Area and spline charts

Use area charts to show trends over time for related attributes. Area charts are similar to line charts, but the area between the lines is filled with color. Spline charts show how one or more values change over time by connecting a series of known data points with a curved line.

You can create an area or spline chart, for example, for incident counts, to show how the number of incidents changes over time. The incident count often increases during the first few months after a product upgrade is deployed. Over time, the number of incidents reported should decrease as users become more accustomed to the changes in the product.

Figure 1. Area chart
Area chart
Note:

When the sections of an area report with multiple datasets overlap, it is not possible to drill down into the various sections. To drill down, click items in the legend to clear them from the report.

Figure 2. Spline chart
Spline chart

Create an area or spline chart report

Create an area or spline chart to show trends over time for related attributes.

Before you begin

Role required: itil, report_group, report_global, report_admin, or admin. To create a meaningful report, you must have the right to access the data you want to report on.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Reports > Create New.
  2. Fill in the fields, as appropriate.
    Table 1. Area chart
    Field Description
    Name Name the report.
    Description Click the information icon (Detailed description) to enter a more detailed description of what the report does and its purpose.
    Data Specify the table or report source containing the data set that you want to include in the report. From the first choice list, select Table or Report source. Then select the specific table or predefined data set from the second choice list.
    Type Select Area or Spline.
    Style your chart Click the gear icon () after the Type field to configure chart style options.
    Group by Select a field to organize data into groups from the selected table. For example, in an incident report that is grouped by Assignment group, all incidents belonging to Software, Service Desk, Network, and so on, are placed in separate groups. Make sure you give the report a name that reflects the field you select.
    Display Grid Select this check box to display details of the report data in a table below the chart.

    All reports that use charts, including reports that are used on homepages, display the table of report data when the glide.ui.section508 system property is set to true, even if Display Grid is cleared.
    Trend by Select the table field whose values you want to display in a time sequence.
    per Select a time period to display in the chart. Time periods range from a year down to an hour. You can also select a specific date.
    Note: Reporting per Week is not supported when the report range includes more than one year. Inconsistent results are produced when a week is split between two years.
    Aggregation Select a computational method for aggregating report data. The default is Count, which displays the number of records selected.

    If you select Count Distinct, only unique records are counted. For example, if you want to generate a report with a distinct number of users who have one or more of the roles in a given list of roles, these users would be counted twice unless you use count distinct.

    If you select Average, Sum, or Count Distinct, a list of fields from the selected Table appears. From this list, select a field to aggregate by. For example, if you select a duration field, such as the Business duration field on the Incident table, the aggregated data is expressed in days, hours, and minutes. If you select an integer field, such as the Priority field, the data is expressed as a number.

    Note: For duration values, the unit of measurement displayed in the aggregation axis cannot be customized.
    Percentages Select the computational method used for calculating percentages for each element (selected record) in a data set.
    • Use Aggregation: default method. Computes percentages for each element using the sum of all elements in the data set.
    • Use Record Count: computes percentages for each element using the total number (count) of elements in the data set.

    This field is only available when Aggregation is set to Average, Sum, or Count Distinct.
    Add Filter Condition Create conditions for filtering data to include in the report. For example, to include only records with priorities of 2 – High and 1 – Critical, select [Priority] [less than] [3 – Moderate].
    Add "OR" Clause Select a second condition that must be met if the first condition is invalid. For example, select [Assignment Group] [is] [Database], to include records that are assigned to the Database group if the first condition is false.
    Add Sort Field Select fields to sort data by. For example, to sort results from lowest to highest priority, select [Priority] [z to a].
  3. Click Save.
    The report is generated.

What to do next

Add reports to homepages or dashboards, publish to the internet, schedule email distribution of PDFs or URLs of published reports, and share reports with others. See Distribute reports.

Area and spline chart style options

Change the look of your area or spline chart.

When you create or edit a report, click the gear icon (Cogwheel) after the Type field to open the Style your chart dialog box with options to configure the look of your chart. The options are organized under the General, Title, Legend, and Axis tabs. Chart options are automatically saved when you click Close. To see how the chart looks with the saved settings, click Save.
Table 2. Area and spline chart style options
Field Description
General
Chart color If no group by or stack by is used, Use one color is automatically selected. Select a single predefined system color.
If a group by or stack by is used, select one of the following options:
  • Use color palette: Select a color palette from the predefined system color palettes.
  • Use several colors: Define a custom set of Colors using hex codes. You can add any number of colors.
  • Use chart colors: Use the colors defined in Reports > Chart Colors.
Display data labels Select this check box to display the value for each data point.
Marker Select this check box to display a symbol at each data point.
Custom chart size Select this check box to specify the chart's width and height in pixels.
Chart size Select a chart size. This field is available when Custom chart size is cleared.
Drilldown view Select a view that determines how detailed records are shown when a specific part of the chart is clicked. This option is available for charts with drill-down capabilities. If you select a view that has no fields in common to link to the table that the report is based on, the default view is used. See Define a report drilldown.
Note: All users can view report visualizations, such as pie charts and column reports. However, the last level of a drilldown is always a list. Platform access control lists determine user access to list information. Users who do not have rights to any part of the list data see the message "Number of rows removed from this list by Security constraints:" followed by the number. See Access control rules.
Decimal Precision Enter an integer from 0 to 4 to specify the number of decimal places to display. Currency values always have two decimal places.
Title
Show chart title Select when the chart title is displayed.
  • Never: never displays the chart title.
  • Report only: displays the chart title on reports.
  • Always: displays the chart title on reports, and dashboards and homepages.
Chart title Enter a title for this chart. The title has a maximum length of 40 characters. If no title is entered, the report name is used for the title. This field is available when Report only or Always is selected from the Show chart title list.
Chart title size Enter the size of the chart title in pixels. This field is available when Report only or Always is selected from the Show chart title list.
Chart title color Select the color for the chart title. This field is available when Report only or Always is selected from the Show chart title list.
Custom chart title position Select this check box to specify X and Y coordinates for the position of the chart title. This field is available when Report only or Always is selected from the Show chart title list.
Title horizontal alignment Select how the chart title is aligned horizontally. This field is available when Custom chart title position is cleared.
Title vertical alignment Select how the chart title is aligned vertically. This field is available when Custom chart title position is cleared.
Legend
Show legend Select this check box to display a chart legend. This check box is available when a Group by field is selected on the report form.
Legend horizontal alignment Select how the legend is aligned horizontally. This field is available when Show legend is selected.
Legend vertical alignment Select how the legend is aligned vertically. This field is available when Show legend is selected.
Left align legend text Select to left-align the legend text. By default, legend text is centered.
Show legend border Select this check box to display a border around the legend. This check box is available when Show legend is selected.
Axis
Axis tab Configure the titles, appearance, and labels of the X and Y axis. For the Y axis, you can also specify a From and To range.