This week’s #WOW2026 challenge was inspired by the annual viz challenge held at the Japanese TUG. It took me a bit longer than 10 minutes to build though!
I’ve built this using 3 sheets – a sheet for the section of the calendar above the displayed bar chart, the bar chart and then the section of the calendar below the bar chart.
Building the Calendar Sheets
On a new sheet, add Order Date at the month-year level to Filter and select December 2025. Then add Order Date at the Weekday level to Columns and Order Date at the Week (number) level to Rows. Additionally add Order Date at the month-year level to Columns as a discrete (blue) pill positioned first.
Create a parameter
pSelectedDate
date parameter defaulted to 10 Dec 2025
and show this parameter on the view.
Create a new field
Is Selected Date
[pSelectedDate] = [Order Date]
Change the mark type to circle then add Is Selected Date to colour. Adjust colours to suit and add a dark border to the circle. Set the sheet to entire view. Add Order Date at the Day level to Label and align middle centre.
We want the calendar to show ‘no selected date’, so will utilise 01 Jan 1900 as a ‘null’ date. We also want the calendar to only show the dates related to the week of the day selected and any previous in the month. So create
Show Top
[pSelectedDate] = #1900-01-01# OR WEEK([Order Date])<= WEEK([pSelectedDate])
and add to the Filter shelf and set to True
We also need all the days of the week to display, even if there aren’t sales on those dates. Eg, set pSelectedDate to 03/12/2025 and we lose the ‘Sunday’ column.
To resolve this, select the Show Empty Columns from the Analysis > Table Layout menu
Adjust Tooltip to suit.
Hide the Order Date column heading (right click > hide field labels for columns). Adjust the format (font size) of the other labels. Hide the WEEK(Order Date) row heading (right click, uncheck Show Header). Hide row & column dividers.
Create fields
True
TRUE
False
FALSE
and
Date for Param
IF [Order Date] = [pSelectedDate] THEN #1900-01-01# ELSE [Order Date] END
Add all these to the Detail shelf, setting the Date for Param field to be a discrete (blue) exact date.. They’ll be needed for the interactivity later.
Name this sheet Top or similar, then duplicate the sheet and change the Show Top filter to be False. Then hide the header labels (uncheck Show Header). Remove the True & False fields form the Detail shelf. Name this sheet Bottom or similar.
Building the bar chart
On a new sheet add Is Selected Date to the Filter shelf and set to True. Add Sales to Columns and Region to Colour and add Region to Label. Expand the width to make the bar wider.
Add Order Date to Tooltip and adjust Tooltip to suit. Set the background colour of the worksheet to dark grey, then format axis to have white font. Remove gridlines.
Building the dashboard
Use a vertical container, add the Top sheet and then then Bottom sheet underneath. Remove all padding from these sheets, and remove the title
Then add a horizontal container between the 2 calendar sheets. Add a text object and adjust text as required and reference the pSelectedDate parameter. Then add an image object, and select the image you hopefully downloaded from the link in the challenge page. Then add the bar chart, removing the title and setting to fit entire view.
Remove all padding for each object in this container and set the background colour of the text and image objects to the same dark grey as the bar chart.
Change the colour of the font in the text box, and I set some inner padding on the text object and the bar chart (10 pts all round) just for some extra breathing room. If need be, set the background colour of the bar chart object too.
Change the date in the pSelectedDate parameter and watch the bar chart move
Adding the interactivity
Add a dashboard parameter action
Select Date
on select of the Top or Btm sheets, set the pSelectedDate parameter by passing the value from the Date For Param field.
Also add a dashboard filter action
Unhighlight Top
On select of the Top sheet on the dashboard, target the Top sheet directly, explicitly setting the True field to False. Show all values when selection cleared.
Finally, we need to make the horizontal container disappear when no date is selected (ie the pSelectedDate parameter is set to 01 Jan 1900).
Create a new field in the data set
Is Not Null Date
[pSelectedDate] <> #1900-01-01#
then back on the dashboard, select the whole horizontal container, and from the Layout pane, check the option to control visibility using value, and select the Is Not Null Date field
When the date is 01 Jan 1900, this whole section will now disappear. You should be able to click dates now, and get the functionality as expected.
Once done, you can tidy up the dashboard by removing the container with all the filters and legends, adding a title, and adding some extra padding and background colours as required.
Sean based this week’s challenge on a scenario he’d faced with a client and requires the use of dynamic zone visibility (DMZ) and filter actions.
I’m going to attempt to be relatively brief for the vizzes/views that need building, as the main focus is on the dashboard itself.
Creating the Main KPIs
Connect to the data source and add a data source filter on Country/Region = United States so any data related to Canada gets excluded automatically from everything we build.
Create a new field
Profit Ratio
SUM([Profit])/SUM([Sales])
and format to % to 2 dp
On to a new sheet add Sales, Profit, Profit Ratio and Quantity onto the canvas. I just double-clicked each field and once all added used Show Me to display a Text table.
Move Measure Names to Columns and re-order the measures. Add Measure Names to Text too and modify the text so the Measure Names label is beneath Measure Values, aligned centrally and formatted as required. Set the sheet to Entire View. Format the Sales and Profit pills on this sheet to be formatted to $k to 1 dp.
