Adding Prompts 

An alternative to setting filter conditions in the Filters section (see Adding Hard Filters) is to configure your information link to prompt for filter values as the columns are retrieved. This way you do not have to specify filter conditions in advance. The data table will be pared down before the next column in sequence is processed (unless you have specified prompt groups to treat the columns as independent). See Prompted Information Link Example for further information.

To enable prompts:

1. In Information Designer, create a new information link or modify an existing link.

2. On the Information Link tab, go to the Prompts section.

3. Click Add.

   Response: The Add Column dialog is displayed.

4. Select the column for which you wish to add a prompt from the drop-down list.

5. Click OK.

   Response: The column is added to the Prompts list.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 add prompts for more columns.

7. For each column, use the Prompt Type drop-down list to select how you want to be prompted for filter conditions during data retrieval.

   Comment: Selecting Values will let you enter a list of values to include. Range will let you specify a range of values. Multiple selection will present a list of available values from which you can select multiple values. Single selection will present a list of available values from which you can select a single value.

8. Save the information link, or open it.

Note: When opening a prompted information link, the prompts will appear in the order that the columns appear in the Information Link tab. You can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to move columns up or down. (Filter elements are always applied before any prompts, regardless of order.)

Note: Prompts may be converted to on-demand parameters if the prompted information link is added to an analysis from the Add Data Tables dialog. This is done by clicking on the Use-On Demand button when a prompt step is shown. Any required parameters must then be specified in the On-Demand Settings dialog instead.

Tip: When entering values for filtering you are allowed to use wildcard characters. These are: