Manipulating data components
You can manipulate data components, which refer to crosstabs, tables, charts, and geographic maps, in dashboards as shown below.
Applying a style to a data component
Right-click in the component, then on the shortcut menu, select a style from the Apply Style submenu.
Going through the data of tables, crosstabs and charts
Going actions enable you to switch among data groups freely for viewing different records without having to create a new data component. They can be performed on table groups, crosstab column/row headers, and data labels on the chart category/series axis as well as the legend entry labels.
Choose the proper one to meet your needs from the following:
- Go To
Jumps to a different group by replacing the current.
- Go to by Value
Jumps to another group while applying the current value being clicked on as a filter condition.
- Go Down
Goes from a group which is non-bottom level in a predefined hierarchy to the one-level-lower group while applying the current selected value as a filter condition.
- Go Up
Jumps from a group which is non-top level in a predefined hierarchy to the one-level-higher group.
Note: You can also directly click group objects to perform the go-down action, however, if the group objects are also defined with some links, you can go down to the next level with a single click only when the click priority of the go-down action is specified to be the highest at design time. Otherwise, you have to use the Go Down command on the objects' shortcut menu to perform the action.
For example demonstration of them, refer to Going through the report data.
The go-to-by-value or go-down actions always happen along with the generation of a filter condition. The filters are displayed as "FieldName:Value" at the bottom of the library components, in a row one by one from left to right according to the time they are generated. When the row cannot hold all of the filters, two buttons are displayed at the two ends of the row for scrolling through the filters to the left and right. Each click on the button will show one hidden filter. To remove a filter condition, click X right to it.
Customizing the data format of values in tables, crosstabs and charts
To customize the data format of the values of a field in a table or crosstab, right-click on any value of the field, then select a format from the Format submenu, or input a format in the text box at the bottom of the submenu and click Enter on the keyboard.
You can also customize the data format of the legend entry labels and data labels on the category and series axes if they are of Number or Date/Time type. To do this, right-click on the labels and select the required format from the Format submenu, or input a format in the text box at the bottom of the submenu and click Enter on the keyboard.
Removing component level filters from a data component
On the shortcut menu of data components, there is an option Remove Filters which is used to remove filter conditions generated via the configuration panel and via message delivery from the data components. These two kinds of filters are referred to as component-level filters.
In dashboards you can also use sliders and filter controls to do filtering, however filters created by sliders or filter controls are not under the control of the removing component level filter action, because they are regarded as dashboard-level filters.
Manipulating a table
- Sorting on a field
To sort the values of a field, right-click on any value of the field, then on the shortcut menu, select Ascend or Descend from the Sort submenu. To remove the sort condition, select No Sort.
- Filtering a detail field
You can use filter-related commands on the shortcut menu to filter the data in a table. To do this, right-click on any value of the detail field by which you want to filter data, then from the Filter submenu, specify to show the first/last N values of the field or a specific value, or click More to open the Select Values dialog to specify the value. To remove filter condition created this way, use the Remove Filter option on the Filter submenu.
Manipulating a crosstab
- Sorting column/row header
To sort a column/row header, right-click on the header, then on the shortcut menu, select Ascend or Descend from the Sort submenu. To remove the sort condition, select No Sort.
- Switching crosstab fields
A convenient way to change the fields in a crosstab is by using the Switch command. To do this, right-click a row/column/summary and select Switch Row/Switch Column/Switch Summary from the shortcut menu. The fields available for the row/column/summary are listed in the submenu with the current used field checked. Select the field you want to use to replace the current one.
- Adjusting the width of crosstab fields according to the contents
When the contents in the field of a crosstab need more space to completely display, you can adjust the width of the field according to its contents. To achieve it, right-click the field and select Autofit from the shortcut menu.
Manipulating a chart
- Swapping chart groups
You can switch data between the category and series axes, or between the category and value axes of a chart if no field on the series axes.
To do this, right-click in the chart, then on the shortcut menu, click Swap Chart Groups.
- Sorting category/series labels
You can sort the labels on the category or series axes of a chart in either descending or ascending alphabetical order. To do this, right-click in the chart, then on the shortcut menu, select the required order from the Sort Category or Sort Series submenu.
- Changing the chart type
Right-click in the chart, then on the shortcut menu, locate Chart Type. From the drop-down menu, select the desired chart type and its subtype.
- Zooming in chart values
For a bar, bench, line, area or stock chart, you can select the values you are interested in to have them zoomed in. To do this, drag the mouse from the start value to the end value you want to select, then release the mouse. The selected values will be zoomed in. If you want to return to the initial status, just click the return button on the upper right corner of the chart paper.
- Showing/Hiding the chart legend or legend label
Right-click the chart and select the corresponding show/hide option from the shortcut menu to show or hide the legend or legend label. However, the legend will always be displayed at the export and print result.
- Configuring real time chart settings
For a real time chart, you can further configure it when inserted in a dashboard. To do this:
- Right-click the chart and select Real-time Settings from the shortcut menu. The Real-time Settings dialog appears. See the dialog.
- Specify the time interval at which the chart will get data and refresh itself automatically in the Refresh Interval text field.
- Specify the most recent N records to be kept for the real time data on the chart in the Show Most Recent text field.
- Click the Incremental Fetch button to add the fields you want to use as the unique key of the real time chart in the Unique Key dialog.
Once a unique key is defined, each time when the real time chart automatically updates itself, duplicated data records will be filtered out based on the unique key. For instance, if you add the fields Country and Product ID as the unique key of a real time chart, when a record with the product ID 1 in USA has already been loaded into the chart, no more records of this product ID in USA will be added to the real time chart because they have the same unique key value.
- Check the Use Scrollable Bar checkbox if you want to use a scrollbar to control the visible value range on the X axis of the chart, then specify how many data items will be selected on the scrollbar and displayed on the axis by default, the percentage the scrollbar occupies the whole size of the chart, and whether to show the thumbnail chart in the scrollbar.
- Click OK to accept the settings and close the dialog.
- Stopping or resuming a real time chart from refreshing
For a real time chart, you can stop or resume it from automatically refreshing by right-clicking it and selecting the Pause Refresh or Resume command from the shortcut menu.
Manipulating geographic map group markers/areas
- Going up/down on geographic map group markers/areas
- For the group level that is higher than some other group levels in a geographic map component, point to its group marker/area, right-click it and select Go Down from the shortcut menu to jump one group level down.
- For the group level that is lower than some other group levels in a geographic map component, point to its group marker/area, right-click it and select Go Up from the shortcut menu to jump one group level up.
- Showing/Hiding geographic map group markers/areas
By default, all visible group markers/areas are shown. To hide them, right-click the geographic map (not the group markers/areas) and select Hide Markers/Areas from the shortcut menu. If you want to show them again, right-click the geographic map and select Show Markers/Areas from the shortcut menu.