Working with Data Role Assignments

Modify Data Role Assignments in Report Objects

Add Animation to Charts, Bubble Plots, and Geo Bubble Maps

Add Data Roles for Lattice Columns or Lattice Rows in a Graph

Remove Data Role Assignments from Report Objects

About Data Roles

After you have selected a report object and a data source, the Roles tab in the right pane shows which data items have been assigned to which roles.

A data role is a designation that describes how a particular data item is to be used in a report object. In the designer, each report object has data roles, some are required, and others are optional. For example, the data roles for a bar chart are Category, Measures, Group, Lattice columns, Lattice rows, Data tip values, and Animation. For the bar chart, the category and measures data roles are required.

Not all report objects have the same data roles. For example, the Color data role is available for only scatter plots, bubble plots, treemaps, geo bubble maps, geo region maps, and word clouds.

Note: You cannot add Frequency or Frequency Percent data items for dynamic text using the Roles tab.

Modify Data Role Assignments in Report Objects

Note: You cannot change data role assignments for any report object that is imported from the explorer and uses on-demand data.

To modify data role assignments:

Select a report object in the canvas that has one or more data items assigned.
Click the Roles tab in the right pane.

Click

beside the role that you want to edit. For data roles that allow multiple data items, the menu items that are available can vary.

If you select a data item in Roles, then the Aggregation (if appropriate), Add, Remove, and Replace menu items are displayed. You can also right-click on a data item and the actions specific to that data item are displayed.

Different data roles are available for different report objects.

In addition to the basic data roles, you can assign additional data roles. Here is a list of all the data roles available for each report object:

Report Object	Basic Data Roles	Additional Data Roles
Tables
List table	Columns	None
Crosstab	Columns Rows	Measures
Graphs
Bar chart	Category Measures	Group Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Targeted bar chart	Category Measure Target	Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Waterfall chart	Category Measure	Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values
Line chart1	Category Measures	Group Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Pie chart	Category Measures	Group Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Scatter plot	X axis Y axis	Color Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values
Time series plot	Time axis Measure (line)	Group Data tip values
Bubble plot	X axis Y axis Size	Group Color Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Treemap	Tile Size	Color Data tip values
Dual axis bar chart	Category Measure (bar) Measure (bar 2)	Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Dual axis line chart	Category Measure (line) Measure (line 2)	Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Dual axis bar-line chart	Category Measure (bar) Measure (line)	Lattice columns Lattice rows Data tip values Animation
Dual axis time series plot	Time axis Measure (line) Measure (line 2)	Data tip values
Schedule chart2	Task Start Finish	Group Label Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Vector plot2	X axis Y axis X Origin Y Origin	Color Group Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Numeric series plot2	X axis Y axis	Group Label Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Needle plot2	X axis Y axis	Group Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Step plot2	X axis Y axis	Group Label Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Dot plot2	X axis Y axis	Data tip values Lattice columns Lattice rows
Butterfly chart2	Category Measure (bar) Measure (bar 2)	Data tip values
Stock high-low plot2	Time axis Close High Low	None
Stock volume and volatility plot2	Time axis Bollinger Upper Bollinger Lower Moving Average High Low Close Volume	None
Bubble change plot2	Group Y end X end Y start X start Size start Size end	None
Comparative time series plot2	Time axis Measure (time series) Measure (time series 2)	Data tip values
Controls
Drop-down list	Category Frequency Parameter	None
List	Category Frequency	None
Button bar	Category Frequency Parameter	None
Text input	Category Frequency Parameter	None
Slider	Measure/Date Parameter	None
Containers
Vertical container Horizontal container Stack container Prompt container	None	None
Other
Text Image Stored process	None	None
Geo bubble map	Geography	Size Color Data tip values Animation
Geo coordinate map	Geography	Data tip values
Geo region map	Geography	Color Data tip values
Gauge	Measure	Target Group Data tip values
Word cloud	Word Size Color	None
1For line charts with multiple measures, formats are removed from all of the measure labels if the formats are different.
2This report object is not displayed by default in the designer.

Here are definitions for some of the additional data roles:

Animation

animates the date category that you assign. You can specify a Loop for the animation, and you can specify the Speed of the animation. For more information, see Add Animation to Charts, Bubble Plots, and Geo Bubble Maps.

