Using Other Object Types in Reports :: SAS® Visual Analytics 7.4: User's Guide

Use a Text Object

About Text Objects

Text objects can display both static text and dynamic text. You can use text objects to convey messages (such as confidentiality statements), to annotate other objects, and to display key values.

Dynamic text supports display rules. The displayed values are affected by interactions, filters, and ranks. For more information, see Display Dynamic Text in a Text Object.

Text objects can contain links in static text. See Create a Link from a Text Object.

Specify Text Object Properties

To specify the properties for a text object:

If it is not already selected, select the text object in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the text. You can update the Name, Title, Format (for the title's font style), and Description.
(Optional) Update the object-specific properties for the text object. By default, the Enable selection in the viewers property is not selected for text objects. This means that users who view the report in the web viewer or on a mobile device cannot select the text in a report.

Specify Text Object Styles

You can use the floating toolbar to change the font, font size, text color, and text background color. You can specify whether the text is bold, italic, or underlined, and whether it is left-aligned, centered, or right-aligned. You can also use the floating toolbar to create a link from a text object. For more information, see Create a Link from a Text Object.

Tip

You can use the pop-up menu to cut, copy, and delete text. However, you have to use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+V) to paste text.

Note: You cannot change text styles using the Styles tab.

Display Dynamic Text in a Text Object

Text objects support several types of dynamic text:

Measure values
Parameter values
A timestamp for the most recent update of the current data source
A description of the current interactive filters (from prompts and from interactions with other objects)

To add a measure or a parameter to the text object, either use the Roles tab or drag the data item from the Data tab and drop it onto the text object. The parameter can be of any type, but parameters with multiple values (for example, character list parameters) are limited to 25 characters.

Note: To display the frequency value in a text object, you must drag Frequency or Frequency Percent from the Data tab and drop it onto the text object.

To add the timestamp for the most recent update of the current data source, click Target icon

in the floating toolbar, and then select Table Modified Time.

To add a filter description, click Target icon

in the floating toolbar, and then select Interactive Filters.

Note: If you replace or remove the data source that is associated with the text object, then all dynamic text is removed.

Use an Image

About Images

You can use images to include your corporate logo or other graphics in your reports. You can insert images from a repository or from your local machine. If you select an image from your local machine, it is saved to the repository. You can also add tooltip text to an image.

Insert an Image into a Report

To insert an image into a report:

Choose one of the following:
- Drag the from the Objects tab in the left pane and drop it onto the canvas. The Image Selection window is displayed.
- Select InsertOtherImage. The Image Selection window is displayed. The image object is automatically placed in the canvas. If you want the image to appear in a different location, then drag and drop it in a new location.
Select the image from one of the following locations:

Load from repository

Select this option to choose an image that is stored on the same server as the reports.

Load from local machine

Select this option to choose an image from your local machine. Click Browse to choose a file on your local machine. Specify a repository in the Save the local image to the repository field. If you click Browse, the Save As window is displayed. Select a folder and then click OK to return to the Image Selection window.

A preview of the image is displayed.
(Optional) Specify the Scale type:

None

The actual size of the image is maintained. The image might or might not fill the entire area of the image's visual container. If the image is larger than the visual container, then scroll bars are displayed.

Stretch

The height and width of image are set to the height and width of the image’s visual container. The image’s original aspect ratio is not maintained.

Fit All

The image is modified to fit best into the image's visual container. The image’s original aspect ratio is maintained.

Fit Width

The width of the image is set to the width of the image's visual container. The height maintains the image's original aspect ratio. Scroll bars are displayed if the set height of the image is greater than the height of the visual container.

Fit Height

The height of the image is set to the height of the image's visual container. The width maintains the image's original aspect ratio. Scroll bars are displayed if the set width of the image is greater than the width of the visual container.

Tile

The image is tiled in the visual container. The image’s original size is maintained. There are no scroll bars.
(Optional) Specify the Tooltip text.
Click OK.

Specify Image Properties

To specify the properties for an image:

If it is not already selected, select the image in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the image. You can update the Name, Title, and Description.
Update the properties specific for the image. Your choices are Location, Scale type, and Tooltip text.

By default, the Enable selection in the viewers property is not selected for images. This means that users who use the web viewer or a mobile device cannot select the image, and click to see the image name.

Specify Image Styles

No styles are available for images.

Use a Stored Process

About Stored Processes

A stored process is a SAS program that is stored on a server and that can be executed as requested by client applications such as SAS Visual Analytics. The embedded SAS code can contain instructions for displaying report elements that include queries, prompted filters, titles, images, and statistical analyses.

You can add one or more stored processes to a report. You can edit the prompts for a stored process using the Properties tab in the designer. When you set the value for a prompt in the designer, that prompt value becomes the default value for the viewer.