The KPIs need to filter based on the state that will be selected in the map. We’re going to use a parameter to capture the state
pSelectedState
string parameter defaulted to <empty string?
And then we create
Is Selected State?
[pSelectedState]=” OR [State/Province] = [pSelectedState]
Add this to the Filter shelf and select True.
Format the sheet to remove row/column dividers and hide the Measure Names label header (uncheck show header on the pill).
Name the sheet KPIs-Main or similar.
Creating the Customer KPIs
Although not actually working on Sean’s solution, I believe the intention of showing KPIs on the ‘customer panel’ is to give a summary based on the selected customer. So to do this simply duplicate KPIs-Main and then add Customer Name to the Filter shelf and select all customers. Name the sheet KPIs-Customer or similar.
Creating the Map
ON a new sheet, double click State/Province to automatically create a map and then add Sales to Colour. (if the map doesn’t display the US, then you may need to edit locations – Map > Edit Locations). Adjust the background of the map and remove all city/state labels (Map > Background Layers). Name the sheet Map or similar.
Creating the Customer Orders list
On a new sheet, add Product Name to Rows and then Sales and Quantity as a table. As Is Selected State to Filter and set to True and also add Customer Name to Filter and select all values. Ultimately on click of a state in the map, this list needs to be filtered to just the orders associated to that state , and then additionally be able to be filtered by customer name
Creating the Reset Button
On a new sheet, double click into the space below the marks card and type ‘Reset’ to create a ‘dynamic’ pill. Then change the mark type to square and add this pill onto the Label shelf. Set the size to the largest possible and set the sheet to entire view. Format the label to be centred and larger. Then create a field
State-Reset
”
and add this onto the Detail shelf. This field basically contains an empty string, and we’ll use it later to ‘reset’ the pSelecedState parameter. Call the sheet Reset Button or similar.
Building the dashboard & interactivity
Using layout containers, build out the dashboard as required. I used a horizontal container in the middle of the dashboard which displayed the Map on the left and another Vertical Container on the right. The vertical container is the ‘customer panel’ and it then contained the Customer KPIs, and the Customer Orders sheets along with the Customer Name quick filter (set to a single value dropdown) and reset button in their own horizontal container. My hierarchy is shown below.
Add a dashboard parameter action to select a state
Set State
On select of the Map sheet, set the pSelectedState parameter with the value from the State/Province field. But on clearing the selected keep the current value.
Clicking on a State will now change the KPIs and the list of customer orders
But we also want the list of customers in the filter list to be restricted to those who have orders in the state, so adjust the quick filter settings so that it is set to only relevant values Also customise the control to so the ‘all’ option is not displayed.
Test this behaviour by selecting different States and then checking the values in the Customer Name filter control.
When the Reset button is clicked, we want the State to be deselected and the KPI values all reset, so create another parameter action
Reset State
On select of the Reset Button sheet, set the pSelectedState parameter with the value from the State-Reset field
If you test this out without selecting a Customer Name filter, then the behaviour will work as expected: click a state, KPIs/Orders List and set of customers in the filter change; click reset and KPIs/Orders List and set of customers in the filter all reset .
However if after clicking a state, a customer is then selected in the filter (which filters the Orders List and the Customer KPIs)
If I then click the rest button, the customer panel now shows all the info for the selected customer
and if I now select another state, the customer filter is retained, and if that customer has no orders for the state, I don’t get what I expect
We need to be able to essentially ‘reset’ the customer filter as well when clicking the reset button.
This was the trickiest part of this challenge, and I did try a variety of other ways of displaying the customer filter to see if I could crack it, but I did observe through playing with Sean’s solution and hovering the mouse, that the Customer Name filter was a standard quick filter. Eventually, with the clue being in the challenge title, I got there.
Add a dashboard filter action
Reset Customer Filter
On select of the reset button, target the Customer Orders, KPIs Customer but filter on selected fields where Customer Name = Customer Name
Finally we want the customer panel to only display once the map is clicked. For this, create a new field
State parameter is not empty?
[pSelectedState] <> ”
which will be true when pSelectedState contains the name of a state which happens ‘on click’ of the map. Then back on the dashboard, select the ‘customer panel’ container and on the Layout section, check the control visibility using value option and select the above field
And fingers crossed, you should now have a functioning viz. My published viz is here.
Erica collaborated with Giulio D’Errico for this week’s #WOW2025 challenge, which contained lots of features, though the main challenge was to display filter on Region, which along with the Region name also displayed a KPI indicator that could change based on selection from other parameters.
Defining the parameters
We need 3 parameters for this challenge
pMeasure
strig parameter that lists the two options Profit and Sales; defaulted to Profit.
pProfitThreshold
integer parameter that lists the specified values, defaulted to 2,000
pSalesThreshold
integer parameter that lists the specified values, defaulted to 30,000
Building the core scatter plot
Add Sales to Columns and Profit to Rows and Sub-Category to Detail. Show the 3 parameters.
When pMeasure = Profit, we need to display horizontal reference lines against the Profit axis, and when Sales is selected we need to display vertical reference lines against the Sales axis. We need the following fields to return the user defined thresholds:
Ref – Profit Threshold
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Profit’ THEN [pProfitThreshold] END
Ref – Sales Threshold
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Sales’ THEN [pSalesThreshold] END
We also need to define the average per measure for each region:
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Profit’ THEN [Profit Avg Per Region] END
Ref – Sales Avg
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Sales’ THEN [Sales Avg Per Region] END
Add the 4 Ref – XXX fields to the Detail shelf. Then add 2 reference lines to the Sales axis; one referencing Ref – Sales Avg (coloured as a purple dashed line at 100% opacity) and one referencing Ref – Sales Threshold (coloured as a black dashed line at 50% opacity). Display a custom label and then format the label to be aligned vertically and coloured based on the relevant line, and with a 0% shading. Set the pMeasure to Sales to make these display.
Then repeat, adding 2 reference lines to the Profit axis instead. Change pMeasure to Profit for these to appear.
Change the mark type to square. Each mark needs to be coloured whether it is above or below the average for the measure selected.
Colour
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Profit’ THEN IIF(SUM([Profit]) >= SUM([Profit Avg Per Region]),1,0) ELSE IIF(SUM([Sales]) >= SUM([Sales Avg Per Region]),1,0) END
Set this to be discrete and then add to the Colour shelf and adjust accordingly.
Creating the colour-coded filter
The viz needs to be filtered by Region, but the filter displayed needs to show the region name along with an indicator based on whether the average for the region is above the threshold or not. This took a bit of an effort, but I finally managed it.
We need a field to capture the ‘KPI indicator’ based on which measure was selected. It also needs to be computed per region. We need a FIXED LoD for this, and I made use of coloured unicode characters from this site.: https://unicode-explorer.com/ (large yellow circle and large green circle which you can just ‘copy and paste’ into the calculation)
Region Indicator
{FIXED [Region]: (
IF [pMeasure] = ‘Profit’ THEN IIF(SUM([Profit Avg Per Region])>=[pProfitThreshold],’🟢’,’🟡’) ELSE IIF(SUM([Sales Avg Per Region])>=[pSalesThreshold],’🟢’,’🟡’) END )}
I then created
Filter – Region
[Region Indicator] + ‘ ‘ + [Region]
Add this to the Filter shelf, select all values and show the filter. If you change the pProfitMeasure to Profit and pProfitThreshold to 6,000, you’ll see the KPI indicators change.
Format the Tooltip
The tooltip requires several calculated fields to be created. Certain fields only need a value based on the pMeasure and others have conditional formatting (different colours) applied. For the tooltip, I created all these fields:
Add all these fields to the Tooltip. Update the Tooltip to reference the fields and the pMeasure parameter, colouring the text as required. Some of the fields will only display based on the filters selected, so they get places side by side with no spacing.
Finalise the viz by updating the title to reference the pMeasure and the Label – Region field. Remove all gridlines, axis rulers, zero lines etc. Colour the background of the sheet to pale blue.
Building the Overall Indicator
For the bonus challenge, we need to display an indicator that is green if all the regions are green and yellow if at least 1 region is yellow.
On a new sheet, add Region and Region Indicator to Rows and show the 3 parameters.
We’re going to create a field that will return 1 if the Region Indicator is yellow and 0 otherwise.
Region Indicator – Is Below
IIF( [Region Indicator] = ‘🟡’,1,0)
Set to be discrete and add to Rows. Change the pProfitThreshold to 6000 to see the flag change.
Create
Overall Region Indicator
IIF(WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Region Indicator – Is Below]))=1,’🟡’, ‘🟢’)
This says, if the maximum value of the rows ‘in the window’ is 1, then display a yellow indicator, else green. Add to Rows, and adjust the pProfitThreshold to see the behaviour.
Create a field
Filter – Index = 1
INDEX() = 1
Add to Filter shelf and set to True
Move Region to Detail. Remove Region Indicator and Region Indicator – Is Below. Adjust the table calculation setting of Overall Region Indicator to compute using Region only, and do the same for the tableau calculation on Filter – Index = 1 (re-edit the filter after changing, so only True is selected).
Note – originally I used a transparent shape mark type and displayed the indicator as a label, but after publishing to Tableau Public, the indicator became distorted, so I adjusted how this was built.
Set the mark type to circle and add Overall Region Indicator to Colour. Adjust to be green or yellow, depending on the colour of the KPI indicator (you’ll need to change the pProfitThreshold value to ensure you set the colour for both the yellow and green options).
Finally create
Tooltip – Overall Indicator
IIF([Overall Region Indicator]=’🟢’,’All regions meet the ‘ + [pMeasure] + ‘ target’, ‘At least one region does NOT meet the ‘ + [pMeasure] + ‘ target’)
Add this to Tooltip and then set the background colour to pale blue.
Building the dashboard & adding dynamic zone visibility
Using layout containers, add the viz to a dashboard. Use a horizontal layout container to arrange the parameters, the Region filter and the Overall Indicator sheet. I used a floating text object to display the ‘legend key’ again copying come unicode characters from the website referenced earlier.
Then create 2 new boolean calculated fields
Is Profit
[pMeasure] = ‘Profit’
Is Sales
[pMeasure] = ‘Sales’
Select the Sales Threshold parameter object, then update the visibility so it only displays if Is Sales is true (via the Layout > Control visibility using value option)
Repeat the same for the Profit Threshold object, but reference the Is Profit field instead.
Now as you switch the measure between Sales and Profit, the relevant threshold parameter will display. My published viz is here.
Sean set this week’s challenge to give an alternative solution to displaying a table of details rather than the traditional ‘pancake table’ (his words not mine 🙂 ).
The main crux of the challenge relates to the dashboard actions and interactivity, so I’ll be brief(ish) in describing how to build the charts.
Creating the line chart
Add Order Date to Columns at the month-yearcontinuous (green pill) level. Add Sales to Rows. Format Sales to $ with 0 dp. Remove the title on the Order Date axis. Update the Tooltip to give an instruction to ‘click the line to filter’. Rename the sheet Sales Trend or similar.
Creating the bar chart
Add Sub-Category to Rows and Sales to Columns. Sort by Sales descending. Hide the Sub-Category row heading label (right click > hide field labels for rows). Update the Tooltip to give an instruction to ‘click the bar to filter’. Rename the sheet Sales by Sub Bar or similar.
Creating the Tree Map
Add Segment and Ship Mode to Detail and Sales to Size. Move Segment to Colour and reduce opacity to about 60%. Move Ship Mode to Label and then add additional Segment and Sales pills to Label. Add a table calculation against the Sales pill on the Label shelf, so it is applying a percentage of Total by Segment only.
Add another instance of the Sales pill to Label and then update the layout of the label.
Move the Segment pills on the marks shelf so they are positioned below the Ship Mode to ensure the tree map is segmented based on the Ship Mode (there should be four blocks divided by the thicker white lines).
Update the Tooltip to give an instruction to ‘click the treemap to filter’. Rename the sheet Treemap or similar.
Build the Details table
On a new sheet add Order ID, Customer Name, Order Date (as a discrete exact date – blue pill), Ship Date(as a discrete exact date – blue pill) and Product Name to Rows. Add Sales to Text. Format Profit to $ with 0 dp and drag onto the canvas over the columns of Sales numbers, and release the mouse when the Show Me option appears. Add Discount into the Measure Values section. Change the aggregation to Average and then format to be % to 0 dp. Rearrange the order of the pills in the Measure Values section as required. Add Segment, Sub-Category and Ship Mode to the Detail shelf. Update the title to reference these 3 pills. Hide the Tooltip. Rename the sheet Details or similar.
Building the additional calculations needed
In clicking around Sean’s solution, I was finding what I had initially built wasn’t quite doing what Sean did. If I clicked on the bar chart and then the tree map, the details were only filtered based on the tree map and vice versa. There were ways to solve this, but this then resulted in other issues, in that after closing the details table, the charts remained filtered, but it wasn’t obvious as nothing was highlighted. Basically what I’m trying to say, is the filtering seemed like it should be straightfoward, but wasn’t. I ended up using a combination of parameters and filter actions.
So we’ll start by dealing with the parameters we need.
Create the following parameters
pSelectedDate
date parameter defaulted to 01 Jan 1900
pSelectedSegment
string parameter defaulted to <emptystring>
pSelectedShipMode
string parameter defaulted to <emptystring>
pSelectedSubCat
string parameter defaulted to <emptystring>
Then create the following calculated fields
Filter: Date
[pSelectedDate] = #1900-01-01# OR [pSelectedDate]=DATETRUNC(‘month’,[Order Date])
add this to the Filter shelf on the bar chart, tree map and details sheets and set to True.
Filter: SubCat
[pSelectedSubCat]=” OR [pSelectedSubCat]=[Sub-Category]
add this to the filter shelf on the line chart, tree map and details sheets and set to True
Filter: Segment
[pSelectedSegment]=” OR [pSelectedSegment]=[Segment]
add this to the filter shelf on the line chart, bar chart and details sheets and set to True
Filter: Ship Mode
add this to the filter shelf on the line chart, bar chart and details sheets and set to True
We also need a parameter to capture when we want to show the details table.
pClickMade
boolean parameter defaulted to False.
and to supplement it, we need a calculated field to use to set this parameter to true
Click Made
TRUE
Add Click Made to the Detail shelf of the line chart, bar chart and tree map.
We’ll set these parameters later.
Building the Close icon
The ‘close’ cross when the details sheet is displayed is another sheet. On clicking on it, we will want to set the pClickMade parameter to False so the Details will no longer show. For this we will need
Close
FALSE
Add this field to the Detail shelf on a new sheet. Change the mark type to shape and change the shape to a X. Set the colour to black and set to fit entire view. Hide the Tooltip. Name the sheet Close or similar.
Building the dashboard and interactivity
Using layout containers, arrange the line chart, bar chart and tree map into a dashboard. Use padding and background colours to get the layout as desired.
The add the Details sheet as a floating object and position over the top of the other charts. Set the background to white and add a black border. Also float the Close sheet into position too. Hide the title and also add a black border.
Select the Close sheet object, and then from the Layout tab in the left hand nav, check the Control visibility using value checkbox and select the pClickMade parameter
It should disappear if the parameter is still set to false. Repeat the same process with the Detail sheet object.
Now create the following dashboard parameter actions
Filter Month
On select of the Sales Trend sheet, target the pSelectedDate parameter, passing in the value from the Order Date. When the selection is cleared, reset to 01 Jan 1900.
Filter SubCat
On select of the Sales by Sub Bar sheet, target the pSelectedSubCat parameter, passing in the value from the Sub-Category. When the selection is cleared, reset to <emptystring>.
Filter Ship Mode
On select of the Treemap sheet, target the pSelectedShipMode parameter, passing in the value from the Ship Mode. When the selection is cleared, reset to <emptystring>.
Filter Segment
On select of the Treemap sheet, target the pSelectedSegment parameter, passing in the value from the Segment. When the selection is cleared, reset to <emptystring>.
Drill to Details
Via the menu of the Sales by Sub Bar, Sales Trend, and Treemap sheets, target the pClickMade parameter passing in the value from the Click Made field. When the selection is cleared, set the value to False.
Close Details
On select of the Close sheet, target the pClickMade parameter, passing in the value from the Close field. When the selection is cleared, keep the value.
If you start clicking around, you should find that all these actions do provide some level of filtering, but if you for example, click on the bar (to filter the line and treemap), and then click on a section in the tree map and use the ‘Drill down to details’ menu option, the details table has lost the filtering of the bar chart as the bar has become unselected when the treemap chart was clicked.
To resolve this, apply filter actions to the line chart, bar chart and tree map objects (the quickest way to do this is just select the object on the dashboard and click the ‘filter’ icon in the context menu.
If you do this on all 3 sheets and then look at the list of dashboard actions you’ll see 3 ‘Filter x (generated)’ entries.
By applying this mix of filtering through ‘default’ dashboard filter actions in conjunction with parameters, I think you have a more complete and understandable experience. And you will have to explicitly unselect each of the marks you clicked on to remove that filter. I added instructions on the dashboard to aid with this.
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.
This week’s community challenge was set by Chiaki to showcase how to use dynamic zone visibility to tell a story. We’ll step through each chart and then how it’s all put together.
Building the line chart
Create a new field
Profit Ratio
SUM(Profit)/SUM(Sales)
and format to % with 1 dp.
Add Order Date to Filter and restrict to Years 2023 and 2024 only.
Add Order Date to Columns as a discrete (blue) pill at the year level. Add Sales to Rows and Profit Ratio to Rows. Format Sales to be $ with 0 dp. Set the screen to Fit Width.
Add Sales to the Label shelf of the Sales marks card. Add Profit Ratio to the Label shelf of the Profit Ratio marks card.
and format to % with 1 dp. Add to the label shelf of the Profit Ratio marks card
Right click on the 2024 Profit Ratio mark and select Annotate > Mark. Update the text as required and reference the value of Order Date year and the Profit Ratio YoY
Click and drag the annotation to reposition, and then right click on the annotation to format, and adjust the shading to pale orange and add a thick orange border.
Hide the Order Date column heading (right click > hide field names for columns). Add a title and name the sheet Line or similar.
Building the comet chart
On a new sheet, add Sales to Columns and Profit Ratio to Rows. Add Order Date to Filter and restrict to years 2023 & 2024 only. Add Sub-Category to Detail and change the mark type to Line.
Add Order Date to Detail as a discrete (blue) pill at the Year level, and add another instance of Order Date at the Year level to Size.
Add Profit Ratio to Colour. Add Profit Ratio YoY to Tooltip and adjust the table calculation so it is computing by Year of Order Date only.
Update Tooltip as required and then add annotations to the required marks, again making references to the relevant variables. Format as before, add a title and name the sheet Comet or similar.
Building the Sankey chart
On a new sheet, add Order Date as a discrete (blue) pill to Filter and restrict to years 2023 and 20204. Add Sub-Category and restrict to Tables and Binders only.
Create a new field
Profitable
IF [Profit] >0 THEN ‘Profitable’ ELSE ‘Unprofitable’ END.
From the dropdown in the marks card, select Sankey
Then add Profitable, Order Date and Region to the Level shelf in that order. Adjust the Sort of the Profitable pill, so its sorted descending and Unprofitable is listed before Profitable.
Add Profit Ratio andOrders(Count) to the Tooltip and update accordingly. Click Format Extension and set the Level Padding and the Link Padding to 10 each.
Click on the Unprofitable box to highlight it and the subsequent flow. Add a title and name the sheet Sankey or similar.
Controlling the story
Create a parameter
Page
integer parameter from 1-4 where each number is mapped to the relevant text. Default to the text associated to 1.
