How to create a facet navigation in SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio ?

[IngoH]

Did you ever wonder how to create a facet style navigation like in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio ?

Perhaps you were trying to create a set of cascading filter in Design Studio and had to create a set of scripting functions to do so ?

Well... there is a much easier solution, called a Facet Filter.

With our upcoming release of our Extensions for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio these requirements can be fulfilled with a few clicks.

So lets start with our Data source in Design Studio, which has several data sources and several measures.

When I assign the data source to the Facet Filter component, I get the default layout with a Facet for the list of measures and a facet for each of the dimensions listed in the Initial View of the data source.

In addition all of the facets are shown as a list by default (we come back to that) and the selected measure value is shown next to each of the dimension members.

So now lets take a look at the configuration options - here shown for the dimension Product Group.

First of all I can configure the height and width for each of the facets. I can then also configure the Display - which allows me to choose between the Key, Text, or Key and Text for the dimension members.

The Control property allows me to choose how I would like to visualize the list of members. I can choose between a List, Radio Buttons, Check Boxes, or Chosen.

If we take a screenshot above:

- Key Figures are shown as Radio Buttons

- Product Group is shown as Check Boxes

- Product Category is shown as Radio Button

- Product is shown as "Chosen" - basically listing the selected items only

- Country is shown as a list

In addition you can configure the option to include a search option, include an All Member, and to enable or disable the display of the measure value.

Automatically the Facet Filter will work in a cascading fashion as you can see in the small video at the end.

All that is left to do is to enter the name of the target data source and my facet filter is ready to go.