Selectors allow you to customize Metric Views and Board widgets in Pigment. This article explains how to configure and adjust selectors.
Before you begin
⚠️ Important
Irrespective of the configuration chosen, access rights are always respected. This means that if a Member has access rights set to
No readfor an Item, that Item does not appear in the Page selector drop-down.
How Members use selectors
Selectors provide an easy way for Members to view data for different Dimension Items in real time. For example, if your product is available in four geographies, a Builder can set up a Board that shows product performance by geography. Selectors allow Members to then choose a geography from a drop-down list, and all the data on the Board updates automatically to reflect that selection. You could also add a Year selector, allowing Members to view the same geography's data for the previous year.
Where selectors appear
The most common way for a Member to pick from the selectors is via the drop-down menus in the top-left corner of a Board or through a widget’s selector options.
There are also two additional ways.
1. Through headers in Tables and Metrics
When working with Boards, you can change a selector by right-selecting a Dimension Item within a header and selecting Set as Page.
2. Through Charts
If a Dimension is used as a selector and is also displayed on the chart, you can select any Item from the chart and use Set as Page to make it the selector. If the chart includes multiple Dimensions as selectors, the action applies to all of them.
How Builders configure selectors
Open the Configure Selectors panel
ℹ️ Note
To define selector options, the Pages section in your Configure Data panel must contain a Dimension.
Builders can open the selector configuration panel in the following ways.
On a Board
Select Edit.
Use the Configure Selectors symbol that appears to the right of the available selectors.
In a widget
Select Edit.
Hover your pointer over the relevant widget and select the Settings symbol (the cog).
Use Edit next to Selectors to view and manage the available options.
In a Block
Use the slider symbol labelled Pages options on hover, located to the right of the available selectors.
Configuration options
Builders can configure selectors using the tools below.
Reorder selectors
You can drag and drop selectors in the Configure Selectors panel to reorder them at Board level. New selectors are added to the end of the list by default but can be rearranged according to your needs. To control the selector order within a widget, adjust the order in the Pivot of the saved View.
Rename selectors
You can rename selectors at the Board level. When you rename a selector on a Board, the change is applied across the entire Board, including all widgets using that selector. However, the update does not affect other Boards in your Workspace or widgets where the selector has been unlinked.
To rename a selector at the Board level:
Open your Board and select Edit.
Select the Configure Selectors symbol.
Select the Rename symbol next to the relevant selector’s name.
Enter the new name for the selector.
Select Apply to save your changes.
(Optional) To reset the selector to its original name, click the X symbol.
Selection: Multi and Single
Selectors are available in two types:
Multi. You can view more than one Item. Pigment aggregates those values based on the Metric’s selection in the View Aggregators panel.
Single. Only one Item within that Dimension can be displayed. For example, when
FY22is selected, you only see data forFY22.
ℹ️ Note
The initial choice between single and multi is set in the default selector type setting, but this can be changed. The default selector type only impacts newly created Views.
Options
The drop-down in the column labelled Options controls the Items appearing in the selector drop-down that Members see. Experiment with these options to find the configuration that works best for each Board.
The first two options cover most users’ needs:
All Dimension Items populates the drop-down that Members see with all the Items the Member has access rights for.
Only relevant Items shows child Items whose parents have been chosen in other Page selectors, respecting access rights both for the Dimension and the Metrics. For example, if you have Region and Country Page selectors within a Board, selecting a Region Item prompts the Country Page selector to only display countries that fall within that region, and only the Metrics the Member has access rights for.
The last three options are advanced behaviors:
All visible Items displays the Dimension Items that the Member has access rights for, after applying Metric access rights.
Dependent selections filters Items based on parent selections, without applying access rights rules on Metrics. It's similar to Only relevant items (above) except access rights on Metrics are not considered.
Dynamic selections behaves similarly to Only relevant Items (above) but also filters out blank cells, only showing Items when data is present for that Item. It takes into account both dependent Page selections and underlying data availability.
ℹ️ Note
The general rule for Dynamic selections is: if an Item does not have any data associated with it, it is not displayed. However, there are the following exceptions to this:
If a Metric appearing in your View has the Show empty rows and columns option activated within the filters, this overrides the dynamic selection feature and the blank cells of Items with no underlying data are displayed. Go into the Metric and select Hide empty rows and columns to fix these blank cells.
Dynamic selection is not compatible with the following functionality applied to its Metrics:
Show Values As using the
CUMULATEandOFFSET>PREVIOUS ITEM/NEXT ITEMtools
Performance
Your choice can affect performance when data volume, especially the number of Dimension Items, is high. In most situations however, the performance difference between the various options is imperceptible.
Of the selector options, All Dimension Items is the most performant, while the Dynamic selections option checks every cell and takes more time.
