Overview of connecting filters to reports or scorecards by using Dashboard Designer

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Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

When you create dashboards, you can include one or more filters to enable dashboard users to focus on specific information. Filters are dashboard elements that you can create and attach to scorecards and reports to restrict the kinds of content that you want to display. For example, you can include a Time filter that dashboard users can use to view information for a specific time period.

Dashboard filters vary in appearance and functionality, and typically belong to one of the following groups:

  • Items, such as key performance indicators (KPIs) in a PerformancePoint scorecard, which are linked to other reports. When dashboard users click a KPI, any reports that are connected to it update to display information that is relevant to that KPI.

  • Individual dashboard items that resemble lists, expandable trees, or a calendar control. These include PerformancePoint filters and other kinds of standard SharePoint Server filters.

Comparing PerformancePoint filters to SharePoint Server filters

When you want to include a dashboard filter, you can decide between using PerformancePoint filters or other kinds of SharePoint Server filters. Use the following table to compare the differences and features of each.

  PerformancePoint filters SharePoint Server filters

Available filter types

Six PerformancePoint filter templates, as follows:

  • Member Selection. Create a filter by selecting individual members or a group of members in your data source.

  • MDX Query. Create a list of items by specifying a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) query that works with SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services or SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.

  • Named Set. Create a filter by selecting a named set, which is a group of members that is defined in an Analysis Services database.

  • Tabular Values. Create a filter by selecting members in a custom table that uses Excel Services, Microsoft Excel, a SharePoint list, or SQL Server content.

  • Time Intelligence. Create a time filter to display information for dynamic time periods, such as the last six months.

  • Time Intelligence Connection Formula. Create a time filter that uses a calendar control to display information as of a particular date.

Many SharePoint Server filter templates. These include the following:

  • SQL Server Analysis Services Filter. Create a filter by first selecting a content connection from a Web Part that is located on the same page, a SharePoint Data Connection library, or an Office Data Connection library, and then selecting a dimension and hierarchy to use for the filter.

  • Choice Filter. Create a filter by typing a list of items to include in the filter.

  • Business Data Catalog Filter. Create a filter by first selecting an entity in a Business Data Catalog and then specifying a Value column to use. You can also specify a Description column.

  • Current User Filter. Use properties, such as a dashboard user’s SharePoint credentials, birthday, hobbies, and so on, as a filter.

  • Date Filter. Create a basic time filter. You can either provide a default value for the date or leave it blank. Users can select a date by either using a calendar control or by entering the date that they want to use.

  • Page Field Filter. Create a filter that uses information from the current SharePoint page.

  • Query String (URL) Filter. Use a Web site address (URL) that includes a query string as part of the URL.

  • SharePoint List Filter. Select a SharePoint list and then use a column for the filter.

  • Text Filter. Use a box to enter text. If you want, you can specify a default value for the box.

Created by using

PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer

Edit mode in a SharePoint site, such as a Web Parts page

Storage and reusability

Saved to a SharePoint list that contains PerformancePoint dashboard items. These include reports, scorecards, and dashboard pages.

Reusable across multiple pages in a dashboard and across multiple dashboards.

Saved to a single SharePoint page.

Not reusable across other pages or dashboards.

Connected to items by using

Dashboard Designer

or

Edit mode in a SharePoint page

Note

Advanced filter configuration options are available when you use Dashboard Designer to connect PerformancePoint filters to other PerformancePoint items.

Edit mode in a SharePoint page

Page/item refresh behavior

Depends on the Web Parts that you connect. In general:

  • When you connect PerformancePoint filters to PerformancePoint items, your dashboard page updates asynchronously when a user applies a filter. That is, the whole dashboard page does not reload. Instead, the results are displayed automatically in the PerformancePoint items that are connected to the filter.

  • When you connect a PerformancePoint filter to a non-PerformancePoint report type, the whole dashboard page is likely to reload when a dashboard user applies a filter.

Depends on your dashboard and the Web Parts that you connect.

In general, if the dashboard page includes a Filter Actions button, then the page updates only when a user clicks the Filter Actions button. If the dashboard page does not include a Filter Actions button, then the page updates automatically as soon as the user clicks elsewhere on the page.

Connecting Web Parts

When you link a filter to a dashboard item, you connect one Web Part to another. You have several different options available, some of which are described in the following table:

Filter/Web Part combination Examples

Connect a PerformancePoint Web Part to another PerformancePoint Web Part.

  • Connect a PerformancePoint dashboard filter to an analytic chart.

  • Connect a scorecard KPI to an analytic grid.

  • Connect a PerformancePoint scorecard to a KPI Details report.

Connect a PerformancePoint Web Part to a non-PerformancePoint Web Part.

Connect a filter that you created by using Dashboard Designer to a Chart Web Part that you created by using SharePoint Designer.

Connect a non-PerformancePoint filter to a PerformancePoint Web Part

Connect a filter that you created by using edit mode in a SharePoint site to an analytic chart that you created by using Dashboard Designer.

Connect two non-PerformancePoint Web Parts together.

Connect a SharePoint filter to a SharePoint list.

Note

When you are connecting two PerformancePoint Web Parts, use Dashboard Designer to create the connection. When you are connecting other kinds of Web Parts, use another method, such as edit mode in the SharePoint site where your dashboard is hosted.

Selecting filters that will work with your dashboard item(s)

Whether and how your filters will work depends on several factors. These include the following:

  • Data source compatibility. When you connect a filter to a report or a scorecard, those items do not necessarily have to use the same data source. However, they must use similar kinds of content. For example, let's say that you create a dashboard filter that you call a Geography filter and that contains a list of countries/regions. Then the report or scorecard that you connect to that filter must use content that contains a similar list of countries/regions.

  • Web Part types. When you connect one Web Part to another, the connection consists of a provider Web Part (which sends a value or query string), a linking mechanism, and a consumer Web Part. You might also have a transformer that translates the value or query string sent from the provider Web Part to the consumer Web Part. If either Web Part is not technically able to send or receive its value or query string, the connection will not work. For example, you can connect a dashboard filter to a KPI Details report. However, that filter does not affect the report. To learn more about the technology of connecting Web Parts, see Web Parts Connections Overview (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=185223).