Product How-To: Efficient Dashboard Charts

An efficient dashboard chart allows users to access the most amount of detail in a given chart while still keeping the chart easy to look at.

The Chart component's �Properties� dialog box provides the following tabs: General, Advanced, and Pre-Aggregate. The next sections discuss the chart-specific properties available under these tabs that permit making more data detail available without have to change chart settings.

The General tab in the �Chart Properties� dialog box provides the following chart-specific properties.

Tooltip: Value is displayed as tooltip when mouse hovers over corresponding chart area.

Data Tip View: A Viewsheet component is displayed when mouse hovers over chart area. The component is filtered based on the hover region.

In this example, you will create a chart that displays quantity purchased by company. When the user hovers the mouse over a given company, the Chart will display a gauge as a Data Tip. This gauge will display the average quantity purchased by the individual company.

 
 

1. Create a new Viewsheet based on the sample ‘US Sales’ Worksheet.

2. Drag a gauge from the Component tree into the Viewsheet.

3. Configure the gauge to display the average quantity purchased:

• From the �Sales� Data Block (top of the Component tree), drag the �Quantity Purchased� field onto the gauge. This binds the gauge to the Data Block.
• Right-click the gauge, and select �Gauge Properties� from the context menu. This opens the �Properties� dialog box for the Gauge.
• Under the General tab, change the �Name� property to �QuantityGauge�.
• Set the following limits: �Maximum�=200, �Minor Increment�=10, �Major Incremet�=25.
• Under the Data tab, select �Count� form the �Aggregate� menu. This will display the number of records (orders) for each company.
• Click �OK� to close the �Gauge Properties� dialog box.
• Resize the gauge to be about half the default size.

4. Drag a Chart element onto the Viewsheet grid.

5. Click the center of the Chart (or click the �Edit� button at the topright). This opens the Chart Editor. Make the following selections:

• From the �Dimensions� node in the �Data Source� tree, drag the �Company� dimension to the �X� field in the �Data� panel.
• From the �Measures� node in the �Data Source� tree, drag the �Quantity Purchased� measure to the �Y� field in the �Data� panel. This creates a chart that displays quantity purchased for each company.
• Click the �Edit Dimension� button, and select �Ranking� to display only the top 10 companies. Click the �Apply� button.
• Right-click on the one of the Chart’s X-axis labels, and select ‘Axis Properties’ from the context menu. Choose a slanted text rotation and a smaller font size to improve the axis appearance. Click ‘OK’.
  
• Resize the chart as desired.
• Right-click the Chart, and select �Properties� from the context menu. This opens the �Chart Properties� dialog box.
• Under the General tab, select �Data Tip View�. From the adjacent menu, select the �QuantityGauge� component.
• Click �OK� to close the �Chart Properties� dialog box.

7. Preview the Viewsheet, and hover the mouse over different companies in the Chart to view the corresponding Data Tip (i.e., number of orders).

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