This table sets out descriptions and characteristics of the various options:
Options → | All Dimension Items | Only relevant Items | All visible Items | Dependent selections | Dynamic selections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model use cases and examples | Very large Lists — no restrictions: Lists of contracts, employees, SKUs | Most 10- to 1000-Item Lists | Large Lists where access rights on Metrics is used to filter relevant Items | Often more performant than Dynamic selections when selections are a must. Use cases include hierarchies and groupings of a larger Dimension | Aggressive filtering: where possible, it only shows options where cells contain data. Good choice in smaller Tables and datasets |
Restricts by access to Dimensions Options reflect the Member’s read access to Dimension Items | |||||
Applies dependent selections Options are filtered by selections made on related Selectors | |||||
Restricts by access to Metric data Options reflect the Member’s read access to Metric data in widgets | |||||
Filters out empty data Options that would lead to empty cells of data are filtered out |
Exclude extraneous widgets
By default, a Board’s selector options are derived from its widgets. However, if you think that some widgets should not be taken into account when the options are derived, you can choose to exclude those widgets.
To do this, select the drop-down by Selector options are derived from at the bottom of the panel. This opens a list of the widgets appearing on the Board, allowing you to exclude any that aren't needed.
Excluding widgets means fewer computations are run, which improves performance. It also simplifies troubleshooting, as it is easier to see why certain options appear or do not appear in a selector when there are fewer widgets involved.
Allowed Items
You can control which Items are available for Members to select by using the Allowed Items menu. This helps limit the number of options for a user. For example, if your list has data for only a few Items, you can limit the selection to those Items only. All Variable types can be used as Allowed Items. For more information, see Item Variables.
🛡️ Warning
Allowed Items should not be used for security purposes. They are only intended to limit the selection, helping Members quickly find the Items they need. Depending on permission settings for
Configure Public Viewsand/orCan configure Boards, this setting can be adjusted, making more or fewer Items available as required.
Default
Use the Default setting to define the Items that appear when a Board or Block is opened. Members can still adjust the selector but it returns to its default setting when it is closed and reopened. This setting works on both multi and single selector options. All types of Variables can be selected as Default Items. For more information, see Item Variables.
Display Mode
Display Mode allows you to control the visibility of selectors in Boards and widgets. You can show, hide or minimize a selector. When hidden, a selector does not appear on the Board. Minimize consolidates selectors in a menu that Members can click on to access all minimized selectors. For more information on Display Mode, see Hide and Minimize Board and Widget Page Selectors in Display Mode.
Blue vs black color selectors
Selectors by default are black, when you change the selector to a different value the color changes to blue and persists for your entire Pigment session.
Reset selectors
You can clear the selections on an individual selector on the Board by clicking the X symbol next to it. This option resets the selector to its preset options. You can also reset all selections by clicking Reset in the top-right corner of the Configure Selectors panel. This can be done at widget or Board level.
Resize Page selectors
You can adjust your Page selector on the Board to view the full name of your Dimension Items. Use the handle in the bottom-right corner of the selector to adjust as required. This can be done at Board, widget, or Block level in full-screen mode.
Widget selector options
Selectors on Boards work similarly to those on Views. However, the main difference is that when retrieving Items to display under a behavior option, Pigment gathers all Items matching that rule for all widgets linked to the Page selector. This means that for an Item to appear in the Page selector drop-down, it just needs to match the rule in at least one of the widgets linked to the Page selector.
When troubleshooting why an Item appears in a Page selector, revisit the Options to check that the configuration is correct, and that none of the widgets present in the Board (and to which the Page selector applies) are falling into an exception for that specific display.
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Link and adjust selectors
Configure widget selectors from widget Settings.
In the Configure Selectors panel, there is a link symbol next to each selector available within the widget. When linked, the widget’s selector syncs with the selectors located at the top of the Board.
For example, if your Board’s Country selector is set to France, all other widgets with a Country selector sync to France.
If you unlink a Page selector, you can customize it within the widget. This includes:
Selection type
Allowed Items
Options
Default Items
Display mode (for both linked and unlinked selectors)
See above for information on configuring these.
For more tips on Board design, see Board Inspiration (including top tips for Board design).
How Variable and Page selectors work together
Selectors group together Variable and Page selectors. When working with Variables in Pigment, there’s an additional option available to allow value changes directly on the Variable. When activated, a separate selector displays in your Block, next to the Page selectors, and on any Board where the Metric is used.
This selector lists all the Dimension Items that the Variable is linked to, just like a Page selector of that Dimension, and is always displayed as a single selector. The default value for the selector is set to the default Variable value of the Variable.
This selector can be customized from the Configure Selectors panel, where you can also customize Page selectors. Here you can rename, reorder, hide or minimize the Variable values selector as you would do with Page selectors. The Allowed Items for the Variables can be restricted, just like for any Page selector. However, unlike Page selectors, the Options do not apply to Variable selectors.
In a Board, Variable selectors are automatically linked to their original widgets. They appear in the widget's selector options and in a widget’s full screen mode. They function similarly to Page selectors; if linked at the widget level, they retain the Board’s configuration.
To ensure Members only see the Variable selector, it’s recommended that you reference Variables in the Default or Allowed Items (or both) of Page selectors, and then hide the corresponding Page selectors.
When using Variable Selectors, the selected value applies only to the Member who makes the selection and does not impact other Members.
For more information on how to create a Variable with this option enabled, see Item Variables.