Cross-filtering Dashboards - Netskope Technical Documentation

Cross-filtering makes it easier and more intuitive for viewers of dashboards to interact with a dashboard’s data and understand how one metric affects another. With cross-filtering, you can click a data point in one dashboard tile to have all dashboard tiles automatically filter on that value.

Multiple cross-filters can be created at one time, and cross-filters can be used in conjunction with standard dashboard filters.

Enabling cross-filtering on dashboards

Make sure you have the Manage Access, Edit access level for the dashboard. This means, make sure your report is saved in your Personal folder.
Enter the dashboard’s edit mode by selecting Edit dashboard from the three-dot dashboard menu.
Click Filters in the blue toolbar at the top of the dashboard, and enable the Cross-filtering switch.
If the dashboard contains any unsupported visualization types, a pop-up window indicates that the dashboard contains tiles that cannot initiate cross-filtering. Click OK to continue.
Click Save in the dashboard toolbar.

Creating cross-filters on dashboards

Once cross-filtering is enabled on an instance and a dashboard, you can create cross-filters.

Click a data point within a tile containing a supported visualization.
For bar, column, line, area, scatterplot, and pie charts, you can also click the chart legend.
The tile creating the cross-filter highlights that data point and greys out all other data points. All other data tiles will be filtered by the value of that data point. The cross-filter field and value appear at the top of the dashboard for reference.
To add an additional value to an existing cross-filter, hold down the Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) key on your keyboard while clicking on additional data points or legends.
The tiles filter on the additional value as well. The additional value for the cross-filter appears at the top of the dashboard.
To add a new cross-filter, click another data point on any tile containing a supported visualization type. All tiles filter by that cross-filter as well, and an additional field and value appears at the top of the dashboard.

Dashboard filter override behavior

Filters on a dashboard can be applied at different levels. When multiple filters affect the same field, the system determines precedence according to the following hierarchy (from highest to lowest precedence):

Cross-filters (highest precedence): created when admins interact with data points on cross-filter-enabled dashboard widgets.
Visualization-level filters: placed directly on a specific visualization widget.
Dashboard-level filters: applied at the dashboard level across one or more widget.
Query-level filters (lowest precedence): configured in the widget’s underlying query.

The override behavior among these filters is determined as follows:

Same field override:
- When a visualization-level filter and a dashboard-level filter are applied to the same field, the visualization-level filter overrides the dashboard-level filter for that widget. Only the visualization-level filter value is applied to that widget.
- When a dashboard-level filter or a visualization-level filter, along with a filter in the widget’s underlying query, is applied to the same field, the dashboard-level or visualization-level filter overrides the query filter. Only the higher-level filter value is displayed and applied.
- Cross-filters override visualization-level, dashboard-level, and query-level filters on the same field.
Custom expressions: If the underlying query uses a custom expression, higher-level filters don’t override fields in the custom expression filter, regardless of the columns that are being referenced. In this case, both the higher-level filter and the query filter are displayed and applied.
Complex filters (OR conditions): If the underlying query’s filter grouping contains at least one OR condition, the filter is treated as a complex filter, and higher-level filters don’t override any field that’s referenced in that query filter. Both filters are displayed and applied.

In summary, a filter on the underlying query is treated as a custom filter that higher-level filters will never override if one of the following conditions is true:

The innermost AND/OR grouping contains at least one OR condition.
The filter contains a custom expression.

To learn more: Using Range Selection, Using Cross-filters with Standard Dashboard Filters, Supported and Unsupported Visualization Types