What Are Action Links and Action Link Menus?

An action link is a link to an action that you have embedded in an analysis, dashboard page, scorecard objective, scorecard initiative, or KPI that, when clicked, runs an associated action.

Figure 10-1 shows an analysis to which an action link has been added to column values. When you hover the mouse pointer over a column value (for example, Touch-Screen T5 in this figure), the column value is displayed as a link. Clicking the column link displays the associated action link, then clicking the action link executes the associated action.

In analyses, KPIs, scorecard objectives, and scorecard initiatives, multiple action links are displayed in a list. Figure 10-2 shows an analysis to which a list of action links (Display Graph View, Send Email to Manager, and Open Fulfillment Analysis) has been added to column values. When you hover the mouse pointer over a column value (for example, Touch-Screen T5 in this figure), the column value is displayed as a link. Clicking a column value link displays a list of actions. Clicking an action in the list executes the associated action.

On a dashboard page, you can add action links as standalone links or you can group multiple action links together on action link menus. An action link menu lets users select, from a list of action links, the appropriate action to be executed based on the business insight that they gained from the data.

Additionally, you can conditionally show each action link, depending on the data. This powerful functionality enables you to set up context-sensitive menus that present users with the appropriate next steps based on the data that is displayed. For more information on conditionally showing action links, see "About Conditionally Enabling Actions."

Action links that you add to analyses are displayed to users in the following views:

• Funnel graphs

• Gauges

• Graphs

• Map views

• Performance Tiles

• Pivot tables

• Tables

• Trellises

• Treemaps

For information about views, see Chapter 3, "Adding Views for Display in Dashboards."

Action links that you add to scorecard objectives and initiatives are displayed to users in the following scorecard views:

• Cause & effect maps

• Custom views

• Strategy trees

• Strategy maps

• KPI watchlists

Action links that you add to KPIs are displayed to users in KPI analyses.