Working with Chart Widgets

Charts are a key component of widgets in Asset Vision Dashboards. They are quick and effective ways to view, at a high-level, data that is interesting to a specific audience.

Creating a New Widget

Widget Drop Down List

When a user creates a new dashboard, it is basically a clean slate to which widgets may be added. You may create a new widget using the drop down list under the Layout tab of Dashboard Management.

Select Chart from this list and click the plus button to the right of the list to be taken to a form where you will begin creation of the chart.

Chart Widgets

Creating a New Widget

If the user selects Chart from the drop down list they will be taken to this form. Most of the settings below are universal across all charts, with some exceptions. Descriptions of the fields are as follows:

  • Title: Title that will appear at the top of the widget.
  • Sub-Caption: Additional information can be specified below the Title (Similar to a sub-title).
  • Data View Name: Data view that will provide data for the widget.
  • Custom Filter: Saved data view filter that will be applied to the data before it is used in the widget. Data view filters are created and saved on the data view itself. The user can leave this field blank if they want to include all data from the data view.
  • Chart Variant: Includes Simple, Stacked, Fields, and Stacked Fields.
  • Chart Type: Type of chart that the user wants to display the data in. Includes Bar, Pie, Line, and Zoom Line.
  • Group By Field: The values in the field chosen will show on the x-axis.
  • Date Aggregate: For date values, which value is to be used for the aggregation calculation.
  • Aggregate: The aggregated calculation used on the data set. The resulting aggregate value will be displayed for each section and measured on the y-axis.
  • Value Field: This is to define from which data point the chart will be showing.
  • Order By: Order by the values on the x-axis.
  • Order Direction: Choose to order ascending or descending. For numbers, ascending follows the pattern of lowest to highest numbers. For letters, ascending follows the pattern of the alphabet.
  • Limit To: Limit the number of vertical segments that show on the chart. If the number of segments is less than the limit, all segments will show. If the number of segments is higher than the limit, the full segment listing will be truncated to whatever the limit is. For example, a limit of five means that a chart that would normally have ten segments will only show the first five (based on Order Direction).
  • Available Fields/Selected Fields: Fields that are available to be included in the chart based on the data view selected. Available Fields that are to be included in the chart will appear in the Selected Fields as they are selected.

There is an Advanced Section as well, for which the options available can change with Widget Type. Information for each of these settings varies per chart and is described with each one below.

Choosing a Chart Type

There are many charts available to choose from, so as a general rule, the user can think of each chart as specializing in its own distinct purpose for displaying data:

  • Pie/Doughnut: Comparing segments to a whole.
  • Line: Comparing progress or patterns over a period of time.
  • Bar/Horizontal Bar: Comparing maximum and minimum values.
  • Zoom: Comparing progress or patterns over a period of time with a large number of points.

Pie/Doughnut Chart

A Pie Chart and its functional cousin, the Doughnut Chart, is a circular chart divided into sections where the area of each segment is proportional to the quantity it represents. This chart is mainly used to show the relationship of each value to the whole value.

Pie/doughnut chart

Pie Chart and Doughnut Chart configuration options are the same.

Although the Basic Options for the Pie and Doughnut Chart are the same as other chart types, the Advanced Options slightly differ, and are as follows:

  • Show Values: When checked, the actual value of the chart data points will be displayed.
  • Show Tool Tip: When checked, if available, tool tips will be displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over certain areas on the widget.
  • Show Legend: When checked, will show the legend of data points as they correspond with a given chart element, such as pie slices.
  • Legend Position: Where the legend resides within the widget itself. Either Default, or can be forced to reside to the right or bottom of the chart.
  • Palette Colors: This field is a comma-delimited text box that accepts hexadecimal color values. The colors are assigned at random for each data point.
    (ex: #0066ff,#0099ff,#00ccff would show three alternating shades of blue among all of the pie/doughnut slices).

Line Chart

Line Chart

A line chart is used to show the pattern of the values of one field over the period of another. For example, if the user wanted to see the amount of licensable software installed over a period of time, this chart would help them recognize the overall trend.

Although the Basic Options for the Line Chart are the same as other chart types, the Advanced Options slightly differ, and are as follows:

  • Show Values: When checked, the actual value of the chart data points will be displayed.
  • Show Tool tip: When checked, if available, tool tips will be be displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over certain areas on the widget.
  • Palette Colors: This field is a comma-delimited text box that accepts hexadecimal color values. The colors are assigned at random for each data point.
    (ex: #0066ff,#0099ff,#00ccff would show three alternating shades of blue amoung all of the lines between points).
  • x-Axis and y-Axis Labels: These fields allow the user to override the default text fields with something more simple or more meaningful.
  • Scrollable: Allows for charts to scroll horizontally within the widget window in cases where there are too many data points to show within the viewable area.

