New dashboard experience¶

Adding dashboard filters¶

To get started, ensure that the dashboard is in Edit mode and that you have at least one query tile or Look-linked tile. Next, click Filters > Add Filter.

An Add Filter window appears pre-populated with fields from any Explores used in the dashboard. You can use the search bar to find the field you want to filter by, or you can select it from the drop-down menu:

If you select a field that is already being used by another filter, you get an alert. While you can still create the filter, you cannot apply multiple filters that use the same field to the same dashboard tile.

After you select the field you want to filter by, a filter configuration window appears that allows you to customize your filter settings:

1. Title: Enter the title of the filter as you want it to appear on the dashboard. The title option pre-populates with the name of the Filter by Field.
2. Control: Select from a list of control types, which vary depending on the type of data you are filtering. See the Dashboard filter controls section to learn more about the different types of controls.
3. Display: For controls that can be displayed as either inline or popover, select how the filter will be displayed. See the Displaying dashboard filters section in this document to learn more about the different ways to display filters. If a control can be displayed in only one way, this option will not appear.
4. Values: To set specific value options for the filter, choose from the drop-down list or enter the value options in this field. Leave it as blank to allow value options from the database to be surfaced, up to the maximum number of values available for that control. For numeric data, this field is replaced by Min and Max fields.
5. Configure Default Value: Optionally, set the default value for the filter.
6. Require a filter value: Select the checkbox to ensure that the filter has a value.
7. Select filters to update when this filter changes: Select the checkbox to link other filters to this filter. If there are no other filters on the dashboard, this option is disabled.
8. Add or Cancel: Select an option to add the new filter or cancel the process.

The Tiles To Update tab allows you to determine which tiles listen to the filter. Metrics begins by automatically applying the filter to any tiles created from the same Explore as the filter and sets the value of Field to Filter to the same field as the field chosen for the filter:

1. Select All or None to turn the filter on or off for all tiles.
2. In the Field to Filter section, for each tile, choose which field will be affected by the filter, or choose not to apply the filter to an individual tile.
3. If you select a field that is already used in an existing filter, any tiles filtered by the existing filter are unavailable to the new filter.
4. Select Add or Cancel to add the new filter or cancel the process.

Dashboard Filter Controls¶

Dashboard filter controls allow you to customize the appearance of filters for dashboard viewers. The filter control types available in the Control drop-down list as you create a dashboard filter depend on the data type assigned to the field you’re filtering on.

Using Advanced Filters¶

An advanced filter can be applied to all types of data and provides some additional flexibility in the filter conditions you can set up. To create an advanced filter, make sure that you have selected Advanced in the Control field of the filter configuration window.

The Configure Default Value field populates with appropriate filter condition options for the type of data you’re filtering. For example, the filter below is filtering on product category, which is a string data type, so the filter condition options include is, contains, starts with, and so on.

Filters on other types of data, such as number or date types, will display different condition options.

Once you’ve selected your filter condition option, you can select a value from the drop-down list to the right, which is populated with values from your database. Or, you can type a value to receive a suggestion.

You can also enter a value yourself and click Enter to create a value. You can click the + icon next to your filter to add new conditions to the filter, which will be added as either OR conditions or AND conditions, depending on the types of conditions and values. To remove a condition, click the X icon next to that condition.

Deleting dashboard filters¶

In the Edit mode, a three-dot filter menu icon appears next to every filter. To delete a filter:

1. Click the filter menu icon. This opens the filter menu, which displays options to edit or delete a filter.
2. Select Delete to delete the filter.
3. Click Save in the blue toolbar to save your changes and exit the Edit mode.
4. After you delete filters, click Update on the dashboard to apply the new filter settings to the tiles.

Alternatively, you can select Edit, which opens the filter configuration window. Click Delete within the filter configuration window to delete the filter.

Reload data icon¶

Clicking the reload data icon updates data on the dashboard.

This is often useful after filters have been changed, added, or removed. In those circumstances, the icon becomes an Update button.

If Run on load is disabled for the dashboard, when a dashboard is opened the icon becomes a Load button, which you must click to load the dashboard’s data.

The legacy dashboards have a Run button to perform the same action.

