Simple Chart Widget (EX)
What's on This Page:
About Simple Chart Widgets
The Simple Chart widget allows you to display data in a range of basic charts. Changing the chart type, setting colors, and choosing display options allows you to tailor charts to fit a wide range of situations.
Qtip: If you have multiple sources mapped, all source data will be displayed in the widget together. You will need to use a widget-level filter to ensure only one data source is displayed at a time. You can even lock this filter, if you don’t want dashboard users to adjust it.
Field Type Compatibility
The Simple Chart widget metric is only compatible with fields with the following field types:
- Number Set
- Numeric Value
The X Axis Dimension and Data Series are only compatible with categories and fields with the following type:
- Number Set
- Date
- Text Set
- Multi-Answer Text Set
Widget Customization
For basic widget instructions and customization, visit the Widgets Overview support page. Continue reading for widget-specific customization.
Chart Type
Choosing a chart type allows you to decide the format in which you would like your data to be displayed. The Simple Chart widget has four chart types:
- The Bar chart type creates a simple vertical bar chart.
- The Horizontal Bar chart type creates a bar chart that is oriented horizontally.
- The Line chart type displays the data points connected by a continuous line. Check Spline under Display Options to smooth this line.
- The Area chart type fills the area beneath the data with a solid color. This chart type is particularly useful if you are breaking out your data using a data series.
Basic Setup
When setting up your Simple Chart widget, at minimum, you will need to define a metric. If you decide to use a metric other than Count (which does not require additional specifications), you will be required to specify a field for the metric. You can then add an X Axis dimension, if desired; this acts as a breakout for your selected metric and appears as the additional labels that display at the bottom of your chart. To add an additional breakout on top of your X Axis dimension, you can select a Data Series. A Data Series will allow you to examine your data on an additional granular level.
When selecting a metric, every metric except Count will need a field specified. Only a category or a field with the type Number Set or Multi-Answer Text Set will be available. You can also select Options to specify whether or not you would like your metric in a Number, Percent, or Currency format, as well as the number of decimal places you would like displayed. In addition, you can select Filters to add a filter to your widget on the metric level. These filters are set up similarly to the ones that you set up in your dashboard.
Your available metrics include:
- Count: Display response counts from the selected fields (i.e., number of respondents choosing a value in a five-point scale)
- Average: Exhibit the average value for a selected field.
- Minimum: Show the minimum value of a selected field.
- Maximum: Present the maximum value for a selected field.
- Sum: Pull in the sum of all values for a selected field.
- Net Promoter Score: Identify the Detractors, Passives, and Promoters from NPS questions.
- Correlation: Input Pearson’s r value for the correlation between two fields.
- Top Box / Bottom Box: Display the percentage of responses that fall into a specified range of values.
- Benchmarks: Any benchmarks you’ve created.
You will only be able to specify your X Axis dimension when using a single metric. If you use more than one metric in your chart, the X Axis dimension will automatically display Metrics and use your selected metrics as a breakout instead.
If you choose to add a Data Series, you will only be able to add categories or fields with the type Text Set, Multi-Answer Text Set, Number Set, or Date. If you do not add a Data Series and only have a single metric and X Axis dimension added, you will have the option to Only show top/bottom N values. Check this box to specify whether you would like to show only Top or Bottom values and to specify how many of these values you would like shown.
Axis Settings
Depending on the setup you have chosen for your Simple Chart, you axis settings options may appear differently from what they are shown as here. However, functionality remains the same and you will be able to apply these settings to whatever setup you have chosen.
You can change how your X Axis is ordered by using the Axis Sorting options. Custom and Labels will always be options; additional options will appear depending on your widget setup. If you choose Custom, you will be able to drag and drop the Axis Values below the Axis Sorting section into whatever order you would like. To rename your axis values, simply click on the axis value’s name under Axis Values and type whatever name you would like.
You will be able to specify your vertical range by typing in your Min and Max under the Vertical Range section. This defines the maximum and minimum values on the Y Axis of your widget. If you do not define values, these ranges will be set automatically to be inclusive of your data values.
To change the color of a legend value, select the color to the left of the value under Legend Values. You can also drag and drop the legend values into whatever order you would like.
