Interactions

Overview

Interactions allow you to create click-based behaviors in your dashboards. When users click on chart elements (bars, lines, pie slices, table rows), you can trigger actions like filtering other cards, navigating to different dashboards, or opening external URLs.

All interactions follow a consistent 3-step configuration pattern:

1. When I click on → Select a trigger (metric or attribute)
2. I want to → Choose an action
3. Configure → Set action-specific options

Semaphor supports five interaction types:

• Cross Filter - Filter other cards on the dashboard
• Drill into Dashboard - Navigate to another dashboard with context
• Drill into Insight - View a saved visualization in a modal or inline
• Drill Down - Navigate through hierarchies (e.g., Country → State → City)
• Drill into URL - Open custom URLs with dynamic parameters

Click Selection Behavior

The type of chart element you click determines what data is captured.

Value of Metric (Intersection Behavior)

When you click on a metric value (the actual data visualization element like a bar, line point, or pie slice), the system captures all dimensions that define that data point.

Why? A metric value exists at the intersection of multiple dimensions. A bar in a stacked bar chart represents sales for a specific country AND state combination. Capturing all dimensions preserves the complete context.

Example 1: Stacked Bar Chart

Chart: Sum of Sales by Country, stacked by State
Click on: Bar segment showing $45K for USA/California

Captured filters:
- country = 'USA'
- state = 'California'

Filter propagated: country='USA' AND state='California'

Example 2: Multi-Dimensional Line Chart

Chart: Count of Orders over Time by Product Category
Click on: Line point in March for Electronics

Captured filters:
- month = 'March 2025'
- category = 'Electronics'

Filter propagated: month='March 2025' AND category='Electronics'

Example 3: Grouped Bar Chart

Chart: Revenue and Profit by Region and Quarter
Click on: Revenue bar for Q1 West region

Captured filters:
- quarter = 'Q1'
- region = 'West'

Filter propagated: quarter='Q1' AND region='West'

Multiple Metrics = Multiple Interactions

When a chart displays multiple metrics, you can configure a separate interaction for each one. Each metric can have its own distinct action.

Chart: User Metrics over Time with three metrics
- Monthly Active Users (blue line)
- Monthly Revenue (green line)
- Conversion Rate (orange line)

Interaction 1: Click "Monthly Active Users" → Drill to Insight showing user demographics
Interaction 2: Click "Monthly Revenue" → Drill to Dashboard showing revenue breakdown
Interaction 3: Click "Conversion Rate" → Drill to Insight showing conversion funnel

Result: Each metric tells its own story through specialized drill destinations

Key takeaway: All dimensional context that defines the clicked metric value flows through the interaction.

Value of Attribute (Single Dimension)

When you click on an attribute value (like an axis label), the system captures only that specific attribute, not any other dimensions present in the chart.

Why? Attributes represent categorical values independent of metrics. Even if the chart displays multiple dimensions, clicking on "California" means you want to filter by California specifically - not by all dimensions in that visualization.

Example 1: X-Axis Label

Chart: Sales by Country and State (stacked bars)
Click on: "USA" label on X-axis

Captured filter:
- country = 'USA'

Filter propagated: country='USA'
(State is NOT included, even though bars are stacked by state)

Example 2: Pie Chart Segment Label

Chart: Market Share by Region
Click on: "West" label next to a pie slice

Captured filter:
- region = 'West'

Filter propagated: region='West'

Key takeaway: Only the specific attribute clicked is captured, creating a focused filter on that dimension alone.

Multi-Metric Charts (Selective Triggering)

When a chart displays multiple metrics (e.g., revenue, profit, and orders), interactions can be configured to trigger only when a specific metric's visual element is clicked.

Why? Different metrics often require different actions. You may want clicking revenue to drill into a financial dashboard, while clicking orders drills into an operations dashboard.