Filters icon¶

Clicking the filters icon allows you to collapse or expand the filter pane and hide or reveal all filters. When the filter pane is collapsed, an indicator appears next to the filters icon that shows the number of filters on the dashboard.

To expand a collapsed filter pane and reveal the filters, click the filters icon again.

Three-dot dashboard menu¶

The three-dot dashboard menu is revealed when you click the three-dot icon at the top-right corner of the dashboard.

The menu provides the following options:

• Clear Cache and Refresh
• Edit Dashboard
• Download
• Move to Trash

In the legacy dashboard experience, you can access these options by clicking the Settings icon and Edit.

Types of dashboard tiles¶

There are three kinds of tiles you can add to a dashboard:

Query tiles Query tiles can be built directly within a dashboard or added to a dashboard from a Look or Explore. A query tile is based on an independent query, one that is not linked to a Look. The query underlying a query tile belongs to the dashboard. Even if you use an existing Look to create a query tile, the Look is only used during the creation of the query tile. The tile is not affected by any later changes to that Look, and still exists on the dashboard even if the Look is deleted.

When possible, use query tiles to avoid cluttering your folders with unnecessary Looks.

Look-linked tiles

Look-linked tiles are added to a dashboard from a Look. A Look-linked tile links the tile’s underlying query to a Look. That Look is used when creating the tile and every time the dashboard is refreshed. The Look and the dashboard must be in the same folder. If you would like to add Looks from a different folder, first copy the Look into the same folder as the dashboard.

A Look-linked tile is a good choice if you want to create, change, and test a query in one place but use it in multiple dashboards. If the Look changes, any tiles linked to that Look change. If the Look is deleted, dashboards show an error for the tile.

Text tiles

Text tiles are built directly within a dashboard. You can use text tiles to define visual sections on a dashboard and to add descriptions. Text tiles in dashboards are designed to have flexible formatting and to default to look more like headings and descriptions than tiles. You can use HTML and a subset of the Markdown markup language in text tiles.

Building query tiles within a dashboard¶

If you’re in a dashboard, you can build a query tile from inside the dashboard. Once in the dashboard’s Edit mode, you can either:

• Click Add Tile from the top left of the dashboard pane and then click Visualization, or
• Click Add Tile in the center of the dashboard pane, if the dashboard is currently blank.

Next, the Metrics window displays a menu of Explores. Choose an Explore to build your query. Metrics opens the Explore window to let you build your query:

1. Give your query a name. This will be the name of the tile on the dashboard.
2. Select the fields and filters for your query.
3. Configure your visualization options.
4. Once you have set up your query, click Run.
5. Click Save to save the query as a tile on your dashboard.

Enabling cross-filtering on dashboards¶

All dashboard tiles must be created from the same Explore for cross-filtering to be turned on successfully. You can turn on cross-filtering on a dashboard with the following steps:

1. Ensure that you are in the New dashboard Experience for the dashboard.
2. Enter the dashboard’s Edit mode by selecting Edit dashboard from the three-dot dashboard menu.
3. Once in Edit mode, click Filters on the blue toolbar at the top of the dashboard, and then enable the Cross-filtering switch.
4. If the dashboard contains any unsupported visualization types, a pop-up window appears to indicate that the dashboard contains tiles that cannot initiate cross-filtering. Click OK to continue enabling cross-filters.
5. Click Save in the toolbar.

Once cross-filtering is enabled on an instance and a dashboard, you can create cross-filters.

Creating cross-filters on dashboards¶

To create a cross-filter, click a data point within a tile containing a supported visualization.

For bar, column, line, area, scatterplot, and pie charts, you can also click the chart legend to initiate cross-filtering. All data tiles will be filtered by the value of that data point.

The cross-filter field and value appear at the top of the dashboard for reference.

To add an additional value to an existing cross-filter, hold down the Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) key on your keyboard while clicking on additional data points or legends. For example, if you are already cross-filtering on the Traffic Source field for a value of Search and you want to add Organic as an additional traffic source, hold down the Command or Control key and then click the Organic region of a supported visualization.

The tiles will filter on the additional value as well.

The additional value for the cross-filter will appear at the top of the dashboard.

To add a new cross-filter, click another data point on any tile containing a supported visualization type.

All tiles will be filtered by that cross-filter as well, and an additional field and value appear at the top of the dashboard.