Any prompts in a stored process must follow the guidelines for entering prompt values. This is important if the stored process contains date values. See “Entering Prompt Values in the SAS Stored Process Web Application” in the SAS Stored Processes: Developer’s Guide.

You can also add a stored process report, which contains the predefined output from a stored process.

There are prerequisites for printing stored process output. For more information, see Printing Reports.

There are limitations to where stored processes can be used in the designer:

A stored process cannot be used in the precision layout.
A stored process cannot be the source or target of an interaction in a report.
A stored process cannot be added to a container.

Note: Users who view stored processes using the SAS Visual Analytics Apps (previously called SAS Mobile BI) cannot be prompted. Instead, the stored process runs using the prompt values that were added when the report was created.

Note: The stored process output in a report is rendered as HTML regardless of the requested output type.

For information about creating a stored process and registering it in metadata, see SAS Stored Processes: Developer’s Guide.

Specify Stored Process Properties

To specify the properties for a stored process:

If it is not already selected, select the stored process in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the stored process. You can update the Name, Title, Format (for the title's font style), and Description.
Update the properties specific to the stored process. Your choices are Show metadata view and Show SAS log in the output. If the stored process contains prompts, the Edit Prompts button is displayed.

By default, the Enable selection in the viewers property is selected for stored processes. This means that users who use the web viewer or a mobile device can select the stored process, and click to see the stored process name.

Click Edit Prompts to open a new window where you can edit the parameters for the stored process. Click OK to save your changes.

Selecting the Show metadata view check box can make it easier to work with the stored process while you are designing a report. In the metadata view, you can see information about when the stored process was created and last modified. You can also see the name of the stored process file.

Here is an example of the metadata view for a stored process:

Selecting the Show SAS log in the output option means that both the log output and the stored process output are displayed in the report. This can assist you in debugging problems.

Specify Stored Process Styles

No styles are available for stored processes.

Use a Geo Map

About Geo Maps

Many types of data have a spatial aspect, including demographics, marketing surveys, and customer addresses. For example, if a user needs to evaluate population data for U.S. Census tracts, a report designer could display the information in a table. However, it would be easier and more effective for the person using the report to see the information in the context of the geography of the tracts. When evaluating information that has a spatial component, users might find it easier to recognize relationships and trends in the data if they see the information in a spatial context.

A geo map overlays your data on a geographic map. You can add a geo map only if the report uses data items from a data source that is enabled for geographic mapping.

You can create a filter or brush interaction between a geo map and another report object in your report or dashboard. When you click on a specific region or city in the geo map, the other report object filters or highlights to show the same location.

The following geo maps are available in the designer:

Geo Bubble Map

A bubble plot that is overlaid on a geographic map. For a complete definition and picture of a geo bubble map, see Other Report Objects.

A geo bubble map requires a geography variable with the role type of geography.

Geo Coordinate Map

A simple scatter plot that is overlaid on a geographic map. For a complete definition and picture of a geo coordinate map, see Geo Coordinate Maps.

A geo coordinate map requires a geography variable with the role type of geography.

Geo Region Map

A two-dimensional map that uses color combinations to represent different regions on the map. For a complete definition and picture of a geo region map, see Geo Region Maps.

A geo region map requires a geography variable with the role type of geography. However, it does not support custom geography data items or ZIP code data.

Here are some key points about geo maps:

Calculated data items and grouped category data items can be changed into geographic data items and used in geo maps.
Certain geo maps that are exported from the explorer (for example, geo maps that use custom roles or data sets that have centroids) cannot be fully modified in the designer.
When a Color data role and a display rule are applied to a geo bubble map or geo region map, the Color data role takes precedence over the display rule. The geo coordinate map does not have a Color data role. For more information about data roles, see Working with Data Role Assignments.

Specify Geo Map Properties

To specify the properties for a geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map:

If it is not already selected, select the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map. You can update the Name, Title, Format (for the title's font style), and Description.
Update the properties that are specific to the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map. You can update Show map navigation control, Transparency, and Show legend.

Here are some details about the properties for geo maps:
- Use the Map Service property to change the map provider for a geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map after you have placed it on the canvas. This property changes the map type from OpenStreetMap to any available Esri service if an Esri service is available.
- For a geo bubble map, you select the Transparency for the bubble plot. For a geo coordinate map, you select the Transparency for the scatter plot. For a geo region map, you select the Transparency for the regions.
- There are Legend properties for geo coordinate maps. However, geo coordinate maps cannot have a legend. Any changes that you make to the Legend properties will be discarded.

