Dropdown List Selector

Dropdown List Selector enables dynamic behavior to dashboards by allowing users to make selections that affect charts and other components in the dashboard. Thus, the Dropdown List Selector can be used to set parameters for the calculations in charts. The Dropdown List Selector is usual dropdown list where user can select a value from a list of predefined values.

The dropdown list is linked to other components of the dashboard using variables: The selected value is stored to a variable, which is used by the other components. To make the behavior work, the variable needs to be configured both to the dropdown list and the charts using it. For charts, variables are bound using either linked settings or directly using tags in custom expressions (e.g. <#tagName>).

The Dropdown List Selector can be configured flexibly based on any data in the model, and the contents of the list updates automatically when the model data changes. Note that the Dropdown List Selector is not linked to the filters of the dashboard (for filtering, use the Case attribute filter or Event type filter components).

Add Dropdown List Selector to dashboard

Dropdown List Selector is added to dashboard by activating the Add component mode and clicking the Dropdown List Selector in the tool palette. Mandatory settings are Variable name and List items for the Dropdown List Selector to show. When adding the Dropdown List Selector, also the linked variable needs to be defined to the dashboard as follows:

1. When in dashboard designer in the Edit mode, click the dots menu on top right and click Dashboard Properties.
2. Open the Variables tab.
3. Define a name for the variable in the available textbox. The name can be chosen freely.
4. Set the behavior to be Stored variable. (When using this behavior, the selected value in the dropdown list is stored to the dashboard when the dashboard is saved.)
5. Click the Done button on top right.
6. The variable needs to be defined also to the Dropdown List Selector settings in the Variable name field.
7. Save the dashboard.

Dropdown List Selector settings

Dropdown List Selector has the following settings:

• Variable name: Name of the variable that is linked to this dropdown list. When user makes a selection in the dropdown list, the selection is stored to the variable.
• Title: Explaining title (label) for the dropdown list that is visible in the dashboard. If no title is defined, an automatic title is derived based on the chosen List items.
• Analyzed objects: Types of process mining objects where the List items are calculated from. Based on this selection, there are different options available for the List items and 1. measure. The Analyzed objects selection works similarly as the same selection in charts.
• List items: Select what kind of items the dropdown list is showing. There are variety of options to choose from, and the options depend on what has been selected as the Analyzed objects. This selection is similar to the dimension selection in charts.
• Sorting: Defines a column based on which items are sorted in the list.
• Maximum rows: Maximum number of items shown by the list. This setting can be used if desired to show only the most relevant items. Listing more than thousands of items may cause the list to work very slowly, so showing lot of items, consider what's the practical maximum from the performance point of view.
• 1. measure: The dropdown list can optionally show aggregated/summarized information for each of the shown item. When the first measure is selected, possibility to define a second measure appears. The measures work similarly as measures in charts.
• Follow dashboard filters: Whether dashboard filters are applied to the query when getting the list items.
• Chart filter: Filter rules that are applied to the query when getting the list items.
• Linked settings
• Model: Model to which the query is made to get the list items.
• Layout settings

Variable value format

When using a Snowflake model, the Dropdown List Selector stores the variable using the stringified format. When using an in-memory model, the variable values is stored in the json format (https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_intro.asp). The reason for the different behavior is that the stringified format is more versatile, so it was taken into use for Snowflake (which was implemented after the original in-memory). The linked settings in charts by default use the stringified format, so when working with in-memory models, you need to change the valueFormat parameter in the linked settings.