iVend POS - Data Shaping
This article describes how to perform various data shaping operations (such as grouping, sorting and filtering) in the Dashboard Designer. The article contains the following topics:
· Summarization
· Grouping
· Sorting
· Filtering
· Top N
· Formatting Data
Summarization
To obtain numeric values that should be displayed within a dashboard item, the Dashboard calculates a summary function against the specified measure.
By default, the Dashboard calculates Sum for numeric measures and Count for measures that contain another type of data.
You can change the summary function type for numeric measures. To do this in the Designer, invoke the data item menu and select the desired summary type. Less common summary types are organized in the More submenu.
Grouping
The Dashboard Designer allows you to group dimension values and display summaries for entire groups rather than individual values.
You can arrange dimension values in groups of different sizes by specifying the appropriate group interval. For instance, date-time values can be grouped by years, months, quarters, etc.
This topic lists the supported text and date-time group intervals and describes how to change the group interval. The following sections are available:
· Text Group Intervals - String values support the following grouping intervals:
No Grouping | Each value is displayed "as is". |
Alphabetical | Values are grouped alphabetically. Example: A, B, C, ... Z |
Date-Time Group Intervals - Date-time values support the following group intervals:
Group interval | Description | Examples |
Year | Values are grouped by the year. | 2010, 2011, 2012 |
Quarter | Values are grouped by the quarter. | Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 |
Month | Values are grouped by the month. | January, February, March, ... December |
Day | Values are grouped by the day of the month. | 1, 2, 3, ... 31 |
Hour | Values are grouped by the hour. | 0, 1, 2, ... 23 |
Minute | Values are grouped by the minute. | 0, 1, 2, ... 59 |
Second | Values are grouped by the second. | 0, 1, 2, ... 59 |
Day of the Year | Values are grouped by the day of the year. | 1, 2, 3, ... 365 |
Day of the Week | Values are grouped by the day of the week. | Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, ... Saturday |
Week of the Year | Values are grouped by the week of the year. | 1, 2, 3, ... 52 |
Week of the Month | Values are grouped by the week of the month. | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Month-Year | Values are grouped by the year and month. | January 2012, February 2012, ... December 2012, January 2013, ... |
Quarter-Year | Values are grouped by the year and quarter. | Q3 2012, Q4 2012, Q1 2013, Q2 2013, ... |
Day-Month-Year | Values are grouped by date. | 3/4/2012, 3/5/2012, 3/6/2012, ... |
Date-Hour | Values are grouped by date with the hour value. | 3/4/2012 0:00 AM, 3/4/2012 1:00 AM, 3/4/2012 2:00 AM, ... |
Date-Hour-Minute | Values are grouped by date with the hour and minute values. | 3/4/2012 0:00 AM, 3/4/2012 0:01 AM, 3/4/2012 0:02 AM, ... |
Date-Hour-Minute-Second | Values are grouped by date with the hour, minute and second values. | 3/4/2012 0:00:00 AM, 3/4/2012 0:00:01 AM, 3/4/2012 0:00:02 AM, ... |
Exact Date | Each value is displayed "as is". | 2009, Q2 2009, 6/15/2009 1:45:30 PM, ... |
Changing Group Interval - To specify the group interval in the Designer, invoke the data item menu and select the desired group interval. Less common group intervals are organized in the More submenu.
Sorting
The Dashboard Designer allows you to easily change the sort order of values within a dashboard item. You can also enable sorting by parameter values.
Changing Sort Order
The sort order of dimension values is indicated with an arrow.
To change the sort order in the Designer, click the data item. You can also toggle sorting from the data item menu.
Filtering
The Dashboard allows you to apply filtering to each data-aware dashboard item. This topic describes how to enable and reset filtering.
Apply Filtering
To configure filtering, select the target dashboard item and click the [Edit Filter] button in the Data tab.
This will invoke the Filter Editor dialog. Use this dialog to build filter criteria with a convenient tree-like interface.
Clear Filtering
To clear filtering in the Designer, select the target dashboard item and click the [Clear] button in the Data tab.
Top N
The Top N feature allows you to display only a limited number of values that correspond to the highest or lowest values of a particular measure.
To display the top values in a dimension, select Top N from the data item menu.
This invokes the Top N Values dialog.
In this dialog, check the Enabled check box and specify the following settings:
Mode | Specifies whether top or bottom values should be displayed. |
Count | The number of values to be displayed. |
Measure | The parameter that will determine the top or bottom value. |
Show "Others" value | If enabled, all values that are not the top/bottom values are consolidated in the "Others" value. |
The Dashboard allows you to customize various data format settings for numeric and date-time values.
· Formatting Numeric Values - To specify a format for numeric values, select Format from the data item menu.
This invokes the Numeric Format window.
Formatting Date-Time Values - To specify a format for date-time values, use the Format submenu in the data item menu.