Hi there,
We have a query about passing in data to custom visual content in QuickSight.
We are looking at using QuickSight to visualize our data however there are some industry specific (e.g. wind rose charts and a few others) which QuickSight doesn’t support. So we are trying to figure out if it is possible for us to write a widget (using React) and then embed that into QuickSight and pass data to it via a URL parameter. However it seems that we can only pass in named Parameters but not actual data to the URL.
Does anyone know if what we are trying to do is actually possible with QuickSight?
Hi @austinzz - you would need to feed the underlying data to this custom visual outside of QuickSight (connect it to the same underlying database you are using from QuickSight). We cannot hook it up to SPICE. As you said you would be able to pass parameters to it, so it can be tied to the same filter/parameter controls that the rest of your visuals use, and we can send ‘filter actions’ via ‘navigation actions’ by setting a parameter value from the datapoint they clicked on in another chart.
Can I can give you a use case;
Say with QuickSight the user is to (1) select a geographical region they are interested in, then they would (2) select a piece of equipment that they are interested in and also (3) choose a start/end time range.
Once these 4 pieces of information are selected the visualizations are displayed.
So our custom visual would also need these same 4 pieces of information, via the URL (presumably), and then it would have to query the underlying native databases within AWS to be able to render our custom visual alongside the other QuickSight visualizations?
I have had a look at filter actions but I’m not quite getting what you are saying here.
I can see how we can pass in QuickSight Parameters to the URL but passing in Filters using the <<$filter_name>> syntax doesn’t seem to work.
Can you elaborate a bit more on what you’ve described?
Hi @austinzz - yes you’ve got the overall flow correct. Sorry If I introduced confusion when I said Filter Actions. We aren’t actually going to use Filter Actions, but we can achieve something similar with Navigation Actions. Navigation Actions are primarily designed to take the user to another sheet (and pass parameters with it), but you can also use them to keep the user on the same sheet but just set the value of a parameter. One scenario this is useful for is when you want a user to be able to click on a native QS visual and then ‘filter’ your custom visual by setting a navigation action that sets the value of a parameter equal to a field from your native visual click, and insert that parameter value into the URL of your custom visual.
If you arent trying to set clicks between the visuals then this isnt necessary. If you are rather just using Controls for everything, then just make sure your controls are all Parameters and not Filters. You can still insert the parameter values into the custom visual URL like described above, and you can add filters on the native visuals to be driven by the same parameter. Then everything is tied together from the parameter controls (it will ‘filter’ both the native and custom visuals).
