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Area Chart

Area charts display numeric statistics for repeating data as a filled area below a line in a grid defined by X and Y axes. Areas can also be stacked. This view supports desktop and mobile devices.

Data can be somewhat obscured in an unstacked area chart when one data point is lower than the corresponding point for the top-most area. Consider a line chart as an alternative.



Characteristics

Requirements

A set of repeating items with:

  • One field with a label that identifies what is on each tick of the X axis. This is the category field. In the example shown above, the Month field is the category.

  • At least one field with numeric data. Each field with numeric data that you add as a series defines an area filled with one color. In the example shown above, there are three series for Division_a, Division_b and Division_c.
Published Events

element-click = user clicks on any of the graphic objects or areas that represent data in this chart

Mobile Views

Yes

Configure This View

Choose the Line Chart view and:

  1. If needed, change the Select Repeating Element field to find the repeating items that contain the fields you want to chart. This must be the parent node to the fields you want to use and it must be a repeating node.

  2. Drag the column that contains the labels for the X axis and drop this in the Category field.

    With large numbers of categories (greater than 10-12), use the Chart Scroll property for better visual results.

    You can click Show Data to see the actual data and simply drag the appropriate column title. Hide Data closes this and shows just the column names.

  3. Drag at least one column that contains numeric data into the Series field. Each column you add to Series adds a line and filled area in a different color to the chart.

    For best results, limit the number of series (the number of lines per category) to 12 or less. For stacked charts, limit the number of series to eight or less.

    It is also best if the numeric data are distinctly different but within a similar range of values. One very large or very small value can skew the chart scale, making it difficult to see or understand other data.

  4. Optionally, change either of these properties:

    • Stack Series? to stack the areas of each series across all categories.

    • Chart Scroll set this to yes to allow the categories to spill over to additional pages when you have larger numbers of categories.

  5. Click Next and set basic options for the chart in the Customize Appearance step:

    • Set a Caption or Subcaption for the chart.

    • Set captions, if needed, for the X and Y axes.

    • If needed, add a prefix or suffix for all numeric labels for this chart.

      Common examples might be $ as the prefix or % as the suffix.

  6. If needed, click Switch to advanced mode to set other visual properties for the chart. See Advanced Configuration Properties for details.

  7. Preview the chart at any time.

  8. Once you are satisfied, save the view:

    1. Click Finish.

    2. Give the view a name, and optional description.

    3. Click Save.