Multiple Filter Links on Strategy Map Reports

If you've been wondering why you have been unable to pass more than one dashboard filter link to a Strategy Map report wonder no longer. This is a bug that will hopefully be fixed soon; MS are aware of it. I discovered it while writing the Dashboard chapter of the book.

Scenario

You have a dashboard consisting of a scorecard and a strategy map report. The  strategy map is linked to the scorecard KPI items. You wish to filter both the scorecard and strategy map on your dashboard using two global filters: Fiscal Year and Country. Creating links for both filters on the Page endpoint on the scorecard is no problem. Doing the same on the strategy map is not.

In the RTM build a strategy map dashboard item exposes two endpoints: Filters and Page. Strategy map filter links should all be applied to the Page endpoint. The dashboard UI will allow you to connect filter links to the Filters endpoint but the resultant dashboard will simply not apply the filter - this endpoint is a no-op. The Filters endpoint was deprecated but somehow made it into the RTM build.

The Filters endpoint no-op is a red herring that distracts you from the real problem: after you have connected one filter link to the Page endpoint it is no longer available to be used by a second filter link.

 

We should be able to hook up multiple filter links to the Page endpoint. At this point you can hook up either the Fiscal Year or the Country filter link, but not both. This is not acceptable.

Workaround

The only thing that is stopping you from applying more than one filter link to the Page endpoint is the value of the AcceptsMultipleFilterLinks attribute on the Page EndPoint element within the workspace. It should be True but the designer UI sets it to False. We need to get into the XML of the workspace and change it manually.

1. Save & close your workspace (and take a backup, just in case)
2. "Open with" the workspace .bswx file in Notepad or any other text / XML editor
3. Search for "StrategyMap" in order to find the correct report view node
   
4. Scroll through the <CustomData> element numbers and letters that represent the strategy map object itself until you get to the <EndPoints> node underneath
5. Change the value of the AcceptsMultipleFilterLinks for the Page endpoint from false to true
    
6. Save & close the file and reopen in Dashboard Designer. You can now apply as many filter links to the strategy map Page endpoint as you like