Custom Tooltips Go Blank After Highlighting in Another Visual

[aseagull]

Hi. I have linked a pretty simple PBIX with three bar charts displaying 5 measures. I have included custom tooltip pages for the stacked bar and clustered bar charts.

Here is the strange phenomenon: When I click on one of the items in the stacked or clustered bar chart, the tooltips for the non-highlighted options in the *other* chart are blank! Yet the "regular" tooltips (on my simple bar chart) work as expected.

I'm also including a picture of what I'm talking about. What is going on? Blank tooltip

[v-jayw-msft]

Hi @aseagull ,

Once you click one of the item, the other not selected items will be filtered. That's why the tooltip on the selected item will work but the others will not.

Best Regards,

Jay

[aseagull]

Jay or anyone...I don't see how filtering is the issue...if the other data were filtered out, why does A3's data show up, as in the screenshot below? (Notice I've also pasted in the multi-cards from the tooltip pages.)

Also, it seems to filter out *only* on the visuals where I did *not* click and highlight. Wouldn't the filter apply to all the visuals?

Thank you for reading!

Amon

[aseagull]

All, I've uploaded a slightly simpler version, with no measures. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ilwvz7tc6z8ceq/Bars%20and%20ToolTips.pbix?dl=0

I figure this has got to be user error, but I can't make sense of it. Will I end up learning how to file a bug report? Would anyone claim that this is by design: highlighting a data value filters it in other visuals, but not the one where you clicked it? ...smh...

[v-jayw-msft]

Hi @aseagull ,

Consider visual 2 or 3 is a slicer. If you highlight an org in one visual, the table will be filtered which means the only row in the table will be the clicked org. In that case, when you move your mouse to another org, your tooltip will look for the value corresponding to that org. But at this time, the only row in the table will be the clicked org. So your tooltip cannot find value of the org that you mouse are hovering over and it will shown as blank.
If you change one of 2 or 3 into table visual you will see the results more intuitively.

Best Regards,

Jay

[aseagull]

Jay, I see how it makes sense for a Table visual. I appreciate your help! I am still stuck with questions:

• When looking at it as a bar chart, where the problem is evident, why does it make sense that Power BI can find the value in order to draw a bar, but it cannot find it for the tooltip on that bar? That's consistent with how data labels behave (they disappear for non-highighted data), but it still seems bonkers to me.
• How does Power BI find the data for "default" tooltips differently than the data feeding "custom" tooltips? It must be different, because the data feeding the custom TT are getting filtered out, but not so for the default TT. That also seems bonkers to me.

I know that this is my inexperience with the product, but if it's working as it's supposed to, isn't this at least a feature request / bug fix? 

Thanks,
Amon

[v-jayw-msft]

Hi @aseagull ,

There are a few limitations and considerations for tooltips to keep in mind.

• Button visuals also support tooltips.
• Report tooltips are not supported for Power BI visuals.
• Clusters are not currently supported as fields that can be shown in report tooltips.
• When choosing a field to be shown for report tooltips, when using a field versus a category, visuals that contain that field will only show the specified tooltip when summarization with the selected field matches.
• You can turn tooltips off completely for a visual in Power BI reports. However, when you pin that visual to a dashboard in the Power BI service, the basic tooltip will still be displayed.

Best Regards,

Jay

[aseagull]

Jay, you have a very polite way of telling me to read the darn docs! Thank you for that. It may be that what you've highlighted in red is the culprit; unfortunately, I don't understand it. I will see if I can make a clarification request for that page.

Ultimately, it looks like the conclusion here is that the custom tooltip is simply not as mature as I expected. This behavior is clearly undesirable (why not just refuse to throw a tooltip at all, instead of putting up a blank one?). Again, I hope I have not misunderstood.

Thanks,

Amon

[v-jayw-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @aseagull ,

You could submit this as an idea here:

https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/ 

Best Regards,

Jay

[aseagull]

Jay, I've done that. If you are so inclined to vote it up, please do!

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Bug-Limitation-in-Custom-Tooltips-when-Cross-Highlighting/id...

[aseagull]

Jay, I was afriad that's the solution. It seems like it makes the development of custom tooltips much harder, as I'll have to build dedicated measures (right?) for each of the items in my tooltip, using REMOVEFILTERS or something like that. I will work on that and update the thread when I get it working. (Still a DAX novice.) Thank you!
Amon

[aseagull]

BTW, I published the file to the service and the behavior remains. There must be logic that says I cannot implement a custom tooltip this way. It's not the visual: I switched from a multi-row card to a table and observed the same behavior.

Why does selecting / highlighting a value restrict the data feeding these custom tooltips, and not the built-in tooltips? 

Thanks,

Amon

[amitchandak]

@aseagull , I can see when I open the file

[aseagull]

Amit, thanks for opening up my file! The problem shows up once I click and highlight / focus one of the data items (say, in the third chart), then hover over an un-highlighted option in the second chart. That's where it comes up blank. (Or vice-versa.) 

In either case, the first chart, with native tooltips, works fine. Do you see that?