Interactive Summary and Scatter Plot

Definition

An interactive summary and scatter plot is a combination of graphical charts that shows how individual data points change over time when a slider is moved across a line graph that represents time. The scatter plot consists of a set of data points that are plotted to show the relation of one value against others. The interactive summary enables the user to see how the data points change over time.

An interactive display enables dashboard users to interactively traverse large amounts of detail data by sliding along a summary chart. Detail data can be easily compared using the following two methods:

When the display is defined, the dashboard designer selects a column by which to group data.
While viewing the display, the business user can select different detail slices to compare.

Note: This indicator can show actual and forecasted data over time. Additionally, it can show the confidence intervals for the future forecasted values. These values are provided by indicator data that is generated using SAS Time Series Forecasting.

Example of an Interactive Summary and Scatter Plot Indicator

example interactive summary and scatter plot indicator

For a sample of the indicator data that was used to create this indicator, see “Sample Data Structure” for this indicator.

Usage Information

Note: SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 and later provides this indicator for support of environments that have been migrated from SAS BI Dashboard 4.2. It is not recommended that users of SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 or later use this indicator. Instead, use the chart with slider prompt indicator and the scatter plot indicator, and define an interaction between the two indicators to achieve the same functionality, but with superior control by way of the display settings.

For more information, see Adding Interactions between Indicators.
See Chart with Slider Prompt.
See Scatter Plot.

Data best suited for	The interactive summary and scatter plot indicator is commonly used to show sales revenue numbers over time, compared to targets. Each plotted data point can represent sales versus target for a certain point in time. By moving the slider, the data points change to represent new sales versus target values. A range can color the background of the plot to add the target dimension.
Not suited for	The indicator data must be suitable for a scatter plot. Indicator data that returns a single row and that is suitable for a KPI indicator is not suitable for this indicator.
Target audience	This indicator type is appropriate for all user audiences. Most people find this indicator type familiar and easy to interpret. The ability to choose the time period that is displayed by the chart provides value and relevance to the user.
Data aggregation support	This indicator type does not aggregate the indicator data.
Range support	A range is required.
Alert support	Alerts are supported. For information, see Customizing Alerts.
Link support	This indicator type can be used to define a link only. For more information about defining an indicator with a hyperlink, see Adding Links to Indicators or Other Content.
Interaction support	Data filter support: This indicator does not support data filtering. Interactive highlighting support: This indicator does not support interactive highlighting. For more information, see Adding Interactions between Indicators.
Filter multiple items support	Filtering multiple items is not supported.

General Settings

The General Settings section provides controls that support the following tasks:

Note: When setting the height and width of this indicator type, remember that it has minimum legible dimensions of 380 x 450 pixels.

This indicator requires that you specify two ranges: the X-axis range and the Y-axis range. In the preceding example, the following ranges are used:

General Setting	Selected Range
X-axis range	Lime Range
Y-axis range	Lemon Range

Remember the following guidelines when specifying the ranges:

Both ranges must have the same number of intervals defined. Otherwise, the following message is displayed:
```
The X range and the Y range must have the same number of intervals.
```
Only the Y-axis range colors are displayed in the indicator.
The intersection of the X-axis range and the Y-axis range defines the triangular shadings in the graph.

Display Settings

The following display settings are used in the preceding figure. For more information, see “Sample Data Structure” for this indicator.

Display Setting	Selection Used for Figure
X-axis value	Lime Actual
Forecasted X-axis value	Lime Forecast
X-axis lower confidence	Lime Low
X-axis upper confidence	Lime Up
Y-axis value	Lemon Actual
Forecasted Y-axis value	Lemon Forecast
Y-axis lower confidence	Lemon Low
Y-axis upper confidence	Lemon Up
Summarization graph type	Line is selected.
Summarization function	Sum is selected.
Custom label for summary graph	Set to 2010 Summary
Default data color	Blue is selected.
Show legend	This setting is selected.
Summarize by	Month
Column group by	Store Region
Detail X-axis format	123,456 is selected.
Detail Y-axis format	123,456 is selected.
Summary axis format	123,456 is selected.

You can customize the following display settings for this indicator:

(Required) From the X-axis value list, select the column in your data that you want to use for the X-axis value in the indicator. When you view your indicator data, the columns in the data set are described by the values in the Column Name column. The selections available in the X-axis value list are all of the values in the Column Name column.

