Spotfire parameterized information link details needed

Question

Super users,

I'm a spotfire novice trying to create a parameterized info link. Ultimate goal is to create a default template that may be customized to return specific rows in a very large table. I've not been able to cobble together enough information from online searches to get me from point A to Z.

Spotfire version is 7.11 on an Oracle 11.2 SE DB.

Currently I've got a date/time prompt in the info link that will be global to all users. What I need is to be able to further filter to 1 of 2 columns (one is real, the other a string) in order to minimize loading times. There are 17 other on-demand tables that are related to the main one. Limiting the initial query will greatly speed up performance.

In information designer for the information link, if I edit the SQL in the WHERE and explicitly define the value or string for the column, I get the rows I want. When I try to define it using an input parameter (?ParamName), I either get nothing when I reload or get asked to input a parameter "for testing".

Q1: In the document properties for the analysis, I've been adding in properties that I assume is supposed to get picked up by the query.
- What part do scripts play in passing this variable to the SQL?
- Do I just need to define a value for a property name or include a IronPython script? - If script is required, can I just define the parameter to pass?

Q2: In the info link SQL, what is the correct syntax for defining the parameter variable depending on the type (real v string)? If I use a string, I need to include LIKE in order to pick up the desired rows. If I use a real, is it possible to define it as a list of values?

Thanks in advance. I'll probably have follow up questions.