Category Object Settings

Owned by Karen Hogan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 09, 2022
5 min read

Along with the category object types, we also have several settings that can be toggled depending on the type of object filter. 

The settings are:

  • Can Select All

  • Filter

  • Exclude Cascade

  • Must Pre Select

  • Hidden 

‘Filter’ and ‘Can Select All’ are selected by default. 

Can Select All

If this box is ticked, an ‘All’ option will be displayed at the top of the list, which can be used to select everything in the list.

If the option is unticked however then a) the ‘All’ option is removed and b) the default is the first value on the list.

Another feature that ties in with ‘Can Select All’ is the ‘Select All Text’ option. This can be used to change the default value of ‘—All—’ that is displayed on the filter screen. 

Example

In the following screenshot, the Select All Text value has been changed to ‘All Stores’.

This is how it would appear in a filter list.

Filter

If this option is unticked, then the object in question will no longer be passed as a filter into the SQL used to define the chart and therefore it will no longer filter the chart(s) automatically.

So now when ‘Store Name’ is selected the chart doesn’t automatically filter on that field. 

However, this value can still be:

  • Manually added to chart level filters on the Filters tab in the Edit Chart screen – please refer to the Filters section for more information if you wanted to use it in a ‘Like’ or ‘Greater Than’ scenario for example

  • Referenced in the underlying SQL, for example (Year End, As At Period in this case)

  • Displayed in the Chart Name, Title or Subtitle, or even in Column Labels. Please refer to the section Using Object Replacement in Chart titles for more information.

In all cases the {{ }} will be replaced with the value selected in the applicable category object. Please refer to the section Object Replacement for more information. 

Exclude Cascade

The exclude cascade option controls the effect that the preceding filter has on this specific filter.

If Category Objects are configured as shown above and a user selects a certain Region from the Category Objects filter on the dashboard, the first category object in this example, Store Name would only list stores in that region.

If we change the category object configuration to this however

then the Store Name drop list would show all Stores, regardless of what had been selected in the Region drop list.

In addition to the Exclude cascade box on each object, there is a ‘master’ exclude button at the top of the screen, which will exclude the cascade effect for all category objects on the category when this box is unticked.

This option will be ticked by default.

Must Pre-Select

This controls if a value must be ‘pre-selected’ before the user can see any information on the category they are viewing. This is normally used for performance purposes to force a user to select the filter they want applied before rendering the charts, rather than after. If this option is selected the user will see this message when they go to a category.

A warning triangle will also be displayed in the Category Objects section on the right-hand side of the screen. Hovering over the triangle will display the following message.

Display On Page Top

If this option is ticked then the category objects will be displayed across the top of the dashboard, rather than down the right-hand side.

Hidden

A hidden category object can be used where you want to apply a filter to all the charts in the category en masse, and you don’t want the user to have the ability to change it. For example, showing data for one region only. This means that you don’t have to configure a filter on each chart. This is particularly useful if some users can create their own charts but are not aware of these filters or might forget about them.

Please note that you will not be able to use ‘Must Pre Select’ if you’ve chosen ‘Hidden’ for a Category Object.

If you’re using Magic Variables for dates and you select the Date Range option in Category Objects range you will need to insert the variables as [[variable]]::::[[variable]] in the default value field.