Creating Reports: Interactive charts, filters and dynamic report comments

Ok, you've prepared your data, or multiple data sets, and wish to visualise them in one or more reports... We refer here to the blue block, containing the interactive charts.

Drag the blue Report block to the workflow and connect your data sources to it. Open it by clicking on the blue block.

Note - you can create multiple reports in every project (workflow) and connect one or more data sources to every report (see image below with two reports and 'Report 2' visualising 3 data sources).

As a default, Omniscope will provide a Bar chart, a Table view and one set of Filter devices, to help you make a start. You can start by editing these items, or by replacing them with some new charts.

Switching between read and edit modes is done by clicking on the "Preview" button in the top right-hand corner. At the top of the screen you will also find two '+' buttons, enabling you to add a new chart, or create a new tab (options are to add a blank one, copy of the existing tab, default template, or one with a multi-page layout. 

Tip - if you've spent time configuring the filters or charts on a page, this might make a good basis for your next report tab.

In the edit mode you can click on a chart you wish to work with to select it and access the settings. 

Each 'view' will have a little handle, containing the chart picker dropdown list, expand button, moving hand and a delete button. To get a full view of the chart and all the settings - click and expand it. 

On the left sidebar there are 3 sub-menus: 

- the chart picker (image below, circled orange). Click on it to pick and drag a new chart to the tab. You can either drag the thumbnails or use the search box to look for 'pie' or 'area' and other charts.

- Data menu, where you pick the data source (if you have multiple sources like below) and use the field list underneath to configure the chart by dragging the field name to appropriate pill positions. 3 dot menu next to each field contains the colour picker.  Here we've dragged the [Type] field to the X axis pill box, in order to split the sales by the product type. Now we need to drag another field to the Y axis, in order to compare splits by a measure other than the Record count, which is a default (e.g. 'Sales £' or 'Units').

- Chart settings menu, circled green, contains variety of formatting options : sort, colour, axis, labelling, styling, as well as Paning (cloning the chart and creating variation for every value in a target field e.g. bar chart for each market), Selection and Query (specify how the chart responds to filtering/selection on the tab).

Under the chart you will find a table icon, which you can expand to see the data table preview, again helpful when trying to decide which fields to pick for the visualisation.

One of the most useful items in the chart picker is the Filter device - enabling you to add interactivity and drill-down options to the report. On expand you can pick the fields to appear inside the filtering box, as well as the filter type for each of them, from the small cog next to the field name (search, list of values, drop-down) or to change the order of the fields (two arrow button).

Note - you have to think about the underlying data sources and how to structure your 'story-telling'. You could place 2 charts showing 2 unrelated datasets on the same tab, but selection on one is not going to have any effect on the other, unless there is some logic connecting them, such as shared date field and period. See this article for instructions on how to create queries or merge filter devices to connect multiple datasets.

You can add multiple tabs and change their order by clicking on the Report Settings button, from the 3-dot menu, in the top right-hand corner. This settings cog option is only visible when you're in the edit mode.

Report Settings

This area contains multiple configuration tabs, giving you control of variety of report settings. Please note that if you've created multiple reports in your project's workflow each report will have its own settings.

Global: 

• manage tabs - rename, change order by dragging the arrows, delete or duplicate your report tabs. 
• Manage queries and query editing options (set them to read only or dynamic).
• Tab cycling option is useful if you wish to set your report to cycle through the tabs - at an event, client meeting or in a lobby.

Current tab: 

• Manage how Omniscope sizes the report in relation to the given amount of screen space. Very useful options : Multi-page document (if you wanted to have multiple pages that can be saved as a PDF or printed. See a successful application of this concept here.
• 'Fixed size, free-form layout' will create details that you can copy/paste to use as an Iframe, and embed it into a page on your website. See application here.

Sharing tab - lists all the different options you can use to share this particular report. When you send someone a url from tis tab, they will only be able to access one report, with its tabs, and will have no knowledge that you might have created multiple, similar-looking, or totally different reports in this same project/ data workflow. See other articles explaining the report sharing options.

Report Styles deals with page/toolbar/button colouring, as well as the report font, that you can pick from the Google list. Page styling set here will override the folder styling, if created earlier.

Field Styles enables you to pick the fields and change the designated colours, as well as the data value order. For example, your [Day in week] field will use alphabetical order to place them on a chart on the split axis. You can enforce the order: Mon, Tue, Wed, etc. by dragging the arrows next to the values. You can also pick the data value colours in the rainbow picker, or by entering the hexadecimal value.