For this week’s challenge, Yusuke asked us to provide a solution to allow charts to be coloured by different dimension, but he sprinkled a few extras in just for good measure 🙂
Defining the parameter
The key driver here is going to be the use of a parameter to define the dimension we need to colour by.
pColourBy
string parameter defaulted to Order Date, listing the 4 options as below
We then need a field that uses this parameter to define the actual dimension we’ll colour by
Colour
CASE [pColourBy] WHEN ‘Order Date’ THEN STR(YEAR([Order Date])) WHEN ‘Region’ THEN [Region] WHEN ‘Category’ THEN [Category] WHEN ‘Segment’ THEN [Segment] END
Building the Order Date chart
On a new sheet, add Order Date to Columns and Sales to Rows. Change the mark type to Bar and add Colour to the Colour shelf. Adjust the colours to suit, set the opacity to 70% and add a white border. Show the pColourBy parameter.
Change the options in the pColourBy parameter and each time readjust the colours as you wish.
Add a reference line to the Sales axis that displays the value of TotalSales per cell
Format the reference line to format the displayed number in $M and bold font, and align top middle.
Create a new field
% of Sales
IF SUM([Sales]) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales])) <> 1 THEN SUM([Sales]) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales])) END
and format to % to 1dp. This will only display a value if its not 100%.
Add this to the Label. Adjust the table calculation setting so it is computing by the Colour field only.
Adjust the Label so the font is bold and the label only appears when Highlighted. Then update the Tooltip as required.
Although not explicitly called out in the requirements, I noted that if Yusuke clicked on the chart title, it reset the dimension to colour by. To deal with this we need to create
param Order Date
‘Order Date’
Add this to the Detail shelf.
We also need to ‘fake’ the title to be part of the chart itself (so it’s clickable). Double click into the Columns and manually type ‘Sales by Order Date’ and position the pill created before Order Date.
Right click on the column label (the text in darker font) and hide field labels for columns. Then right click on the column label to format – set the font to 12pt and bold, align left and shade the background to light grey. Increase the width of the column heading.
Then right click on the corner whitespace next to the heading just created, and format. Apply a light grey shading to the corner too.
If the ‘title’ is clicked, we don’t want it to be ‘highlighted’/’selected’. For this we will need fields
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
Add both of these to the Detail shelf.
Finally tidy up by removing the axis title, adjusting the font of the axis labels (I made them a bit darker), and removing row & column dividers. Name the sheet Order Date or similar.
Building the Region chart
Duplicate the Order Date chart and then click the option in the menu to swap axis so we have a horizontal bar chart.
Move the ‘Sales by Order Date’ pill from Rows to Columns and update the text to become ‘Sales by Region’ instead. Drag the Region pill and drop it directly over the Order Date pill on the Rows so it replaces it and all references to the field are replaced too. Widen the rows.
Right click on the ‘Region’ text in the column heading and hide field labels for rows. Format the reference line to align middle right.
Create a new field
param Region
‘Region’
and add this to the Detail shelf instead of the param Order Date field. Name the sheet Region or similar
Building the Category Chart
Duplicate the Region chart, and go through similar steps described above so the ‘title’ is Sales by Category and a new field
param Category
‘Category’
replaces param Region on the Detail shelf.
Building the Segment Chart
Repeat as above, this time setting the ‘title’ to Sales by Segment and a new field
param Segment
‘Segment’
replaces param Region on the Detail shelf.
Adding the interactivity
Add the sheets to a dashboard using layout containers and padding to organise as required. Then create the following dashboard actions
Highlight Action :Highlight
On hover of any of the charts on the dashboard, target all other charts, highlighting based on the Colour field only.
This action makes all the % labels appear when the mouse cursor is moved over the bars.
Parameter Action : Set Order Date Param
On Select of the Order Date sheet, set the pColourBy parameter with the value from the param Order Date field.
Parameter Action : Set Region Param
On Select of the Region sheet, set the pColourBy parameter with the value from the param Region field.
Parameter Action : Set Category Param
On Select of the Category sheet, set the pColourBy parameter with the value from the param Category field.
Parameter Action : Set Segment Param
On Select of the Segment sheet, set the pColourBy parameter with the value from the param Segment field.
These actions change the value displayed in the pColourBy parameter when the ‘title’ of the charts is clicked on.
Filter Action: Deselect Order Date Title
On select of the Order Date sheet on the dashboard, target the Order Date worksheet directly, passing the selected values of True = False. Show all values when selection is cleared.
Filter Action: Deselect Region Title
On select of the Region sheet on the dashboard, target the Region worksheet directly, passing the selected values of True = False. Show all values when selection is cleared.
Filter Action: Deselect Category Title
On select of the Category sheet on the dashboard, target the Categoryworksheet directly, passing the selected values of True = False. Show all values when selection is cleared.
Filter Action: Deselect Segment Title
On select of the Segment sheet on the dashboard, target the Segment worksheet directly, passing the selected values of True = False. Show all values when selection is cleared.
And once these have all been applied, you should have a functioning dashboard. My published version is here.
After connecting to the dataset, add Sales to Columns and Profit to Rows. Add Customer Name to Detail and change the mark type to circle.
The chart is divided by reference lines which I chose to define as parameters (but these were additional to the ones mentioned in the challenge requirements).
pProfitRef
integer parameter defaulted to 0
pSalesRef
integer parameter defaulted to 5000
Add both parameters to the Detail shelf, the add a reference line on the Sales axis that refers to the pSalesRef value.
and then repeat and add a reference line to the Profit axis referencing the pProfitRef field.
To colour the 4 segments of the chart, create new fields
Sales per Customer
{FIXED [Customer Name]:SUM([Sales])}
and
Profit per Customer
{FIXED [Customer Name]: SUM([Profit])}
These capture the total sales / profit at the customer level, and we can then determine which quadrant each customer is in by
Cohort
IF [Sales per Customer]>=[pSalesRef] THEN IF [Profit Per Customer]>=[pProfitRef] THEN ‘High Sales, High Profit’ ELSE ‘High Sales, Low Profit’ END ELSE IF [Profit Per Customer]>=[pProfitRef] THEN ‘Low Sales, High Profit’ ELSE ‘Low Sales, Low Profit’ END END
Add this to the Colour shelf and adjust colours to suit. Then set the opacity to 50% and increase the size of the marks a bit.
To add matching coloured borders around the marks, add another instance of Profit to Rows. Change the mark type of the 2nd Profit marks card to Shape and change the shape to be an open circle. Set the opacity to 100%. Set the chart to dual axis and synchronise the axis.
Adjust the Tooltip and hide the right hand axis (uncheck show header).
Dynamically adjust the axis
The axes will change by adjusting them to refer to parameters. By default we need the axis to try to replicate what it gets set to automatically. For this we need to capture the maximum and minimum sales and profit values and add a ‘buffer’ to give the extra space. I played around with a few options for the buffer, so created a parameter to store this until I got the value that seemed to work best (again this was an additional parameter that I added to just help not having to change multiple calculated fields as I got the value I wanted.)
pBuffer
integer parameter defaulted to 2000
Then create 4 fields to define the max & min of the two measures +/- buffer
Min Sales + Buffer
{MIN([Sales per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}
Max Sales + Buffer
{MAX([Sales per Customer]) + [pBuffer]}
Min Profit + Buffer
{MIN([Profit Per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}
Max Profit + Buffer
{MAX([Profit Per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}
Then create 4 parameters which will define the values we ca use to set the axis
pX-Min
float parameter that is set to the Min Sales + Buffer field when workbook opens (selecting this will then populate the value)
Create further parameters
pX-Max
float parameter that is set to the Max Sales + Buffer field when workbook opens
pY-Min
float parameter that is set to the Min Profit + Buffer field when workbook opens
pY-Max
float parameter that is set to the Max Profit + Buffer field when workbook opens
Once all the parameters exist, edit the Sales Axis and change the axis to use a custom range that references the pX-Min and pX-Max parameters
Do the same for the Profit axis, but reference the pY-Min and pY-Max parameters instead.
