Visuals

A visual is one chart, table, slicer, map or custom visual on a DataPrism report page. This page covers choosing a type, filling its wells, and editing, renaming and summarising the fields inside them. For styling, see Format a visual; for loading and failure states, see Chart states and rendering rules.

Add a visual to a report

1. Select Edit in the report header. The button appears only when you can edit the report.
2. In the Visualizations panel, pick a type from Charts, Tables & cards, Filters or Custom. The new visual lands on the canvas as a Draft, and new visuals start as a Bar.
3. Drag columns and measures from BI tables into the wells, or drop a field straight onto the visual you are editing (the tile reads Drop a field or measure here to bind data).
4. Rename or summarise its fields, then format it on the Visual tab. For saving, see Build a report.
5. Select Done to leave edit mode.

Visual types

Hover a tile in the picker to read what it draws.

Text box and Image sit in the same picker under Text & media; they are report elements rather than visual types. See Build a report.

Change the visual type

With one visual selected, pick a different tile in the Visualizations panel to change its type; with nothing selected, the same tiles add a new visual.

• Every field is kept. The new type fills the wells it has, nothing lands in one well twice, and fields it cannot show wait beside the wells (up to 24) and return when you switch back.
• A date field cannot go into a Slicer group: the drop is refused with Date fields cannot go in a slicer group, and switching a visual to Slicer group leaves its date fields beside the wells.
• Pie and Donut keep one value when a Legend field is set; a KPI leaves its Comparison slot empty; a Table turns Tooltips measures into columns, and a Funnel keeps them aside.

Fill the wells

Each type shows its own wells. From BI tables, tick a field to add it to the first well that takes it (unticking removes every copy), or drag it into the well you want. With no fields yet, the tile tells you what it needs:

• While you drag, a free well reads Drop here; a full well stops the drop and shows Max fields reached with a counter such as 2/5. The field list above the wells has a Search fields... box with a clear button; when a search finds nothing, the list reads No fields match.
• If no well that accepts the field has room, the drop is refused with a message naming it: No free field well for "<field>" on this visual.
• On a Map, each field in Location is read as a place. Click the pin on the field to pick from Read this field as, or leave Detect from the field name. See Map visual.

Edit, rename and summarise a field

• Double-click a field in a well to rename it. Finish with Enter, Escape or a click away; the name is written once when you finish, not with every keystroke. While a custom name is set, its tooltip shows the original name followed by (renamed), and a Reset custom name button appears beside it. A custom name holds up to 128 characters; runs of spaces collapse and the ends trim.
• A single click on a field shows it in the BI tables tree (the tooltip reads Click to show in BI tables), so you can find where it came from; the ✕ on the field removes it from the well.
• Every field carries its aggregation menu: Sum, Average, Min, Max, Count, Distinct and, behind a separator, Don't summarize. Don't summarize groups the field's values instead of computing a number. A numeric column starts as Sum; anything else starts as Count.
• In a well that takes measures only, a text column offers Count and Distinct, and it is counted rather than summed.
• A measure deleted from the model, or one whose name now clashes with a column, shows as a broken chip with an error border and the Broken field marker. The visual skips it when it runs, until you recreate the measure or remove the field.

Name the visual

• A new visual is named after its fields: the measure followed by by and its dimension, or the measure alone when there is no dimension. A custom visual is Custom visual, and other types fall back to a name like Bar chart.
• The name changes on its own only when the fields genuinely change. A Slicer renames when its field changes (a hierarchy joins its level names with commas), and saving the report again never renames it. A KPI takes its name once, when its first measure arrives.
• Where a field is listed, its custom name wins, then its name in the model tree, then its raw field name.
• To set a title yourself, use Title on the Visual tab; leave the text empty and the tile keeps its own name. See Format a visual.

Row limits

Each visual loads a limited amount of data. Set its limits under General > Limits; the defaults and maxima are:

• Categories per page applies only while Legend is empty; with a field in Legend, Rows per load with a legend applies instead. For the rules of the limit fields themselves, see Format a visual.
• KPI and Cards carry no limit rows.
• For the footers these limits produce (Showing 1-20 of 150, Load more, Row limit reached), see Chart states and rendering rules; an export carries the whole result, not just the loaded rows: see Export reports and data.

Use the tools on a visual

• Prime fills the canvas with the tile; while the tile is primed, Table view / Chart view swaps the chart for a table of its data, and Prime brings the tile back.
• Drill through a hierarchy with Drill up, Go to the next level and Expand all down one level; the drill-mode control reads Turn on drill mode and, while it is on, Drill mode on - clicks drill down.
• On a Slicer, Show search adds a search box to its values and Hide search removes it.
• Applied filters shows, with a count badge, what is filtering the tile from outside it: On this page, On this visual, Slicers and Selections in other visuals; with nothing filtering it, it reads Nothing outside this visual is filtering it.
• Sort by lists the fields you can order by; picking one sorts the tile, and picking the same field again reverses the direction. The entry under the list clears the order: Clear sort while editing, Reset to default in view mode; a view-mode order is yours alone, so sort while editing to save it with the report. A Table or Matrix orders through its own grid, and KPI, Cards, Slicer group, Key tree and custom visuals have no sort order.
• Export offers Export CSV, Export TSV and Export Excel; a Table or Matrix keeps its export in the grid toolbar instead. See Export reports and data.
• A tile whose run failed replaces its usual controls with a single Remove visual action; a tile that fails to draw shows Chart rendering failed with the reason under it. Other states are on Chart states and rendering rules.

Who can change visuals

You change visuals only in edit mode, which needs edit access to the report; without it, the report header shows no Edit button and the Visualizations, Filters and BI tables panels stay hidden. Adding a custom visual, and the Library entry, needs the Author DataPrism Custom Visuals permission. See Who can do what in DataPrism.

Questions, answered

What happens to my fields when I change the visual type?

Nothing is lost. Only the wells the new type shows are filled, and fields it cannot use wait beside the wells (up to 24) and return if you switch back. Pie and Donut keep one value when a Legend field is set, and a KPI leaves its Comparison slot empty.

How do I rename a field in a well?

Double-click the field, type the name and finish with Enter or by clicking away. The tooltip then shows the original name marked (renamed), and Reset custom name beside it restores the original.

Why is my text column counted instead of summed?

The well it sits in takes measures only, so a text column is summarised as Count. Choose Distinct to count only different values, or move the column to a grouping well such as X-Axis or Legend.

My bar chart shows only 20 categories. How do I see more?

Raise Categories per page under General > Limits, up to 1,000, or pick a larger page size in the footer. With a field in Legend, raise Rows per load with a legend instead.

How many fields can a Slicer group hold?

Up to 20. Each field becomes a dropdown filter. See Filters, slicers and interactions.

What is a Key tree?

A Key tree breaks one value down across fields, one level at a time; it is also called the decomposition tree. Expand a node by High value, Low value or the next field in Explain by.

Why can't I expand my KPI to full screen?

KPI, Cards, Slicer and Slicer group tiles have no full-screen view. Other visual types expand with the Prime control.

Why does an older report draw one of my charts as a bar?

Reports saved by older versions keep working: a chart whose saved type has no current equivalent draws as a Bar. Pick a type in the Visualizations panel to change it.

Does renaming a field change the model?

No. A custom name applies to this report's visual only; the column or measure in the model keeps its name.

Why can't I drop my field onto the visual?

Every well that accepts that kind of field is full, so the drop is refused with No free field well for "<field>" on this visual. Remove a field from a well, then drag again.