Dynamically populate URLs according to the user selections and open them automatically

[Former Member]

URL Button is a standard component that can be used to fire up a webpage, openDoc URL, etc. This button is used extensively for allowing users to click and open reports and webpages. The same component can also be used to dynamically populate URLs according to the user selections and open them automatically on scorecard, table, list, etc. interactions (using a single URL button component). This reduces the excel logic and the component count in the dashboard. Also, using a single component reduces maintenance overhead.

Let us look at how to use this functionality.

1. Let us start with using a URL button and a scorecard component.

2. Select the scorecard component and bind it to the Display Data and Data Insertion. Set the appearance, general and behaviour properties as required.

3. Now, select the URL button component and map the URL to an excel cell.

4. This cell will be populated dynamically based on user selection from the scorecard.

5. Go to the Behaviour tab in the URL Button properties and select the Trigger Cell as the same cell in #4. Select “When value changes”.

6. Now, every time the user selects any of the rows in the scorecard, the respective link will be fed to the URL button and the same will be fired up automatically.

7. You may use the same logic to populate openDoc URL parameters. Eg : Insert plant from the scorecard and populate in the URL accordingly. http://....../&prompt1=Plant1 or http://...../&prompt1=Plant2 , etc.

8. You may use a pie chart, or a column chart or any other chart component (instead of the scorecard used in the example above) and achieve the same result. This method can be used for hyper-linking charts and other components which are dynamic in nature.