User Parameters - What They Are and What They're For (Example Use Cases)
User Parameters - What They Are and What They're For (Example Use Cases)
User Parameters, or simply Parameters are user and user group-specific values that can be assigned to live database connections and queries. These values are resolved during query runtime and change dynamically depending on the current logged-in user. This means that we can manage a single Live Data Model with varying connection details and queries.
By eliminating the need for multiple identical copies of data models and dashboards, parameters provide increased design flexibility and reduce maintenance complexity without compromising your data security restrictions.
Parameters are managed by Admins and Data Admins. There are two types of parameters:
- Live Connection Parameters are used to personalize connection details, such as database connection string, location, username, and password.
- Custom Live Query Parameters are used to customize parts of live SQL queries, such as column names, calculations, and filter conditions.
For more information on how to create Parameters, refer to this documentation: Personalization Parameters for Live Data Sources.
Here are a few example use cases for User Parameters:
- Federating multiple isolated, structurally identical databases into a single model (parameterized database location or name)
- Enforcing row-level security rules already defined in the source database to Sisense queries (parameterized username and password)
- Automatic localization such as time zone conversion and currency conversion (parameterized formula or join condition)
- Personalized filter requirements (parameterized WHERE clause condition, e.g. history depth)
- Column-level security (parameterized column selection)
- Query tracking/audit (parameterized comment text)
Let us know in the comments if you have other use cases of Parameters you'd like to share!