Bar Charts

Bar Chart

A bar charts compares each value as rectangular bars and specializes in displaying the highest and lowest values. This type of chart would be a good choice if the user wanted to review absolute levels across many different data points. A horizontal bar chart is similar to a regular bar chart in that it compares each value as rectangular bars, but the bars are presented horizontally. This type of chart is more appropriate when there are too many data points to fit horizontally without scrolling.

Although the Basic Options for the Bar Charts are the same as other chart types, the Advanced Options slightly differ, and are as follows:

  • Show Values: When checked, the actual value of the chart data points will be displayed.
  • Show Tool tip: When checked, if available, tool tips will be be displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over certain areas on the widget.
  • Place Values Inside: When checked, will place the value ascribed to its bar, within the bar itself.
  • Palette Colors: This field is a comma-delimited text box that accepts hexadecimal color values. The colors are assigned at random for each data point.
    (ex: #0066ff,#0099ff,#00ccff would show three alternating shades of blue amoung all of the chart bars).
  • x-Axis and y-Axis Labels: These fields allow the user to override the default text fields with something more simple or more meaningful.
  • Scrollable: Allows for charts to scroll horizontally within the widget window in cases where there are too many data points to show within the viewable area.

Zoom Line Chart

Zoom Line Chart

A zoom line chart is used to plot large numbers of data points all at once. The user starts with the high-level view and is able to zoom into a section of the chart to view more detailed data for that section.

Properties and Advanced Properties for the Zoom Line chart are as follows:

  • Title: Title that will appear at the top of the widget.
  • Sub-Caption: Additional information can be specified below the Title (Similar to a sub-title).
  • Data View Name: Data view that will provide data for the widget.
  • Custom Filter: Saved data view filter that will be applied to the data before it is used in the widget. Data view filters are created and saved on the data view itself. The user can leave this field blank if they want to include all data from the data view.
  • Chart Variant: Includes Simple, Stacked, Fields, and Stacked Fields.
  • Chart Type: Type of chart that the user wants to display the data in. Includes Bar, Pie, Line, and Zoom Line.
  • Group By Field: The values in the field chosen will show on the x-axis.
  • Date Aggregate: For date values, which value is to be used for the aggregation calculation (shown only when the Group By Field drop down contains a date/time-based value.)
  • Aggregate: The aggregated calculation used on the data set. The resulting aggregate value will be displayed for each section and measured on the y-axis.

There is an Advanced Section as well, for which the options available can change with Widget Type. For the current example of Chart, the options are:

  • Palette Colors: This field is a comma-delimited text box that accepts hexadecimal color values. The colors are assigned at random for each data point.
    (ex: #0066ff,#0099ff,#00ccff would show three alternating shades of blue among all of the lines between points).
  • x-Axis and y-Axis Labels: These fields allow the user to override the default text fields with something more simple or more meaningful.

 

Multi-Series Combo Chart

Multi-series combo chart

A Multi-Series Combo Chart can report on mulitple data types, using multiple chart types, on the same chart.

Because the Multi-Series Combo Chart can use multiple chart types (for example, a line chart over a bar chart), the Basic and Advanced options for all chart types apply here, with the addition of one specialized control:

multi-series combo chart

The Selected Items: field is a combination of the Available fields: and Render as: fields. As in the example above:

  1. Select Computers in the Available fields: field.
  2. Select Column in the Render as: field
  3. Click the -> Arrow.
  4. Computers render as Column appears in the Selected items: field.

Chart Variant - Simple

Chart Variant - Simple

Each segment displays the value of the aggregate calculation measured by the y-axis for each field value in the x-axis. This example shows the count of computer records by BIOS Release Date.

Bar Simple

Chart Variant - Stacked

Chart Variant - Stacked

Each segment is stacked vertically into further subdivisions and reflects the aggregate calculation of whatever the Series Field is chosen as, still grouped by the Group by Field. An example would be the count of computer records, grouped by BIOS Release Date, separated vertically by BIOS Manufacturer.

Bar Stacked

The colored index at the bottom of the widget displays each BIOS Manufacturer color that matches in the bar segments. The user can click on individual segments in a bar to drill down into that data view automatically filtered to show only that segment’s records. If the widgets are linked, the user must right click and select Drill Into View.

Chart Variant - Fields

Chart Variant - Fields

The field names will show on the x-axis and the aggregate calculation of each field in each record will be measured by the y-axis. In the example below, the sum of each of the three fields is shown in the bar chart.

Bar Fields

Chart Variant - Stacked Fields

Chart Variant - Stacked Fields

The Group by Field will be displayed on the x-axis. The value of each bar will be further segmented vertically into the stacked fields chosen. In the example, the aggregate value for each field is the sum of the fields (all numbers): CPU Count, Memory Free Slot Count, and Memory Slot Count. The bar represents the full total and each segment in the bar represents the aggregate value for each field.

Bar Stacked Fields