Data visualization may be the most important topic when we are talking about dashboard creation. It enables us to view data, compare values, and make analyses in a clear and effective way. A dashboard is the ideal platform to present these visualizations.

Data can be presented in a graphical way; for example, with lines, bars, colored areas, gauges, or just with a simple red/green indicator. But on the other hand, in some cases, it may be more effective to use a simple list of values instead of these graphs. This totally depends on the purpose of the dashboard.

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards provides a great toolkit with lots of visualization components. This chapter will discuss these components and show you how to use them.

A line chart is very useful to visualize data that changes over time. It consists of a set of data points that are connected by a line. The horizontal x-axis typically shows the categories in which the data is divided. The vertical y-axis shows us the values.

This recipe shows how to add a line chart to a dashboard and how to link it to the data in the spreadsheet. We will also discuss the components that are similar to the line chart component: bar chart, column chart, area chart, stacked chart, and the Marimekko chart.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data into the spreadsheet, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note

You can also click on the Line Chart component in the Components browser, move your cursor to the canvas area (the arrow will now change into a cross), and click again. You can use whatever method you prefer.

A bullet chart is in fact a bar or column chart with a lot of extra options. It can serve as a replacement for gauges and meters. Besides visualizing a data point as bar and column charts do, a bullet chart is able to show a target and two or more qualitative ranges. These ranges can indicate whether a value can be considered bad, satisfactory, good, and so on.

This recipe will show you how to configure a bullet chart. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards has two bullet chart components: horizontal and vertical. Both components have exactly the same configuration options and work in the same manner. This recipe will use the horizontal bullet chart.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data into the spreadsheet, as shown in the following screenshot:

Sparklines are typically small graphics, showing a horizontal line connecting several data points without labeling the values on their axes. The purpose of a sparkline is to show the movement of a trend over a certain period. Since its details are not available, the context of a sparkline must be clear to the dashboard user to interpret its meaning properly. This recipe will show you how to configure a sparkline.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data into the spreadsheet, as shown in the following screenshot:

With the combination chart you can use both columns and lines to visualize data in one single chart.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data, as shown in the following screenshot, into the spreadsheet:

In the Number section of the Home tab of the toolbar, use the % option to convert the market share values into percentages:

A waterfall chart is useful to visualize the fluctuation of a value in positive and negative values. The first and final values are displayed as full columns (starting at 0). The values in between represent the positive and negative fluctuations. A good example is the stock level of goods in a warehouse. A waterfall chart can show how it changes over time.

This recipe shows you how to set up such a waterfall chart.

Getting ready

Open a new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards file and enter data in the spreadsheet as shown in the following screenshot. As you can see in row 3, the first and final value (January and December) show the total stock level, instead of the change relative to the previous period, as is shown in the other months:

A pie chart is circular chart divided into one or more slices. Each slice represents the proportion of a value to the total of all values. Pie charts can be used to show the share of a value in contrast to other values or the grand total. However, it may be hard to compare the size of slices within a pie chart when there are more than three slices, or across other pie charts. Therefore, if you need to compare data, we recommend using a bar chart instead.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data, as shown in the following screenshot, into the spreadsheet:

A scatter plot chart can display values that consist of two variables. The chart shows a set of points, each of which refer to a combination of a value on the x-axis and a value on the y-axis.

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data, as shown in the following screenshot, into the spreadsheet:

A bubble plot chart is essentially the same as a scatter plot chart, except that it has a third variable that determines the size of each point. The following screenshot represents a bubble plot chart:

Getting ready

You can reuse the dashboard from the Using a scatter plot chart recipe and add the values in column D, as shown in the following screenshot:

The radar chart is able to represent more than two variables in a single chart. In this chart, the multiple axes all start at the same point. The radar chart can be used to make comparisons between series based on their score on a set of variables. In this way outliers can be quickly discovered and analyzed. The following screenshot represents a radar chart:

Getting ready

Open a new file in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and enter the data, as shown in the following screenshot, into the spreadsheet:

The OHLC chart and candlestick chart are both designed to show the movement of a stock price over time. OHLC stands for Open, High, Low, and Close. These four stock price values are illustrated for each time unit.

Both components work in exactly the same way, so you can use both the OHLC chart component and the candlestick chart component for this recipe. The only difference between them is the graphical visualization. The following screenshot displays an OHLC chart:

Getting ready

For this recipe, we need some historical stock data. Open your browser and go to http://www.nasdaq.com/ and look for historical quotes on the SAP AG stock as shown in the following screenshot:

Select a timeframe of one month and copy and paste the quotes to the spreadsheet of a new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards file, as shown in the following screenshot:

A chart does not always look like what you had in mind. In some cases, you may want to see data sorted from high to low values, while in other situations, you want to see the categories displayed in a more logical order. For example, in the following bar chart, the quarters are sorted from last (Q4) to first (Q1). To change this, you can of course adjust the data model in the spreadsheet, like we did in the Using an OHLC chart and a candlestick chart recipe. An easier and better way is to use the sorting settings for the bar chart component.

If you are visualizing a dataset with a large number of values on the x-axis (the category axis), the chart might be a bit hard to use. To see a section of such a chart in more detail, we can use the range slider to zoom in on the data.