Capturing, and displaying, Crosstab selection values

[JerryLeBreton]

I am developing a report in which a crosstab object is actiing as a 'navigator' for a number of other objects. 

Interactions are defined from the crosstab to the other objects, so when a line of data is selected the other objects are filtered, and updated, accordingly.

So to illustrate, when the  Actual Sales for USA is clicked on, making the cell grey, the chart changes to show just the data for USA.  But its not very obvious.  I'd like to display the selected value above the chart to make it clear to the user that the chart is for the USA only now, and not for everything.

And the user might expand a level and click on the data for Germany/East for example, in which case I'd want to display Germany/East above the chart. 

Is the there a nice way to do this?

I've got a fair amount of experience with SAS but I'm pretty new to VA.  Using VA 7.1.

Thanks

Jerry

[MichelleHomes]

Hi Jerry,

Nice to see you in the VA community!

The topic of having a dynamic title has been discussed here in a number of threads and it isn't possible in the release you're using 7.1 and the current release 7.3

If you scroll to the bottom of this post, https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Visual-Analytics/Dynamic-header-for-the-Line-chart/m-p/193032/hig... you'll see some work arounds using another list table and if you use precision layout you can overlay the object on the line chart to simulate a title.

Alternatively, this neat technique @TriciaAanderud wrote about for dashboards would also be a good way to achieve what you're after combined with precision layout in the section so you can overlay the dynamic at the top of your line chart area http://bi-notes.com/2016/10/sas-visual-analytics-design-versus-reality/

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[MichelleHomes]

Also @JerryLeBreton, you may be interested in @SteveMellgren's well timed article he posted today on how to create a dynamic title at https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-customize-your-SAS-Visual-Analytics-re...

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[JerryLeBreton]

Hi Michelle

Thanks for replying - I thought there was a better than evens chance you'd help

That certainly was a well timed article by @SteveMellgren.  Unfortunately nothing seems to quite do what I need.

Using a Button Bar in my situation would be confusing because it will show a specific value when the Total is the focus.  And it can't handle a hierarchy of values.

And using a List Table for a title has similar problems, for the Total line, and multiple combinations of hierarchy values.

I just might have to admit defeat (and explain to the executive they can't have a "simple" title describing what data is being shown!!)

Cheers, Jerry

[MichelleHomes]

Hi Jerry,

It's unfortunate to hear you're not able to achieve what you need. Did you look at Tricia's post where she used text for KPIs in a dashboard from a pie chart object? The same could be done for a title using a precision layout on the section. 

Hope me this helps or another member has alternative suggestions.

Kind Regards,

Michelle