Standard Bar Charts

Standard bar charts are based on one metric and one or two attributes, as follows:

• Plain: Based on 1 metric and 1 attribute
• Clustered: Based on 1 metric and 2 attributes
• Stacked: Based on 1 metric and 2 attributes
• 100% Stacked: Based on 1 metric and 2 attributes

Standard bar charts are supported by all Composer data connectors.

This topic describes:

• Configure Default Bar Chart Settings for a Data Source
• Configure Settings for a Specific Bar Chart
• Configure Colors for a Specific Bar Chart
• Understand Visual Color Condition Thresholds

Configure Default Bar Chart Settings for a Data Source

To configure default standard bar chart settings for a data source configuration:

1. Edit the appropriate data source configuration. See Edit a Data Source Configuration.

2. Select the Visuals tab in the data source configuration wizard.

3. On the Standard subtab of the Visuals tab, select Bars.

   If you want to be able to display the data collected by this data source configuration as a standard bar chart, make sure the Bars checkbox is selected.

   Default standard bar chart settings appear on the right side of the page.

4. Configure the default settings as follows:

   Setting	Description
   Group	Select the attribute by which the data should be grouped. If you select a date or time attribute, a second box appears to the right for this setting. Use this second box to specify the date and time granularity used to group the data. Valid granularity options are Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, or Year. If some of these granularity options do not appear, verify that the granularity specified for this field on the Fields tab of the data source definition is set at the correct granularity level. The refinement level of the field data in a data store defines the minimum level of granularity that should be set for the field. Specifying granularity for a field that is lower than the refinement level of the field data will not produce a visual with data grouped at the requested lower level. For example, if a field's data is stored in hours, requesting the granularity of that data lower than hours will produce the values up to the hour level, and the more detailed level information will be zeros (i.e., 0 minutes, 0 seconds, and 0 milliseconds).
   Group Limit	Specify the number of attribute items to display on the visual.
   Group Sort	Select a metric or attribute by which the Group attribute items should be sorted. You can also select the sorting order (Ascending or Descending). For metrics, you can define the default aggregation function: SUM, AVG, MAX, or MIN. See Metric Aggregation Functions.
   Sub-Group	Select the attribute by which the other attributes should be grouped. If you select a date or time attribute, a second box appears to the right for this setting. Use this second box to specify the date and time granularity used to group the data. Valid granularity options are Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, or Year. If some of these granularity options do not appear, verify that the granularity specified for this field on the Fields tab of the data source definition is set at the correct granularity level. The refinement level of the field data in a data store defines the minimum level of granularity that should be set for the field. Specifying granularity for a field that is lower than the refinement level of the field data will not produce a visual with data grouped at the requested lower level. For example, if a field's data is stored in hours, requesting the granularity of that data lower than hours will produce the values up to the hour level, and the more detailed level information will be zeros (i.e., 0 minutes, 0 seconds, and 0 milliseconds).
   Sub-Group Limit	Specify the number of attribute items to be displayed for each attribute that you have selected in the Sub-Group list. This option only appears if you have selected a subgroup.
   Metric	Select the metric by which you want to analyze the selected attribute. You can also define the default aggregation function used for the metric values: SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN, or (for some data sources) LAST VALUE. See Metric Aggregation Functions.
   Bar Color	Select the metric that will be depicted by the bar color. You can also define the default aggregation function used for the metric values: SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN, or (for some data sources) LAST VALUE. See Metric Aggregation Functions.

5. Select .

Configure Settings for a Specific Bar Chart

To change the settings for a specific bar chart:

1. Edit the bar chart you want to modify. See Edit Visuals.

2. If you are editing the visual in a dashboard, select Edit Visual from the chart drop-down menu. The sidebar menu for the visual appears.

   If you are editing the visual from the Visual Gallery, the sidebar appears to the right of the visual.

3. Select on the sidebar menu. The Bar Chart Settings sidebar for the visual appears.

   

4. Alter the settings as needed:

   Setting	Description
   Orientation	Select Horizontal or Vertical orientation for the bars.
   Subgroup	Slide on (to the right) the Enable Subgroup slider to enable a subgroup style. After enabling a subgroup style, select the style for the chart: Cluster Bar Chart, Stacked Bar Chart, or 100% Stacked Bar Chart.
   Labels	Slide the Show Labels, Absolute Values, and Relative Values sliders on (to the right) to enable these label options.
   Style	Specify the bar thickness for the chart.

5. Select to save the dashboard and the visual with its updated settings.

Configure Colors for a Specific Bar Chart

To specify the color settings for a specific bar chart using the Color sidebar:

1. Edit the visual you want to modify. See Edit Visuals.

2. If you are editing the visual in a dashboard, select Edit Visual from the visual drop-down menu. The sidebar menu for the visual appears. If you are editing the visual from the Visual Gallery, the sidebar appears to the right of the visual.

   Select on the sidebar menu. The Color sidebar for the visual appears.

3. Configure the color settings as described below. As you change the color settings, the legend at the top of the Color sidebar shows how the legend will appear on the visual. Supported color specifications are described in Specify Colors.

   Setting	Description
   Legend	Slide the bar to the right if you want the legend to be displayed on the visual or to the left to hide the legend.
   Color Metric	Select the metric that affects the segment color in the visual.
   <type> Color Palette	If a color palette is specified for this visual type in the data source defaults, select the color palette for this specific visual. If a color range is selected for visuals in the data source defaults, this setting is not available. (The actual title of this setting varies by the visual type you have selected.) Select the Inherit from theme checkbox to use the color palette specified by the theme.
   Color Mode	Select Distinct Colors or Gradient to identify the way colors are used on the screen. Either specific distinct colors will be used or a gradient of colors will be used. (This is equivalent to the Legend Type default settings on the Visuals tab of the data source configuration.)
   Threshold Mode	If you selected the Gradient color mode, this setting cannot be changed. If you selected the Distinct Colors color mode, select either Auto or Manual from the drop-down list. Auto will automatically assign thresholds and colors for the visual. Manual allows you to change the thresholds and colors used on the visual.
   Number of colors	Specify the number of colors to use for the visual.
   Color Rules	Color rules allow you to change the colors for each color used for the visual. In addition, if you specified a Manual threshold mode, you can select the thresholds used for color settings in the visual. See Understand Visual Color Condition Thresholds.

4. Close the Color sidebar and the color settings are dynamically applied to the visual.

5. Select to save the dashboard and the visual with its updated settings.

Understand Visual Color Condition Thresholds

You can set threshold color conditions for metric-based visuals. At least two color settings are required. In addition, thresholds are specified between each color setting. (So three color settings require two threshold settings; four color settings require three threshold settings, etc.)

• The color for Color 1 is used when the value of the color metric is less than the first threshold value.

• The color for Color 2 is used when the value of the color metric falls between the first and second threshold values.

• If only three colors are used for the visual, the color for Color 3 is used when the value of the color metric is greater than or equal to the second threshold value.

  If more than three colors are used, the color for Color 3 is used when the value of the color metric falls between the second and third threshold values.

  When more than three colors are used, the colors continue to be applied in this pattern for all threshold settings; any color metric values greater than the last threshold setting have the final color applied.

You can have Composer automatically set the thresholds or you can manually set them.

For information about the color encoding supported by Composer, see Specify Colors.