Using Custom Actions

To add interactive options for dashboard users, you can create custom actions for the visuals in your analysis. Enhancing dashboards with custom actions helps users explore data by adding more context from within the dataset. It can make it easier to drill into the details and to find new insights in the same dashboard, a different dashboard, or a different application. You can add up to 10 custom actions to a visual.
Note: This function is only available with the Self-Service feature. If you want to purchase this feature, contact your Ricoh representative.

You create one action for each task that you want to add to a visual. There are several types of actions that you can use:

Type of action Task
Filter action Add an interactive filter action, including one-click filters.
Navigation action Open another sheet in the same dashboard.
URL action

Open a sheet in a different dashboard.

Open a URL (https, http).

Send an email (mailto).

To create a custom action:
  1. Click Dashboards tab, the Dashboards tab.
  2. Click Dashboard Designer, in the bottom-left corner.
  3. On the Analyses dialog, click Options button, the Options button, next to an analysis and select Edit.
  4. On the analysis page, select a visual and click Format visual icon, the Format visual icon, in the top-right corner of the visual.
  5. In the Properties panel on the right, select the Interactions tab.
  6. Expand the Actions section and click the ADD ACTION button.
  7. In the New action panel, enter a name for the custom action.
    For custom actions that are activated from the right-click menu, the action name is also used as the name of the menu option.

    You can include a field name or a parameter in the action name. Click Insert parameter icon, the Insert parameter icon, next to Action name and select a field or a parameter from the list.

  8. Under Activation, specify how the custom action is activated.
    • Select: The custom action is activated when you click an element from the visual, such as a bar in a bar chart or a segment in a pie chart.
    • Menu option: The custom action appears as an option in the right-click menu.
  9. Under Action type, select a type of custom action.
    • To create an interactive filter action that cascades from one visual to the other visuals on the sheet, select Filter action.

      Specify the fields that you want to filter on and the visuals that you want the filtering to apply to.

      When you click a data point in the visual, such as a bar in a bar chart or a segment in a pie chart, you instantly filter using the specified fields on all the specified visuals on that sheet.

    • To create a navigation action that lets you navigate to a different sheet in the same analysis or dashboard, select Navigation action and select the target sheet.

      To also send a parameter value to the target sheet, click Add icon, the Add icon, next to Parameters and select a parameter and a parameter value.

    • To create a URL action that lets open a sheet in a different analysis or dashboard, open a URL, or send an email, select URL action.

      Enter the target URL under URL. Valid URL schemes include https, http, and mailto.

      To also send a parameter to the target URL, click Insert parameter icon, the Insert parameter icon, next to URL and select a parameter.

      You can also specify whether the URL opens in a new browser tab, in the same browser tab, or in a new browser window.

  10. Click Save.

The custom action that you created is displayed in the Actions panel. To enable or disable a custom action, select or clear the check box next to the custom action. To edit or delete a custom action, click Open menu icon, the Open menu icon, next to the custom action and select Edit or Delete.

For a custom action to work, every field and parameter it references must be active in the source visual. If a field is missing from the source visual, or if a parameter is missing from the analysis, the action for that field or parameter becomes unavailable. Make sure that you also remove or reconfigure the custom actions when you delete a field or a parameter.

Parent topic: Creating an Analysis