# Parameter Support for Dashboard URL Tiles

A new feature of Exago BI v2017.3 is the ability to use parameters in dashboard URL tiles. Dashboard reports intended for use by multiple classes of users can implement URL tiles that change based on user variables.

URL tile with parameter values

Parameters are key-value pairs that are reachable from the Exago API, application extensibility, and, optionally, the user interface. They are intended to be instantiated via the API at session initialization, the value of which are set depending on the user accessing the session. They can either be created in the API or created in the config file or Admin Console and modified in the API.

Note. Parameters must have the Hidden property set to False in order to be usable in the application user interface. Date type parameters cannot be used in URL tiles.

Setting a parameter's Hidden property to False in the Admin Console

If the Prompt Text property is set on a URL tile parameter, users will be prompted to set its value when they run the dashboard.

Note. Dashboard URL tiles cannot be modified after the dashboard is run. Prompting URL parameters cannot be made accessible in the Interactive Parameters pane.

# URL formatting

Parameters may be utilized anywhere within a URL string.

### Example

    http://@address@.com
    http://example.@domain@
    http://@subdomain@.example.com
    http://example.com/@path@
    @protocol@://example.com
    http://example.com:@port@
    http://example.com?@key@=value
    http://example.com?key=@value@
    http://example.com#@fragment@

It is recommended that spaces and other special characters are URL-encoded where appropriate. For example, to pass "Hello World" as part of a URL query string, encode the space between the two words as "%20%". This will not be done automatically.

    http://example.com?key=Hello%20World

For more information, see Percent-encoding (Wikipedia)