The purpose of this article is to offer you a clear step-by-step process to add a graph to a report template while working in DotActiv software.
Applicable Products: DotActiv Enterprise
Please note that this article refers to adding a graph when you are still in the ‘Report Builder’ stage. You are still building a report template in which you’ll insert real data when generating a report.
Your final graph will adjust to convey the real data once you’ve linked it to the graph template created in the report template.
Adding A Graph
After opening DotActiv, ensure you are in the ‘Reporting’ tab.
Once there, navigate to the ‘Advanced’ section and click on the drop-down arrow next to ‘Custom Report’. Select ‘Report Builder’.
The ‘Custom Report Builder – Templates’ window appears. Here, you can either choose an existing template or create a new one.
If you select ‘Existing Template’, it means you want to add/edit a graph template to a Report you have built or are still busy building. If you select ‘New’, it means that you will create a custom report template from scratch (in which you will then add a graph template if you want a graph in your report).
Let’s say you have decided to add a graph template to an existing report. After selecting your chosen report, you’re taken to your report. On the left, you’ll find a dockable window labelled ‘Objects’. Insert a new page by selecting the ‘Add Page’ function under the ‘Tools’ Tab. From here, you can add a graph by dragging and dropping it on the report.
This opens the ‘Custom Report – Graph Setup’ window as seen below.
The above example makes use of a 2D Clustered Column Graph.
Please note that although pie charts don’t have an L-shaped X and Y axis, the principle stays the same. The key displayed on the right will usually be equivalent to your X-axis, where the actual figures/slice breaks of the pie will represent the Y-axis.
To begin, give your graph a name. Let’s go ahead and name it ‘%Sales and %Units per Sub Category’. Stating what data you want to see and for what groupings/levels, will help to define the X-axis and Y-axis of your graph (discussed later in this article). After you have given your graph a heading, you must select your data source.
Once done, it’s time to set your data. Note that you can only set data after a data source has been selected. Read this article to see how a data source is created and/or selected.
When you set your data, you’re telling ‘Report Builder’ what information you want to display on the graph. In this case, let’s make use of the graph we just named %Sales and %Units per Sub Category. You can find ‘Set Data’ beneath where you choose your data source.
Please note that since this is a graph template, it also displays the information that will be shown when you generate a report by slotting ‘real’ data into that specific template.
For example, if you have set the graph template to show Sales per Sub Category, the graph template will show figures for ‘Sub Category 1,’ ‘Sub Category 2,’ etc. Whereas if you have linked a Long Life Milk planogram/data source to this template when generating a report, the set Sub Categories for that planogram (for example ‘Full Cream Milk’ and ‘Low Fat Milk’) will display on the graph.
The ‘Custom Report – Set Data’ window pops up where you can include all the data specific to your requirements.
Once you’ve selected your Data Source, you can continue to do your ‘General’ and ‘Axis Charts’ setup.
The ‘General’ setup includes the selection of a colour theme, gradient type and other display settings. You are also able to set whether you would like to display certain labels, borders and axis titles, as seen in the screenshot below.
You have the option to display none of the axis titles, only X or Y, or both of the axis titles within your report.
Measure Fields (X-axis)
Under ‘Measure Fields’, you will insert which fields’ %Sales and %Units you would want to see. These fields will be shown on your X-axis and is often Product Dimension field (such as a level from the display hierarchy).
For this example, you can set the ‘Measure’ fields to be:
- Category;
- Sub-Category,
- Brand
You can choose one or multiple fields to display on the X-axis. In the case where you select more than one option, you can drill down to these levels on your graph by double-clicking on the column on the visual graph.
If your graph shows %Sales and %Units per Category, you can double click on the column (on the visual graph), where DotActiv will ask you whether you want to drill down to Sub Category level so the process can go on. To drill back up, simply right-click on the column and select ‘Clear All Filters.’
Data Fields (Y-axis)
In contrast, ‘Data Fields’, are the measurements themselves. It indicates what you want to measure of the ‘Measure Fields’/X-axis. These will most likely be numerical values and will consequently often be fields selected from the ‘Fact Dimension’ The ‘Data Fields’ are thus your Y-axis.
For this example, you would want to see the following in your ‘Data fields’:
- Percentage Sales; and
- Percentage Units.
The graph template below shows you an example where Sub Category was one of the options inserted into ‘Measure Fields’ (X-axis) and %Sales and %Units were inserted into ‘Data Fields’ (Y-axis):
Once you’ve set your data, click ‘OK’ to add the graph to your report template. Right-click on the graph to select ‘Fit’ and ‘All Sides’ for it to fill the screen.
To find out more about linking a planogram highlight to a graph, read this article.
Should the above steps not work for you, please create a support ticket and DotActiv support will assist you in uncovering the issue.