Customizing a Chart

• Title and Description
• Axis Settings
• Borders and Colors
• Legend Settings
• Adding Threshold
• Chart Drill Down Path
• Drill Through
• Customizing Chart Color
• Format options in charts
• Displaying images in charts

When designing a chart, ManageEngine Analytics Plus offers wide range of options to customize the chart and improve the overall appearance in different ways. In this section we will discuss about various options provided by ManageEngine Analytics Plus to customize the chart that you create.

Title and Description

ManageEngine Analytics Plus provides options to add title and description of the chart when creating the chart. You can change the title as description at any time using the Settings screen.

To change the existing tile and description of a chart, follow the steps given below:

• Open the corresponding chart.
• Click Settings option in the toolbar. The Settings screen General tab will open as shown in the following screenshot.

• Enter/modify the title and description of the chart into corresponding text boxes.
• In the Display "Unknown" value As field, specify the value you wanted to display in the chart for null or empty values.
• In case of Pie and Funnel charts, the Show Data Label As option will be available. With this you can set whether to display the percent or value as data label over the corresponding section. You could also choose to show chart without the data label.
• The Chart effect section allows you to apply an effect over your chart. Select the Default option if you wish to generate the chart without any effects.
• Click Apply.

Axis Settings

ManageEngine Analytics Plus will automatically set values for chart axes properties such as X-axis and Y-axis labels, axis range, interval between labels, etc., while creating a chart. You can also customize these properties to suit your needs using the Axis tab in the Settings screen.

To customize axis settings:

• Open chart and then click Settings option in the toolbar.
• The Settings screen will open. Click the Axis tab. You can also open the Axis tab by clicking the settings icon next to X/Y Axis in Edit Mode.

The following table describes various options available in Axis tab.

Note: The Axis tab is not applicable for Pie and Web chart types, as they do not have any axis.

Borders and Colors

When a chart is created, ManageEngine Analytics Plus will set the default background and border for the new chart. However, you can customize these setting to enhance the look and feel of the chart. The Borders & Colors tab in the Settings screen provides various options to customize the chart appearance.

• To customize the chart appearance:
• Open chart and then click Settings option in the toolbar.
• The Settings screen will open. Click the Borders & Colors tab.
• Customize the chart and then click Apply.

The following screenshot illustrates the Borders & Colors tab.

The following table describes various options available in the Borders & Colors tab.

Legend Settings

Legend in a chart provides a quick overview of the different data series involved in the chart along with the color associated with each series. Legend consists of Legend Title and Legend Items. Each legend item consists of a colored box that indicates the data series and the name of the data series.

In ManageEngine Analytics Plus, by default the legend will be placed on the right side of the chart and legend items will be added to it depending on the data series involved in the chart. You can customize the legend position, legend title, legend filters and the colors of each data series easily.

To customize the legend:

• Open the corresponding chart and click Settings option in the toolbar.
• The Settings screen will open. Click the Legend tab.
• The Legend tab provides various options to customize the legend properties. Set the options as required and click Apply.

The following table describes the options available in the Legend tab:

The following screen shot illustrates the resulting legend, when Show Legend Title and Legend Filters options are selected and Legend Position is set to Bottom Left.

You can also change the color of each data series using the corresponding legend item in Edit mode.

Adding Threshold

ManageEngine Analytics Plus provides an option to draw threshold lines in charts to highlight specific values. Threshold lines can be added horizontally or vertically at a fixed value on the X or Y-axis of a chart. A threshold will be useful to highlight specific values for better visualization and for comparing the data series. 

For example, you can set a threshold line to represent sales target, and another to represent the lowest acceptable sales for a particular month. This helps to spot regions that are out of this range. 

To add a threshold in your chart:

• Open the corresponding chart and click the Settings option in the toolbar.
• Click the Threshold tab in the Settings screen.

You can configure the following settings.

• Scope: Select the Scope of the Threshold.
  • Entire Table: Applies the same threshold for the entire dataset represented in the report.
  • Per Cell: Applies different threshold lines for each data point represented in the report. 

Example: The following images illustrate charts with a single threshold line for the entire chart and multiple threshold lines for each data point in a chart.

Single threshold line:

Multiple threshold lines:

• Reference axis: For charts with multiple y-axes, select the axes you wish to use as reference from the Reference Axis drop-down. 
• Value: Analytics Plus provides the option to choose static or dynamic threshold values. 
  • A static threshold is a reference line set at a constant value. This value is added manually by selecting Constant from the Value drop-down. 
  • A dynamic threshold is a reference line drawn to represent computed values such as minimum, maximum, average or sum of columns in your reference axis. To add a dynamic threshold line, select a function from the Value drop-down. 

Example: The below image illustrates a case where a dynamic function, namely average sales, has been set as the threshold. 

• Enter the desired label for the threshold line in the Name text box.
• Select the line type and color from the Formatting drop-down.
• You can add more thresholds using the +Add Threshold link.
• Click Apply once you have added required threshold lines.

