VA Report Example: Use a pop-up page to link to additional detail

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A SAS Visual Analytics report requirement came in requesting a pop-up page to show additional detail including both category and measure data items. Let’s walk though one way to design a pop-up page to meet this requirement.

There are three types of pages in SAS Visual Analytics: basic, hidden, and pop-up. See the SAS Documentation Working with Pages for additional details. A pop-up page is a nonvisible page to report viewers that only appears when the viewer clicks on the source object. If the source object and target object use the same data source, then values are passed automatically and applied as a filter. This is extremely convenient! Otherwise, you will need to manually map data if you need values passed the objects. See the SAS Documentation Basic Tasks for Data in Reports for more information about mapping data.

Let’s take a look at the desired report behavior. The customer wants to select a Product Line in the bar chart and #1) filter the Dual axis bar-line chart and #2) open a pop-up page with the details of the selected Product Line, Total Year’s Average for both measures Product Cost of Sale and Product Sale.

Report requirements:

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Requirement #1: Filter the Dual axis bar-line chart:

Requirement #2: Open a pop-up page with the details of the selected Product Line, Total Year’s Average for both measures Product Cost of Sale and Product Sale:

Requirement #1 Filter the Dual axis bar-line chart

In order to configure the filter from the bar chart to the dual axis bar-line chart:

1. Select the bar chart, the source, to make it the active object.
2. Open the Actions pane.
3. Select the dual axis bar-line chart object, the target. Leave the default filter action selected.

Finished. Now when you select a value in the bar chart, the dual axis bar-line chart is automatically filtered. Toggle to View mode and test this configuration by clicking on a value in the bar chart.

Requirement #2: Open a pop-up page with the details of the selected values

In this pop-up page, we want to see the Product Line that was selected and then the yearly average for the two measures: Product Cost of Sale and Product Sale.

For beginners, when designing the pop-up page, it’s easiest to add a page prompt for the incoming values you expect from the source object, in this example, Product Line.

1. First start by configuring the page to be a pop-up page. Use the page’s toolbar menu and then select Page type and click Pop-up.

   

2. Next, design the pop-up page. Here are some tips that can help you when designing your pop-up page report:
   • Add the expected incoming values to a page prompt. In this example, I used a button bar control object and assigned the Product Line as the role. This will be deleted when you’re ready to test your pop-up page.
   • Consider resizing the window when designing your pop-up page to get an idea for how the report will appear when opened. Using the Options pane you can configure the size of your pop-up page when opened.

     

• Use a blank text object for spacing. In my example, I wanted the key value object to be higher on the page next to the list table object so I added a text object under the key value object.

3. Once you have your pop-up page designed, configure the page link.
   1. Selected the bar chart, the source object, to make it the active object.
   2. Open the Actions pane.
   3. Expand the Page Links group and select the target page, in this example I select the Details page.

   

4. Test the pop-up page. Toggle to View mode and double click on a value in the bar chart to open the pop-up page. Inspect the pop-up page. Are the objects returning the expected values? Do you like the design and layout?
   Continue the iterative process of tweaking the pop-up page layout until you are happy.

5. Once you are happy with the pop-up page, you can delete the page prompt. Test to be sure you are still getting the expected results.

Conclusion

Now you have seen how quick and easy it can be to design and configure a pop-up page for objects using the same data source. If your objects use different data sources, take a look at this article for Tips for working with multiple data sources in SAS Visual Analytics and how to configure the map data under the section Prompting with Multiple Data Sources. Once you add the data mapping, the same page link configuration steps can be taken.

Check out the below articles for additional SAS Visual Analytics examples:

• Previous SAS Visual Analytics versions: Include Info Windows in your SAS Visual Analytics reports: Article | YouTube
• SAS VA: Automatic Actions Part 1 – Easy exploration for multiple data sources: Article | YouTube
• VA Report Example: Use Text Input for custom search: Article | YouTube
• Use a List Control as a Visual Analytics Report or Page/Section Prompt
• New control prompt placement option in SAS Visual Analytics
• SAS VA: Use Custom Categories to create user-defined categories for dates, measures, or categories
• SAS Visual Analytics 8.1: Configuring prompts with different source data: Article | YouTube
• Tips for working with multiple data sources in SAS Visual Analytics: Article | YouTube

Find more articles from SAS Global Enablement and Learning here.