2. Designing and Customizing Charts
In this article we will learn how to use Infinity's interactive query builder create a new chart, and then use configuration options to customize the chart.
Last updated
In this article we will learn how to use Infinity's interactive query builder create a new chart, and then use configuration options to customize the chart.
Last updated
Navigate to Add New Chart screen
Select data source
Use where clause conditions to filter the data
Select chart type from gallery
Format chart area and customize chart
Configure additional settings and publish
Combo Chart Walkthrough:
Throughout this article, we will use this gray informational box to demonstrate how to create a new combo chart (column + line chart) from beginning to end.
From any screen on Infinity, select the icon from the top left navigation menu and select the option to navigate to the Add New Chart screen
On the Add New Chart screen, select the Source field picklist and select the data source of interest.
The data needed to create our combo chart resides on the global_superstore_orders table under the Uploaded Files section.
Let's start by accessing the data we need by choosing the table and dragging it into the preview pane.
You can also name your chart by editing the field at the top of the page.
For the purposes of our combo chart, we are only interested in the US and Canada markets denoted in the data under the Market column as 'US', 'CA', or 'USCA'. To select only the relevant data, let's add where clause conditions to reflect this criteria.
Using where clause options to filter the data from a source table is highly recommended when working with large data tables with millions of rows.
To create our intended combo chart, let's select it from the chart type selection menu. Infinity offers 35+ chart types, providing you the flexibility to visualize your data in a variety of ways.
Once a chart type is selected, its now time to add the Metrics and Dimensions for the chart. Metrics generally represent the data being plotted (i.e. the Y-axis), and Dimensions generally represent the x-axis of the chart.
In our combo chart example, we will show the quarterly order volume as a column on the primary y-axis, and the quarterly sales revenue as a line data series plotted on the secondary y-axis. The x-axis will be each of the quarters represented by the OrderDate field in the source data table.
Infinity will pre-select the first date field in the source data table as the default Dimension and the first two numeric fields in the source table as the default metrics for the chart.
OrderDate is the first numeric column in the global_superstore_orders table, and was therefore pre-selected as the default Dimension for our chart.
To measure order volume and sales revenue, we now add the relevant columns under the Metrics section in place of the pre-loaded default selections.
The Dimension field can also be used to auto-aggregate the data. You can choose any of the available aggregation functions by clicking on the Dimension field, and selecting the desired option.
In our combo chart, we want to aggregate the sales and order data into quarterly data cuts. However, the incoming data is more granular at an individual date level. By using the Quarterly aggregation option, we can rapidly create quarterly cuts of the data as per our chart-specific needs.
Daily
SUM
Weekly
AVG
Monthly
MIN
Quarterly
MAX
Yearly
COUNT
Show Last n Records
DISTINCT COUNT
Custom (flexible date formats - mm/dd/yyyy etc.)
CUMULATIVE (plots cumulative total over time)
Pivot Columns help break down a single data series into multiple data series. Consider that instead of a showing a single data series showing sales over time, we want to plot sales over time for each of the product segments. With Infinity, pivoting and transforming the data is as simple as dragging and dropping the segment column into the Pivot Columns box.
Case Sensitive - Considers case differences while pivoting the data into data series
Case Insensitive - Ignores case differences while pivoting the data into data series
Similarly, we can drag and drop columns into the Order By box to sort the data in any order based on the selected set of columns.
In our combo chart, we want to sort the x-axis in ascending order of sales quarters. To achieve this, we select the OrderData column into the Order By box and setting the sort order. The default sort order is Ascending but can be changed by selecting the OrderDate field and choosing the sort order.
Finally, we can add filters to a chart by again dragging and dropping the desired columns of interest into the Filters box.
The Style tab exposes a number of options for tweaking the look and feel of your charts.
Chart Background
Add background color to the chart area
Titles
Add chart title and customize formatting including font color, size etc.
Padding & Zoom
Set chart area margins and zoom level
Chart Area
Set the opacity level for the chart area
Series
This option is available for time series charts, and can be used to configure primary vs. secondary axis, line vs. column selection for combo charts, data labels etc.
Legend
Format legend font, style, and location of the legend within the chart area
Horizontal Axis
Configure x-axis label format and positioning
Vertical Axis & Right Vertical Axis
Configure primary and secondary y-axis label number formatting, positioning, log scaling, and min-max axis values etc.
Gridlines
Add major and minor gridlines to primary and secondary y-axes
Specifically to address the combo chart objectives, we used many of the options outlined above to get the precise intended output
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First - Using the Title option, we provided an appropriate title
--------------------------------------------------------------- Second - We used the Type and Right Axis option available under Series to plot the sales data series as a lie chart on the secondary y-axis
Third - We made the x-axis labels legible to read by slanting them 90 ̊
Fourth - We used the currency short option to show the revenue data in the secondary y-axis as currency values.
Our combo chart is now configured. Let's see what it looks like.
On the Settings screen that follows, there are several options available to further make the chart your own. These include:
the ability to add footnotes to the chart (seen below)
customizing tooltip text
control chart edit and view permissions
customizing excel and PPT download format, and
the ability to drilldown from this chart to another chart
Click on the link to the clause pop-up window. The link is available on the top left corner of the preview table. Once you've filtered the data as needed, hit the NEXT button to continue.
On the Visualization screen, the filtered data from the previous step will be displayed as a table chart by default. To change to a different chart type, select from the menu.
To format a chart, navigate to the section of the Visualization screen.
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Now that we've finished configuring the chart to our liking, its time to hit to continue finalizing the chart.
Everything looks great! It's time to hit the button to publish the chart.