Display Options
- Show X Axis: Displays your X Axis values.
- Show Y Axis: Displays your Y Axis values.
- Show Legend: Determine whether to show a legend on your chart, and where.
- Show data values: Will display the data values on the chart itself.
- Show Tooltip: Displays the field value and its data value when you hover over it on the chart.
- Show number of responses for each data value in tooltip: Displays in the tooltip the total number of responses accounted for in each data value.
- Show grid lines: Displays grid lines on your chart.
Normalize Chart
Switching Normalized Chart to Yes will display each data point in the chart as a percentage out of 100%. This is useful if your data is broken out with a data series and you would like to view the fraction of respondents that selected certain values as relative percentages instead of explicit counts.
Stack Chart
Switching Stack Chart to Yes will condense the bars in your chart into a single stacked bar. If you have your widget broken out with a data series, there will be a stacked bar for each value of the data series field. This is particularly useful if you are normalizing the widget. In this case, the length of the bar will be 100% and it will be divided into sections to match the percentages of each data point.
Reference Lines
You can add reference lines to your chart to use as a point of comparison. You have the ability to choose between having your line Based on value (a static value that you specify) or Based on metric (a value from your data set). You can add multiple reference lines to a single widget. Follow the steps below to add a reference line:
- Select Add Reference Line.
- Give your line a Label (i.e., a name).
- Choose your Line Type.
- If you chose Based on value, type in your desired value.
- If you chose Based on metric, choose your metric. If choose a metric other than Count, you will also need to specify the Field for the metric.
- If desired, you can change your line color by selecting the color next to your added reference line.
Date Filters
Date filters have a few unique functions on Simple Charts.
Compare Historically
If you have multiple sources mapped, the historical comparison option is a great way to show how employee feedback has changed over time.
- Add a metric.
- Add a date field to your x-axis. Then click the field again to open the menu.
- Adjust how you group the data (day, week, year, etc.), if necessary.
- Select Compare Historically.
- If you’d like to restrict the data by date, select a date range.
Qtip: This setting is helpful if you have data from several years worth of projects mapped in your project, but you really only want to display a comparison of two years’ data. For example, I may have 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 mapped, but I really only want this chart to display data from Jan 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019.
Relative Filters
Relative filters are a type of shift back filter that can only be on the widget level to Simple Charts and Simple Tables. The purpose of relative filters is to filter a widget relative to a page-level date filter. For example, if your entire page is filtered to show data for the last 7 days, you can use a relative filter on your widget to show data for the same week last year.
- Add a date filter to your page. You can filter this however you want, and even leave it on the All Time setting if desired.
- Edit a Simple Table or Simple Chart.
- Click on a Metric.
- Go to the Filters tab.
- Select Add Filter.
- Select a date filter.
- Change the filter to Relative.
- Select Shift date back.
- Select the timeframe you want to shift the data back by.
- Select Period to date to only include data through the current day, rather than a full time period.
Example: This dashboard page is filtered to show data for the last 7 days.
This Simple Table has three Metrics added to it, each an average NPS. The first Metric is not filtered, showing the NPS for the last 7 days. The second Metric is shifted back 1 year from the page filter, showing data for the same week a year ago. The third Metric is shifted back 1 quarter from the page filter, showing data for the same week a quarter ago.
Metric Filters
Let’s say you’ve loaded many different metrics into your simple chart widget. Sometimes, you may want to filter these metrics for easier viewing. Instead of building a new widget with your individual metrics, you can add a metric filter to your existing widget and filter the widget so it only displays the data you’re interested in. Metric filters can only be added to widgets displaying more than one metric.
Adding a Metric Filter
- Click Edit Page to put the dashboard in editing mode.
- Click the filter icon in the top right hand corner of the widget to which you’d like to add the filter.
- Click Add Filter.
- Select Metric Filter.
Qtip: Don’t see a metric filter? Your widget likely only has one metric displayed. Try editing your widget and adding an additional metric.
- If desired, edit the Filter Title.
- Use the Metric Filter dropdown menu to choose which metrics are selected by default.
- To prevent dashboard users from modifying this filter, enable Lock filter.
- When finished, click Done Editing.