How to set default selection values for Datazen HTML5 reports

Here’s a tip you can use for Datazen reports you view in a web browser.  As you probably know, you can drill thru from one dashboard to another in Datazen.  But did you know you can pass dashboard parameters through the URL?

Here’s an example of what you can do –

On the public Datazen dashboard site, you have the “Media Sales By Category” dashboard.

When you open it, you see the URL looks like this –

http://demos.datazen.com/viewer/publicdashboard?dashboardguid=6c4900f6-e833-4b99-92df-beba47b84fbf&v=635767662624137089&bg=ffffff&fg=999999

You can add the parameter for the category dropdown at the end of this web address.  It’s easy to find what the syntax would be – it’s available in the “Custom URL Parameters” screen in the Datazen Publisher, which pops up when you want to create a drillthrough to a custom URL.

In this case, the parameter syntax is – SelectionList01.SelectedItem, so my URL would look like this if I wanted to have the dropdown list set to “Print” –

http://demos.datazen.com/viewer/publicdashboard?dashboardguid=6c4900f6-e833-4b99-92df-beba47b84fbf&v=635767656921122468&bg=ffffff&
fg=999999&SelectionList01.SelectedItem=Print

Putting that URL in my browser gives me the following screen –

You aren’t limited to one parameter, either.  You could set it for as many as you have available in your dashboard, so it could be as detailed as this URL, for example –
http:/server/viewer/dashboard?v=1414428039277&apilocation=server&dashboard=Cascading%20DSG%20Dashboard%20-%20Target&group=Runtime%20and%20GE%20Issues&hub=V3%20Testing&TimeNavigator.SelectedStartTime=2014-03-01T00%3A00%3A00&TimeNavigator.SelectedEndTime=2014-11-01T00%3A00%3A00&TimeNavigator.ViewportStartTime=2014-03-04T02%3A25%3A47&TimeNavigator.ViewportEndTime=2014-10-28T21%3A34%3A12&TimeNavigator.TimeUnit=Month&SelectionList.SelectedItem=&
SelectionList.SelectedItems=&SelectionList01.
SelectedItem=&SelectionList02.SelectedItem=&SelectionList02.
SelectedItems=&SelectionList03.SelectedItem=&SelectionList03.SelectedItems=&SelectionList04.
SelectedItem=&SelectionList04.SelectedItems=

Maybe this will spark some ideas for folks – You could wrap your Datazen dashboard in an iFrame and pass parameters to the url, then maybe setup an auto-refresh of the dashboard in the frame without losing your parameter selections.

It certainly sparked that idea for me, but I want to watch SportsCenter before I fall asleep, so I’ll leave that project for another of my fellow bloggers . . .

Thanks for reading!