Lookup visuals for dropdowns

The Inforiver Lookup visual has been designed to help you seamlessly integrate data from different semantic models into your reports and ensure that the data is up-to-date and accurate.

1. Top 3 benefits of using the Inforiver Lookup visual

You can fetch data from your source tables in real-time, provided you have an up-to-date semantic model or the lookup table is in direct query/lake mode.
Row-level security is implicitly handled as the helper visual displays the list of values based on the data Power BI transmits for a particular user.
The lookup visual is lightweight and requires virtually no maintenance like data refreshes.

2. Importing and configuring the Lookup visual

The Inforiver Lookup visual works in tandem with the Matrix visuals. It can be downloaded from our customer portal for free and then imported into Power BI.

To configure the visual, simply drag the dimension with dropdown options from your semantic model into the Dimension field. You can add multiple lookup visuals for a single Inforiver Matrix visual.

3. Sourcing single-select and multi-select options from the Lookup visual

The lookup visual is a more efficient solution that overcomes the drawbacks of connecting directly to the semantic model from Inforiver – the data is refreshed automatically when the Power BI semantic model is refreshed, and RLS settings are honored.

STEP 1: Select the Lookup Visual option and specify the lookup visual name

When you choose the Lookup Visual option, you must specify the visual name in the configuration. In this case, we are populating dropdown options for the manager’s name – so we’ve selected the corresponding visual name.

STEP 2: Assign the dimension field to source dropdown options

Next, select the Column Label field – the options in the dropdown will be sourced from this field. If you have a primary key or ID field associated with the label field, you can assign the ID field to the Column ID. If the column labels are updated, the ID field mapping ensures that the updated value will be reflected in your reports.

Note: If your lookup table has no ID field, use the same label field (in this example, Manager Name) as Column ID.

STEP 3: Click Add to apply the configuration and create the dropdown.

Let’s take a closer look at assigning a manager from the dropdown. Suppose a manager has jurisdiction over the South and East regions only – but he is incorrectly assigned as an approver for a product category in the Central region. A manual error such as this one in selecting options could result in ambiguity, delays, and possible financial losses. When you deal with huge data volumes, such operational errors are inevitable.

With Inforiver, you can enforce data integrity by specifying filters while configuring dropdowns. Please be aware that to use filters, the dimension (in this case, Region) needs to be added to the Inforiver and Lookup visuals.

Let’s look at the dropdown in action. With filters applied, notice how the options change dynamically based on the region.

5. Automatic cross-filtering

The lookup visual has the added capability to cross-filter data. The sample report shown below sources product data from a lookup visual. Notice how the product names change dynamically based on the product sub-category.