How do I set a dynamic parameter in SAS VA when the report loads?

[robricks]

I'm using SAS VA 7.1 (for now). I've got a row-level security table that I'd like to use to set a parameter on my dashboard when the dashboard is loaded. In the absence of other obvious approaches, I've elected to use a drop-down box with required set to true and the data source as the row-level security table. I've created the parameter based on a column in the row-level security table and set the parameter in the role for the drop-down box.

The behavior I expect to see when I open the report is that the required drop-down box populates with the only value (or the first of values) available after row-level security has been applied. I expect the parameter to be set and applied to any objects having the parameter referenced in their filters.

What I actually see is underwhelming. The drop-down box prompts me to select a value before the parameter is set. This behavior is counter-intuitive given that I've told VA I want the drop-down value to be required.

I would welcome any recommendations for actually automatically setting this parameter when the report and/or dashboard loads.

[ferrickc]

Realizing that this post was from several years ago, I was recently encountering a similar issue and wanted to share the solution I discovered in case it could be helpful to others who stumble upon the thread.

Our Problem:

In our case, we were similarly using a dropdown report-level filter (required set to true) to set a parameter value. We were also applying row-level security to the table from which the dropdown options are populated. The impact is that for most users of the report, the dropdown list would filter to a single option. For those with access to multiple options, it should default to the first option available (sorted alphabetically in the dropdown). The issue we encountered is that the default parameter value was set by default to the first value in the complete list of options, as the admin user that created the report had access to all options. Users who did not have access to this first option would correctly have their dropdown list filtered by the row-level security, but even clicking within the dropdown would not override the default parameter.

I should also note that the problematic behavior was usually seen when the SAS Visual Analytics report was embedded in another site. Often the report would function correctly when the user viewed the report directly in Visual Analytics running on the Viya 3.5 platform web interface.

The Solution:

The "current value" of the parameter needs to be empty when the report is saved. This way, the default behavior at report load will be to return the appropriately filtered data in the table, automatically select the first available option in the dropdown (based on user's access), and then set the parameter to this value. From there, the user can select from the dropdown options available, and the parameter value will be updated accordingly.