Details on Action Control


This dialog is used for adding or editing action controls like links, buttons, or images in a text area. The action controls can open Spotfire tools that work on the range of filtered or marked data, apply bookmarks, or navigate to a certain page or visualization in the analysis. Multiple actions can be performed in just one click.

It is also possible to add your own custom actions using the IronPython scripting functionality, or to refresh data function calculations.

Moreover, you can via an action control export prepared reports to PDF documents.

To reach the Action Control dialog:

  1. On the text area title bar, click Edit Text Area .

    Comment: You can also right-click the text area and select Edit Text Area from the pop-up menu.
    Response: The Edit Text Area dialog is opened.

  2. On the Edit Text Area toolbar, click Insert Action Control .

Actions

Select this option to insert an action which includes displaying or hiding panels, performing various operations on marked rows, applies bookmarks or switches pages.

Option

Description

Display text

The text that will be displayed for the link or on the button.

Control type

Specifies whether to use a button, link or an image to execute the action.

Image

Enabled if the control type selected above is an image. Displays the path to the selected image.

   Browse

Opens a dialog where you can browse to an image to use as the action control. Clicking the image in the text area will execute the specified actions.

Available actions

Lists all actions that can be included in a multiple action link, grouped by type. Click the plus sign to expand a group. Click an action (a function, a bookmark or a page) to select it.

Comments about Reset All Visible Filters:

This functionality is based on which filters are shown in the Filters panel only, and not related to any filters that you have added to a text area. This means that if a filter is hidden from the Filters panel, it will not be updated using this action, regardless if you can see it in the text area or not. The Filters panel does not have to be shown for the action to work, though.

Comments about bookmarks:

For bookmark components, the active visualization always takes precedence over the active page.

The filter settings of the active filtering scheme are changed, including the setting determining how related data tables are affected by each other's filtering.

The markings component of a bookmark takes the analysis back to the state all markings had when the bookmark part was captured. If a marking has been removed, that marking is simply ignored.

Comments about marked rows:

The marking applied when adding any of the Marked Rows functions is the one used by the active data table. The active data table is the one used by the visualization that was active before clicking on the text area. If the marking for the active visualization is set to (None), nothing will happen when clicking on the link.

Add

Adds the selected action to the Selected actions list.

Remove

Removes the selected action from the Selected actions list.

Selected actions (applied in top-bottom order)

Lists the added actions in the order that they will be performed.

Settings

Opens the Settings dialog for the action selected in the Selected actions list (when applicable).

Move Up

Moves the selected action up in the list.

Move Down

Moves the selected action down in the list.

Export Report

Select this option to insert a link, button, or image that exports a report to PDF when clicked.

Option

Description

Display text

The text that will be displayed for the link or on the button.

Control type

Specifies whether to use a button, link or an image to execute the export action.

Image

Enabled if the control type selected above is an image. Displays the path to the selected image.

   Browse

Opens a dialog where you can browse to an image to use as the action control. Clicking the image in the text area will export the report to a PDF document.

Available reports

Lists all reports that have been prepared for PDF export within the analysis.

Script

Select this option to insert a link, button, or image that executes a script when clicked.

Note: For security reasons, there are some restrictions for using scripts. For more information, see Usage of Scripts and Script and Data Function Trust.

Option

Description

Display text

The text that will be displayed for the link or on the button.

Control type

Specifies whether to use a button, link or an image to execute the action.

Image

Enabled if the control type selected above is an image. Displays the path to the selected image.

   Browse

Opens a dialog where you can browse to an image to use as the action control. Clicking the image in the text area will execute the specified actions.

Available scripts

Lists all currently defined scripts.

Note: The Remark field can contain information about whether a script is trusted or not. Scripts that you have created yourself are trusted, and so are scripts saved as trusted to the library by a member in the Script Author group.

If you receive an analysis file containing a script directly from another person, the script will be listed as "Not trusted". This does not necessarily mean that the script contains any unsafe material, but you should determine whether you trust the script or not by inspecting it in the Edit Script dialog. By clicking OK in the Edit Script dialog, the script will be trusted. If you know all scripts are safe, you can click Trust All.

However, due to security reasons, scripts cannot be used in a TIBCO Cloud Spotfire web client environment. In a Spotfire on premises web client environment, scripts can be executed if they are saved as trusted by a member in the Script Author group. See also Usage of Scripts and Data Functions.

New

Opens the New Script dialog where you can define a new script.

Import

Opens a dialog where you can select an analysis file from which to import all available scripts.

Note: Spotfire compares the scripts you are trying to import with already existing scripts. A script whose script body is identical to an existing script will not be imported even if it has a different name.

Edit

Opens the Edit Script dialog where you can edit the selected script or its parameters.

Delete

Deletes the selected script.

Manage trust

Opens the Manage trust dialog where you can handle all trust-related issues in one place. If you are sure all items in the analysis are safe, click Trust all on the Unsigned items to trust all scripts simultaneously.

Necessary input for the selected script

Lists all parameters that have been defined for the selected script. Click on a parameter to modify the input. Different parameter types have different input settings.

   Value

Click this radio button if you want to type a value to use as input for the selected parameter.

   Property

Click this radio button to associate the selected parameter with a property.

   Select Property

Opens the Select Property dialog where you can specify which property to get the input to the script from.

   Expression

Click this radio button to calculate the value for the selected parameter via an expression.

   Edit Expression

Opens the Edit Expression dialog where you can specify an expression using columns, properties and functions.

   Select visualization

Select the visualization in the current analysis that you want to associate with the selected script parameter.

   Select page

Select the page in the current analysis that you want to associate with the selected script parameter.

   Select data table

Select the data table in the current analysis that you want to associate with the selected script parameter.

Data Function

Select this option to insert a link or button that refreshes a previously executed data function when clicked.

Note: For security reasons, there are some restrictions for using data functions. For more information, see Script and Data Function Trust.

Option

Description

Display text

The text that will be displayed for the link or on the button.

Control type

Specifies whether to use a button, link or an image to execute the action.

Image

Enabled if the control type selected above is an image. Displays the path to the selected image.

   Browse

Opens a dialog where you can browse to an image to use as the action control. Clicking the image in the text area will execute the specified actions.

Available data functions

Lists all data functions that have been executed within the current analysis and that do not use the Refresh function automatically feature. You can execute data functions from Data Functions Properties.

See also:

How to Use the Text Area

Text Area Edit Mode

Cover Page

Guided Analyses