Power BI visuals interactivity utils

Article
01/23/2023
4 minutes to read

Interactivity utils (InteractivityUtils) is a set of functions and classes that can be used to simplify the implementation of cross-selection and cross-filtering.

Note

The latest updates of interactivity utils support only the latest version of tools (3.x.x and above).

Installation

To install the package, run the following command in the directory with your current Power BI visual project.
```
npm install powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils --save
```
If you're using version 3.0 or later of the tool, install powerbi-models to resolve dependencies.
```
npm install powerbi-models --save
```
To use interactivity utils, import the required component in the source code of the Power BI visual.
```
import { interactivitySelectionService } from "powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils";
```

Include CSS files

To use the package with your Power BI visual, import the following CSS file to your .less file.

node_modules/powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils/lib/index.css

Import the CSS file as a .less file because the Power BI visuals tool wraps external CSS rules.

@import (less) "node_modules/powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils/lib/index.css";

SelectableDataPoint properties

Usually, data points contain selections and values. The interface extends the SelectableDataPoint interface.

SelectableDataPoint already contains properties as follows:

  /** Flag for identifying that a data point was selected */
  selected: boolean;

  /** Identity for identifying the selectable data point for selection purposes */
  identity: powerbi.extensibility.ISelectionId;

  /*
   * A specific identity for when data points exist at a finer granularity than
   * selection is performed.  For example, if your data points select based
   * only on series, even if they exist as category/series intersections.
   */

  specificIdentity?: powerbi.extensibility.ISelectionId;

Defining an interface for data points

Create an instance of interactivity utils and save the object as a property of the visual.

export class Visual implements IVisual {
  // ...
  private interactivity: interactivityBaseService.IInteractivityService<VisualDataPoint>;
  // ...
  constructor(options: VisualConstructorOptions) {
      // ...
      this.interactivity = interactivitySelectionService.createInteractivitySelectionService(this.host);
      // ...
  }
}

import { interactivitySelectionService } from "powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils";

export interface VisualDataPoint extends interactivitySelectionService.SelectableDataPoint {
    value: powerbi.PrimitiveValue;
}

Extend the base behavior class.

Note

BaseBehavior was introduced in the 5.6.x version of interactivity utils. If you use an older version, create a behavior class from the following sample.

Define the interface for the behavior class options.

import { SelectableDataPoint } from "./interactivitySelectionService";

import {
    IBehaviorOptions,
    BaseDataPoint
} from "./interactivityBaseService";

export interface BaseBehaviorOptions<SelectableDataPointType extends BaseDataPoint> extends IBehaviorOptions<SelectableDataPointType> {

/** d3 selection object of the main elements on the chart */
elementsSelection: Selection<any, SelectableDataPoint, any, any>;

/** d3 selection object of some elements on backgroup, to hadle click of reset selection */
clearCatcherSelection: d3.Selection<any, any, any, any>;
}

Define a class for visual behavior. Or, extend the BaseBehavior class.

Define a class for visual behavior

The class is responsible for click and contextmenu mouse events.

When a user clicks data elements, the visual calls the selection handler to select data points. If the user clicks the background element of the visual, it calls the clear selection handler.

The class has the following correspond methods:

bindClick
bindClearCatcher
bindContextMenu.

export class Behavior<SelectableDataPointType extends BaseDataPoint> implements IInteractiveBehavior {

    /** d3 selection object of main elements in the chart */
    protected options: BaseBehaviorOptions<SelectableDataPointType>;
    protected selectionHandler: ISelectionHandler;

    protected bindClick() {
      // ...
    }

    protected bindClearCatcher() {
      // ...
    }

    protected bindContextMenu() {
      // ...
    }

    public bindEvents(
        options: BaseBehaviorOptions<SelectableDataPointType>,
        selectionHandler: ISelectionHandler): void {
      // ...
    }

    public renderSelection(hasSelection: boolean): void {
      // ...
    }
}

Extend the BaseBehavior class

import powerbi from "powerbi-visuals-api";
import { interactivitySelectionService, baseBehavior } from "powerbi-visuals-utils-interactivityutils";

export interface VisualDataPoint extends interactivitySelectionService.SelectableDataPoint {
    value: powerbi.PrimitiveValue;
}

export class Behavior extends baseBehavior.BaseBehavior<VisualDataPoint> {
  // ...
}

To handle a click on elements, call the d3 selection object on method. This also applies for elementsSelection and clearCatcherSelection.

protected bindClick() {
  const {
      elementsSelection
  } = this.options;

  elementsSelection.on("click", (datum) => {
      const mouseEvent: MouseEvent = getEvent() as MouseEvent || window.event as MouseEvent;
      mouseEvent && this.selectionHandler.handleSelection(
          datum,
          mouseEvent.ctrlKey);
  });
}

Add a similar handler for the contextmenu event, to call the selection manager's showContextMenu method.

protected bindContextMenu() {
    const {
        elementsSelection
    } = this.options;

    elementsSelection.on("contextmenu", (datum) => {
        const event: MouseEvent = (getEvent() as MouseEvent) || window.event as MouseEvent;
        if (event) {
            this.selectionHandler.handleContextMenu(
                datum,
                {
                    x: event.clientX,
                    y: event.clientY
                });
            event.preventDefault();
        }
    });
}

To assign functions to handlers, the interactivity utils calls the bindEvents method. Add the following calls to the bindEvents method:

bindClick
bindClearCatcher
bindContextMenu

  public bindEvents(
      options: BaseBehaviorOptions<SelectableDataPointType>,
      selectionHandler: ISelectionHandler): void {

      this.options = options;
      this.selectionHandler = selectionHandler;

      this.bindClick();
      this.bindClearCatcher();
      this.bindContextMenu();
  }

The renderSelection method is responsible for updating the visual state of elements in the chart. A sample implementation of renderSelection follows.

public renderSelection(hasSelection: boolean): void {
    this.options.elementsSelection.style("opacity", (category: any) => {
        if (category.selected) {
            return 0.5;
        } else {
            return 1;
        }
    });
}

The last step is creating an instance of visual behavior, and calling the bind method of the interactivity utils instance.
```
this.interactivity.bind(<BaseBehaviorOptions<VisualDataPoint>>{
    behavior: this.behavior,
    dataPoints: this.categories,
    clearCatcherSelection: select(this.target),
    elementsSelection: selectionMerge
});
```
- selectionMerge is the d3 selection object, which represents all the visual's selectable elements.
- select(this.target) is the d3 selection object, which represents the visual's main DOM elements.
- this.categories are data points with elements, where the interface is VisualDataPoint or categories: VisualDataPoint[];.
- this.behavior is a new instance of visual behavior created in the constructor of the visual, as shown:
```
export class Visual implements IVisual {
  // ...
  constructor(options: VisualConstructorOptions) {
      // ...
      this.behavior = new Behavior();
  }
  // ...
}
```

Power BI visuals interactivity utils

Installation

Include CSS files

SelectableDataPoint properties

Defining an interface for data points

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Additional resources