When you want to look at result trends over time, charts with a left to right progression are a good choice to give a sense of flow.
Line
A line chart is the best option for looking at a detailed time series or for adding trend lines. If you add a trend line to a line chart, the trend line will appear in the same color as the metric it represents. You can add trend lines either in Chart configuration > Trend line or when you add a new metric (see Adding metrics on a trend line).
When you select a line chart, you can change the following options in the chart
configuration menu ():
- In Chart, you can choose whether and when to show the grid (Show grid), edit the shape of your lines (Curve), change the width of your lines (Stroke width), insert approximations in the place of null values (Interpolate missing values), choose not to replace null values (Do not replace missing values by zero), represent result points with different shapes (Point renderer), and show metric aggregators in datatips (Show aggregators).
- In Colors, you can change the grid, background, and line colors.
- You can change the style, text, and position for X and Y axis.
- If you placed a metric on a dual axis, you can edit the secondary axis settings in Secondary axis (see Adding metrics on a dual axis).
Column
A column chart is useful when the time series does not have many results, for example annual results over a short period. Column charts also enable you to stack results, so you can easily compare metrics for each category.
When you select a column chart, you can change the following options in the chart configuration menu:
- X, Y, and secondary axis have the same customization options as line charts.
- In Colors, you can edit the grid and column colors. You can also choose to display your chosen colors as gradient colors.
- In Chart, you can select Stacked to view metric results in the same
column, rather than side-by-side. After you check the Stacked box, you can edit
the settings for how your results are stacked.
If you want to view an attribute values as stacked, you can add the attribute to the Rows panel and select all of the attribute values in the row selector. You must also add an attribute to the Columns panel if you want your results to render properly.
Area
Similar to a line chart, area charts use lines to track results. Area charts also shade underneath the line to demonstrate the weight of the results.
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- X, Y, and secondary axis have the same customization options as line and column charts.
- In Colors, you can edit the line and shading colors.
- In Chart, you can edit the opacity of the shaded areas, insert missing values, or represent result points with different shapes. You can also change the shape of the line and stack results. If you select Stacked, your metric results will automatically appear on top of each other.
Sparkline
Sparkline charts display time in a different way than the other trends over time charts. The sparkline chart highlights key values like the last value to date, the lowest value, the highest value, and whether the trend is decreasing or increasing across the time period.
The sparkline chart will also display a simplified representation of the report in your chosen chart type. You can hover over points in this smaller chart to see the attribute and metric results. The sparkline chart will only take into account the first metric added to Metrics and the first attribute added to Columns. However, you can divide the results further by adding attributes to Rows.
In the example below, Tickets is added to Metrics, Month is added to Columns, and Ticket Type is added to Rows.
- In Colors, you can edit the text color, the point colors, and each of the column colors.
- In Chart, you can select whether to hide or show columns, bandlines, and values.
- You can also select the type of chart, by choosing a new type from the Visualization type drop-down list in Chart.
10 comments
Henry Alley
Is there a way you can plot data over multiple years by months in sequence?
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Tina Yates
Henry Alley. Not sure if this is what you need but if you place year before month in the column section you will see each month and listed below the months will be the year.
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PAUL STRAUSS
So I'm confused about something. I've created a KPI report and a Sparkline report for the same data - in this case, Average Call Duration. The KPI is based on the last seven days through yesterday, and the Sparkline is based on the last 3 months through yesterday, with the graph based on week of year.
The odd thing is that the "Last" value in the sparkline is never the same as the average value as the KPI, which SHOULD be for the same period of time. Am I doing something wrong, or misunderstanding how these two report formats reflect the same data? See below for an example of one such duo of reports:
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Rachel Orio
Hi @pstrauss,
Furhter investigation is needed on your concern so we can I identify what's causing the issue. A ticket is created on your behalf kindly expect an email shortly stating the ticket has been created.
Best regards,
Rachel Orio
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Laura
Hey,
I have a column chart with 2 attributes: month and category (a calculated attribute).
On the x-axis, both attributes are indicated, however, I would like to remove the category label here. The part I have marked pink in the screenshot should only indicate the month, not the robot model.
Is there a trick on how to do this? I could not find anything in the 'Chart configuration menu'.
Thank you in advance for your help!
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Elaine
Hi Laura,
The reason why you're seeing the robot model labels together with the month is that you have added the Robot Models - Group attribute together with the Views - Month in the Columns section of this report.
Once you remove the Robot Models - Group attribute from the Columns section (keep it added under the Rows section of the report), only the months should remain as the label on the X-axis.
Hope this helps! Stay safe!
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Joey Viera
Is there a way to create a multiple line chart by month, each line representing a year of trends?
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Erin O'Callaghan
Hi Joey Viera, yes there is! This recipe shows you how to build a report with multiple lines showing monthly data across different years: Solved tickets this year compared to last year. You can change the dataset, metrics, and attributes to suit your business case, but the process will be the same as demonstrated in that recipe.
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Joey Viera
Very nice! Thanks, Erin O'Callaghan.
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Shane Barlow
Hi. I want to show a 12 month rolling trend line graph on a dashboard where the time filter can be set to different time lines for the whole dashboard i.e. see a monthly report that includes a 12 month tend line graph.
I have created a trend line graph and tried to get this to respect the 12 month period by setting the ticket created range in both the filters and/or rows but every time I apply it to the dashboard and then view the dashboard with the time filter set to last month, then this trend line graph only shows the data for a month and not the 12 months required.
Does anyone know if its possible to do this and if so how?
Thanks,
Shane.
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