Example:

Chart: Orders over Time with three metrics
- #count_of_orders (blue bars)
- #sum_of_sales (green bars)
- #sum_of_profit (orange bars)

Interaction configured: "When I click on #count_of_orders" → Drill to Operations Dashboard

User clicks blue bar for January:
✅ Interaction triggers
Captured filter: month='January'

User clicks green or orange bar:
❌ Interaction does NOT trigger

Multiple interactions on same chart:

Interaction 1: Click #sum_of_sales → Drill to Finance Dashboard
Interaction 2: Click #count_of_orders → Drill to Operations Dashboard

User clicks green bar (sales):
→ Navigates to Finance Dashboard

User clicks blue bar (orders):
→ Navigates to Operations Dashboard

This allows each metric to have its own distinct behavior.

Cross Filter

Click a chart element to filter other cards on the dashboard.

Configuration Steps

Step 1: Select What to Click

1. Open the Interactions panel in the Visual editor
2. Click + Add interaction
3. Choose your trigger type:
   • Value of Metric - Shows all metrics in your card (e.g., #count_of_orders)
   • Value of Attribute - Shows all dimensions (e.g., country, category)

Step 2: Choose Cross Filter Action

1. In the "I want to" section, click Choose action
2. Select Cross filter

A tooltip explains: "Filter other cards on the dashboard based on the selected value"

Step 3: Select Filter Scope

Choose which cards to filter:

Selecting Specific Cards

After choosing "Only specific cards" or "All cards except":

1. Click the card selector dropdown
2. Check/uncheck cards in the list
3. Selected cards appear as removable tags below
4. Click × on any tag to remove that card

Example Configuration

When I click on: #Revenue (metric)
I want to: Cross filter
Filter scope: Only specific cards
Selected cards:
  • Product Performance
  • Regional Sales
  • Customer Metrics

Result: Clicking the Revenue metric filters only the three selected cards.

Drill into Dashboard

Navigate to another dashboard, passing click context as filters.

Configuration Steps

1. Select your trigger (metric or attribute)
2. Choose Drill into dashboard action
3. Click Choose dashboard to open the picker

Dashboard Picker

The dashboard picker includes:

• Search bar - Filter dashboards by name
• Two tabs:
  • "created by me" - Your personal dashboards (default)
  • "all" - All accessible dashboards
• Dashboard cards showing:
  • Dashboard name
  • Description (if available)
  • Last modified timestamp

Context Modes

When drilling to a dashboard, you can control what context gets passed:

Example

When I click on: Country (attribute)
I want to: Drill into dashboard
Target: Regional Sales Dashboard
Context mode: Interaction Filters

Result:
Click "USA" → Navigate to Regional Sales Dashboard
Filters applied: country='USA'

Drill into Insight

View a saved visualization (insight) with applied filters, either in a modal overlay or as an inline replacement.

What are Insights?

Insights are saved visualizations that can be reused across dashboards. When you drill into an insight, you can:

• View it in a modal (large overlay)
• Replace the current card content (inline)

Configuration Steps

1. Select your trigger (metric or attribute)
2. Choose Drill into insight action
3. Click Choose insight to open the picker

Insight Picker

The insight picker shows:

• Search bar - Filter by insight name
• Two tabs: "created by me" | "all"
• Insight items with:
  • 📊 icon for valid insights
  • × icon for invalid/deleted insights
  • Last modified timestamp

Display Modes

Modal Display:

• Large overlay covers most of the screen
• Click outside or press ESC to close
• Returns to original dashboard view

Replace Card Display:

• Insight content replaces the card
• Breadcrumbs or back button appear
• Click to return to original card

Example

When I click on: Product Category (attribute)
I want to: Drill into insight
Target: Product Details insight
Display mode: Modal
Context mode: Interaction Filters

Result:
Click "Electronics" → Modal opens showing Product Details
Filters applied: category='Electronics'

Drill Down

Navigate through a predefined hierarchy (e.g., Country → State → City) by drilling deeper with each click.

What are Hierarchies?

Hierarchies are predefined sequences of fields to drill through. Each click drills one level deeper.

Common hierarchy types:

• Location - Country → State → City
• Time - Year → Quarter → Month → Day
• Product - Category → Subcategory → Product
• Organization - Division → Department → Team

Configuration Steps

1. Select your trigger (typically a metric)
2. Choose Drill down action
3. Click Choose hierarchy

Hierarchy Picker

The hierarchy picker displays available hierarchies with their drill paths:

📍 Location Hierarchy
   Country → State → City

📅 Time Hierarchy
   Year → Quarter → Month → Day

📦 Product Hierarchy
   Category → Subcategory → Product

Click + Create new to define custom hierarchies.

Drill Behavior

How it works:

1. First click drills to level 2 (e.g., State)
2. Second click drills to level 3 (e.g., City)
3. Each drill applies a filter for the clicked value
4. Breadcrumbs appear at the top showing drill path
5. Click breadcrumbs to drill back up

Example: Location Drill Down

Initial State:

Chart: Sales by Country
No filters active

User clicks "USA":

Chart updates to: Sales by State
Filter applied: country='USA'
Breadcrumb: USA

User clicks "California":

Chart updates to: Sales by City
Filters applied: country='USA', state='California'
Breadcrumb: USA > California

User clicks "USA" in breadcrumb:

Chart returns to: Sales by State
Filter applied: country='USA'
Breadcrumb: USA

Drill into URL

Navigate to a custom URL with dynamic parameters from the click context and dashboard state.

URL Builder

The URL builder features a two-panel layout:

Left Panel: URL Template

• Large textarea for entering your URL
• Supports parameter placeholders: {{parameter_name}}
• Live preview below shows example URL

Right Panel: Parameters

• Browse and insert available parameters
• Click any parameter to insert at cursor position
• Organized into categories

Available Parameters

Attributes - Values from clicked chart data:

• All groupBy and pivotBy fields from the current card
• Example: {{country}}, {{product}}, {{order_date}}
• Shows field name and qualified field path

Identifiers - System identifiers:

• {{card_id}} - Current card ID
• {{frame_id}} - Current frame ID
• {{sheet_id}} - Current sheet ID

Configuration Steps

1. Select your trigger (metric or attribute)
2. Choose Drill into URL action
3. Click Add Custom URL to open the builder
4. Build your URL template:
   • Type the base URL in the left panel
   • Click parameters in the right panel to insert
   • Parameters auto-insert as {{parameter_name}} at cursor position
5. Optional: Customize the menu label
6. Click Save

URL Encoding

The URL encode parameters checkbox (enabled by default) controls how parameter values are encoded:

• Enabled - Special characters are encoded (e.g., spaces → %20)
• Disabled - Raw values are inserted

Recommendation: Keep enabled to ensure valid URLs with special characters.

Menu Label Customization

The menu label field allows you to customize how this interaction appears when multiple interactions are available.

• Default label: "Open External Link"
• Custom examples: "View Order Details", "Open Support Portal", "See Full Report"

Example Configuration

URL Template:

https://erp.company.com/orders/{{order_id}}?status={{status}}&region={{region}}&card={{card_id}}

When user clicks:

• Order ID: "12345"
• Status: "Shipped"
• Region: "West Coast"
• Card ID: "abc123"

Generated URL:

https://erp.company.com/orders/12345?status=Shipped&region=West%20Coast&card=abc123

Multiple Interactions

You can configure multiple interactions on the same card for different triggers or actions.

Use Cases

Different metrics, different actions:

Interaction 1: Click "Revenue" → Drill to Finance Dashboard
Interaction 2: Click "Units Sold" → Cross filter other cards

Different attributes, different destinations:

Interaction 1: Click "Product" → Drill down product hierarchy
Interaction 2: Click "Region" → Cross filter by region

Combined workflows:

Interaction 1: Click "Category" → Drill down product hierarchy
Interaction 2: Click "Status" → Cross filter dashboard
Interaction 3: Click "Order ID" → Drill to URL (external system)

Managing Multiple Interactions

• Each interaction is displayed as a separate card in the Interactions panel
• Click Edit to modify an interaction
• Click × to remove an individual interaction
• Click + Add interaction to add more
• No technical limit to the number of interactions per card

Interaction Selection Menu

When multiple interactions could trigger from a single click, a popup menu appears:

• Menu displays at the click location
• Lists all matching interactions with icons and labels
• User selects which action to execute
• Custom menu labels help differentiate options