# Kibana - '?\_g=' and '&\_a=' Parameters in the Dashboards URL String

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-g-and-a-parameters-in-the-dashboards-url-string/264642>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [February 18, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-g-and-a-parameters-in-the-dashboards-url-string/264642 "2021-02-18T02:41:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scott\_stash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@scott\_stash](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/scott_stash)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-g-and-a-parameters-in-the-dashboards-url-string/264642/1 "2021-02-18T02:41:15Z")

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I'm struggling to find documentation on this, if I load up a dashboard their appears to be two query parameters we can add: '?\_g=' and '&\_a='

Currently I have a string like this on the end of my Kibana URL:

```auto
/app/dashboards#/view/Summary?_g=(filters:!(),refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:'2020-12-15T00:00:00.000Z',to:'2021-02-05T04:30:00.000Z'))&_a=(description:'',filters:!(('$state':(store:appState),meta:(alias:!n,disabled:!f,index:'dataset01*',key:case,negate:!f,params:(query:0001),type:phrase),query:(match_phrase:(case:0001)))),fullScreenMode:!f,options:(darkTheme:!f,hidePanelTitles:!f,useMargins:!t),query:(language:lucene,query:''),timeRestore:!f,title:Summary,viewMode:view)

```

When the dashboard loads like this is displays a time range and applies a filter of case='0001'.(keyword field) This works but I'm looking for clarification on a few things.

1. The difference between '?\_g=' and '&\_a=' ?
2. Any documentation on creating these strings?
3. Way to shorten link? The link is pretty ugly to send around or display in a visualization. I would like a way to shorten it by only passing in the case=0001 query and nothing else, can this be passed in as a simple filter and not the long meta string.

I had looked at using the Kibana shorten URL API, but thought it would work better if instead of assigning me a random ID, it assigned me something I could choose.

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**Author:** ![lukas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas/32/6812_2.png) [@lukas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-g-and-a-parameters-in-the-dashboards-url-string/264642/2 "2021-02-18T16:40:51Z")

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The data in the URL parameters is the application state that has been encoded in "Rison" format. The `_a` parameter is "app state" and the `_g` parameter is "global state", which is state that moves between apps with you (such as pinned filters).

You can use a tool such as the following to make sense of the data:

> **[Kibana URL parser](https://observablehq.com/@nyurik/kibana-url-parser)**
>
> This tool lets you quickly parse Kibana RISON-encoded URLs. See also online RISON encoder/decoder. Paste your URL here: Expand the object using the small black arrow in front of it RISON library Nothing useful in this section

Keep in mind that the format for URLs is likely to change in future Kibana versions.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-g-and-a-parameters-in-the-dashboards-url-string/264642/3 "2021-03-18T16:40:59Z")

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