The value of this setting is used in the graph tooltips. It is not possible to display additional information in the tooltip to distinguish points. However, you can use the Column group by setting to provide information about the points.
(Required) From the Forecasted X-axis value list, select the value to use for the forecasted value for the X axis.
From the X-axis lower confidence list, select the value to use for the lower confidence boundary on the X axis in an interactive indicator.
From the X-axis upper confidence list, select the value to use for the upper confidence boundary on the X axis in an interactive indicator.
(Required) From the Y-axis value list, select the column in your data that you want to use for the Y-axis value in the indicator. When you view your indicator data, the columns in the data set are described by the values in the Column Name column. The selections available in the Y-axis value list are all of the values in the Column Name column.
From the Forecasted Y-axis value list, select the value to use for the forecasted value for the Y axis.
From the Y-axis lower confidence list, select the value to use for the lower confidence boundary on the Y axis in an interactive indicator.
From the Y-axis upper confidence list, select the value to use for the upper confidence boundary on the Y axis in an interactive indicator.
From the Alternate value to summarize list, select the value to use for the summarization. The summarized value is used to draw the summary line or bar chart at the bottom of the interactive charts.
From the Alternate forecasted value to summarize list, select the value to use for the forecasted value summarization. The summarized value is used to draw the summary line or bar chart at the bottom of the interactive charts.
From the Alternate lower confidence to summarize list, select the value to use for the lower confidence summarization. The summarized value is used to draw the summary line or bar chart at the bottom of the interactive charts.
From the Alternate upper confidence to summarize list, select the value to use for the upper confidence summarization. The summarized value is used to draw the summary line or bar chart at the bottom of the interactive charts.
From the Summarization graph type list, select the type of graph to use to represent summary data in an interactive indicator.
From the Summarization function list, select the function to use to summarize data in an interactive indicator.
In the Custom label for summary graph field, type the text to use to replace the default title for the summary graph in an interactive indicator.
From the Default data color field, select the default color for representing data in an interactive indicator.
Select Show legend to specify that the legend is displayed in the indicator.
(Required) From the Summarize by list, select the value to use to summarize data in an interactive indicator.
From the Column group by list, select the value that you want to use to group columns of data. If you do not want to group the columns, select (none).
From the Detail X-axis format list, select the format to apply to the data on the detail X axis.
From the Detail Y-axis format list, select the format to apply to the data on the detail Y axis.
From the Summary axis format list, select the format to apply to the data on the summary axis.

Sample Data Structure

The following data sample is associated with the figure previously shown. Underneath each column heading is its associated display setting.

Month (Summarize by)	Store Region (Column group by)	Lime Actual (X-axis value)	Lime Forecast (Forecasted X-axis value)	Lime Low (X-axis lower confidence)	Lime Up X-axis upper confidence)	Lemon Actual (Y-axis value)	Lemon Forecast (Forecasted Y-axis value)	Lemon Low (Y-axis lower confidence)	Lemon Up (Y-axis upper confidence)
01AUG2010	North East	3509	3899.25			5180	4010.1666667
01AUG2010	West	3479	4028.5714286			4379	4309.2619048
01AUG2010	Central	3934	4157.8928571			4033	4608.3571429
01AUG2010	South East	6448	4545.8571429			5370	5505.6428571
01SEP2010	North East		3769.9285714	473.67952229	7066.1776206		3711.0714286	1072.0041191	6350.138738
01SEP2010	West		3381.9642857	-699.7096296	7463.638201		2813.7857143	-454.1142645	6081.685693
01SEP2010	Central		3511.2857143	-284.3073884	7306.8788169		3112.8809524	74.025111133	6151.7367936

For the best results when using this interactive indicator, the indicator data must meet the following requirements:

The indicator data must be suitable for a scatter plot. Indicator data that returns a single row and that is suitable for a KPI indicator is not suitable for an interactive indicator.
The indicator data must contain one low-cardinality grouping column that is used to summarize the data. A low-cardinality grouping column is a column that has a small number of unique values to group by.
(Optional) To enable an interactive indicator to express forecasting data to business users, the indicator data must contain a column for forecasted values, for lower confidence values, and for upper confidence values.

An interactive indicator can summarize either the detail data expressed in the detail charts or can summarize a different field of data.

At the indicator level, the setup of the interactive indicator is essentially the same as for scatter plots, except that the use of data for the interactive indicators is more sophisticated. The only significant difference is that the interactive indicators support the concept of dependent ranges. A dependent range takes the value of another range for the range definition. This scheme enables a data set generated by the SAS Forecast Server to be useful to the SAS BI Dashboard and the interactive indicators without the need for complicated intermediary data transformations.