Specify Styles for Geo Maps

To specify styles for a geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map:

If it is not already selected, select the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Styles tab.
Update the styles for the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map. You can specify Border and Fill, Data Styling, Frame Styling, Text Styling, and Data Colors for the geo bubble map, geo coordinate map, or geo region map.

Note: Performance for geo maps is negatively impacted when you change the Data skin style. The recommendation is to leave it as None.

Your custom colors are saved between SAS Visual Analytics sessions. Your custom colors are displayed in the color palette. For an example of the color palette, see A Color Palette in the Designer.

Use a Gauge

About Gauges

A gauge is a dashboard indicator (also known as a KPI) that displays the status or measure of a variable or variables in relation to a target, goal, or interval. Gauges are designed to achieve this goal in a way that is familiar to users. Many real-life objects use gauges, such as cars and machines. Gauges can be used to display a quantity, range, variable, or status. They often appear in business intelligence dashboards.

Qualitative ranges are required for all gauges in the designer. You can populate the range intervals manually, or you can have them generated for you based on the range of the actual data.

Gauges in the designer support high cardinality.

For a definition and a picture of each gauge type, see Gauges.

Specify Gauge Properties

Starting in the 7.1 release, there is one gauge object on the Objects tab. When the gauge is on the canvas, you can use Type on the Properties tab to specify which type of gauge (bullet, dial, slider, speedometer, or thermometer) you want displayed in a report.

To specify properties for a gauge:

If it is not already selected, select the gauge in the canvas.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the gauge. You can update the Name, Title, Format (for the title's font style), and Description.
Update the specific properties for the gauge. The available properties depend on the selected gauge type.

Here are some details about the properties for gauges:
- By default, the Enable selection in the viewers property is selected for gauges. This means that users who use the web viewer or a mobile device can select the gauge and click to see the gauge name and any incoming filter information.
- (Optional) Clear Show value label, Show range labels, or both properties.
- Select a Type for the gauge. You can choose Bullet, Dial, Slider, Speedometer, or Thermometer.
- For the bullet, slider, and thermometer gauges, you can specify the Direction for displaying the gauge. The default for the bullet and slider gauges is Horizontal. The default for the thermometer gauge is Vertical.

Specify Gauge Styles

To specify styles for gauges:

If it is not already selected, select the gauge in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Styles tab.
Update the styles for the gauge. The available styles depend on the selected gauge type. For example, you can specify Border and Fill, Data Styling, Frame Styling, Text Styling, and Data Colors for gauges.

Note: The Header value enables you to set only the text color.

Your custom colors are saved between SAS Visual Analytics sessions. Your custom colors are displayed in the color palette. For an example of the color palette, see A Color Palette in the Designer.

Use a Word Cloud Object

About Word Cloud Objects

A word cloud displays a set of words from a character data item. Depending on the type of word cloud and your data roles, the size of each word in the cloud can indicate the relevance of the word to a topic, the frequency of the word in a category, or the value of a measure.

Every word cloud has a descending sort based on its size.

Tip

There is a limit of 100 rows for a word cloud. To reduce the amount of data, add a rank for the word cloud, and use a number less than 100. For more information, see Add a New Rank.

Word clouds support display rules and interactions.

Specify Word Cloud Properties

To specify the properties for a word cloud:

If it is not already selected, select the word cloud in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Properties tab.
Update the general properties for the word cloud. You can change the Name, Title, Format (for the title’s font style), and Description.
Update the object-specific properties for the word cloud. Here are some details about the properties for word clouds:
- By default, the Enable selection in the viewers property is selected for word clouds. This means that users who use the web viewer or a mobile device can select the word cloud, and click to see the word cloud name and any incoming filter information.
- Use the Arrangement property to specify how the words are displayed in the word cloud. Cloud is the default. Use Rows to display the words in rows as if you were reading text in a book.
- Use the Font scale to control the difference in the size of the smallest and largest words. If you select 1, there is a one-to-one ratio, so the smallest and largest words are displayed as the same size.
- By default, the word cloud has a limit of 100 terms. After the results of a query come back, only the top 100 terms, based on a descending sort of the size measure, will be displayed. Use the Word display limit property to display fewer terms. The slider can be set to a number between five and 100.

Specify Word Cloud Styles

To specify styles for word clouds:

If it is not already selected, select the word cloud in the canvas that you want to update.
In the right pane, click the Styles tab.
Update the styles for the word cloud. For example, you can specify Border and Fill, Frame Styling, Text Styling, and Data Colors.

Tip
A three-color Gradient data color style is available for word clouds that have at least two measures.

Your custom colors are saved between SAS Visual Analytics sessions. Your custom colors are displayed in the color palette. For an example of the color palette, see A Color Palette in the Designer.