Finally while we’re still on the workbook, create two new fields
True
TRUE
and
False
FALSE
and add these to the Detail shelf. We’ll need these later to stop marks highlighting when we click.
Name the sheet Scatter or similar.
Building the Reset button
This actually requires another sheet (even through the requirements says 1 sheet).
Create a new field
Reset Axis
‘Reset Axis’
Add this to the Text shelf of a new sheet. Change the mark type to shape and select a transparent shape (refer to this blog to understand how to create this).
Set the view to Entire View and align the font middle centre and increase the font size. Set the background of the whole worksheet to black. Adjust the tooltip. Add Min Sales + Buffer, Max Sales + Buffer, Min Profit + Buffer and Max Profit + Buffer to the Detail shelf, along with the True and False fields.
Name the sheet Reset or similar
Adding the interactivity
Add the Scatter and Reset sheets to a dashboard, removing any parameters/legends etc that get added. Create dashboard parameter actions to set the axis parameters when selections are made on the scatter plot:
Set X Max
On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pX-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Sales field.
Set X Min
On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pX-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Sales field.
Set Y Min
On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pY-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Profit field.
Set Y Max
On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pY-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Profit field.
Also create dashboard parameter actions to ‘reset’ the axis parameters when the Reset button is clicked:
Reset X Min
On select of the Reset sheet, set the pX-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Min Sales + Buffer field.
Reset X Max
On select of the Reset sheet, set the pX-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Max Sales + Buffer field.
Reset Y Min
On select of the Reset sheet, set the pY-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Min Profit + Buffer field.
Reset Y Max
On select of the Reset sheet, set the pY-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Max Profit + Buffer field.
All these 8 actions should now combine to drive the ‘zoom & reset’ functionality.
Finally, the last step to make the display ‘nicer’ is to deselect the marks from being highlighted when selected. Add a dashboard filter action
Deselect Scatter
on select of the scatter object on the dashboard, target the scatter sheet directly, passing the selected fields of True = False. Show all values when the selection is cleared.
Repeat an create a similar action for Deselect Reset.
This week’s #WOW2025 challenge was set live as part of TC25. Unfortunately, this year I couldn’t be there in person to meet everyone, which for the last 3 years has been my conference highlight 😦
Anyway, Kyle set the challenge, and conscious of time, provided a starting workbook, so the focus could be on the container and DZV functionality. For those who nailed this, he added some additional interactivity with dashboard actions.
So the first thing is to download the starter workbook from the challenge page.
I’m going to attempt to build this in the order of Kyle’s requirements.
Layout out the dashboard
So the requirement states that no floating objects are allowed. Typically when I build a dashboard for business purposes or where the layout is a little complicated, I always start by adding a floating container sized to the exact dashboard size and positioned 0,0. I then add tiled objects into it. Doing this means I don’t end up with Tiled container objects on my dashboard (or if any get added when legends/filters get automatically added, I just move any items I want to retain and then delete the Tiled container).
However, as Kyle says ‘no floating’, I will build adding to the ‘default’ dashboard which means there will be containers on there I don’t really want.
Now blogging about containers is usually very tricky as it’s hard to explain where things need to go. So I’ll be supplementing this with a lot of screen shots – fingers crossed following along works out ok!
To start, create a dashboard sheet and resize to 1200 x 900 as required. Observe the item hierarchy section of the Layout pane as this is where you’ll see all the containers and objects as we add them to the dashboard.
The main structure of the display is split into 2 columns, so start by adding a horizontal layout container to the dashboard. Once added, add 2 blank objects side by side to give the basic layout. Adding blank objects helps when positioning the required objects and is recommended when dealing with layout containers, especially if you’re new to them. They will ultimately be deleted as we go. Rename the horizontal container H – 2 cols or similar (right click on the container in the item hierarchy > rename).
Notice how a Tiled container has now also appeared on the dashboard, even though we only added a horizontal container.
The first column of the dashboard contains 2 charts – the Scatterplot and the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison sheets – stacked on top of each other. For this, add a vertical layout container between the two blank objects. Rename this V – Col 1.
Add the Scatterplot sheet into the vertical container and then add Sales & Profit Comparison underneath it.
The various legends associated with these 2 sheets, automatically get added into their own vertical container on the right hand side. These aren’t required, so from the item hierarchy, select the Vertical container and then Remove from dashboard.
The right hand column of the display will show the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month sheet and another (hidden) chart that needs to be built.
Add another vertical container between the V – Col 1 container and the right hand blank object. Name this V – Col 2, and add the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month sheet and then another blank object underneath it. Once again remove the right hand vertical container that is automatically added with all the legends/filters.
Now we have the ‘core’ layout, the 2 blank objects we added to the horizontal container, H – 2 Cols, right at the start, can be removed, so hopefully you should have a layout organised as below.
Now add the dashboard title (Dashboard menu > Show Title, and then update the text). This will automatically add a vertical layout container around all the existing contents.
Building the Sales & Profit Ratio by Sub-Category bar chart
On a new sheet, add Sub-Category to Rows and Sales to Columns. Add Profit Ratio to Colour and adjust the colour legend to use the Red-Black Diverging colour palette. Hide the Sub-Category row label heading (right click > hide field labels for rows).
The bar chart needs to be filtered when a State in the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison chart is clicked on, or when a Date is selected in the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month chart. However, I noticed when clicking around, that when clicking the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month chart, it filtered the above bar chart by both the State and Date. So based on this, create 3 parameters.
S&PR Comp State
String parameter defaulted to empty string
S&PR by Month State
String parameter defaulted to empty string
S&PR by Month Date
Date parameter defaulted to 01 Jan 1900 (essentially a null date)
Show these parameters on the sheet.
We want to filter the chart if the S&PR Comp State has a value and the S&PR by Month Date is the ‘null’ date (which means we’ve interacted with the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison chart), or if the S&PR Monthly State has a value AND the S&PR by Month Date has a value (which means we’ve interacted with the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month chart). So create
Filter – S&PR by SubCat
([State Name] = [S&PR Comp State] AND ([S&PR by Month Date]=#1900-01-01#))
OR
(([State Name] = [S&PR by Month State]) AND (DATETRUNC(‘month’, [Order Date]) = DATETRUNC(‘month’, [S&PR by Month Date])))
Enter a State name into the S&PR Comp State parameter (eg New Jersey), then add the Filter – S&PR by SubCat field to the Filter shelf and set to True. The chart should change.
Verify the functionality by adding a state and date into the other parameters eg 01 March 2021 and Texas
Empty the state parameters and set the date back to 01 Jan 1900. Name the sheet Sales & Profit Ratio by SubCat. The chart contents will disappear.
Creating a dynamic title sheet
Originally I hoped to do this without using another sheet and just using the title of the bar chart, but I need the date to show nothing rather than Jan 1900 depending on the user interactivity, so a new sheet is required.
But for it, we need some additional calculated fields.
State for Title
IIF([S&PR by Month State]<>”,[S&PR by Month State], [S&PR Comp State])
We only want to show the name of the state once, and both parameters may have it set.
Date for Title
IF [S&PR by Month Date]=#1900-01-01# THEN ” ELSE DATENAME(‘month’,[S&PR by Month Date]) + ‘ ‘ + STR(YEAR([S&PR by Month Date])) END
Line
IF [S&PR by Month Date]<>#1900-01-01# THEN ‘|’ ELSE ” END
Add all 3 fields to the Detail shelf of a new sheet. Change the mark type to polygon. Update the sheet title as below
Name the sheet S&PR Title Sheet or similar
Adding the bar chart, title & legend to the dashboard
All 3 of these objects – the bar chart, the title sheet and the profit ratio legend need to show or hide based on interactivity. To do this in one step, we can encapsulate the 3 objects within containers within another ‘parent’ container and control the visibility on the ‘parent’ container.
