Exclude an interactive filter for acting on a specific widget in a dashboard

[RichardF_CRC]

I have a dashboard that shows the number of instanced of open catalog items and closed catalog items on the same dashboard.

I want to have 2 interactive filters on the dashboard - 1 for department and the other for closed date.

When i choose the close date interactive filter and choose a date range or x days etc. the Open Items report widget is empty because close date is not populated. This is not the behaviour i want. I want the close date interactive filter to only apply to the widgets that are display closed items and NOT the other widgets.

Obviously the Department interactive filter happily applies to both widgets

Is the only way to solve this is to have Separate data sources for  the Open and Closed data sources - even though they both reference catalog items.  ie. Open Items data source and a Close Items data source rather than just defining the report widgets as acting on the generic Items data source ?

[Yaramala]

Hello @RichardF_CRC 

Yes, this is expected behavior with interactive filters.

If both Open and Closed report widgets are based on the same table/report source and both are set to follow interactive filters, then the Close Date filter will apply to both widgets. Since open records do not have a close date, the Open Items widget becomes empty when that filter is applied.

In Core UI dashboards, the widget generally follows the matching interactive filters for that table. It does not easily allow one widget to follow only Department but ignore Close Date while another widget follows both.

The cleanest options are:

• Create separate report sources/data sources for Open Items and Closed Items

• Configure the Close Date interactive filter only against the Closed Items source/table/view

• Keep the Department filter mapped so it can apply to both

• Or split Open and Closed reports into separate dashboard tabs

• If you are using Platform Analytics, check whether filter override/exclude behavior is available for the visualization

• For advanced cases, a custom interactive filter can be built, but I would avoid that unless really needed

So in your case, I would use separate Open and Closed report sources. Open Items source should have conditions like Active = true or State is not Closed, and Closed Items source should have State = Closed and Close Date populated. Then apply the Close Date filter only to the closed-item reports.

Please mark this as Helpful if it helps.

If this addresses your question, please mark this response as Accepted Solution 

 or mark has helpful 

 if you find it helpful.

Thank you!

TejaswiniY

[RichardF_CRC]

So here is the thing - I can not find where i can define separable data sources.

I cant apply an interactive filter to a data-source - i can only apply it to tables or OOTB views data sources not user data sources. So this means I would have to build a bespoke "table" that splits open and closed - this is too low level for us to do so not an option for us. 

So choices 1 and 2 are not available.

Point 4 - yes i agree this is the current work-around i have - and is what i am trying to avoid because that means managers having to switch between open / closed when they just want to see overall activity.

I can't see a viable example of point 5 .

Yes, we also will not do point 6 because it is too bespoke for our level of Now usage / support.

Thanks for your response.

Am keen to see if there is any other alternative than those you outlined - but fundamentally I am suspecting not because this seems to be key shortfall in the flexibility of the inbuilt dashboarding in this platform. Other platforms allow me to say Filter X only applies to reporting visualisation A and B whilst Filter Y applies to reporting visualisation B, C and D, on the same dashboard.

[Yaramala]

Hello @RichardF_CRC 

Thanks for clarifying. Based on what you described, I agree with your conclusion.

In the classic/Core UI dashboard model, there is not really an OOTB configuration where a single report widget can follow one interactive filter, such as Department, but ignore another applicable interactive filter, such as Close Date, when both filters target the same underlying table.

The “Follow interactive filter” option is effectively at the widget/report level. Once the report follows interactive filters, applicable filters for that table can affect it. It does not give a clean per-widget/per-filter mapping like:

Widget A follows Department only
Widget B follows Department + Close Date
Widget C ignores Close Date

So in your case, because the Open Items and Closed Items reports both reference the same catalog item/request table structure, the Close Date filter still applies to the Open Items widget. Since open records do not have a close date, those records are filtered out.

I also agree with your point about report sources. A user-defined report source does not really give you a separate filter target in the same way a separate table/database view would. So unless you move to a separate table, database view, PA-style design, or a more customized dashboard/UI Builder approach, you will probably keep hitting this limitation.

The practical OOTB options are mainly:

• Keep Open and Closed on separate tabs or dashboards

• Remove the Close Date interactive filter from the combined overview dashboard

• Keep the combined dashboard for high-level activity only, then drill into a separate Closed Items dashboard where Close Date filtering applies

• Use fixed report-level conditions for closed widgets instead of making Close Date a dashboard-level interactive filter

• Consider Platform Analytics/UI Builder only if your organization is ready for a more configurable dashboard approach

So I would not call this a data issue. It is more a limitation of the OOTB dashboard interactive filter behavior. Other BI/reporting tools do allow visual-level filter targeting, but classic ServiceNow dashboards are not very flexible in that specific area.

For your requirement, the cleanest low-maintenance design is probably:

One combined overview dashboard with Department filtering only
One Closed Items detail tab/dashboard with Department + Close Date filtering

That avoids custom tables/scripts and keeps the design supportable.

Please mark this as Helpful if it helps.

If this addresses your question, please mark this response as Accepted Solution 

 or mark has helpful 

 if you find it helpful.

Thank you!

TejaswiniY