Interactions are used
to direct a report viewer’s attention to specific results in
a report. Interactions allow data to be subset to reduce the amount
of data, and enables users to understand it within a particular context.
The interaction view
in the designer interface enables report authors to specify which
interactions they would like to add to tables, graphs, and gauges
in a report.
There are two types
of interactions:
filter
is used to restrict
the data that is returned from a query to a data source. Filters are
simply a set of rules, or conditions, that you specify to subset the
data that is displayed in a table or graph. The goal is to display
only the data that you need to see to perform your analysis.
brush
is short for data
brushing, which enables you to show the same data selected
simultaneously in two or more tables, graphs, or both. Brushing
highlights a percentage that reflects the number of shared observations
in the data set. Brushing does not highlight a percentage that corresponds
to the aggregated value. The
brushed data has the same appearance in each object, which makes the
data easily apparent to report viewers.
Typically, graphs are
the source of an interaction, with the exception of scatter plots.
Tables, graphs, and gauges can be the target for an interaction. However,
tables, gauges, and scatter plots cannot be the source of an interaction.