Add a vertical container between the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month chart and the blank object. Name this V – S&PR SubCat Chart
Add the Sales & Profit Ratio by SubCat sheet into this. Then add another horizontal container and place it above the Sales & Profit Ratio by Sub Cat chart (making sure it’s within the V – S&PR Sub Cat Chart container. Rename this H – S&PR Sub Cat Title.
Add the S&PR by Title sheet into this horizontal container, and then click on the Profit Ratiolegend on the right hand side and move this object to sit to the right of the title sheet. Then click on the right hand column containing all the remaining legends, and delete this container from the dashboard. Then remove the blank object that’s sitting beneath the Sales & Profit Ratio by SubCat sheet. You should have something like below…
Adjust the width of the S&PR Title sheet so its wider. Set the sheet to Fit Entire View. Then select the H – S&PR SubCat Title container and edit the height to be 90 px.
Hide the title of the Sales &Profit Ratio by SubCat sheet.
Hiding and showing the Sales & Proft Ratio by Sub Category section
Create a new calculated field
Show S&PR by Sub Cat
[S&PR by Month State]<>” OR [S&PR Comp State]<>”
On the dashboard, select the V – S&PR SubCat Chart container and on the Layout pane, check the Control visibility using value checkbox, and select the Show S&PR by Sub Cat field. Assuming all the parameters are set to their default values, then the whole section should disappear, although the container will still be selected.
To make the section show, we need to set the parameters using dashboardparameter actions.
Set S&PR Comp State
On select of the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison sheet, set the S&PR Comp State parameter passing in the value of the State Name field. When the selection is cleared, set the value back to <emptysrting>
Click on a row in the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison bar chart, and the Sales & Profit Ratio by SubCat chart should display, filtered to that State, with the selected state name in the title.
Click the state again, and the chart disappears.
Create 2 further dashboard parameter actions
Set S&PR by Month State
On select of the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month sheet, set the S&PR by Month State parameter, passing in the value from the State Name field. When the selection is cleared, set it back to <emptystring>
Set S&PR by Month Date
On select of the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month sheet, set the S&PR by Month Date parameter, passing in the value from the Month([Order Date]) field. When the selection is cleared, set it back to 01/01/1900
Now click on a point in the line chart, and the Sales & Profit Ratio by SubCat chart should display filtered to the relevant state and month
Adding the Additional Interactivity
When the Scatterplot is clicked, the State in the existing ScatterplotState parameter should be updated. Create a dashboard parameter action
Set Scatterplot State
On select of the Scatterplot sheet, set the Scatterplot State parameter, passing in the value from the State field. When the selection is cleared, retain the value
If you click around the scatterplot, the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month line chart and Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison charts should update.
But we don’t want the other marks on the scatter plot to ‘fade’. To solve this, create a dashboard filter action.
Deselect Scatter marks
On select of the Scatterplot sheet on the dashboard, target the Scatterplot sheet directly, setting the fields TRUE = FALSE. On clearing the selection, show all values.
Finally, the last requirement is to highlight the line in the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month chart associated to the State selected in the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison chart. For this first create a dashboard set action to capture the selected state
Add State to Set
On select of the Sales & Profit Ratio Comparison sheet, target the State Name Set. Check the single-select only checkbox. Running the action should Assign value to set and clearing the selection should remove all values from set
Then add a dashboard highlight action
Highlight Monthly Trend Chart
On select of the Sales & Profit Ration Comparison sheet, target the Sales & Profit Ratio by Month sheet targeting the State Name field only
And hopefully, with all this, you should have a fully interactive dashboard. My published viz is here.
Community month continues this week with Yama G posing us this challenge to analyse profit ratio.
Building the basic bubble chart
The simplest way I found to start this, was to use ctl-click to multi-select Category, Region, Product Name and Sales from the data pane, and then select the packed bubbles option from the Show Me menu.
Then move Category from Text to Columns and Region from Text to Rows, and remove Category from Colour.
Create a new field
Profit Ratio
SUM(Profit)/SUM([Sales])
and apply a custom number format of 0%;▲0%;0% (in this instance I think the intention is to use the ▲ as ‘warning’ indicator).
Add this to Colour. To cluster the lower profit ratios towards the centre of the bubbles, add a sort to the Product Name pill on the Text shelf, to sort ascending by Profit Ratio.
Note – you can’t influence quite how the bubbles are arranged, so it’s possible the layout you see may differ slightly from the solution.
Showing details for selected Sub-Category
Clicking on a Category in the bubble viz should expand to show the Sub-Categories. To support this we need a parameter
pCategory
string parameter defaulted to Technology
The Category label displayed needs to show an arrow indicator based on whether the Category is selected or not
We want to show Sub-Category details for the selected Category, so create
Label – SubCat
IIF([pCategory]=[Category], [Sub-Category], ”)
Add this to Columns too.
There is a need to capture the Region too, as part of the sorting on the tabular viz. But the Region header label needs to indicate the selected region. We will need a parameter
pRegion
string field defaulted to East
And then a new field
Region * Sortkey
[Region] + IIF([pRegion]=[Region],’*’,”)
Add this to Rows.
Finally tidy up by
adjusting the Tooltip
hide the Region pill (uncheck show header)
hide the Category pill (uncheck show header)
hide the Region * Sortkey row heading label (right click -> hide field labels for rows)
hide the Label – Cat / Label SubCat column heading label (right click -> hide field labels for columns)
remove the row dividers in the body of the viz (set the Level to 0)
Update the sheet title and name the sheet Bubble or similar.
Building the basic Product Detail table
The first column is a combination of fields, so create
Add Product Name,Product Name (Cat, SubCat) and Region * Sortkey to Rows and Order Date as a discrete (blue) pill at the Year level to Columns. Change the mark type to circle. Add Sales to Size and Profit Ratio to Colour. Add Profit Ratio to Label and align right. Set the table to Fit Width. Increase the Size of the circles a bit.
Add totals via Analysis > Totals > Show Row Grand Totals and then via the same menu, select the Row Totals to Left option. Edit the Colour Legend and select the Include Totals option, so the circles in the total column are also coloured.
Applying the table sort
The requirement is to sort each Product Name based on the value of the Profit Ratio associated to the selected Region. The data should be sorted ascending.
This took me a little while to figure out – initially I wanted to use a table calculation, but you can’t apply a sort to a field based on that, and if you then add it as a discrete measure, you can’t have total columns. So I figured it out eventually. Firstly, I need to capture the Profit Ratio for each Product Name and Region (essentially the value listed in the Grand Total column). I can use an LOD for this.
but I then only want the value associated to the selected Region, and I want to ‘spread’ this across every row for the Product Name. So I can use another LOD but just at the Product Name level, which in turn uses a nested IF statement, to just return the value we care about.
Sort
{FIXED [Product Name]: AVG(IIF([Region]=[pRegion],[PR by Product & Region],NULL))}
Apply a Sort to the Product Name pill in Rows to sort by the field Sort ascending
You should find that when you see some Product Names that have sales in the selected region (in this case East), that the products are listed based on this value with the lowest Profit Ratio first (note the East row isn’t listed first if there are sales for the Central region, as the rows within each product are listed alphabetically based on the region name.
Finally tidy up by
Adjusting the Tooltip to suit
Hide the Product Name pill (right click, uncheck show header)
Adjusting the font style of the fields and label headings.
Rename the Grand Total label to Total (right click the label > format and update the Label value)
hide the Order Date column heading label (right click > hide field labels for columns)
add row banding (right click viz to format), then adjust band size to level 1
Update the sheet title and name the sheet Table or similar.
Building the dashboard and adding the interactivity
Using layout containers, add the two sheets onto the dashboard, adding a title and the relevant legends (note I used text objects for the Profit Ratio legend title and the Sales ‘legend’.
We need several dashboard actions:
Filter Products
Dashboard filter action, that on select of the Bubble sheet, targets the Table sheet, passing through the Product Name only. The set of products is retained when the selection is cleared.
Set Category
Dashboard parameter action, that on select of the Bubble sheet, sets the pCategory parameter with the value from the Category field. When the selection is cleared, the parameter is reset to <empty string>
This action will allow the bubble chart to ‘expand and collapse’ on click.
Set Region
Dashboard parameter action, that on select of the Bubble sheet, sets the pRegion parameter with the value from the Region field. When the selection is cleared, the parameter is retained
This action will apply the ‘niche’ sort and the relevant region labels will be updated with an * too.
Finally, on selection of products in the bubble viz, we don’t want the other marks to ‘fade’ To stop this from happening, create a new field
Dummy
‘Dummy’
and add to the Detail shelf on the Bubble sheet.
Then add a dashboard highlight action
UnHighlight
On select of the Bubble sheet, target the Bubble sheet selecting the field Dummy only
And with that you should have a functioning dashboard. My published viz is here.
Note, after testing, I did notice a difference in the behaviour of my version to the solution. When I deselect all products from the bubble chart when in an expanded state, the section will collapse. The solution uses a ‘fake header’ sheet to stop this from happening, which is then carefully positioned above the bubble chart sheet. I’m ultimately happy with my 2-sheet solution, but feel free to check out the challenge solution for a better understanding.
This week’s challenge was a guest post by Felicia Styer, who wanted us to make multiple selections using just a single parameter, rather than any groupings or sets.
We’ll start by focusing on the initial requirement, which was to bucket into Sub-Categories selected and those not.
Setting up the parameter
The main functionality is controlled via a single string parameter which will just contain a string of 0s and 1s. 0 indicates the Sub-Category is not selected, 1 indicates it is. The position of the 1 or 0 in the string represents the associated Sub-Category. There are 17 Sub-Categories in the data set, so we need to create a parameter of 17 characters. Arbitrarily set some entries to 1 and the rest to 0.
Binary Parameter
string parameter containing the string 01000101000010000
Building the Sales by Subcategory viz
Add Sub-Category to Rows and Sales to Columns. Sort by Sales descending.
We want to assign a number for each row. We can use Index() or Rank the rows based on Sales. I chose to to the latter
Sub Cat Rank
RANK_UNIQUE(SUM(Sales), ‘desc’)
Format this to a number with 0dp but prefixed with #
Add this to Rows, change to discrete (blue pill) and then move to be listed before Sub-Category.
We want to colour the bars based on the ‘bucket’ they’re in according to the Binary Parameter.
Bucket
MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank],1)
This returns the character that is in the nth position in the string – ie Tables is ranked fourth, so this calculation will return the 4th character in the Binary Parameter string.
Add this to Colour and adjust accordingly. Show the Binary Parameter on the sheet, and then adjust the values between 1 and 0 to see the bars change colour.
When a bar is clicked, we want to update the parameter. We will use a dashboard parameter action to drive this functionality, but we need to pass a value into the parameter. This value needs to be a 17 character string of 1s or 0s, where only the character at the nth position based on the rank needs to differ.
For example, the string 01000101000010000 indicates Phones is selected – it’s ranked 2nd in the list and the 2nd character of the string is a 1. When Phones is clicked, we want it to become unselected. So the character in the 2nd position needs to change to a 0, while all the other characters remain the same.
Value for Param
IF [Bucket] = “0” THEN LEFT([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]-1) + “1” + MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]+1) ELSE LEFT([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]-1) + “0” + MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]+1) END
If the row is currently in Bucket 0, then get the portion of the Binary Parameter string before the nth term, concatenate it to 1 and then concatenate that with the portion of the Binary Parameter string after the nth term, otherwise, the row is associated to Bucket 1, so concatenate the preceding and following string with a 0 instead.
Add this to the Detail shelf.
Finalise the display by adding Sales to the Label, removing row & column dividers, updating the Tooltip, hiding the column headers and adjusting the font size.
Adding the selection interactivity
Add the sheet to a dashboard. Add a dashboard parameter action
Set Bucket
On selection of the sheet, set the Binary Parameter parameter passing the value of the Value for Param field. Leave the parameter with the current value when selection is cleared.
Click a bar to test the functionality. The bars should be changing colour. However, on click, Tableau automatically highlights the selected bar and the others ‘fade’. We’re already using colour to identify what’s been selected, so don’t want this to happen. To resolve this we will apply the True/False method to deselect the marks which is documented here.
You will need to create True and False calculated fields, and add them to the Detail shelf of the viz sheet. Then add a dashboard filter action as below.
Now when you click, the bars immediately change to the right colour with a single click of the mouse.
Building the Sales by Bucket bar chart
On a new sheet, add Sales to Columns, Bucket to Rows and Sub-Category to Detail. Adjust the table calculation setting of the Bucket pill so it is computing explicitly by Sub-Category.
Add Bucket to Colour and again adjust the table calculation as above. When you hover over the bar, you will see it is actually a stacked bar of each Sub-Category. We want these ordered so those with the smallest sales are on the left. Apply a Sort to the Sub-Category field on the Detail shelf to sort by Sales Descending
Widen each row. Add Sales to Label and set the Label to only show when selected (so they only appear when the segment of the bar is clicked on)
Add a Reference line to the Sales axis that shows the Sum of Sales per cell, and displays the Value. Don’t show any line or tooltip, and ensure the reference line isn’t recalculated when the bar chart is clicked.
Format the reference line label so it is positioned right middle, and adjust the font size.
Once again remove any row/column dividers and row headings and adjust the font sizes.
Arrange this chart onto the dashboard with the other chart using layout containers as required.
For the bonus challenge to use more than 2 buckets, there was no example actually published. So I interpreted it as each click added it to the next bucket until you reached the maximum number of buckets allowed, at which point the Sub-Category would become deselected.
For this I created a parameter
# of Buckets
integer parameter from 1 to 5
The expectation in this instance was that rather than a string of 1s and 0s in the parameter, the parameter could contain any number from 0 up to # of Buckets – 1.
So the Value for Parameter field just had to change to become
IF [Bucket] = “0” THEN //we’ve clicked once so move it to 1st bucket LEFT([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]-1) + “1” + MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]+1) ELSEIF [Bucket] = STR([# of Buckets]) THEN //we’re already at the end, so reset to the starting position of 0 LEFT([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]-1) + “0” + MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]+1) ELSE // need to move to the next bucket LEFT([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]-1) + STR(INT([Bucket])+1) + MID([Binary Parameter],[Sub Cat Rank]+1) END
The Colours associated to the Bucket field also then need to be updated to handle however many buckets you have, which you can set initially by manually updating the Binary Parameter parameter.
Note – as I have both versions in my workbook, I have fields suffixed with ‘bonus’ to represent the calculated fields/parameters needed.
It was Yusuke’s turn for this week’s #WOW2025 challenge, posing a twist on a the creation of a highlight table.
Whenever I start a challenge, I take note of what’s going on – I interact with it, move my mouse around to see if there’s any clues. The main takeaway from this, is that I’d need a dual axis so I could have multiple marks cards to style differently – one to be coloured based on the Profit and one to be coloured based on whether the cell was selected or not. So we need to build a table using an axis.
Building the basic table
Add Order Date to Columns and then click the pill to expand the date hierarchy so Year and Quarter are displayed. Add Sub-Category to Rows.
Double click into Columns and manually type MIN(1.0) to create an axis. Change the mark type to bar, increase the size to as large as possible, and edit the axis to be fixed from 0 to 1. Add Profit to Colour and Profit to Label. Adjust the colour scheme as required (I used red-white-blue diverging and reduced the opacity to 70%). Adjust the label font to be grey text.
Widen each row; shrink each column and adjust the row and column dividers to be dashed grey lines. Update the font of the label headings. Adjust Tooltip to suit.
Storing the selected cells
To store the cells that have been selected, we’re going to use Sets. To build this set, click on a cell in the table, and then in the toolbar of the tooltip that displays, click the venn diagram symbol to create set
Name the set Cells Highlighted
Highlighting the selected cells
Each cell in the table we have built is a bar of length 1. We want to use a dual axis to create bars of length 1 only in the cells selected. So we need
Bar Length – Highlighted Cells
IF [Cells Highlighted] THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
We also only want the profit value to be displayed for these cells
Profit – Highlighted
IF [Cells Highlighted] THEN [Profit] END
Add Bar Length – Highlighted Cells to Columns to make a second axis, and a second marks card. Remove both existing Profit pills from this card. and instead change the Colour to black at 100% opacity, and add Profit – Highlighted to Label. Change colour of the Label text, and update the axis to be fixed from 0 to 1.
Make the chart dual axis and synchronise the axis.
Hide the axis (uncheck show header), and hide the Order Date label (right click -> hide field labels for columns)
Update the title of the sheet with the instructions and then add the sheet to a dashboard.
Adding the interactivity
On click, we want to add the cell (if unselected) to the set. For this we need a dashboard set action
Add to highlight
On select, target the Cells Highlighted set, adding values to the set on click, and keeping set values when cleared.
We also want to remove selected cells via a menu option, so create another dashboard set action
Remove from highlight
Display on the menu of the tooltip, and target the set Cells Highlighted by removing values from the set when the menu option is clicked, and keep values when selection cleared.
While these give us the functionality we need, it isn’t the best user experience – we have to click multiple times to get the display due to the ‘default’ behaviour of selected marks being automatically highlighted / non selected marks being faded out.
To resolve this, we need to utilise a couple of techniques blogged about here.
For the marks coloured by profit, we want to disable highlighting using a dashboard filter action and the true/false method.
Create calculated fields called
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
and add to the Detail shelf of the MIN(1.0) marks card only. Then on the dashboard add a dashboard filter action
Now if you click on an unhighlighted cell it should go black immediately. However, if you click on one of the black already highlighted cells, the other cells still fade.
Now we can’t apply the same method to that cell, as we then lose the hyperlink appearing on the tooltip on click. This is because the true/false method ultimately results in the cell being immediately deselected once selected, so the ‘click’ action, which results in the menu option showing, is cleared .
Instead we will use the dashboard highlight action technique also described in the blog.
Create a new field
Dummy
‘Dummy’
Add this to the Detail shelf of the All marks card (or add to both the MIN(1.0) and the Bar Length – Highlighted Cells marks cards). Then create a dashboard highlight action that just targets the Dummy field only, which as it exists in all cells, essentially selects them all.
Highlighting the word ‘colour’ in the title
I just did this by floating a blank object over the text which I set the background colour to black, and then set the object to move backwards. This did mean once I published to Tableau Public, I had to edit the viz online to ensure the object lined up to where I wanted.
Erica set the latest challenge, testing us on our ability to master tricky filter scenarios – in this case either show the info for one specific value of a field, or only show the other values, but allow them to be filtered themselves too. The challenge had two parts – the main challenge and a bonus option. I managed to complete both, so will blog both too.
Main challenge – Building the basic viz
On a new sheet add Region and Category to Rows and Sales to Columns. Add Region to Colour and adjust accordingly.
Sort Region by Sales descending
and then click the descended sort button on the toolbar to sort the Category field by Sales too.
Format Sales to be $ with 0 dp. Remove column dividers, and widen each row slightly.
Main challenge – Apply the filtering
Create a parameter
pRegionType
string parameter with 2 options : Not West and West, defaulted to Not West
Create a calculated field to determine whether to display the West Region only, or the other Regions
Filter Region West or Not v1
([pRegionType] = ‘West’ AND [Region] = ‘West’) OR ([pRegionType] = ‘Not West’ AND [Region] <> ‘West’)
Add this to the Filter shelf and set to True. This is essentially the ‘first level’ filter. Show the parameter and switch between the two values to see the behaviour
Now we need a ‘second’ filter, to allow the relevant Regions to be selected. For this, add Region to the Filter shelf, but select the Use all option
and then show the Region filter list on the canvas, and adjust the settings so only relevant values are displayed
This means when the pRegionType parameter is West, only West will be displayed in the Region filter, but when Not West is selected, all regions except West will display, and the filter can be interacted with in the normal manner.
Main challenge – Building the dashboard
Arrange the viz and the parameters on the dashboard as required, using layout containers, padding and background colours to help organise the content and display required.
We only want the Region selection filter to display when the pRegionType parameter is set to Not West. We can use dynamic zone visibility for this. Create a calculated field
DMZ – Display Filter Control
[pRegionType] = ‘Not West’
and then on the dashboard, select the Region filter and check the Control visibility using value option and select the DMZ – Display Filter Control field.
Bonus Challenge – Building the Viz
Recreate the viz as described above (or duplicate the sheet of the original viz, and remove all the pills from the Filter shelf.
Bonus challenge – Apply the filtering
Create a parameter
pSelectedRegion
string parameter, defaulted to <empty string>
This parameter is going to contain a string that can contain one or more Regions in a delimited format eg | East | or |East||South| etc. The contents of this string will determine how we filter the chart to mimic the required behaviour.
Firstly, we want the ‘1st level’ filter to determine whether we’re displaying just the West Region or all the other Regions.
Filter Region West or Not v2
(CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion],’West’) AND [Region] = ‘West’) OR (NOT CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion], ‘West’) AND [Region] <> ‘West’)
Add this to the Filter shelf and set to True. Show the pSelectedRegion parameter. With the parameter empty, the WestRegion should not display.
Type the word West into the parameter. Now the just the West Region should display.
And if you enter additional text alongside the word ‘West’, still the ‘West’ Region should display
But if you remove the ‘West’ text, all the Regions should display whatever the text is contained.
This behaviour is essentially simulating that of the ‘West’ | ‘Not West’ parameter selection in the previous version.
Now we want to control the 2nd level of filtering where the same parameter is used to drive which of the ‘other’ Regions display.
Filter Other Regions v2
CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion], ‘West’) OR NOT CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion],[Region])
Set the pSelectedRegion parameter to empty so all Regions are displayed. Add Filter Other Regions v2 to the Filter shelf and set to True.
Enter the text East into the parameter. The East option should disappear.
Add the text ‘South’. That too should disappear
Add the text ‘West’ and only the West Region will show
Play around entering multiple combinations of Regions. Ultimately if the text ‘West’ is present anywhere in the parameter string, only the West Region will display. If West is not present, then any other Region in the string will not be presented in the display. All sounds a bit backwards, but it works 🙂
So now we need to actually control how the pSelectedRegion parameter will get populated. And this will be via a parameter action fired from the selection made from a ‘custom’ legend sheet.
Bonus challenge – Building the filter control
On a new sheet, add Region to Rows and manually type in MIN(0.0) into Columns. Change the mark type to shape. Add Region to Label and show the labels (widen each row slightly). Edit the MIN(0.0) axis to be fixed from -0.1 to 0.5 which will shift the display to the left.
Sort the Region field by Sales descending.
Hide the axis, stop the Tooltip from displaying, hide the Region header, remove all gridlines/ axis rulers/ zero lines, row/column dividers. Set the background colour to light grey.
The Colour and the Shape (filled or unfilled) is determined based on the entries we have captured in the pSelectedRegion parameter, but the logic for each attribute is different.
Colour v2
If [pSelectedRegion] = ‘|West|’ THEN ‘West’ ELSE [Region] END
Show that parameter and make it empty. Add Colour v2 to the Colour shelf. Adjust colour to suit if not already set.
Then enter the text |West| – all the symbols should now all be Navy (or whatever colour you have chosen for West).
For the shape, create
Shape v2
IF CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion] , ‘West’) AND [Region] = ‘West’ THEN ‘Fill’ ELSEIF CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion], ‘West’) AND [Region] <> ‘West’ THEN ‘Empty’ ELSEIF ([Region] <> ‘West’) AND [pSelectedRegion]=” THEN ‘Fill’ ELSEIF ([Region] <> ‘West’) AND NOT CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion],[Region]) THEN ‘Fill’ ELSE ‘Empty’ END
and add to the Shape shelf. Note – this logic took a lot of trial and error to get the desired result.
Whenever the text West exists in the parameter, then the West Region should be a filled circle and all the other regions should be empty (the first 2 lines of the logic statement). If the parameter is empty, we want all the regions (except West) to be filled (so West will be empty). And if the parameter contains a Region(s) that isn’t West, we want that Region to be empty as well – only non-West Regions that aren’t in the parameter should be filled.
To control the text being passed into the pSelectedRegion parameter, we need a field
Region for Param
IF CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion],’West’) THEN ” //West has been selected again so reset parameter to empty ELSEIF CONTAINS([pSelectedRegion], [Region]) THEN REPLACE([pSelectedRegion], ‘|’ + [Region] + ‘|’ ,”) //selected region is already in the parameter, so remove it ” ELSE [pSelectedRegion]+ ‘|’ + [Region] + ‘|’ //append current region selected to the existing parameter string END
Add this to the Detail shelf.
Finally, we will want to ensure the marks aren’t highlighted on selection, so create fields
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
and add these to the Detail shelf too.
Bonus challenge – adding the interactivity
Build the dashboard again using layout containers and background colours and padding
Create a dashboard parameter action
Set Region
On selection of the Filter Control viz, set the pSelectedRegion parameter passing in the value from the Region for Param field. Set the field to <empty string> when deselected
Create a dashboard filter action
Deselect Marks
On select of the Filter Control viz on the dashboard, target the Filter Control sheet itself, passing in the specific fields of True = False.
And this should complete the required elements. My published viz is here.
This week’s #WOW2024 challenge was a guest post by Tomoki Goda. The main focus of the challenge was to be able to switch between light and dark mode, but there’s so much more going on, this blog could take a while!
I also have to admit, I didn’t manage to complete this without help and also looking at the solution workbook. It may be if I’d left it and come back to it another time I’d have figured it out, but time is so precious at the moment, it was more likely if I’d left it, I would have struggled to return to it, and then this blog wouldn’t have got written either. But I’ve learned something, so that’s the win in my book 🙂
Setting up the parameters
There are 3 parameters required for this challenge.
pTheme
This parameter will control the mode to display and I set it as a boolean parameter defaulted to true and aliased as True = Light Theme and False = Dark Theme
pRegion
This parameter will capture the Region associated to the KPI the user has interacted with on the dashboard. This is a string parameter defaulted to <empty string>
pCategory
This parameter will capture the Category associated to the Category Sales bar chart that the user has interacted with on the dashboard. This is a string parameter defaulted to <empty string>.
Building the Region KPI chart
ON a new sheet ad Region to Rows and then double click into the Rows shelf manually type MIN(1.0) to create a fake axis. Increase the Size to the largest possible and set the view to Entire View.
Change the Mark Type to Bar. Add Region to the Label shelf. Format the Sales field to be $K to 1 dp and also add to the Label shelf. Adjust the font size and align middle centre. Edit the MIN(1.0) axis to be fixed from -0.2 to 1.2 to allow some spacing between the colour blocks.
Show the pRegion and pTheme parameters. Add Order Date to the Filter shelf and choose Years , then select all years, Show the Year filter and display as a single value list.
Create a new field
Is Selected Region
[Region] = [pRegion]
Add this to the Colour shelf.
Also create a new field
Show Light Theme
[pTheme]
Add this to the Detail shelf initially, then select the ‘hierarchy’ symbol to the left of the pill and change the symbol to the Colour one – this will add two pills to the colour shelf
Drag the Show Light Theme pill so it is listed above the Is Selected Region pill. Enter the name of a Region into the pRegion parameter (eg East), and then adjust the colours for when pTheme=Light Theme is selected
Now change the pTheme parameter so Dark Theme is selected and adjust the colours again
Hide the Region field and the axis (uncheck show header). Don’t show the Tooltip. Hide all row/column dividers, gridlines, zero lines, axis rulers and axis ticks. Set the border on the colour shelf to None, and most importantly, set the worksheet background colour to None (ie it’s transparent). This will become noticeable later when we add the content to the dashboard.
Finally we will need some additional fields which will help with the interactivity on the dashboard later, when we don’t want the marks that have not been selected to ‘fade’.
Region for Param
IIF( [pRegion]=[Region],””, [Region])
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
Add all 3 fields to the Detail shelf. Name the sheet Region Sales KPI.
Building the Category by Sales bar chart
On a new sheet add Category to Rows. Then go back to the Region Sales KPI sheet and set the Year(Order Date) filter to apply to worksheet > selected worksheets > and select the relevant sheet.
Now, I had a couple of attempts at building this. From what I could tell, the Category label wasn’t a usual ‘row heading’, as we needed to give it a specific coloured background on selection. It also had to be built within the same sheet, as the same technique was applied to the Sales by Sub-Category bar chart which was a scrollable section. I tried using a dual axis of Sales and Regional Sales in conjunction with a ‘fake’ axis for the header, but found the width of the fake axis had to match the width of the dual axis, so my header section was too wide. After a lot of trial and error, I ultimately had to ask my colleague, Sam Parsons, if he could figure it out, which he did in 5 minutes using dual axis and Measure Names.
Add Sales to Columns and sort descending. Show the pRegion, pCategory and pTheme parameters and ensure pRegion has a value (eg East).
Create a new field
Selected Region Sales
IF [Region] = [pRegion] THEN [Sales] END
format this to $k to 1dp, and then drag onto the canvas and drop on the Sales axis when the two ‘green column’ icon appears.
This will automatically add Measure Names and Measure Values into the view. Move Measure Names from Rows to the Colour shelf, and also add another instance of Measure Names to the Size shelf. Add Show Light Theme to the Detail shelf, and then set to be an additional field on the Colour shelf. Move it so it is listed above the Measure Names colour pill. Adjust colours of the bars for the light and dark them modes as before.
Reorder the measures in the Size legend box so Selected Region Sales is listed first and so is smaller. Manually increase the width of each row, and then adjust the sizes from the size legend so the difference between the bar widths is not so great.
Create a new field
Label Splitter
IF [pRegion] <> ” THEN ‘ / ‘ END
and add this, Sales and Selected Region Sales to the Label shelf. Arrange the pills as required, align middle left and ensure Allow labels to overlap other marks is selected
Set the pRegion parameter to <empty string> and verify the label displays as expected, Hide the Null indicator. Update the Tooltip as required.
For the header, we need another measure we can use which is on the same axis as the Measure Values, but is negative, so it sits to the left of the bars we already have.
Header Plot
Window_MAX(SUM([Sales])) * -0.25
This takes the maximum value of the Sales bar that is displayed in the chart and applies a proportion, so we don’t need to attempt to ‘fix’ the axis in anyway. Add this to Columns, set to dual axis and then synchronise axis. Set the mark type on the All marks card to bar. You’ll probably have something like…
On the Header Plot marks card, remove the three fields on the Label self, and add Category to the Label shelf instead.
Enter the name of a Category into the pCategory parameter (eg Technology). Create a new field
Is Selected Cat
[Category] = [pCategory]
and drag this and drop it directly onto the Measure Names pill that is on the Colour shelf of the Header Plot marks card. Adjust the colours as required, changing the pTheme parameter to dark mode too.
Delete the text from the Tooltip of the Header Plot marks card.
Hide the Category field and the axis (uncheck show header). Don’t show the Tooltip. Hide all row/column dividers, gridlines, zero lines, axis rulers and axis ticks. Set the border on the colour shelf to None, and once again, most importantly, set the worksheet background colour to None (ie it’s transparent).
The title of the sheet will also need to change colour when the mode differs, so create
Title Light
IIF([Show Light Theme],”Sales by Category”,””)
Also create
Show Dark Theme
NOT([pTheme])
and then
Title Dark
IIF([Show Dark Theme],”Sales by Category”,””)
Add Title Light and Title Dark to the Detail shelf of the All marks card and then update the title of the sheet so both pills are listed and coloured based on the mode – the text for Title Light should be blackand the text for Title Dark should be white (though at this point you won’t see this show up when you change the mode).
Finally, as before, we will need some additional fields which will help with the interactivity on the dashboard later, when we don’t want the marks that have not been selected to ‘fade’.
Category for Param
IIF( [pCategory]=[Category],””, [Category])
Add this and True and False to the Detail shelf of the All marks card. Label the sheet Sales by Cat or similar.
Building the Sub-Category by Sales bar chart
The simplest way to build this sheet is to start by duplicating the Category by Sale bar chart sheet, and then drag Sub-Category and drop it directly on top of the Category pill on the Rows shelf. Re-sort by Sales descending.
On the Header Plot marks card, also drag Sub-Category and drop it directly onto the Category pill on the Text shelf.
Manually increase the width of each row and then hide the Sub-Category column (uncheck Show Header)
Create new fields
Title Light Sub Cat
IIF([Show Light Theme],”Sales by Sub-Category”,””)
and then
Title Dark Sub Cat
IIF([Show Dark Theme],”Sales by Sub-Category”,””)
and drag these to directly on top of the Title Light and Title Dark pills on the Detail shelf of the All marks card. Update the title of the sheet to reference these new pills.
Name the sheet Sales by Sub Cat or similar.
Building the rounded borders
The rounded borders displayed on the dashboard are based on utilising annotations on a ‘dummy’ sheet, as described in these blog posts (here and here).
I created a new field
Dummy
“”
And added this to the Detail shelf on a new sheet. I set the background of the worksheet to none, the mark type to polygon and the sheet to entire view. I then added an annotation, resized it to be as large as possible, and set the properties so the shading was set to none, the corners to very rounded and a dark thin border was applied.
I named this sheet Rounded Edge Light 1. I then duplicated to create a 2nd one and named it Rounded Edge Light 2. I then duplicated again, but this time changed the shading of the annotation to be dark grey/ brown, and named this sheet Rounded Edge Dark 1
Duplicate this sheet again and name Rounded Edge Dark 2.
We now have all the components needed to build the dashboard.
Building the core dashboard
Start by creating the layout for the 3 core ‘chart’ sheets and the parameter/filter controls. I used a combination of horizontal and vertical layout containers and adjusted padding to get the layout required. The image below shows how I laid out the display in the item hierarchy section. Note that all the background of all the containers and the objects on the dashboard are set to None (ie transparent).
Adding the rounded borders
With the theme set to Light Theme, set the option to be Floating and drag on the Rounded Edge Light 1 sheet and position it over the Sales by Category chart. Adjust the height and width until you’re happy, and remove the sheet title. From the context menu of the object, set the floating order so the border sheet is ‘behind’ the bar chart (send backward). This allows the bars to still be clicked on and interacted with.
Then with the border object still selected, set the visibility to only show when Show Light Theme is true
Repeat the same process with the Rounded Edge Light 2 sheet, floating it over the top of the Sales by Sub-Category bar chart.
Then switch the theme to Dark Theme. The borders should disappear. Now repeat the above process with the two Rounded Edge Dark sheets, but this time when controlling the visibility of each sheet, select the Show Dark Theme field instead.
If you’ve followed the steps, you hopefully should have something that looks like
Setting the overall dark background
The final step to get the completely dark background is to float a blank object onto the dashboard. Resize the blank object to be positioned at 0,0 and sized 1000 x 800 (ie the same size as the dashboard)
Adjust the floating order of this object and this time set it to Send to Back so it is the very bottom ‘layer’. Then set the background colour of the blank object to the relevant dark brown/grey colour, and then finally set the visibility to only display when Show Dark Theme is true.
Test the display by switching the theme in the parameter.
Adding the interactivity
We need multiple dashboard actions to control the behaviour of the dashboard.
Set Region
Parameter dashboard action that on select of the Region Sales KPI sheet only, sets the pRegion parameter with the value from the Region for Param field.
Set Category
Parameter dashboard action that on select of the Sales by Cat sheet only, sets the pCategory parameter with the value from the Category for Param field.
KPI Deselect
Dashboard filter action that on select of the Region Sales KPI sheet on the dashboard targets the Region Sales KPI sheet directly passing the fields that set True = False.
Set Category Deselect
Dashboard filter action that on select of the Sales by Cat sheet on the dashboard targets the Sales by Cat sheet directly passing the fields that set True = False.
Set Sub-Cat Deselect
Dashboard filter action that on select of the Sales by Sub Cat sheet on the dashboard targets the Sales by Sub Cat sheet directly passing the fields that set True = False.
And with all this, hopefully you have a fully interactive workbook. My published viz is here.
This week’s #WOW2024 challenge was set by Yusuke, challenging us to create a filter for the line chart, using selections from the bar chart. The main aim was to make it as easy to select months with low sales as it is to select months with higher sales.
Building the bar chart
Create a new field
Monthly Sales
[Sales]
and format to $ Thousands (K) with 0 dp.
Also create
Order Date Month
DATE(DATETRUNC(‘month’, [Order Date]))
Add Order Date Month to Columns at the continuous month level (green pill) and add Monthly Sales to Rows. Change the mark type to Bar and set the size of the bar to as wide as possible. Edit the date axis, and remove the title, then fix the tick marks to start on 1st Jan 2021 with an interval of every 1 year.
Create a set call Order Date Month Set, based off of the Order Date Month field (right click the field > create > set, and select a set of dates). Add Order Date Month Set to the Colour shelf and adjust the colours accordingly. Add a dark grey border to the bars too. Modify the Tooltip to suit.
Create a new field
Max Monthly Sales
{MAX({FIXED [Order Date Month]: SUM([Sales])})}
(for each month, get the sum of sales, then return the maximum of all these).
Add this field to Rows. On the Max Monthly Sales marks card, reduce the opacity to 25% and remove the border (all on the Colour shelf)
Set the char to Dual Axis and synchronise the axis. Remove the Measure Names field from the All marks card.
Hide the right hand axis, remove all row and column dividers. Darken the row gridlines slightly, and add the instructional text as the title of the sheet.
We are ultimately going to make use of set actions to define the dates selected by the user. For this we will need to pass the exact date selected, so add Order Date Month to the Detail shelf of the All marks card as a continuous exact date (green pill).
We’re also going to not want the bars to be ‘highlighted’ when selected, so create fields
True
TRUE
and
False
FALSE
and add both to the Detail shelf of the All marks card.
