Interacting with queries

After you create a query, Explore includes options that help you dig deeper into your results to find exactly the information you need. You can use these interaction options in Query builder and if you've added the query to a dashboard then viewers can also use the options. If you don't want viewers to be able to use these options, you can disable them. The main options are:

• Decompose: Enables the report viewer to slice the query results with another attribute they choose.
• Drillthrough: Drillthrough gives you a more in-depth view of your data by displaying a table of metrics and attributes that relate to the data selected in the query.
• Focus: Zooms in to one data point or a data range. If your chart has several data points grouped together, focus can be useful for calling out a specific area.

You perform these interactions by selecting a data point on a table or chart or by clicking and dragging across multiple data points. After you click, a drop-down list appears displaying the available interaction options.

Use the following topics to learn about the interaction options and how to use them:

• Decompose
• Drillthrough
• Focus
• Copy (tables only)

• Reverting interaction options
• Disabling interaction options
• Dashboard interaction options

Decompose

The decompose interaction slices the data points you selected by additional attributes.

To decompose a query

1. In your query, select one or more data points and then click Decompose.
2. On the next page, choose one or more attributes to slice the selected data points.

   By default, decompose allows viewers to select any attribute in your dataset. You can restrict the available attributes or set a Decompose path in Chart configuration > Decompose type.

3. If you want the new attributes to be placed in the Columns panel, click On columns or if you want them in the Rows panel, click On rows.
4. If you want to keep your original attribute in the query, select Keep original element on the axis.
5. When you are finished, click Ok.

   

The selected data points will be sliced by the new attributes you have selected. If you have chosen not to keep the original elements those attributes are added to the Filters panel.

Example 1

You’re measuring the number of Tickets by Ticket solved - Year, and you decompose the 2018 year data point by Ticket solved - Month on columns. Your results would resemble the image below.

Example 2

The example below uses decompose to examine the number of tickets created by channel each quarter. You can replicate these steps using any metrics and attributes.

To examine quarterly results

1. Click the bar of the quarter you want to view.
2. Click Decompose.
3. Choose the Ticket channel attribute.
4. Click On columns.
5. Click Ok.

   The bar for Q1 is decomposed to show the ticket channels used in the Q1 period.

Drillthrough

If you are looking for a more in-depth view of your data, use the drillthrough interaction. Drillthrough provides you with a table of attributes and metrics that relate to the data selected in the query. Drillthrough first filters data based on the values you click or multi-select and then slices it by every attribute you have selected in drillthrough. For time attributes, the most granular level will be used.

To make sure that the drillthrough table meets your needs and is easy to navigate you can choose which attributes and metrics will be displayed in the table. To select the necessary elements go to Chart configuration > Drillthrough.

For more information about drillthrough, and solutions to common problems, see Using Drillthrough.

In the drillthrough below, the selected data point is the last month and selected attributes are Ticket ID, Ticket Group and Ticket Created - Timestamp.

Focus

For a more simple interaction option, you can use focus to zoom in to one data point or a data range. If your chart has several data points grouped together, focus can be useful for calling out a specific area. For example in the decomposed monthly ticket resolutions chart above, you can focus into the specific month to have a closer look at the data.

The focus results will resemble the image below:

Copy (tables only)

In tables only, you can select one or more data points and then click Copy to add the data to your computer clipboard. You can only copy the result data points, not the attribute names.

Reverting interaction options

After you've used a drillthrough, decompose, or focus operation to dig into your data, you can use this procedure to revert to your initial query results.

To revert an interaction option

• In query builder, click the undo button.

  

The query results revert to their previous state. Depending on how many query interactions you performed, you might need to click undo more than once,

Disabling interaction options

You might want to turn off query interaction options depending on your needs.

To turn off query interactions

1. Click the chart configuration icon ().
2. In the chart configuration menu, select Interactions.

   

3. Clear the options you don't want to use.
4. Save the query.

Dashboard interaction options

The Filter others and Filter others only query interactions can be used when the query is placed on the dashboard alongside with other queries.

Filter others allows selecting a value from a chart to be a filter for all dashboard charts, including itself. For example, if a user selects the Open Tickets Status value on a chart, and clicks the Filter others interaction, all charts will show results for only open tickets.

Filter others only acts in a similar way, the only difference is the chart where the value was selected is not be filtered.