The Graph Wizard: Not All Charts Are Created Equal
By Vicky Lozovsky
As I step into the role of WebFOCUS Graph Product Manager, I feel it's important to start at the beginning Ð creating a chart. The main purpose of the chart is to help you find the meaning hidden in the large amounts of data. Numbers in the table grid often are not readable further back than the third row. Charts, however, depict data visually, so it's easy to spot overall trends.
The process of "drawing numbers" on the chart is called plotting. Before you plot your information on a chart, you need to figure out a way to tell a story that lies behind your numbers.
You start with selecting a chart type Ð a chart that will allow the reader to quickly look at the figure and have a good idea of what the report is about. Charts should be a visual representation of the report.
We took the same approach, also known as "a picture is worth a thousand words," and applied it to our WebFOCUS Graph product. In the new Graph Assistant, which is targeted for release 7.6, we are planning to substitute chart type names with new and vibrant chart icons.
Instead of going through a list of charts and reading the names, you will be looking at the colorful array of icons that represent unique chart types. For example, wherever you saw a clustered bar chart, you will see the image shown in Image 1. We are substituting proportional ring pie chart with the icon shown in Image 2. In my opinion, we did an exceptional job with 3D charts. One of them is a 3D connected group area chart, which you can see in Image 3. You can see that this approach makes the chart type selection effortless.
After you've selected the chart type, the next step is to plot the data. This step is not always easy because you need to decide your groups and measures, what data will be plotted on the X-Axis (horizontal line) and what will go on the Y-Axis (vertical line). But some charts require more than just an X and Y-Axis. The new Graph Assistant has an innovative way of providing data targets for every chart type.
For bar, line and area charts there will be X and Y data targets created, required fields that need to be populated in order to create a chart.
Now let's look at the bubble chart. This chart type requires X, Y, and Z data targets or "data buckets" as we like to call them, in order to draw the chart. In this case, X and Y will plot the chart and Z will be used to determine the size of every data point. What the new Graph Assistant will do when the bubble chart option is selected is to create data buckets required for the chart (X,Y, and Z), indicating to the user that those need to be filled with data.
Another good example is a pie chart. Pie charts are circular graphs used to display the sizes of parts that make up a whole. They are also known as doughnut or cake charts, but the key is they consist of pie slices proportional to the percentages of a total. Therefore, X and Y targets are no longer appropriate for this chart type. When pie chart option is selected, the new Graph Assistant will create data targets for measures and pie slices, which are requirements of drawing a pie.
There are many more examples emphasizing
that every Chart type is unique, with a distinct set
of data targets and properties. WebFOCUS
Graph Assistant targeted for release 7.6 not only showcases varieties of Chart Types available to the user but also simplifies the process of mapping data on a selected Chart.
 
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