¶ Adding and Configuring Filters for Interactive Dashboards in SAP Lumira
In today’s fast-paced business environment, interactive dashboards play a pivotal role in enabling users to analyze data on the fly and make informed decisions quickly. SAP Lumira, a leading self-service data visualization tool in the SAP portfolio, provides extensive capabilities to add and configure filters that make dashboards highly interactive, dynamic, and user-friendly.
Filters are essential components that allow end-users to focus on relevant subsets of data, customize their views, and uncover actionable insights tailored to their specific needs. This article explores how to effectively add and configure filters in SAP Lumira to create interactive dashboards that empower users.
Filters enhance dashboards by:
- Enabling users to drill down into relevant data slices.
- Supporting real-time data exploration without altering the original datasets.
- Improving dashboard performance by limiting data volume displayed.
- Facilitating personalized analytics based on user roles or preferences.
- Providing better storytelling through focused visual narratives.
SAP Lumira offers multiple types of filters that can be used individually or combined to maximize interactivity:
- Input Controls
- Linked Filters
- Hierarchy Filters
- Global and Local Filters
- Date and Time Filters
Let’s explore how to add and configure these filters.
Input Controls are interactive UI elements like dropdowns, sliders, or checkboxes that allow users to select filter values dynamically.
How to Add Input Controls:
- Open your dashboard/story in the Compose Room.
- Click on Input Controls in the toolbar.
- Choose New Input Control.
- Select the dimension or measure you want to filter (e.g., Region, Product Category).
- Select the input control type (Dropdown, List Box, Slider, Radio Button).
- Bind the input control to the desired visualization(s).
- Place the control in the dashboard layout for easy user access.
Linked filters enable filtering multiple charts simultaneously based on a single selection.
Configuring Linked Filters:
- Ensure that the visualizations share the same dataset or dimension.
- Use the Linked Analysis feature to connect charts.
- When a user filters data in one chart, linked charts update accordingly.
Hierarchy filters allow drill-down capabilities across data levels (e.g., Year → Quarter → Month).
Steps:
- Create or import a hierarchy in your dataset.
- Add the hierarchy dimension to your visualization.
- Users can click to drill down or roll up across hierarchy levels.
- Global filters affect all charts and visualizations on the dashboard.
- Local filters apply to a single chart or specific visualization only.
Configuration:
- When creating filters, specify their scope.
- Use global filters for overall dashboard context settings.
- Use local filters for chart-specific exploration.
¶ 5. Adding Date and Time Filters
Date filters are critical for time-series analysis.
How to Add:
- Add a date dimension to your dataset.
- Create an input control slider or dropdown based on the date field.
- Configure to allow single-date selection, range, or relative periods (e.g., last 30 days).
- Keep filters intuitive and straightforward for end-users.
- Limit the number of filters to avoid overwhelming users.
- Use default filter selections to focus attention on key data segments.
- Label filters clearly with meaningful names.
- Test filter interactions to ensure smooth, synchronized updates across visuals.
- Optimize performance by using filters on indexed or aggregated data when possible.
Imagine a sales dashboard showing regional sales performance:
- Add a Region dropdown filter to view sales by country or state.
- Include a Product Category slider to focus on specific product lines.
- Implement a Date range filter to analyze monthly or quarterly sales trends.
- Link charts so filtering by Region automatically updates sales and profitability visuals.
This interactive setup enables sales managers to quickly identify trends, monitor KPIs, and make data-driven decisions.
Adding and configuring filters in SAP Lumira is fundamental to building interactive, user-centric dashboards that deliver personalized insights and enhance data exploration. By leveraging various filter types and following best practices, SAP professionals can create powerful visual analytics environments that drive smarter business decisions.
Whether you are a data analyst, BI developer, or business user, mastering filters in SAP Lumira will elevate your dashboards from static reports to dynamic tools of insight.