KB33862: How to create nested or cascading selectors and avoid getting blank selections in MicroStrategy Web 9.4.1

SYMPTOM
Users notice that when switching elements on cascading or nested Attribute selectors, the lower level selectors turn blank and the grid shows ‘No data returned for this view’ in several versions of Strategy Web 9.4.1, like shown in the image below:

No data returned for this view. This might be because the applied filter excludes all data.

• Create the report with 3 attributes and 1 metric. The attributes should belong to the same hierarchy, e.g. Category, Subcategory, and Item.
• Convert the report into a document, and add the report into a panel stack (Child).
• Create another panel stack (Parent) and place the Child panel stack within it.
• Create the Grand selector outside both panel stacks.
• Edit the Grand selector.  Undo the automatic layout by clicking in the ‘click here’ link, like shown in the image below.

This layout is configured to automatically maintain targets. If you would like manual control, click here.
Note: This setting only has to be changed once and it will be applied for every selector.  

1. Choose to target all available objects.
2. Uncheck ‘Apply selection as filter’.
3. Create a Parent selector inside the Parent panel stack.
4. Edit the Parent selector.  Target the grid report and the child panel stack.
5. Uncheck ‘Apply selection as filter’, and enable ‘Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection’.
6. Create a Child selector inside the Child panel stack.
7. Edit the Child selector, and target only the grid.
8. Uncheck ‘Apply selection as filter’, and enable ‘Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection’.
9. Save the document while still in design mode, and execute to test.

Notes:

1. If any of the selectors is applied as a filter, the ‘Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection’ option will not be applied. This option must be turned off.
2. If the selector targets change, e.g. the user adds a new target, the option ‘Apply selection as filter’ will automatically be turned on again, interfering with the ‘Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection’.

If all the steps were followed correctly, the resulting dashboard will never show a blank selection or the warning No data is returned for this view, like shown in the image below.

If a dashboard already shows the blank selection, an incorrect order of applying the targets to the selectors was followed. To workaround this issue, recreate all the selectors and apply their targets in hierarchical order.