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Pentaho Documentation

Create a Metadata List

When you create a Metadata List, you are defining a query to retrieve a list of display names and corresponding values from a metadata data source provided by your administrator.

You must have a data table or chart which contains at least one parameter for your prompt control to function correctly.


  1. In the dashboard page, under General Settings, select Prompts. The Prompt Editor appears on the right. No prompts are listed if this is the first time you are assigning prompts.
  2. To display a prompt toolbar to users of the dashboard, enable Show Prompt Toolbar. A placeholder for the prompt toolbar appears at the top of the dashboard.
  3. Click the Add icon to add a prompt. The Prompts dialog box appears.
  4. In the Prompts dialog box, enter a Name for your prompt.
  5. Under Data Type, choose Metadata List.
  6. Click Select to choose the data source which contains the content you need to set options from the drop-down list and click OK. The Query Editor opens.
  7. In the Query Editor, build a query to choose either a single column (which represents both a name and a value), or two columns representing the display names and corresponding values. If a single column query is defined, the values of that column will be used for both the display names and the values.
  8. Click OK to exit the Query Editor. Your options appear under Selected Items in the Prompts dialog box.
  9. Under Control Properties, enter a Default Label/Value for the initially selected option in your prompt control. File:/80_metadata_list_example.png
  10. Select a Label to display in the prompt control This is the user-friendly name which users will see in the dashboard.
  11. Select the Value This is the value in the database which is associated with the label you selected in the previous step.
  12. If applicable, choose your Display type from the list. Some prompt controls allow you to choose the position of your prompt options. If you have a long list of options, such as a list of cities, options may not appear correctly in the user console unless you change the Display type to Horizontal.
  13. Click OK.
The list of values appears in the prompts toolbar in the dashboard.