Setting Indicator Properties

Specify the Height and Width of the Indicator

You can change the height and width of an indicator in the following ways:
  • In the workspace, click the indicator and drag the resize handles.
  • In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, change the height and width by editing the values in the Height and Width fields.
When setting the indicator height and width, remember the following information:
  • The height and width settings apply only when the indicator is displayed by itself, not on a dashboard. These width and height properties are the default width and height. You can customize these values further when you add the indicator to a dashboard. When displayed on a dashboard, the indicator height and width are specified in the Object section of the dashboard Properties pane.
  • The following indicator types have minimum legible dimensions of 380 x 450 pixels:
    • interactive summary and bar chart
    • interactive summary and scatter plot
    • interactive summary and targeted bar chart

Change the Indicator Type

When you created the indicator, you selected the indicator type. However, you can change the selection at any time.
In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, select the indicator type to use from the Display list.
Indicator Type
Task
If you select KPI, see Customize a KPI Indicator.
Spark table
All other selections

Specify the Graph Style

You can specify a graph styling to apply to your selected indicator. Some selections are easier to read than others. For example, Simple and Crisp are typically easier to read than Sheen. You might want to view the different selections on the computer displays that are used by your business users to make sure a graph style is easy to read on the applicable displays.
Comparing the Simple and Sheen Graph Styles
Simple
Sheen
simple graph style
sheen graph style
In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, select the graph styling to use from the Graph style list. If you do not want to style the data, select (none).

Change the Indicator Data to Use

When you created the indicator, you selected the indicator data to use. However, you can change the selection at any time.
In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, complete the applicable step:
Existing indicator data
Next to the Indicator data field, click Browse, navigate to the indicator data, and then open it.
New indicator data
Next to the Indicator data field, click New. For more information, see Defining Indicator Data.

Change the Range to Use

When you created the indicator, if you selected an indicator type that supported the use of a range, you selected the range to use. However, you can change the selection at any time.
In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, complete the applicable step:
Existing range
Next to the Range field, click Browse, navigate to the range file, and then open it.
New range
Next to the Range field, click New. For more information, see Create a Range.

Specify the Sort Order

You can sort the data that is displayed in some indicator types. The Column Names in the indicator data provide the selections to sort by.
In the General Settings section of the Properties pane, select the column name to use from the Sort by list. If you do not want to sort the data, select (none). From the Sort order list, select whether to sort the data in ascending or descending order.
Note: If no Sort order selection is specified, the incoming indicator data sequence is used by default. You can verify the default ordering by editing the indicator data and viewing the data in the Query Results tab. For indicator data that uses an information map, you can specify the default sort order by changing the order of the columns in the Selected items list.

Specify How to Display Data in the Indicator

The display settings determine which data is included in the indicator, how the data is grouped, how the data is summarized, and so on.
In the Display Settings section of the Properties pane, select the display settings to use for the indicator. The available settings vary depending on the selected indicator. For information about the display settings for each type of indicator, see Indicator Dictionary.

Customize Indicator Alerts

Indicators provide the alerting feature in the SAS BI Dashboard. This feature, which is available in the Personalized User Settings section of the Properties pane, is available only for indicators that support ranges. You can create alerts in the following ways:

Define Links in an Indicator

You can define links in an indicator that opens other content. For more information, see Adding Links to Indicators or Other Content.

Specify Default Parameter Values for an Indicator

If the indicator data supports parameters, you can specify default parameter values for the associated indicator. The following types of indicator data support parameters:
  • SAS Information Maps that are based on relational tables and contain a filter
  • SAS Stored Processes that have parameters registered in the metadata
If the indicator data supports parameters, the Parameter icon is available at the top of the Properties pane.