X axis independent on filters

misakch · July 27, 2012 3:59AM

Hi,

I have such an idea. Is there any option, how to create x-axis labels (in both graph and bar/line view) independent on filters? In such a view resulting axis would be still showing all unique values from whole dataset, but values only from filtered subset. In case when in filtered subset are no values for certain labels, these would be empty or null. I spent lot of time trying to reach this behavior of view but nothing helps. In my personal opinion would be this feature really helpfull in lots of cases. For example, you need to show amount of sales in several product categories in certain period, but in one of these categories were no sales in this period and therefore in view would not appear at all. I can elaborate this idea further and bring more examples, if needed.

Thanks for consideration,
Michal

paola · August 1, 2012 9:58AM

Hi Michal,
thanks for the input, people can vote for your idea now.
It would help if you sent us a small demo/sample file demonstrating what you are trying to achieve, as some things might be 'doable' with tools available in 2.7.

misakch · August 1, 2012 11:15AM

Hi,
In attached file is a visualization of investment into individual mediatype done by two different ways – chart view and line view. None of them fits my needs exactly because of following reasons. If only TV medium is filtered, in graph view is everything ok because custom x-axis range from 1 to 12 is set. In line view are first two values missing because there were no investment in these months. Just for the record – manually fill missing values as 0 is no solution because I had to do this for every possible combination of filters – mission impossible :). But in this case graph view is ok.

On the other hand, if only PRINT medium is filtered, you can see no investment in month 4 and 6. In line view is everything fine, because „Nulls in lines: Go to zero“ is set. In graph view is no such option, therefore non-null values 3 and 5 or 5 and 7 are connected. I know it’s not a big deal but its really confusing.

So as a result, when filtering, I can have either incomplete lineviews with missing values or confusing chart views. Therefore I proposed an option to have x-axis in bar/line and chart views independent on filtering and when no-value occurs treat it like a zero.

Maybe I’m describing my idea in more complicated way than I had to, but I’ve tried everything including discussion of this topic with your support and still there is no sollution.

steve · August 1, 2012 1:33PM

Michal,

Coincidentally we've been developing a new feature in 2.8 which may solve this issue. It's not tested or polished yet, but you may wish to experiment with the latest alpha partner daily build of 2.8.

See here:
http://forums.visokio.com/discussion/1682/filters-brushing-2.8/p1

For 2.8, see here (alpha-partners only; I've just updated your account):
http://forums.visokio.com/discussion/1671/omniscope-2.8-alpha-now-available-for-private-testing/p1

misakch · August 2, 2012 2:48AM

Hi Steve,

thank you very much for updating my profile and your advice. Filters brushing seems to be the solution of my problem. Really helpful feature! After I try this option I'll give you some feadback. Thanks again for giving me the possibility of participation in alpha testing.

steve · August 2, 2012 7:23AM

Glad to help.

misakch · August 9, 2012 9:10AM

Hi Steve,

After few days of testing, I have to say that "Filters brushing" feature is only partial solution of my problem described above. It's true that on x-axis now persists all values as I wanted. Generally the problem of this feature appears when displaying summed values in bar/line view. When only small portion of the whole is filtered in and filters brushing is active, individual bars are so close to the x-axis, they are nearly unrecognizable (because both overall data and only small selected part must have same scale).

Still I'd prefer having an "x-axis independent on filtering" option, at least in bar/line view. I do not know how hard is to implement such a feature, but everybody who works with our dashboards, points out to this issue (especially in case of time series). I am the only one who bothers with this problem :)?

Regardless of my complaining, you did great work with 2.8 so far. Scripting and radar view are awesome. Good work and thanks.

steve · August 9, 2012 10:48AM

So what you mean is you want X axis from ALL data, but Y axis from FILTERED data? We often have had a request for the opposite, now achievable in 2.8 by using a fixed Y axis extent, but never this.

Until we have had time to implement this - which isn't high on the vote parade - you will need to achieve this by including zero records in your data model for every X position needed. Let's say your X axis were Month names; you would have a block of 12 records appended to the data which were specifically included in your tab's filtered.

misakch · August 13, 2012 9:26AM

Yes, that's exactly what I need. I understand, that due to lack of votes is the implementation of such a feature unlikly. Still I am surprised that no one else has such a need.

Maybe is most of omniscope's clients using this tool largely for internal data analysis (and absence of categories on x-axis is not a big deal, because they know their own data), but our agency is using omniscope mostly for reporting to our clients (and missing x-axis categories are confusing for them). One way or another, thanks for considering my proposal and for your time.

Michal

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