Create boolean fields
Page >=2
[Page]>=2
Page >= 3
[Page]>=3
Page = 4
[Page]= 4
Building the dashboard
You need to use layout containers to build the dashboard. When using these, it’s often useful to add blank objects to help preserve the type of container you want as you add things in. These then get removed. It can be quite fiddly to get right.
For the main body of the dashboard, the section with the charts in, I started with a horizontal container that then had a vertical container on the left and the Sankey on the right. The left hand vertical container then had the line chart on the top, and another horizontal container beneath it. That horizontal container then had the comet chart on the left and a vertical container on the right, which contained the colour and size legends.
I have a habit of renaming the layout containers in the item hierarchy section, to help me identify each section
The line chart object was formatted to have a grey border, outer padding of 10 and inner padding of 20. The vertical container around the comet chart and it’s legends, was also formatted the same. And the Sankey chart object was also formatted the same.
Add a title section, and show the Page parameter as a single value list. Format this with a grey background.
Click on the layout container that contains the comet chart and it’s legends, and then from the layout tab on the left hand side, check the control visibility using value and select the Page >=2 option.
If you page control is set to 1 (Problem Statement), then this section will now disappear. Set it to the next option for it to reappear.
Click on the Sankey object, and do the same, although this time select the Page >=3 option. Again changing through the page control options, the chart will appear and disappear.
With all three charts displaying, and once you’re happy with your layout, add a floating text box and resize to cover the main chart areas. Add the relevant text, set the background colour to grey with a 97% opacity, so the charts underneath can just be seen. Then set the visibility of this to use the Page =4 option.
Cycle through the page options and see how the display changes. My published viz is here.
The focus of this week’s challenge, set by Yoshi, is showing “detail on demand” using filters.
Defining the calculations
We’re only concerned about current year and previous year, so to simplify this, after connecting to the data source, I added a data source filter based on Order Date to restrict the information to years 2023 and 2024 only.
I then created the following fields
Latest Year
{MAX(YEAR([Order Date]))}
Previous Year
[Latest Year]-1
Sales – LY
IF YEAR([Order Date]) = [Latest Year] THEN [Sales] END
Format to $ with 0 dp
Sales – PY
IF YEAR([Order Date]) = [Previous Year] THEN [Sales] END
On a new sheet, add Category to Columns, and Sales – LY and YoY to Text and format/layout the text as required. Adjust the formatting of the column headings too.
Add YoY to Colour too to match the solution (though personally, if I was doing this for a business need, I wouldn’t do this as some of the text becomes quite washed out).
Building the Sub Category Viz
On a a new sheet, add Category and Sales – LY to Columns and Sub-Category to Rows.
However, you can see that as not every Sub-Category exists in every Category, we get ‘blanks’ in the display, so we need use something on rows that exists for every Category. We can do this using the rank of Sales.
Add Sales -LY to Rows and change it to be a discrete (blue) dimension.
Move Sub-Category to Detail and then apply a quick table calculation of rank to the Sales – LY pill on Rows. Adjust the table calculation so it is computing explicitly by Sub-Category only.
Make the rows a little wider, move Sub-Category to Label. Add Sales -LY to label too. Adjust the format/layout of label and align middle right. Add YoY to Colour.
Add Sales – PY to Detail then add a Reference Line to the Sales – LY axis, that refers to Sales – PY per cell.
Add Latest Year to Tooltip and adjust the text to suit. Finally, hide the Sales – LY Rank row header and the Category column header (uncheck show header) and remove the title of the Sales – LY axis. Add a title.
Building the Product Viz
On a new sheet, add Product Name to Rows and Sales – LY to Columns. Sort by Sales – LY descending. Hide the null value indicator.
Add YoY to Colour. Add Sales – LY to Label. Add Sales – PY to Detail and add a Reference Line as described above. Add Sub-Category to Detail and add Latest Year to Tooltip and adjust. Remove the title of the Sales – LY axis, and hide the Product Name column header title (right click and hide field labels for rows). Add a title.
Filtering the display
The requirement is to be able to ‘filter’ the display based on the Category selected, and in the event not all categories are selected, the Product bar chart should show. Due to this second requirement, just using a standard ‘quick filter’ is a bit tricky – we need a way to understand what has been selected in the filter.
We can use a Set for this. Create a set of categories – right click Category > create > set
Category Set
Select all values
Add this to the Filter shelf of the KPI sheet, and then apply this same filter to the bar chart sheets too (right click the pill on the Filter shelf > apply to worksheets > selected worksheets > select the relevant sheets).
If you select show set, this then displays the input control to select which options are in or out of the set.
To manage the visibility of the Product bar chart, we need to know how many Categories there are in total, and how many Categories are selected. So create
Count Categories
{FIXED: COUNTD([Category])}
And
Count Set Members
{ COUNTD(IIF([Category Set], [Category],NULL))}
Both of these are LODs as we need to reference them in another boolean calculation that will be used to drive dynamic zone visibility.
Not all Categories Selected
{(SUM([Count Categories]) <> SUM([Count Set Members]))}
Building the dashboard
Create a dashboard. The three sheets should be arranged within layout containers. I used a horizontal container, where the left hand column contained a vertical container which in turn contained the KPI sheet on the top and the Sub Category bar chart underneath. The right hand column of the horizontal container contained the Product bar chart.
