Actions

Understand actions

In their default configuration, dashboards are an effective but relatively static decision-making support tool. The information they display only changes when the underlying data refreshes. In an interactive dashboard, you can configure the elements to communicate with one another. This helps dashboards provide more context, and promote better understanding by their intended audiences.

With multiple elements to visualize data, a dashboard informs the user at a glance. In its default configuration, the information a dashboard displays changes only when the underlying data refreshes; the viewer can't modify or filter the data they're seeing. To provide a more interactive experience, you can configure the elements to communicate with one another. This helps the dashboard provide more context and promotes better understanding by the intended audience.

Actions provide a mechanism for dashboard authors to define what happens when a user interacts with a dashboard's elements. When interacting with the dashboard, a user can trigger events. There are different types of events: selection change and map extent change. The different elements in a dashboard support different events, while some elements don't support events at all. The following table outlines which elements support which events. Notice that the table includes selectors. These are dashboard elements that can further enhance the interactive capabilities of a dashboard. See Selectors for details.

Event source	Map extent change	Selection change
Map	Y
Operational layer from a map		Y
List		Y
Serial chart		Y
Pie chart		Y
Category selector		Y
Number selector		Y
Date selector		Y

Tip:

A best practice is to finish adding elements and make visual refinements to a dashboard before configuring actions.

In addition to a source element, every action has one or more target elements. If the source and target elements are based on different data sources, the relationship between these sources must be established. This can be either an attribute relationship or a spatial relationship. In an attribute relationship, a field or value from the source element is used to match field values of the target element. In a spatial relationship, feature geometries from the source element are used to intersect geometries of the target element.

Note:

If the source and target elements are based on the same data source, you don't need to take any steps to establish their relationship.

The following actions are supported:

• Filter—Reduces the number of features available to the target element or operational layer when it's rendering
• Set Extent—Sets the extent of a target map element
• Flash Location—Flashes a geographic location on a target map element
• Zoom—Causes a target map element to zoom to a specified location
• Pan—Causes a target map element to pan so a specified location is centered

Some elements, such as a map legend and rich text, can be neither the source nor the target of an action. The following table summarizes which elements and layers can be sources or targets of actions. Details on what each of these elements and layers supports in terms of actions and interactivity, based on how you configure them, are covered later in this topic.

Element	Action source	Action target
Map	Y	Y
Map's operational layer	Y	Y
Serial chart	Y	Y
Pie chart	Y	Y
Indicator		Y
Gauge		Y
List	Y	Y
Details		Y
Category selector	Y	Y
Number selector	Y	Y
Date selector	Y

Configure an action

Actions are configured through the source element, which is also the element the end user uses to interact with and trigger events.

To configure an action on an element, do the following:

1. Hover over the selector and click Configure.
2. Click the Actions tab.
3. Click Add action and choose an available action.

   If more than one action is required, repeat this step.

4. Click Add target and choose an available target.

   To add an additional target to the action, repeat this step.

Note:

• When configuring a map element, there are two tabs related to actions: Map Actions and Layer Actions.
• Category, number, and data selectors can only be added to the header or left panel when configuring those elements. They cannot be added through the Add menu. See Selectors for more information.

The way you configure the source and target elements in your dashboard determines the types of actions you can configure. The following sections outline possible actions based on the configuration of your source and target elements. If a specific source-to-target pair is not listed, that type of interaction is not possible.

Map element

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to the event of a change in the map's extent. The source map's extent is used when setting the extent of another map or applying a spatial filter to another type of target element. See Map element for more information.

Source element	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Map	Map			Set
				Extent
	Map's operational layer			Filter (spatial)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistics	Maximum
			Minimum

Operational layer

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change in selection on an operational layer.

Source	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Operational layer	Map			Zoom
				Pan
				Flash location
	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute or spatial) Note: When the source layer has the polygon geometry type, a spatial filter can be applied to the target element. Point and line features cannot be used to apply spatial filters.
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

List element

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change to a list's selection.

Source	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
List element	Map			Zoom
				Pan
				Flash location
	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute or spatial) Note: If a list is configured with a data source that is a feature layer rather than a table, the feature geometries are available to Operations Dashboard and a spatial filter can be applied to the target element. This is only true for features with the polygon geometry type; point and line features cannot be used to apply a spatial filter.
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

Serial and pie charts

Note:

Only dashboard elements based on the same data source as the serial or pie chart can be identified as target elements. This applies to both the Categories from Grouped Values and Categories from Features configuration options outlined below. When a serial chart's source configuration option is Categories from Fields, actions are not supported.

When a serial or pie chart's source configuration option is Categories from Grouped Values, you can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change in the chart's selection.

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Categories from Grouped Values	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

Note:

Serial charts are able to parse data from many field types. When a date-based chart is configured to generate Categories from Grouped Values, actions are only supported when the field being parsed is of type date.

When a serial or pie chart's source configuration option is Categories from Features, you can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change in the chart's selection.

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration type	Target subelement	Possible action
Categories from Features	Map			Zoom
				Pan
				Flash location
				Filter (attribute)
	Map's operational layer
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

Category selector

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change in a category selector's value (a selection change event) when the source configuration option is Categories from Features.

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Categories from Features	Map			Zoom
				Pan
				Flash location
				Filter (attribute or spatial) Note: When the source selector is configured for Categories from Features, the feature's geometry is available to Operations Dashboard and a spatial filter can be applied to the target element. This is only true for features with the polygon geometry type; point and line features cannot be used to apply spatial filters.
	Map's operational layer
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features	Minimum
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic
			Maximum

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change to a category selector's value (a selection change event) when the source configuration option is Categories from Grouped Values.

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Categories from Grouped Values	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change to a category selector's value (a selection change event) when the source configuration option is Categories from Fixed Values.

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Categories from Fixed Values	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

Number selector

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change to a number selector's value (a selection change event):

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Number selector	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum

Date selector

You can configure the following actions to occur in response to a change to a date selector's value (a selection change event):

Source configuration option	Target element	Target configuration option	Target subelement	Possible action
Date selector	Map's operational layer			Filter (attribute)
	List
	Details
	Serial chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
		Categories from Grouped Values (Split By)
	Pie chart	Categories from Fields
		Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Indicator		Value
		Reference from Statistic	Reference
	Gauge		Value
		Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum
	Category selector	Categories from Features
		Categories from Grouped Values
	Numeric selector	Limits from Statistic	Minimum
			Maximum