Filtering

The Incorta Unified Data Analytics Platform enables you to fully engage with your data at every level, from the broadest overview to the smallest detail. At a high level, Dashboard Insights provide analytical overviews and summaries. As you explore your data, Insights help you focus on the details. Digging into the details is called “drilling down” on the data, and is done by applying one or more filters.

Every dashboard and Insight is based on the application of filters that limit and structure the presentation of your data.

Concepts in Filtering

The following concepts and definitions will help you understand and design Insights in Incorta Analytics. It is useful to think of filters in terms of a data table with rows, columns, and data.

Attribute: Any fact about or trait of a person, place or thing. For example, attributes of a customer might include First Name, Last Name, Gender, and City. Attributes of a car might include its Make, Model, Color, and Mileage. Attributes of a Country could include Country Name, Capital City, and Population.

Attribute Value: The value associated with an attribute for a specific person, place or thing. Values for the First Name attribute might include Sam, Jane, or Carlo. In the table above, 128MB Memory Card, 5MP Telephoto Digital Camera, etc. are attribute values for Products.

Dimension: An attribute is used to structure data. In the table above, there are two dimensions: “Category” describes the category for which the values in that row apply. “Year” describes the year for which the values in that column apply. Category and Year are both attributes that are used to structure the table.

Parameter: A limiting attribute value. For example, if you want to display only electronics-specific data, type “electronics” (the value of the Category attribute) as a parameter.

Filter: A dimension plus a parameter equals a filter. The filter “(Product IN 5MP Telephoto Digital Camera)” has a dimension of “Product” and a parameter of “5MP Telephoto Digital Camera”.

You could also use “2009” and “2010” as filter parameters. The filter would read: “(Year = 2009, 2010).”

By adding filter parameters, you can drill down into the details or narrow the scope of your data. You can apply as many filters as needed to get to the level of detail that you want.

No matter which parameters you choose, the dimensions will remain the same. “5MP Telephoto Digital Camera” is still in the “Product” dimension, and “2009” and “2010” are still in the “Year” dimension.

Dashboard Runtime Filters

A Dashboard Runtime Filter is available to the end user in the Filters menu to the left of the search box. The filter may or may not have a default value, and can be optional or mandatory.

Create a Dashboard Runtime Filter

  1. Select the filter menu (funnel icon) at the left of the search box.
  2. Select an attribute. It is (Country, Product, or year) as in the above table.
  3. Select an attribute value to filter with. You can select it by marking the checkbox, or you can type it in the search box.
  4. Select Apply.
  5. The filter will appear at the top of the dashboard.

Default Runtime Filters

A Default Filter is a Dashboard Runtime Filter that is set to a value and active by default. It appears at the top of the dashboard when active. When not active, a default filter can be activated from the Filter menu (funnel icon) to the left of the search box at the top of the dashboard.

Mandatory versus Optional Default Runtime Filters: A Default Runtime Filter can be optional for the user, meaning they can delete it by clicking on the “X” icon in the default filter, or by clicking “Clear All” on the right handside of the dashboard.

As for the Mandatory Runtime Filter, users cannot view the dashboard without this filter. That is, the users can change the value of the filter but they cannot remove it.

A Consumer or Analyze user can deactivate an Optional Default Runtime Filter while using the dashboard by clicking the “X” symbol on the filter label, and can be activated by selecting it from the Filter menu next to the search box at the top of the dashboard. Selecting “Clear All” will deactivate all Optional Default Runtime Filters.

For a Mandatory Default Filter, the user can change or add parameters, but the filter must always have at least one parameter. Selecting “Clear All” will not remove mandatory filters.

Single vs. Multi-Select Default Runtime Filters: The Analyzer User can choose to limit a Default Runtime Filter to a single parameter at a time or to allow multiple parameters. For a single-select filter, a new filter parameter replaces the previous one. For a multi-select filter, more than one parameter can be applied to the filter at the same time. A checkmark appears to the right of each selected value. Check or uncheck values as needed and select “Apply” in the lower right corner of the menu to apply your changes.

Insight Definition Filter

An Insight Definition Filter is a permanent part of the Insight. It affects only the Insight for which it was created and it does not appear at the top of the Insight or dashboard. This filter limits the results within an Insight to a specific range of values.

The title of the Dashboard or Insight should inform the user of the presence of any Definition Filters. For example, an Insight that was designed to show order data for female customers should have a title like “Sales Orders for Female Customers.” If the design filters to the current calendar year, an informative title might be “Sales Orders for Female Customers, Year to Date.”

Create an Insight Definition Filter

To create an Insight Definition Filter:

  1. Navigate to any dashboard.
  2. Select the three vertical dots in the upper-right hand corner of the Insight. The analyzer screen opens.
  3. Select the filter icon (funnel icon) at the top of the Analyzer. The filter menu opens.

Filter Individual Values

This filter can be added to all visualization types (aggregated or not). You can use it to filter Insights using dimensions, e.g. country. For example, you can want to build a report to show the revenue data, grouped by country, filtered by a specific country value. To add this filter and specify a country value:

  1. Select the filter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, the “Filter Individual Values” field opens.
  2. Drag a dimension, i.e. “country”, column from the source elements list on the left-hand side and drop it in the filter field.
  3. Select the down arrow corresponding to the dimension.
  4. Select Edit Operator/Values in the drop-down menu, to set the filter operator and values. If you choose the “In” operator, select Filter in the upper right-hand corner after selecting the filter values.

Filter Aggregate Values

You can use this filter to filter Insights using measures, e.g. revenue. However, it can only be added to list table visualizations type, and they must be aggregated (i.e. the “Aggregated” item in the Insight Settings menu must be enabled). If these conditions are satisfied, this filter field will open automatically, when clicking the filter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. If either the visualization type is something other than “list table”, or it is not aggregated, this filter field will not be opened. Only the “Filter Individual Values” filter field will open.

You can want to use this filter type to show the revenue data, grouped by country, where the revenue is greater than $8M. To add this filter and specify a revenue value:

  1. Select the filter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, the Filter Individual Values and Filter Aggregate Values fields open.
  2. Drag a measure, i.e. “revenue”, column from the source elements list on the left-hand side and drop it in the filter field.
  3. Select the down arrow corresponding to the dimension.
  4. Choose a type from the Aggregation field list.
  5. Select Edit Operator/Values in the drop-down menu, to set the filter operator and values.
  6. Press Enter.

Create a Filter In a Dashboard

To access and set up dashboard filters:

  1. Select the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard. A drop-down menu opens.
  2. Select “Manage Filter & Prompts” to open the Dashboard filters page. A blue dot next to a tab indicates that there is at least one column is added to that tab.

Prompts

The dashboard prompts allow users to set attributes to be shown in the dashboard runtime filter (funnel icon in the dashboard). You can create a new formula columns here, or use the ones that already created within a business schema into the prompts.

To set up a Prompt:

  1. Select the “Prompts” tab, from the “Dashboard filters” screen.
  2. Drag a data element (column name) from the Source Elements List on the left-hand side of the screen into the Prompts field.
  3. Enable the “Default Filter” toggle button to apply the filter by default when the user opens the dashboard. The user will then have the option to remove the filter from the dashboard.
  4. Enable the “Mandatory Filter” toggle button to make the filter mandatory to apply when the user opens the dashboard. This option appears only when the “Default Filter” option is enabled, and the user will not have the option to remove the filter from the dashboard.
  5. Select the attribute, values, and operator for the default filter.
  6. Select Filter in the upper right-hand corner of the drop-down menu.
  7. Select Done in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
  8. Select the “funnel icon” to the left of the search box, a drop-down menu opens.
  9. Select the attributes and values for the filter to apply to the dashboard.
  10. Select Apply.

Dashboard Applied Filters

Applied filters allow users to set and apply filters to any dashboard using specific values. These filters can either be default or mandatory. Dashboard viewers can remove an applied “Default Filter” from a dashboard, but cannot remove a “Mandatory Filter”.

To set up a Dashboard applied filter:

  1. Select the “Applied Filters” tab.
  2. Drag a column from the Source Elements List on the left-hand side of the screen into the “Applied Filters” field.
  3. Select the down arrow of the column, a drop-down menu appears.
  4. Select Edit Operator/Values to get a list of the available parameters for the Applied Filter.
  5. Select Filter in the upper right-hand corner of the drop-down menu.
  6. Select Done in the upper right hand corner to go back to the dashboard screen.

Apply User Filters Across Dashboards

When you apply a User filter to one Insight, the same filter is applied to each Insight on your dashboard. This is true for any User Filter, regardless of which filtering method you use. The following figure represents an example of a dashboard before applying a runtime filter across it.

Filter Bookmark

Filters can be bookmarked to be accessed later without having to repeat the filter selection process.

Add a Bookmark Filter

Once the filters are applied, you can add a bookmark filter by doing the following:

  1. Select the add-a-bookmark icon next to the applied filters at the top center of the screen.
  2. When the “Add New Bookmark” window appears, enter a name for the new bookmark (e.g. New Bookmark).
  3. Select Add.

Edit or Delete a Bookmark Filter

To edit a bookmark filter:

  1. Select the bookmark icon to the left of the search box at the top of the screen, to access the drop-down menu.
  2. Select Edit
  3. Edit the bookmark, then select Save.

To delete a bookmark filter:

  1. Select the bookmark icon to the left of the search box at the top of the screen, to access the drop-down menu.
  2. Select Delete.

Filters: Attributes, Operators, and Values

Filters enable you to focus on specific data based on certain conditions, using filter operators.

To apply a filter you need to specify:

  • An attribute to filter on.
  • An operator to set the filter condition.
  • A value to filter by.

The following steps will show you how to create a filter:

  1. Select the attribute to filter on from the default filter screen.
  2. Select the filter operator (e.g. In), next to the attribute.
  3. Select a filter operator.
  4. Add filter values using one of the following options:
  5. Select values from a list
  6. Type values in the Search/Add box
  7. Paste values from a CSV/XLSX file

Select Values from a List

  1. Select one or more values.
  2. Locate values using the Search/Add box, and select them from the suggestions.
  3. Erase the typed value to show the whole values. You can select another value, or select the whole values.

Type Values in the Search/Add Box

You can type multiple values separated by either a comma, or Line Break when using the following operators: “Starts With”, “Contains”, “In”, “Does Not Start With”, “Does Not Contain”, “Not In”, and “Ends With”.

  1. Select Paste Values in the bottom of the search box.
  2. Enable the “Case Sensitive” option to match the letter case of the values and the returned results. This option is disabled by default. “Case Sensitive” appears when using the operators resulting in string values (for example, “Starts With”, “Does Not start With”, “Contains”, “Does Not Contain”, “Ends With”).
  3. Select a “Delimiter” either a “Comma” or “Line Break”.
  4. Enter one or more values seperated by the selected delimiter.
  5. Select the ”+” icon. The selected values will appear at the top of the list.

Paste values from a CSV/XLSX file

Users can copy values from a CSV/XLSX file separated by a comma, or Line Break, and paste them in the Search/Add box using the following operators: “Starts With”, “Contains”, “Does Not Start With”, “Does Not Contain”, “Ends With”, “In”, and “Not In”.

  1. Copy values from a CSV/XLSX file.
  2. Paste values from a CSV/XLSX file.
  3. Select Apply.

© Incorta, Inc. All Rights Reserved.