Building the Line Chart
Create a new field
Selected Sales
IF [Order Date Month Set] THEN [Sales] END
and format to $ Thousands to 2dp.
On a new sheet add Order Date to Columns at the continuous day level (green pill), add Region to Rows and add Selected Sales to Rows.
Change the colour of the line and set line markers (via the colour shelf) and reduce the size of the line. Show mark labels, and set to just label the maximum value per pane.
Adjust the row banding so the band size is set to 1
Remove the column dividers, but set the row dividers to be darker grey. Adjust the row gridlines to be a slightly darker grey. Adjust the title of the Selected Sales axis, and remove the title from the date axis. Format the data axis, so it displays a custom date format of mmm dd. Right click the Region label at the top of the chart and hide field labels for rows.
Create fields
Min Date
{MIN(IF [Order Date Month Set] THEN [Order Date Month] END)}
which will return the date of the earliest month selected in the set and
Max Date
DATE(DATEADD(‘day’, -1, DATEADD(‘month’, 1, {MAX(IF [Order Date Month Set] THEN [Order Date Month] END)}) ))
which finds the maximum month selected in the set (which will be 1st of the max month), adds on a month, and takes off a day to get the last day of the maximum month.
Add these to the Detail shelf as continuous exact dates, and then update the Title of the sheet to reference the fields.
Then create
Tooltip: Date
[Order Date]
and add to the Tooltip and adjust the Tooltip to suit.
Finally, depending how the user selects the dates, there may end up being a break in dates. Right click on the Order Date MonthSet and select Show Set. Adjust the dates, so there is at least 1 unselected value between the dates.
To make a continuous line between the dates, click the context menu against the Selected Sales pill on Rows and select Format. On the options on the left hand side, select Pane and at the Special Values option, select Marks: Hide (Connect Lines).
Adding the interactivity
Put the 2 sheets onto a dashboard. Create a dashboard set action
Select Months
On select of the bar chart, target the Order Date Month Set by assigning values to the set when the action is run, and keeping set values when the selection is cleared.
To stop the bars from highlighting on selected, create a dashboard filter action
Deselect Marks
On select of the bar chart on the dashboard, target the Bar Chart sheet, passing in the fields True = False.
And this should now complete the challenge. My published viz is here.
For this week’s #WOW2024 challenge, Kyle simulated a real-world challenge he’s faced at work where he wanted the ability to select multiple parameters as he was sourcing data from multiple data sources, so using traditional filters didn’t work.
Connecting to the data
The challenge required connecting to the Superstore data twice but applying a data source filter to each connection to restrict the Order Date to Year 2023 or 2024.
After making the 1st connection and filtering to 2023, I renamed the data source and appended 2023.
I then added a data source and made the 2nd connection to Superstore, this time adding a data source filter to 2024. I then renamed this data source and appended 2024. So I ended up with 2 data sources at the top of the data pane window.
Building the line charts
Starting with the Superstore – 2023 data source, put Order Date on columns and change to be the continuous (green) Week number option. Add Sales to Rows.
Then
format Sales to be $ with 0 dp
format Order Date to be mmm dd custom date format
to match the solution, set the Date Property of the data source to start a week on Sunday (right click data source > date properties)
Remove the titles against both axis
adjust the Tooltip
Remove all gridlines, zero lines, axis rulers & axis ticks
Name the sheet 2023 Sales
Create a new sheet, and the repeat all the steps but source the fields from the Superstore 2024 data source.
Building the Category Selection
On a new sheet, manually type MIN(1) into the Columns and add Category from the Superstore 2023 data source to Rows. Amend the axis to fix it from 0 to 1. Set to Entire View. Increase the Size to 100%. Add Category to Label. Adjust the font and align centrally. Hide the Category headers and the Min(1) axis. Remove the Tooltip.
To build the multi-select parameters, we’re going to use a sheet to capture the interactions the user makes into a parameter that will store a delimited string of selected values. This is using the same principles discussed in a previous challenge I created and blogged about here.
We need a parameter
pSelectedCategories
string parameter defaulted to empty string
We’ll use a parameter action to capture the user selection and add it into the pSelectedCategories parameter.
When using delimited strings, you need to choose a character to separate the field values that isn’t going to appear within the field value itself; ie choose a character that won’t appear within a Category name. In this instance I’m choosing | (pipe), and I’m going to build up the parameter as follows
Action
pSelectedCategories
Display
Initial state
<empty string>
All Categories selected – coloured green
1 category selected eg Furniture
|Furniture|
Furniture is green, others categories grey
2 categories selected eg Furniture then Office Supplies
|Furniture||Office Supplies|
Furniture & Office Supplies are green, Technology is grey
3 categories selected eg Furniture, then Office Supplies, then Technology
|Furniture||Office Supplies||Technology|
All Categories selected – coloured green
Existing category is selected again eg Office Supplies
|Furniture||Technology|
Furniture & Technology are green, Office Supplies is grey
We need a calculated field to populate the parameter, which will get modified by comparing what’s already in the parameter with the Category being selected.
In the Superstore 2023 data source create
Category for Param
IF CONTAINS([pSelectedCategories], [Category]) THEN REPLACE([pSelectedCategories],’|’ + [Category] + ‘|’, ”) //selected category is already in the parameter, so remove it ELSE [pSelectedCategories] + ‘|’ + [Category] + ‘|’ //append current category selected to the existing parameter string END
Add Category for Param to the Detail shelf.
We need to set the colour of the bars. Show the pSelectedCategories parameter and manually type in |Furniture|
Then create
Category is Selected
[pSelectedCategories] = ” OR CONTAINS([pSelectedCategories], [Category])
Add this to the colour shelf, and adjust the colours accordingly
Remove the text from the pSelectedCategories parameter, and all the bars should be green.
Format the bars so there is a light grey thick row divider, and set the background of the worksheet to the same light grey. Reduce the Size slightly, so there is a noticeable gap between the bars.
When added to the dashboard, we won’t want the unselected bars to ‘fade’, so we’ll use the True/False trick, which means we’ll need to create
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
and add both these fields to the Detail shelf.
Name the sheet Category.
Building the Region and Ship Mode Selections
Basically repeat the above steps on a separate sheet for each selector. You may find it easier to duplicate the Category sheet and then replace the various fields.
You’ll need to create a pSelectedRegions and a pSelectedShipModes parameter, and calculated Region for Param, Region Is Selected and Ship Mode for Param and ShipMode Is Selected calculated fields.
Name the new sheets Region and Ship Mode.
Filtering the line charts
On the 2023 Sales sheet, add Category Is Selected, Region Is Selected and Ship Mode Is Selected to the Filter shelf, and set all to be True.
Switch to the 2024 Sales sheet.
Recreate the 3 ‘Is Selected’ fields in the Superstore 2024 data source. You can either do this manually, or select the fields in the Superstore 2023 data source (ctl-click to multi-select), the right click and Copy
then switch to the 2024 Sales sheet, and right-click anywhere in the right hand data pane and paste.
Then add each of the fields to the filter shelf and set to True.
Adding the interactivity
Make sure all the parameters are empty, then add all the objects to a dashboard. I used a vertical layout container to place the Selector objects, as I could then set them to be distributed evenly. I also set the background of the layout container to the same light grey as the worksheet, and centrally aligned all the sheet titles.
6 dashboard actions are required, 2 for each selector.
Select Categories
Parameter action that on select of the Category sheet, sets the pSelectedCategories parameter with the value from the Category for Param field.
Deselect Categories
Filter dashboard action that on select of the Category sheet on the dashboard, targets the actual Category sheet, passing the values of True = False.
Create a version of each of these dashboard actions for the Region sheet and the Ship Mode sheet, and that should complete the challenge.
Donna + DataViz 