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Adding URL Actions
URL Actions lets you access a web page or file or even point to other resources on the web such as database queries and command output. You can also pass parameters to the URL.
Steps:
1. On the Dashboard and Workbook Settings pane, click the Workbook tab.
The Actions pane is displayed. Initially, there are no actions defined for the workbook and the selected Dashboard Scope is All.
2. Select the Dashboard Scope where you will define the dashboard scope data parameters that will be passed to the target dashboard: All or Current.
3. Select the Source Datatable from the drop-down list.
4. Click the 
button then select URL Action
in the drop-down list.
The new URL action is added under the selected Dashboard Scope in the Actions list. For example, if Current is the selected dashboard scope and the source data table is Equity Portfolio, then it will be displayed as:
However, if no source data table is selected, then the first one in the Data Table pane (i.e., StocksAnalysis) is the default associated to the new URL action.
5. Click the new URL action instance to expand and display the properties that you can define.
6. Enter or select the following properties:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Name |
The name of the URL action and then click . |
|
Dashboard Scope |
The dashboard where you will define the dashboard scope data parameters that will be passed to the target dashboard. Can either be [All Dashboard] or the current dashboard. |
|
Datatable |
The source data table. This will eventually be displayed above the URL action instance. |
|
URL |
The parameterized URL and then click . The parameters are written within curly brackets, {ParameterName}. For actions allowing multiple value input, you can optionally specify a value separator within the curly brackets where you put the parameter name. The syntax is as follows: {ParameterName:Separator} For example: {Company:+} Default separator is semicolon. Specifying for example a plus sign allows you to do multi search term searches on Google, for example. At execution, the parameter will be replaced with real field values associated with the selected visualization node. The easiest way to create parameterized URLs is to open an example web page and copy the URL. As an example, Yahoo Finance Key Statistics for Microsoft has the following web address: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT If a parameter called Ticker has been set up in the data table, you can generate the URL by removing MSFT and replacing it with {Ticker}: |
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Target |
The target area of the page where the output URL will be displayed. Available options are:
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7. Click the 
button to add parameters to the
output URL. A new parameter instance is added.
8. Click on the parameter instance to expand and define its properties.
For each parameter added, set or select the following properties:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Name |
Name of the URL action parameter and then
click |
|
Value Source |
Column from the data source table that will supply the contextual value. The value of this selected column for rows under the selected visualization node will be passed as the parameter values to the target URL. |
|
Multiple Values |
This passes multiple values for the parameter to the target area. Tap the slider to turn on. The Value Separator field displays.
Specify the value separator to be used. |
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Input Validation and Error Message |
Both fields are enabled when an interactive parameter (i.e., $Interactive) is selected in the Value Source drop-down list. Typically, interactive parameters are used to pass data back to data repositories or external systems. When an action is executed which require an interactive parameter, an associated dialog box will be displayed. For example:
Add a custom Input Validation. This can be any regular expression (e.g., “A-Z{3}”) The parameter will not be updated unless it passes the validation. Enter an Error Message to help in defining a better input to match the regular expression (e.g., “Please use a 3-letter code.”) |
.
You
can delete any of the added parameters by clicking the corresponding
Delete 
button.
9. Repeat step 7 to add more parameters.
10. Click the Save 
icon on the toolbar to save the
changes.
When
saved, the 
notification
is displayed.
Clicking the All Dashboard Scope, the new URL action is available.
If the Dashboard Scope is [All Dashboard], the new URL action will be displayed as:
