Prompt used as view selector for multiple reports

Question

Hi All,
Can a dashboard prompt be used as View Selector for multiple reports? If yes, please let me know how?
Thanks
Sumita

Answer 1

Hi Sumita,
You can do this with Dashboard prompts, but it's a little tricky. I'll highlight the process below. Keep In mind I assume you have three reports already created and have three views: View 1, View 2 and View 3.
Phase I: The Dashboard Prompt
1. Create a new dashboard prompt.
2. Add any single column to your prompt. It doesn't really matter which one (just make sure nothing is prompted on it to be safe).
3. For the sake of this example, I'll assume we added column: "Test Folder"."Test Field"
4. Make sure your Operator is "is equal to/is in"
5. Make sure the control is "Drop-down List"
6. Change the Show to "SQL Results"
7. Write a SQL statement similar to the following (TEST =<your subject area>, "Test Folder"."Test Field" = <your column>):
SELECT CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN "Test Folder"."Test Field" ELSE 'View 1' END
FROM TEST
UNION
SELECT CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN "Test Folder"."Test Field" ELSE 'View 2' END
FROM TEST
UNION
SELECT CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN "Test Folder"."Test Field" ELSE 'View 3' END
FROM TEST
**Note: The reason why we need to do the CASE statement is because every logical query needs at least 1 presentation column. The case statement is a way to include the presentation column, but since the statement 1=2 is never true, we always use the ELSE condition.
8. Set a presentation variable. Call it VIEW_PVAR
9. Have the Prompt default to Specific Value: View 1
10. Save the Dashboard Prompt and put it into the Dashboard with your reports.
Phase II: Filter Reports
1. Create a new Answer request
2. Bring in your test column twice
3. Change the formula (fx) on the second column to be: '@{VIEW_PVAR}{View 1}'
4. Now add a filter to the presentation variable column
5. Set the operator to "is equal to/is in' and set the value to: View 1
6. Save the Request as "View 1 Filter"
7. Change the value in the filter to: View 2
8. Save the Request as "View 2 Filter"
9. Change the value in the filter to: View 3
10. Save the Request as "View 3 Filter"
Phase III: Guided Navigation
1. Create three sections in your dashboard
2. Rename each section to: View 1, View 2 and View 3 respectively
3. For each of the sections, do the following:
3a. Click on properties
3b. Click on Guided navigation
3c. Set the Guided Navigation to the appropriate Filter report
4. For each of the three sections, do the following:
4a. Add in all three requests
4b. Click on the request properties and select Show and the appropriate view for that section
5. Save your changes to your Dashboard
Good luck and if you found this post useful, please award points!
Best regards,
-Joe