Issue related to Cascading Filter Platform Analytics

[AnupriyaC]

Hi Everyone,

I’d really appreciate your guidance on an issue I’m facing while setting up a cascading filter, where Filter B should follow Filter A.

Here’s the context:

My main table (Incident Reduction) has two fields: Application and Department.

The Application field is a reference from the Business App table.

The Business App table also has a reference field for Department, but the source for the Department field comes from the Group table (which automatically gets selected as the filter source in Platform Analytics).

Similarly, when setting up the filter for Application, the filter source automatically gets selected as Business App.

What I want:

When a Department is chosen in Filter A, only the Applications belonging to that Department should appear in Filter B.

What I tried:

For the first-level filter, I used:

Table: Group

Field: Department

Target Table (Related Table): Incident Reduction -> Department

For the second-level filter, I used:

Table: Business App

Field: Name (since Application is a reference field, only “Name” was available, which corresponds to Application)

Parent Target: Department (already a reference field in this table with the same backend name)

Target Table (Related Table): Incident Reduction → Application (this is a reference to Business App)

Issue:
In Platform Analytics, I still see the error:

        “1 filter(s) cannot be followed.”

Since there’s no direct Application reference in the Group table, I’m struggling to make the cascading logic work correctly. Could someone help me understand what I’m missing here and how to correctly configure this cascading filter?

Thanks in advance!

[kaushal_snow]

Hi @AnupriyaC ,

It indicates that cascading filter setup is encountering issues due to missing or incorrect relationships between the tables involved. In your case, the Incident Reduction table references both the Business App and Group tables, but there is no direct relationship between these tables, which is necessary for cascading filters to function correctly....

>> To resolve this, consider the following steps:

Establish a many-to-many relationship between the Group and Business App tables.... This can be achieved by creating a new M2M table that links these two tables, allowing the Department field in the Group table to relate to the Business App table via this intermediary table.Once the M2M relationship is established, modify your cascading filter setup to use this new relationship. In the second level filter (for Application), set the 'Parent Target' to the Department field in the Group table, and ensure that the Target Table is set to the Business App table. This configuration will enable the second filter to display only the applications associated with the selected department....

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as ‘Accept as Solution’ and ‘Helpful’. This helps other community members find the right answer more easily and supports the community.

[AnupriyaC]

Hi @kaushal_snow,

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply I am really grateful for the same. I do have a few follow-up queries that I’d appreciate your guidance on:

1) Since the Business App table already has Department as a reference field and Application stored as text (not a reference field, but indirectly available as a name field), can’t this existing setup be used for the cascading filter instead of creating a new M2M table?

2) For the top-level filter, do you suggest I use the newly created M2M relationship table as the source, or should I continue using the Group table (for Department) directly?

3) In the second-level filter, when adding the parent reference field, should I pull the field references from the new M2M table, or should they still come directly from their respective source tables (i.e., Group table for Department and Business App table for Application)?

4) Even if I create an M2M table, in Platform Analytics, the Filter Source and Where Filter columns seem to auto-capture Group as the source for Department and Business App as the source for Application. Won’t pointing them to the new M2M table in the configuration break the cascading filter behavior for the top-level and second-level filters? 

For reference, I’ve attached a screenshot highlighting exactly where I’m seeing this auto-filling.

5) Lastly, can I create the M2M relationship table using a Database View that joins the two tables? Would that work reliably for this use case?

Would really appreciate your insights on these points to help me move forward.

Thanks again,
Anupriya