Note: You can remove an existing threshold any time using the Remove link next to the corresponding threshold in Settings screen. 

Chart Drill Down Path

The Drill Down tab allows you to set a drill down path for your chart axis. This path is specific to the chart where you are defining it.

Setting a drill down path

Follow the steps below to do this. 

• Open the corresponding chart and click Settings option in the toolbar.
• The Settings screen will open. Click the Drill Down tab.
• The Drill Down tab will open. In case if there is any drill paths already defined at the table level it will be displayed by default.
• You can modify the drill down paths or define new path for the chart axis.
• Click Apply. The drill down path will be defined for this chart.

If you want to define the path globally (i.e., for all charts), then you need to define that for the corresponding columns at the table level.

Disabling drill down

You can disable the drill down option in your chart by deselecting the required options in the Drill Down tab of the chart's Settings page.

• Drill Down: Deselect this to remove the drill down option from your chart completely.
• X-Axis Path: Deselect this to remove the drill down option based on X-Axis' column path.
• Color Path: Deselect this to remove the drill down option based on the chart's Color column.
• Allow Dynamic Drill Down: Deselect this to remove the dynamic Drill Down By option from the chart.

Drill through

The drill-through function in Analytics Plus allows you to link two related reports, enabling seamless navigation between them. When users drill down into a report, they can open the related report, providing a more detailed and connected view based on the specific data point.

Follow the steps below to set up a drill through,

1. Open the desired chart, and click the settings icon at the top right corner.

   

2. In the right pane that pops up, scroll down and expand the Drill option.
3. Enable the Drill Through toggle button, and click the Edit link next to it.

   

4. In the dialog that opens, choose the related views you want to drill through from the current view.

   

   You can search for the specific view using the search bar. ‌You can also sort the views in ascending or descending order based on their name or type for easier selection.

   

   ‌To remove a selected view, hover over the view name, and click the delete icon that appears. Click the Remove All link to remove all the selected views and add new views.

   

5. Click Apply.

   

6. Click Save to save the report.

   

Working with drill through

• Click any data point in the report and choose Drill Through.

  

• Select the desired report you wish to jump.

  

The selected report will open in a new tab with filters applied according to the chosen data point.

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Disable drill through

• Open the desired chart, and click the settings icon at the top right corner.

  

• In the right pane that pops up, scroll down and expand the Drill option.
• Disable the Drill Through toggle button, and click Save.

  

Sharing and collaboration

While sharing views, Analytics Plus allows report owners to enable the Drill Through option, granting other users the ability to drill through the related views.

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Customizing Chart Color

In ManageEngine Analytics Plus, when you create a chart, colors to represent the various data series involved will be automatically added to your chart. However, you can change the default colors of the data series.

To customize the data series colors in your chart:

• Open your chart in Edit Design Mode.
• Click on the color box of the legend item of the data series for which you want to change the color.
• Select Change the Legend Color option in the menu that shows up.
• A color picker dialog opens. Choose the required color from the full range of colors available. You can also specify the color by specifying the RGB value or the Hexadecimal value in the corresponding fields provided.
• Click OK after choosing the required color.

The newly chosen color will show up in your chart for the corresponding data series as shown below.

Note:You can also customize the color of the single data series using the Chart Color Fill option in the Borders & Colors tab in Settings screen.

Format options in charts 

The format menu offers a centralized location to customize the X axis, Y axis, color, and tooltip.

To customize these components,

• Click on the Settings button > Select the Format menu.
• Click on the Format button beside the Tooltip Label.

For date fields, you can choose from a list of date formats, or create your own custom format using the text box.

The format options for a currency type column are:

• Currency Symbol - you can choose country-specific currency symbols from the drop-down.
• Units - You can select units in the range of Thousands (K), Millions (M), Billions (B), or choose Auto to let Analytics Plus display the closest unit.
• Decimal Places - You can choose to display up to 10 decimal places for a column.
• Negative Number Display - You can choose how sub-zero values are displayed on your charts.

Similarly, for a percentage value data type, you can select the number of decimal places, separator, and choose to show or hide the percentage symbol.

Displaying images in charts

Analytics Plus allows you to display images in the place of text in a chart's axis. You can do this by converting the image URLs in a table into the corresponding images.

The following is a sample table with an image URL column:

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Follow the steps below to convert the image URLs into the corresponding images in charts:

• Open the required chart in the Edit Design mode.
• Add the image URL column to either the X or Y-axis shelves, or the Color shelf and click the Click Here to Generate Graph button.

  

• Click the Settings icon in the top-right corner

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• Navigate to the Format section and click the required Format link.
  
  In the pop-up that appears, choose Image from the Display As drop-down, select the required dimension from the Image Dimension drop-down, and click OK.
  
  You can also provide custom dimensions for the images using the Custom option under the Image Dimension section.

  

• Click Apply to replace the URL text with the corresponding images in the chart.

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Note: Images cannot be displayed inside Tooltips.