Advanced Conditional Formatting for Design Studio Charts

ChartsPLUS is an add-on for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio which greatly enhances the visualization capabilities of Design Studio.

In this blog we look at how you can use ChartsPLUS for advanced conditional formatting in Charts.

ChartsPLUS provides the following options to do conditional formatting in Charts:

1. Value based
   1. Static Value
   2. Measure based
2. Percent based
3. Simple formatting for negative values
4. Dynamic Color based on dimension value

• Value based Conditional formatting:
  • Measure based:  The threshold value for setting the chart alerts can be based on measures defined within a datsource. This helps you dynamically set the thresholds for each dimension values.
  • Static Value: Static values can be hardcoded within the conditional formatting settings area

In the example below there are three bands defined for the conditional formatting rule, the first one is based on a static value, band 2 and 3 are based on measures defined within the datasource, this makes the conditional formatting rule highly flexible and can change based on the selection done within the datasource (filters, drilldown etc.).

The thresholds measures used in the rules does not have to be present in the chart,

In the example below each turbine has different threshold values, the threshold values are based on the measure ("Optimal" and "Over Specification") from the datasource, thresholds are also plotted (steps) on the chart.

Data set used for the chart above:

Another example of conditional formatting with guides in the chart background for displaying the "Optimal" value zone.

• Percent based:  Percent calculation of two measure variances in the datasource can be applied for conditional formatting of the chart. The conditional format rule can be based on any measure in the datasource (this measure does not have to be displayed in the chart). In the example below the column colors are based on the Actual vs. Plan percentage comparison, Actual and Plan measures are available in the datasource, but only Actual is displayed on the chart.  Percent based conditional format value thresholds can also be static values or measure based.  You can also display the threshold as part of the Chart legend.

     In addition to setting the column/bar/line colors you can also set a custom bullet (example below) for the series to represent the outcome of the      conditional format rule.

• Negative Value formatting: ChartsPLUS provides an easy way to format all negative values in the chart with a specific color. This can be enabled using the "NEGATIVE FILL COLORS" option available in the Additional Property Sheet of ChartsPLUS as show below.

          Output of Chart based on negative fill color, all the negative variances are displayed as red (#CB1918).

• Series color based on Dimension value:  ChartsPLUS allows to assign the color of a series based on dimension field from the datasource. In the example below the datasource has a field Material Color which can be assigned to the chart series, this field can be set to the "Color Field" of the Chart to dynamially generate the bars based on datasource dimenion value "Material Color" in this case.

        Chart output based on the "Material Color" dimension value from the datasource above.

You can use the link below for more details on ChartsPLUS for SAP BusinessObject Design Studio. http://archius.com/products/chartsplus-for-sap-businessobjects-design-studio/