Small multiples layout

#1

I am trying to set up a small multiple.

It works well, I have my data displayed almost as I wish, except 2 details:

  1. I want 2 filters and an update button. I added them and can see them by right-clicking while in view mode. How can I have them always on? According to the doc It looks like I can add a header control in the header bar, but the only thing I have found is data visualisation > header, and I could not find out how to add filters there.

  2. I can set up the layout of each small multiple (width=100%, which is what I am looking for), but how can I set up the layout of the enclosing object? I can give it an absolute size, but there is no way to set it responsive, to take 100% of the screen.

Cheers,

#2

Hi Guillaume,

  1. The Header works like a table header and has a hover-over icon that brings up a popup for sorting and filtering. It’s the same as in reports and scorecards, described more here. Another alternative to the parameters bar is to drag the small multiple onto a dashboard, then add filters and connect them to the small multiple. You can position the filters on the dashboard however you like.

  2. You can set the width of a chart or another control to 100%, but that’s relative to its cell or canvas. If you click to select the cell itself (or click Select Template Cell if you can’t) you’ll find the width and height properties of the small multiple template cell itself. Currently they’re designed with a specific absolute/pixel size but would often take up 100% of the available size when they repeat by wrapping onto multiple lines based on the available space (or wrap into multiple columns) when repeating by one hierarchy, either horizontally or vertically. Resizing the cells to fit the screen would take a fixed number of items, which would either require a setting to specify this or repeating by one hierarchy horizontally and another hierarchy vertically (a crosstab or matrix). Let us know if that’s something you’re interested in if you have a “crosstab” setup or would like to set the number of items. Right now you could use either a resizable or responsive layout dashboard instead, where you create a template grid and drag a separate visualization into each of the cells so that it can then resize those cells to fit the screen. Those would have to be a fixed number of items of course because you’re initially laying out each one yourself. One way to speed this up would be to copy and paste your visualization and filter each one differently, or something similar.

#3

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for your answers.

  1. I like The idea of using the small multiple on a dashboard. That’s what will fit my use case the best, thanks.

  2. If I understand well, there is no way to do what I wish? This is what I am looking for:
    a. I repeat by a hierarchy which has 3 distinct values.
    b. There will thus be 3 graphs only, I want all of them stacked vertically, thus they should take 33% of the height of their container and 100% of their width, even with resizes.
    c. this container is the ‘small multiple container’ (not too sure how I should call this). This is the object I slid inside a dashboard. The dashboard has a template and is set to responsive, the container is set to take 100% of the width and 90% of the height (to leave room for the filters).
    d. charts inside the small multiples are set up to use 100% width/height.
    d. This is what I ended up (the colour is to show what is covered, the filter is irrelevant - it’s here to show what 100% width actually is).

    Screenshot%20from%202019-04-23%2010-22-47
    Screenshot from 2019-04-23 10-22-47.png1920×1136 112 KB

    e. what I miss is thus: the graphs do not use the whole width, and if I resize slider bars will appear instead of resizing the graphs.

I hope my answer is not too confusing - in any case, I really appreciate your help.

#4

Hi - If you’re using a small multiple inside of a dashboard, the small multiple itself still won’t responsively resize the items within it according to its available space. It’s designed for items of a particular pixel size, so if you wanted your individual items to resize, a regular responsive or resizable dashboard with a template grid will work for you instead. Fortunately with only three charts, it shouldn’t be too difficult to set up rather than using a small multiple.

  • Define Template Grid in the dashboard’s toolbar can set up a grid of one column and three rows
  • The dashboard’s Re-Size Mode property can be set to either Resize or Responsive
  • If you expand your small multiple in the Explore window you should be able to find and drag your existing chart onto the dashboard three times and filter each one differently

https://www.dundas.com/Support/learning/documentation/create-view-content/using-a-template-grid-for-resizing

#5

Hi Jamie,

Thanks, now I understand better what small multiples ar for, but I’m not happy about it :slight_smile:

My first idea was actually to have multiple graphs on one dashboard, but that will mean that I will need to fire off 3 times the same query (there is basically no difference in data that needs to be read and processed for all 3 queries), and that’s the reason why I went the small multiple way: one query could rule them all. I cannot cache my cube (there are parameters which could have too many variations).

Thanks for your help,