To control the visibility of the Product bar chart, select the object, then from the Layout tab on the left hand side, select the control visibility using value checkbox, and choose the Not All Categories Selected field.
The bar will initially disappear, but if you then deselect a value in the Category ‘filter’ control, it will reappear.
Added extra
We can also set the Product bar chart to filter if a Sub-Category bar is clicked on. Create a dashboard filter action
Filter Products
On select of the Sub-Category bar chart sheet, target the Product Bar Chart sheet passing all values. Show all values when the selection is cleared.
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.
As community month draws to a close, long term participant Deborah Simmonds set us a map based challenge based on TC23 data.
I chose to use the data that was associated to the solution workbook, rather than take the direct source, so bear that in mind if you’re following along.
Examining the data
As there were quite a few fields in the data set which were directly related to the solution, I just wanted to familiarise myself with what I was working with initially. Essentially we have a row per person (Names Full) with the hotel they stayed at (Label Hotels), and how many steps (Steps) they took each day (Date). The details of the convention centre (Label Convention Centre) exist against every row.
The LAT and LON fields contain the location details of the hotels, while Convention LAT and Convention LON contain the location details of the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre.
Names Full already had the logic applied to create names for users based on their User ID if the Name was NULL, so I didn’t need to do anything for that requirement.
We only want to consider records relating to those people who attended ‘In Person’ and who had provided a hotel. Consequently I added the following as data source filters (right click data source -> edit data source filters) to exclude unrequired records from the whole analysis.
Did you attend in person or virtual? : In person
Label Hotels : excludes NULL
Building the BANs
The BANs have 3 metrics – the number of attendees, the number of steps, and the distance in metres (based on the logic that 1 step = 0.75m).
Attendees
COUNTD([User ID])
Distance (m)
[Steps] * 0.75
On a new sheet add Date to Filter as a range of dates and show the filter control. Add Attendees, Steps and Distance (m) so the measures are displayed in a row.
Change the mark type to shape and add a transparent shape (see this blog for more details). Add Measure Names to Label too and then adjust label accordingly and align centrally.
Hide the header row (uncheck show header), remove row dividers and don’t show tooltips. Name the sheet BANs or similar. Adjust the date slider and the values should adjust.
Building the bar chart (viz in tooltip)
On a new sheet add Names Full to Rows and Steps to Columns. Apply the same Date filter (from the BANs worksheet, set the filter to apply to this new worksheet too).
The viz needs to display a reference line showing the overall average of the steps per person across the selected dates, regardless as to whether the records are filtered to a hotel or not.
What do I mean by this… well if I add a standard average reference line to the viz above, the average for the whole table is 78.2k steps.
If I now filter this by a Label Hotel, then the average changes, and I don’t want that – I still want to see 78.2k.
But the average does need to change if the date range changes
This took a bit of effort to get right, but I needed
Format this as a number with 1dp set to the K (thousandths) level
and I also needed to add the Date field on the Filter shelf to context.
So reverting back to the initial view of the bar chart… right click on the Date filter and Add to Context. Add Avg Steps to the Detail shelf. Then add a reference line (right click the Steps axis > add reference line) that displays the Avg Steps with a dark dashed line with a custom label.
Format the reference line to position the label at the top and adjust the font style.
To colour the bars we need
Steps above average
SUM([Steps]) >=[Avg Steps]
Add this to the Colour shelf, change the colours and adjust the opacity to about 75%.
Hide the column heading, and adjust the font size of the names and the axis. Name the sheet Bars or similar.
Building the initial map
I decided to create 2 maps – one for the initial display of all the hotels and the convention centre, and then one for the selected location and buffer.
To plot the hotels on the map I created
Hotel Locations
MAKEPOINT([LAT],[LON])
On a new sheet, add this to the Detail shelf. A map will automatically generate with Latitude and Longitude fields. Change the Mark Type to Circle, then add Label Hotels to Label and align left middle. Edit the map Background Layers (via the map menu) to add Streets, Highways etc to the display
Add Steps, Attendees and Distance(m) to the Tooltip. Add Attendees to the Size shelf and adjust the size to vary by range
Apply the Date filter from the other worksheets to this sheet too. For the tooltip, We need to know about the min and max dates in the range selected. Create
Min Date
MIN([Date])
and custom format simply as dd (the day only)
Also create
Max Date
MAX([Date])
and custom form this as dd mmm yyyy
Add both of these fields to the Tooltip shelf. Adjust the text in the Tooltip and add a reference to the Bars sheet as a viz in tooltip (Insert > sheets > ). Adjust the height of the sheet to be 900.
The viz in tooltip should now display nicely on hover
To add the mark for the convention centre, we need
Conf Location
MAKEPOINT([Convention LAT], [Convention LON])
Drag this onto the map, and drop it when Add A Marks Layer displays
This will create a 2nd marks card. Change the mark type to shape and select the Tableau sparkle image if you have it stored. If not, just use another shape or circle (coloured differently).
