Controls play a pivotal role in enhancing the interactivity of your dashboard. Any widget on the dashboard is revitalized and becomes a meaningful data representation with the help of a control. The possibilities of controls and their functionality are very vast.
To create a control, click the ‘Create a control’ icon in the dashboard toolbar. You will be redirected to the control editor.
If you have several databases connected with one dashboard, you should choose one of them in a prompt menu before entering the control editor.
Navigating the control editor
In the control editor you can see your codebook in the left panel, while control-creation options are presented in the middle of the window.
To add variables or categories to your control simply drag&drop them, as you would in a crosstab. Here you also have the same expression builder options such as ‘As list’, or logical operators such as ‘OR-join’.
Customizing control settings
To fine-tune the appearance and behavior of your control use the 'Look and feel' box. Here are the options (some of them connected with certain control type only):
Control Type: These are the types of controls you can choose from
Buttons - perfect for variables with concise titles and multiple options (e.g., gender).
Dropdown - compact solution for single-variable selections (e.g., a list of countries).
Option groups - useful when adding multiple variables to one control. See below for an example.
Accordion - good for complicated multi-level lists.
Range - Ideal for selecting from a range of variables.
Text - similar uses to buttons, but with a different visual output.
Selection mode: defines whether you can have a single select or multiple selections on the control.
Unselected all (appears when the selection mode is multiple): you can allow/forbid the possibility to unselect all options in the multiple selection mode.
Orientation (for buttons and text): may be horizontal or vertical.
Spacing between elements (only for buttons): automatically set to zero, use as required.
Title: add the text then choose its font size and position.
Aliases: allows to make a swap of labels used for a control.
Other alterations:
Add different variable groups (see the video below);
Add a ‘Total' to your control by clicking the '+TOTAL' button;
Choose to weight the data;
Click CLEAR to reset the control editor;
Choose a ‘Categories’ selection or Selection Strategy (default control position).
In the following video you will see the process of creating different ‘variable groups’ for demographics, such as gender and age categories. We used the ‘Option groups’ control type, which gives the best output when adding multiple variables to a control.
Once you have clicked the 'Save control' button, you will be redirected to the dashboard where you need to assign the control to your widgets in order for it to work. There are many control-widget or control-control assignments options, the video above uses ‘Filter’.
To enter the control editor again, select the control and click on the 'edit' icon in the left panel.