Want to slice or chop your data in ArcGIS Dashboards? Try using selectors

Slicing and chopping are two different techniques to prepare food, but you can’t usually slice and chop the same item—it’s one or the other. Thankfully, we don’t have to decide when developing dashboards. Throw those knives away (carefully) and grab the food processor we call selectors.

What are selectors in ArcGIS Dashboards?

A selector is any dashboard element that allows a selection change event. Since selectors support events, they can trigger actions. For example, the list element allows users to select rows, effectively filtering the operational layers on the map (this is like chopping). There are times, however, when we may want more control or to deep dive into our data based on dates, attributes or even ranges of data (this is like slicing).

So how do we get both options inside dashboards? We can use the selectors tied to the header or sidebar elements. These include options to filter data based on category, number and dates. Check out this GeoSnap video for an example of how selectors can help filter and focus your dashboard to the degree needed.

If you’d like to learn more about selectors and ArcGIS Dashboards in general, our instructor-led course called ArcGIS Dashboards Essentials is for you. In this course, you’ll create and configure your own dashboard and discover how to add design elements, integrate field apps and display temporal data. Decision makers and mobile workers alike will love having the ability to monitor events in real time, see high-level overviews of what’s going on and understand their organization in a new way.

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