Adding filters to dashboards allows dashboard viewers to dig into data independently and allows you to preset filters to build a dashboard that tells the data story you need. You can add many filters to support your data story, but we recommend adding a filter for each dimension.
To add filters to your dashboard, click the Add a filter icon, and a list of options will appear. Based on your selection, you may be presented with additional options to set the criteria further.
The filter option will be at the top of your dashboard and available to viewers to slice and dice visual data. Filters also work across tabs, so filtered views are consistent.
Add a dimension filter
From the dashboard editor, click the Add a filter button.
For this example, we’ll select Text or Category from the list of options. This will allow us to use our dimensional values as filter criteria.
Next, select Is from the list of options.
Your dashboard will show an unconfigured filter with the placeholder title Text. In the right-hand settings bar under Label, we’ll update the name to the dimension we want to filter by (Scenario, Account, etc.).
Leave Dropdown list option selected. This list will default to your column selections after completing the next step.
Each question on your dashboard will present filter options. To apply the filter to relevant questions, select the associated dimension level from the dropdown. The filter will automatically apply to all questions that use the associated column, and you can manually remove the filter from any chart it shouldn't apply to.
For example, the Expenses by Department visual will be updated to filter for Department 2, allowing viewers to filter across all departments.
For example, the Department filter doesn’t impact the Income + Net Income Summary, so we leave it blank.
Next, create the dropdown list for the viewer to select from. Click Edit next to the Dropdown list and select that the values should come From connected fields. Wait a few seconds and Cube will autopopulate this list for you.
Additional filter settings
In addition to choosing the filter values, you can further refine the experience. In your Settings sidebar, under Default value, you have options to set No default or check/type the default value.
In our example, this Cube has five different departments, but the list size will vary based on the number of Departments or whether you added the dimension names as a dropdown list.
In addition, you can determine the number of values (Multiple values or A single value) your viewer can select under People can pick.
When you are finished configuring your filter, press the Done button in the lower right of the window, and your filter will be added to the dashboard.
Then, click Save in the upper right of the dashboard editor if you’re done editing your dashboard or adding filters. This will also allow you to try the filter(s) you’ve just added.
Read more about best practices for building effective dashboards.