Supported and unsupported visualization types¶

Each data tile on a dashboard contains a visualization, and the type of visualization determines whether you can use the data points on that tile to create cross-filters or not.

Supported visualization types

The following visualization types are supported and can create cross-filters:

• Table charts
• Table (legacy) charts
• Column charts
• Bar charts
• Line charts
• Area charts
• Scatterplot charts
• Pie charts
• Map charts that use the points option for data of type: location and map charts that use data of type: zipcode
• Static map (regions) charts
• Static map (points) charts
• Word cloud charts
• Donut multiples charts
• Funnel charts
• Timeline charts
• Waterfall charts
• Boxplot charts
• Custom visualizations

Unsupported visualization types

The following visualization types are not supported and cannot create cross-filters; however, they can be filtered by cross-filters:

• Single value charts
• Single record charts
• Map charts that use Plot options other than Points for data of type: location, or map charts that use map layers
• Visualizations that use grid layout
• Visualizations based on merged results when all queries in the merged results are from the same Explore as the rest of the dashboard tiles. If a dashboard contains a merged results tile with queries from different Explores, cross-filters cannot be enabled for that dashboard.

Regardless of visualization type, you cannot create cross-filters (or standard dashboard filters) on a custom field.

Using range selection¶

You can use range selection to cross-filter a dashboard on an entire range. To use range selection:

• A dashboard tile must use a line, area, or scatter plot visualization.
• The visualization must use continuous data in the x-axis, which is usually numeric data, data using timeframes, or data of a time-based type, although some timeframes and time types are not continuous.
• The visualization’s x-axis Scale Type must not be Ordinal. If it is Ordinal, range selection creates separate cross-filters for each data point selected.

To use range selection, click on one end of the range you want to select, and hold and drag to the other end of the range. When you release the click, the cross-filter appears at the top of the dashboard and the other tiles filter on that range. You cannot add additional values to range selection cross-filters. In the following screenshot, a dashboard viewer has selected the weeks of November 25 and December 2. The selected range appears shaded. The cross-filter appears at the top of the dashboard.

Each data point encompasses a week. While the shaded area on the visualization appears to end on December 2, the cross-filter actually ends on December 9, the last day of that week. The cross-filter at the top of the dashboard displays the full range, November 25 through December 9.

Non-continuous time types¶

Some timeframes and time-based types are not considered continuous, and if you use range selection with them, a separate cross-filter is created for each data point you select. Those time types are:

• date_time_of_day
• date_day_of_week
• date_month_name
• date_quarter_of_year
• date_fiscal_quarter_of_year

Using cross-filters with standard dashboard filters¶

A dashboard can contain both cross-filters and standard dashboard filters. Both types of filters appear at the top of the dashboard. Cross-filters appear after standard filters in a darker blue color.

For example, the filter on Status is a standard filter and the filters on Created Month and Traffic Source are cross-filters.

Cross-filters differ from standard dashboard filters in the following ways:

• Cross-filtering needs to be enabled separately for your Metrics instance and dashboard(s).
• You do not need edit access to a dashboard to create or change cross-filters (although you do need edit access to turn on cross-filtering for a dashboard).
• Cross-filters cannot be configured with the same dashboard controls as standard filters.
• Specific cross-filters are not visible to other users unless the cross-filtered dashboard is shared through a link or embedded into a website.
• Cross-filters are not saved to the dashboard; once you navigate away from a dashboard, cross-filters are cleared.
• Cross-filters are not applied to dashboard downloads or schedules.

While using cross-filters, you can still make temporary changes to a dashboard’s filter values. However, if you create a cross-filter on the same field that a standard filter is using, the standard filter value cannot be changed until the cross-filter is removed. If you have edit permissions for a dashboard, you can continue to edit and create standard dashboard filters while cross-filters are enabled. However, entering Edit mode to edit or add standard filters will clear any existing cross-filters.

Removing cross-filters¶

To remove a cross-filter:

1. Click the data point being cross-filtered.
2. Click the X icon next to the cross-filter value at the top of the dashboard.

If there are multiple cross-filters, you can clear them all by clicking the X icon to the right of the filter values at the top of the dashboard.

Entering the Edit mode also clears all cross-filters.