Add Attendees to Size and add Label Convention Centre to Label and align left middle. Add Steps and Distance(m) to Tooltip and adjust to suit. Hide all the map options (map menu -> map options -> uncheck all the selections). Name the sheet Map – Initial or similar.
Building the ‘selected’ map
This will use parameters to identify what’s been selected – a hotel or the convention centre, so we need
pSelectedHotel
string parameter defaulted to empty string
and
pSelectedCentre
string parameter defaulted to empty string, just like above
The intention is that either both these parameters will be empty or only one will be populated.
To plot on a map we need
Selected Hotel Location
IF [pSelectedHotel] = [Label Hotels] AND [pSelectedCentre] =” THEN [Hotel Locations] END
and
Selected Centre Location
IF [pSelectedHotel] = ” AND [pSelectedCentre] =[Label Convention Centre] THEN [Conf Location] END
Duplicate the initial map sheet and name it Map – Selection. Show the two parameters and verify both are empty.
On the Hotel Locations marks card, drag the Selected Hotel Location field and drop it straight onto the Hotel Locations field. On the Conf Location marks card, drag Selected Centre Location and drop straight onto the Conf Locations field. Your map shouldn’t display anything…
Manually type ‘Luxor’ into the pSelectedHotel parameter. A mark should display. Adjust the Label of the Selected Hotel marks card so it is larger font, and aligned top middle. Set the colour to orange and remove the halo.
Remove the text from the pSelectedHotel parameter and manually type ‘Mandalay Bay Convention Centre’ into the pSelectedCentre parameter. A mark should display. Adjust the Label of the Selected Centre marks card so it is larger font, and aligned top middle. Remove the halo from the Colour shelf.
To create the buffer circle, we need to define the buffer radius, which is the attendee steps in metres.
Buffer Distance (m)
{FIXED : SUM(IF [pSelectedHotel] = [Label Hotels] OR [pSelectedCentre] = [Label Convention Centre] THEN [Steps] END)} * 0.75
and then we create
Buffer
IF [pSelectedHotel] <> ” THEN BUFFER([Selected Hotel Location], [Buffer Distance (m)], ‘m’) ELSEIF [pSelectedCentre] <> ” THEN BUFFER([Selected Centre Location], [Buffer Distance (m)], ‘m’) END
Add this as another marks layer.
Reduce the opacity on the colour shelf to 0% and set the border to be orange. We don’t want to allow any interactivity with the buffer, so disable selection of the layer, and also move down so it is listed at the bottom of the 3 map layers.
Show the Date filter control and adjust the dates to see the buffer adjusting. Test the behaviour with a hotel too (you may find you want to add some more detail to the background layers of the map).
We will use dynamic zone visibility on the dashboard to decide whether to display the initial or the selected map. To control this, we need
Show Initial Map
[pSelectedCentre]=” and [pSelectedHotel]=”
and
Show Selected Map
[pSelectedHotel]<>” OR [pSelectedCentre]<>”
Adding the interactivity
Create a dashboard, add the BANs and both the map sheets.
Create a dashboard parameter action
Set Hotel
On selection of the Initial Map set the pSelectedHotel parameter passing in the value from the Label Hotels field. When the selection is cleared, reset to ”.
and another parameter action
Set Conv Centre
On selection of the Initial Map set the pSelectedCentre parameter passing in the value from the Label Convention Centre field. When the selection is cleared, reset to ”.
Select the Initial Map object, and from the Layout tab, set the visibility to be controlled by the Show Initial Map field
Then select the Selected Map object, and set the visibility to be controlled by the Show Selected Map field. Only one of the maps should display based on the interactivity.
This is all the core functionality of the map, but Deborah threw in a couple of extra asks…
Building the Distance Legend
We’re using map layers again for this. Create a new field
Zero
MAKEPOINT(0,0)
Add it to the Detail shelf of a new worksheet to create the 1st map layer, then immediately add another map layer, by adding another instance of Zero to the sheet.
Switch the axis, and the map will disappear, and you’ll have axis displayed instead. Change the mark type of the first map layer to circle and colour orange.
Change the mark type of the 2nd map later to circle and colour pale grey with an orange border. Increase the Size of this circle so it appears as a ring around the filled orange circle. Move the 2nd marks layer down to the bottom and disable both marks from being selectable.
Hide the axis and gridlines/zero lines.
Right click on the central circle and annotate point. Don’t enter any text into the annotation box, just click OK. You should get the annotation box with a line.
Move the box so the connector line is horizontal, then format the annotation so the shading is set to none and the line is formatted to be a darker dashed line. Update the title of the sheet.
Building the Size Legend
Apply a similar process to that described above, but this time create 3 mark layers where the mark type is an open circle shape which is coloured blue, and for each layer, the size of the circle is slightly bigger. This time show the zero lines.
Set the background of both the legend sheets to be none (ie transparent), then add them as floating objects onto the dashboard. Use the control visibility feature to only display the Size legend when Show Initial Map is set, and only display the Distance legend when Show Selected Map is set. Set a background against each object of light grey, that is then set to 80% transparency.
With this you should have a completed challenge. My published version is here.
Donna + DataViz 