How to create an interactive trending line chart
Summary
Before you begin, read Preparing to create and use interactive charts.
Note: This KB applies to V5+ Summary View reports only. To learn about creating trend reports with the V6.1 SP 2 Report Definition rule, see How to create trend reports.
The application used for the example in this article generates quotes for car insurance policies. A rating is calculated based on information about the applicant's driving history and other information. The value of the rating is programmatically used to determine whether the application for insurance is eligible, not eligible, or needs a review by an underwriter. Figure 1 is an example of a trending line chart that shows how many potential policies fall into each category: Eligible, Not Eligible, and Needs Review.
Figure 1. Example Trend Chart: Application Status Over the Last 7 Days
Suggested Approach
To create a report like the one shown in Figure 1, complete the following steps:
1. Run the Report Wizard to create the report. For the example, the developer specified work objects whose Policy Decision field is not null as the report criteria, grouped the data by Policy Decision, configured a simple count for the records, and then defined the trend parameters as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Trend Definition window for Create Date/Time property
2. In the Charts form of the Wizard, select the chart option and click Configure Interactive Charts.
3. From the Type tab, select Line and Curve (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Type tab for example trending line chart
4. On the Data tab, select both axis options. Additionally because this is a trending line chart, it treats the date range as an additional series. Because the developer wants the series on the data axis to be the calendar dates and the decisions to be plotted in the chart, select the Swap Series / Groups option (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Data tab for example trending line chart
5. On the Axes tab, configure the Group Axis to be on the bottom and the Data Axis to be on the left. Then, change the Axis Scale from Category to Date Time as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Axes tab for example trending line chart
6. On the Text tab, enter a title for the chart (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Text tab for example trending line chart
7. On the Options tab, select Interpolate as the series effect, put the legend on the bottom, and select Show Slider so users can scroll through the date range (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Options tab for example trending line chart
8. For this report, set the background color to a light green. For your reports, you are likely to iterate through color selections more than once. Start by accepting the defaults, and then preview the report to see if you like them. If you don't like the results, try various color combinations until you are satisfied. If you select more than one background color, the background color appears as a linear gradient of those colors.
9. Click Apply to save your settings and continue with the Report Wizard forms to preview the chart. Click Back to return to the Chart form if you want to change your settings.
See Also
See also the following articles: