Default a canvas dashboard filter to user_attribute value

[stonematt (Matt)]

I have a dashboard that filter teams by coordinators. When a coordinator opens the dashboard, I want it to default to “my teams”. I’m trying to do it w/ user attributes like this (these filters are reusable library blocks that show up on a collection of dashboards):

User-Aware Filter Definition

@template(
  title = "My Coordinator Pair Filter",
  description = "Reusable coordinator filter block",
)
Func coordinator_team_filter() {
  FilterBlock {
    label: "Coordinator Pair"
    type: "field"
    source: FieldFilterSource {
      dataset: stack_examiner_timing
      field: ref("team_data", "coordinator")
    }
    default { operator: "is", value: H.current_user.cfa_coordinator_team }
  }
}

Error in code editor

When I do this, I get an error like:
Cannot find name 'cfa_coordinator_team'. (line: 61, character: 53)

Hard coded filter definition (this works)

    default { operator: "is", value: "Emre/Nivine" }

Attribute Configuration

this is how I have the attribute configured:

Context

• There are several coordinator pairs (5-ish in a small organization, so hand configuring users is ok)
• This is not row level filtering, all coordinators can see all data. This is meant to be a quality of life enhancement for convenience and performance
• I’m open to other ideas

[tridvm (Tri Duong)]

Hi @stonematt, thanks so much for raising this.
You’re absolutely right - user attributes aren’t currently supported in Filter, and I understand how limiting that can be for your workflow. I’ve logged this as a feature request and will make sure it’s brought to our team’s attention for consideration.
I’ll let you know if there’re any new updates relating to this capability.

[stonematt (Matt)]

Thanks @tridvm – is there an interim or alternative approach that would simulate this sort of function? I have a deliverable in an SOW around this sort of capability, ie. “quality of life” or “user aware” conveniences.

I started brainstorming w/ the component library on canvas, but it seems like overkill to make 5 identical dashboards for each of the coordinators w/ some baked in/hard coded filter. Doesn’t scale as nicely

I have a team_data model that has the unique coordinators. Maybe I can use the user attribute to make a “that’s me” boolean and filter on that?

[stonematt (Matt)]

Works but not great

I got it working for this season, but it’s not particularly elegant.

• Users have to know to turn off the “my pair” filter and choose another coordinator if they want to explore other teams.
• this broke by preAggs, so I may have to abandon it anyway. – I have a preagg ladder that includes coordinator, buy my_pair is dynamic, so i don’t know how the engine would do that…

AQL dimension

 dimension my_coordinator_pair {
    label: 'My Coordinator Pair'
    type: 'truefalse'
    hidden: false
    description: "True if user attribute matches coordinator"
    definition: @aql
      team_data.coordinator == H.current_user.cfa_coordinator_team
    ;;
  }

Canvas Filter

  block f_3n17: FilterBlock {
    label: 'My Coordinator Pair'
    type: 'field'
    source: FieldFilterSource {
      dataset: stack_examiner_timing
      field: r(team_data.my_coordinator_pair)
    }
    default {
      operator: 'is'
      value: true
    }
  }

  block f3: FilterBlock {
    label: "Coordinator Pair"
    type: "field"
    source: FieldFilterSource {
      dataset: stack_examiner_timing
      field: ref("team_data", "coordinator")
    }
    default {
      operator: "is",
      value: [ ]
    }
  }

Caveats

Must setup a parent child relationship between “My Coordinator Pair” and “Coordinator Pair” b/c it’s not reasonable to show this dashboard with “all coordinators”.

[stonematt (Matt)]

@tridvm, can you highlight this to your product team?

This screenshot is from our kickoff meeting today. While demoing the new dashboards, one of our coordinators mentioned he had to create hardcoded versions for each manager just to sidestep the process of:

load → update filter → reload “Mine.”

These dashboards are large and take several seconds to load, so that extra cycle is frustrating and inefficient for end users. What’s more concerning is the overhead it creates for coordinators: instead of one flexible productized dashboard, they’re now maintaining multiple hardcoded versions for their entire team. Every event means more dashboards to update, which makes the tool feel rigid and brittle instead of scalable and efficient. He’s not a developer, he shouldn’t have to inherit this.

A default-to-“My Teams” experience (whether via user attributes or another approach) would eliminate the workaround, reduce maintenance overhead, and significantly improve usability and adoption.

Attaching the example for context.

[tridvm (Tri Duong)]

Hi @stonematt,

Thanks for sharing this and sorry to hear about the friction you’re experiencing. I understand how this adds extra steps for users and delays getting to the desired insights.

While we don’t currently have a concrete plan to support user attributes in filters, I want to assure you that your feedback has been logged in our backlog. I’ll also escalate this to our product team for further consideration in future improvements.

Regarding your workaround idea: it’s an interesting approach, but as you mentioned, it introduces additional complexity for users and unfortunately breaks pre-aggregations. This happens because preAggs rely on matching specific aggregation patterns with predefined dimensions (e.g., coordinator_team, count_something) - whereas your new dynamic dimension uses (my_pair: true/false, count_something), which doesn’t align with the pre-aggregated structure and causes query preAgg failures. You can read more about this info in our doc in dimension awareness.

In the meantime, here are two alternative approaches you might consider:

• URL Parameters for Default Filters

  • You can pass filter values via URL parameters so each coordinator has a personalized default view. They can bookmark their version of the dashboard for quick access. For example: dashboard_url?coordinator_team=abc. Learn more about URL parameters.
  • You have the option programatically generate dashboard url with parameter with our API. You can read more here.

• Disable Dashboard Auto-Run Coordinators can manually select their name in the filter before running the dashboard. This avoids unnecessary initial query time and gives users control over what data loads. See how to disable auto-run.

Let me know if this works for your case or if you have any further questions.

[stonematt (Matt)]

thanks for the links. i’ll go look at these options.

[stonematt (Matt)]

I ended up using Canvas Tabs w/ a summary “Home” tab and user filters, so Coordinators can pick themselves and subsequent tabs respect their choice. It’s not a bad user experience.

Tabs | Holistics Docs (4.0)

This is Pretty slick.

I still think leverageing user_attributes in this way would be VERY powerful.

[tridvm (Tri Duong)]

Hi @stonematt,
Is your approach similar to this post? You can use it as a reference to implement a similar workaround - potentially avoiding the need to manually create tabs.

Rest assured, user_attributes approach has been already added to our backlog for future improvements.