About the Yellowfin JavaScript API

The Yellowfin JavaScript API can be used for two main purposes:

It can be used to create custom logic in a Code Mode dashboard from within Yellowfin - this can allow customization of the user experience within Yellowfin, or can be used to embed application logic into a dashboard.
It can be used to embed Yellowfin content into your web application and to manipulate that content. Yellowfin content that can be embedded in this way includes reports (tables, charts and canvas) as well as entire dashboards (both Canvas and traditional grid style).

The API supports two broad methods for embedding content:

Embed links: this link can be obtained from within the Yellowfin application, and used to simply embed a report, chart or dashboard into your application. Various parameters can be appended to the link to provide some control over the look and behaviour of the embedded content.
Advanced API: the advanced API allows more dynamic and flexible control over embedded content. A rich set of API functions are available that allow many elements of embedded content to be programmatically controlled.

Note: Version 3 of this API was first released with Yellowfin Version 9, and supersedes and replaces the existing Version 2 API. Until otherwise advised, the Version 2 API will continue to be supported but will not be enhanced. Information on this legacy API can be found here.

About this guide

This guide is divided into the following broad sections:

Using the JSAPI in a Code Mode Dashboard
Using the JSAPI to embed Yellowfin content. This section describes the basic prerequisites required to use the JSAPI, and then provides detail on how to embed content using the Embed Link method and the Advanced API method.
Detailed API references for each sub-API, including:

The Base API
Dashboards API
Sub Tabs API
Reports API
Filters API
Filter Objects API

Each API reference contains:
- An overview and a description of the purpose of the API
- Any properties if applicable
- A function reference (Description, parameters, returns, code snippet)
- An event reference
- Limitations - such as whether a feature can be used in code more, embedding mode or both.

Prerequisites

Enabling CORS

The Yellowfin JavaScript API is dependent on Cross Origin Resource Sharing(CORS). By default, any CORS request that is made to the Yellowfin server will be rejected. The first thing you will need to do is enable CORS requests from the server you will be using the JsAPI on.

You can do this by going to the Admin Console in Yellowfin and adding the server URL to the general configuration options. This can be found in Administration -> Configuration -> System -> General Settings

You may enter more than one URL.

Once this is enabled on your Yellowfin server you can start to embed your content.

Creating Yellowfin Content

Any content that you want to embed, will first need to be created in Yellowfin. The various techniques involved in creating Yellowfin content such as Data Source Connections, Views, Reports, Charts and Dashboards - are all fully described in the wiki.