Note: For a bubble plot only, you must assign the Group role to enable the Animation role. If you remove the Group role after assigning animation, the animation control is disabled.

Data tip values

enables you to add more measures to your data tips.

Note: For pie charts, the Other slice does not show the additional information.

Group

groups the data based on the category data item that you assign.

Lattice columns

creates a lattice of charts with a column for each value of the category data item that you assign.

Lattice rows

creates a lattice of charts with a row for each value of the category data item that you assign.

Add Animation to Charts, Bubble Plots, and Geo Bubble Maps

An animated bubble plot displays the changes in your data values over time. Each frame of the animation represents a value of the datetime data item that is assigned to the Animation data role.

For example, if you assign a category with the Year format to the Animation data role, then each frame of the animation displays a bubble plot of your data for a specific year.

Starting in the 7.1 release, you can select bubbles, bars, pie slices, and lines in an animated graph. The interaction filter is based on the category value (or values) and the selected frame in the animation. When a bubble, bar, pie slice, or line is selected, its row lists all of the category and date values of the selection. For example, the resulting filter that is applied to any downstream interactions could be filtered by car=”Toyota” and year=”2014”.

If you select a bubble for one frame in the animation and click the Play button

, then any downstream interactions play with the animation. This means that as the animation is running, the interaction targets are filtered with each frame in the animation.

Tip

To improve animation performance, use a color for the graph’s reference line instead of a pattern.

Tip

When you add animation to a pie chart, it is recommended that you sort the Category in ascending or descending order. To sort, right-click on a category name in the pie chart, and select Sort. Then, select either Ascending or Descending.

To add animation:

Select an existing chart, bubble plot, or geo bubble map, or create a new one.
Add the required roles:
- For a bubble plot, on the Role tab, assign a data item to the Group data role.
  
  Note: If you remove the Group data role after assigning animation, the animation control is disabled.
- For a bar chart or geo bubble map, on the Role tab, assign the other required roles.
Assign a data item with a datetime format to the Animation data role.

When an animated bubble plot is displayed, a set of animation controls appears at the bottom of the report object.

Animation Controls
Task	Action
Start the animation.	Click .
Go to the previous animation frame.	Click .
Go to the next animation frame.	Click .
Jump to a specific animation frame.	Use the slider.
Specify whether to repeat the animation.	Select or deselect Loop.
Select the animation speed.	Use the Speed slider.
Track the movement of a specific bubble.	Click the bubble that you want to track.

Note: If you select a bubble to track, the selected bubble is highlighted in the current animation frame.

Add Data Roles for Lattice Columns or Lattice Rows in a Graph

A lattice is a multi-cell graph in which you create each cell independently. Each cell can contain different types of plots. In the designer, you can create a multi-cell graph by using data roles to add lattice columns, lattice rows, or both. For a list of graphs that have lattice column or lattice row data roles, see Modify Data Role Assignments in Report Objects.

Note: There is a limit of 15 unique values for lattice column and lattice row data roles.

To add a lattice column or lattice row data role:

Select a report object in the canvas that has one or more data items assigned and that allows a lattice data role.
Click the Roles tab in the right pane.
Click beside the Lattice columns or Lattice rows role that you want to edit.

The following example shows a bar chart with a lattice column specified for the data role:

Example of a bar chart with lattice columns

Tip

Scroll bars are generated by the graph if you have a lot of data. These scroll bars work differently than other scroll bars in the designer. They initially fill the maximum area so that you can see all of the bars in the lattice row or lattice column. To zoom in and see specific bars, you have to drag the top or the bottom of the scroll bar to adjust the height of the scrolling bar. Labels are added as space becomes available.

The following example shows a horizontal bar chart with lattice columns. It has a scroll bar activated so that you are zoomed in on the bars for the West region.

Example of a scroll bar on horizontal bar chart with lattice columns

Remove Data Role Assignments from Report Objects

To remove data items from their assigned data roles in a specific report object:

Right-click the report object in the canvas. A menu is displayed.

Here is an example of a bar chart with the object menu:
Select Remove All Data Items. All data items are removed from the assigned data roles as well as the data-dependent features like filters, ranks, conditions, and so on. The report object turns gray, and the status icon appears in the lower right corner to let you know that the required data roles are not assigned.

Here is an example of what a bar chart looks like after all the data items have been removed from their assigned data roles:

Last updated: January 8, 2019