This blog looks at some of the new Chart Functionality available in DS 1.3. There are three different sections, new Chart types, Chart Properties and Chart API.
If the images are not clear click on them to zoom to get a better view.
Chart Types: The following new chart types are accessible from the “Additional Chart Types ” under “Chart Type” Property of the Chart:
- Heat Map
- Tree Map: The Properties pane for Heat Map and Tree Map are similar to below. You can set the Measures for Weight and Color and also the Title with the Dimension name.
![TreeMap.png]()
- Trellis (Bar, Column, Line, Area, Horizontal line, Horizontal area): For Trellis depending on your requirement you could use Row or Column multiplier for the additional Dimension (it didn't look good when I did this).
Trellis Charts worked fine for me in IE 9 and Chrome on Windows 7, there seems to be some issues with IE 11 even though PAM says IE 11 is supported.
I think overall Trellis Charts require some more refinement.
Chart Properties:
Conditional Formatting:Conditional Formatting is available from the Chart Properties and Provides basic operators for applying conditional formatting for Charts. You can define several rules for Measures and Dimension from the Conditional Formatting window. In the example below Conditional formatting is applied on a measure Open Order quantity and you can see one Column (2013 Open Order Qty) getting highlighted in a different color.
Note: Conditional Formatting is based on Measure names and not UID (BW technical names), if you have duplicate Measures you could run into issues.
Chart Area Formatting: This is available under the Advanced Properties section of the Chart Properties. Under this section you can edit the basic properties of the chart area. The property list here is dynamic and will change based on the Chart Type selected. See example below for Trellis and Bar Chart Properties. Legend, Axis scaling, Padding etc. can be changed from here.
Data Series Formatting: Data Series colors, Chart Display Type (for Combination Chart) and Measure Axis Selector (for Dual Axis Charts) can be selected from this section. You could use the Color Picker here or type in the HEX color values if you know them.
I did notice that the additional Data Series Option does not have any options while selecting the new “Additional Chart Types” (Trellis, Tree Map and Heat Map), not sure whether this will be fixed with DS 1.3 SPS 1.
Fig: Data Series Properties for Dual Axis Chart
Fig: Data Series Properties for Single Axis Chart
CSS Formatting: This section provides an easy to use UI for formatting the title, labels etc. You can change the Fonts, Color, size, weight etc. Additional formatting will have to be done via CSS, the help documentation provides details on the CSS classes which can be used.
Chart API
There are several enhancements available for Charts in API. I did try using the setAxisScaling API. To make this more user friendly you could provide the users with the SAPUI5 slider and attach to the onChange even to change the Axis scaling value.
I could not get Convert function in DS to work and had to add both Axis values with .0 to get it working.
This is the full list of new Chart APIs in 1.3:
- showScalingFactors
- setAxisScaling
- removeAxisScaling
- setDataSelection
Overall DS 1.3 Charting is a good enhancement over what we had in DS 1.2. There are several new chart types and properties which are available now to create great visualizations. I was expecting more Chart types with 1.3 (at BI 2014 in Orlando we were told there will be around 100 different new charts, not sure whether there will be more added with DS 1.3 SPS).
If you need more Chart Types (Gauges, Bullets, Bubbles with Quadrants etc.), work with local data (for rapid prototyping), superior Chart formatting or more runtime control for Chart Properties you could refer Archius ChartsPLUS™ for Design Studio developed by our labs.
PS: The author works for Archius