you also have access to the editor interfaces of corresponding objects. Click any of the View Properties buttons to launch the editor for the requested object.
Comments viewer
The Comments Viewer is available from the Developer Tools application. Next to a dashboard element, click the View Comments button to launch the viewer.
The viewer allows you to see the dimensions and measures associated with a metric-type dashboard element, as well as any custom comments assigned to these objects.
For non-metric dashboard elements, the viewer displays the custom comments defined for the element. The viewer also allows easy access to the edit interfaces for the corresponding metric and metric columns that are being used.
The viewer includes access to the editor interfaces of corresponding objects. Click any of the View Properties buttons to launch the editor for the requested object.